Ask a librarian for some good books, be prepared for a long list! I recently asked our staff members to share some their favorite reads in 2020, and the answers that came back were many and varied. We really do read a lot! Not all the books on this list were published in 2020, (some were older books we just got around to reading in 2020!), but all received a solid thumbs up from a member of our staff:

Children’s Books

Picture Books

• B Is for Baby by Atinuke
• I Am Every Good Thing by Derrick Barnes
• A Polar Bear in the Snow by Mac Barnett
• Just Like Me by Vanessa Brantley-Newton
• Don’t Worry, Little Crab by Chris Haughton
• Lift by Minh Lê
• Julián at the Wedding by Jessica Love
• Speak Up, Molly Lou Melon by Patty Lovell
• The Old Truck by Jarrett and Jerome Pumphrey (there’s such a cool story behind it!)
• You Matter by Christian Robinson  
• I Got the School Spirit by Connie Schofield-Morrison
• Doodleville by Chad Sell

Chapter Books

• Maya and the Rising Dark by Rena Barron
• When You Trap a Tiger by Tae Keller    
• Stand Up, Yumi Chung! by Jessica Kim
• Show Me a Sign by Ann Clare LeZotte
• From the Desk of Zoe Washington by Janae Marks
• Ghost Squad by Claribel A. Ortega
• A Good Kind of Trouble by Lisa Moore Ramée
• Something to Say by Lisa Moore Ramée
• The List of Things That Will Not Change by Rebecca Stead
• Clean Getaway by Nic Stone
• Hollowpox by Jessica Townsend (the latest installment in the delightful Nevermoor series!!)
• Other Words for Home by Jasmine Warga
• Ways to Make Sunshine by Renée Watson

YA Fiction

• Ready Player Two by Ernest Cline
• Harrow the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir
• The Left-handed Booksellers of London by Garth Nix
• Wayward Son by Rainbow Rowell
• Dear Justyce by Nic Stone

Adult Fiction

• The Blacksmith Queen  by  G.A. Aiken
• Emerald Blaze  by Ilona Andrews
• If You Must Know by Jamie Beck
• The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett *
• The New Normal by Tracy Brogan
• Wild Fire by Ann Cleeves
• Hurricane Season by Lauren Denton  
• Bryant & May : The Lonely Hour  by Christopher Fowler 
• The Reckoning by John Grisham
• Ink & Sigil  by Kevin Hearne
• Beach Read by Emily Henry
• Medallion Status by John Hodgman
• Evvie Drake Starts Over by Linda Holmes
• The House in the Cerulean Sea  by TJ Klune *
• Come Tumbling Down  by Seanan McGuire
• The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides
• Family for Beginners by Sarah Morgan
• The Giver of Stars by Jojo Moyes
• Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens
• The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek by Kim Richardson*
• All the Devils Are Here by Louise Penny *
• Rhythm of War by  Brandon Sanderson
• The Poppy Wife by Caroline Scott
• Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart
• Cold Millions by Jess Walter
• The Lost and Found Bookshop by Susan Wiggs

Adult Non-Fiction

• Life with the Afterlife by Amy Bruni
• A Bookshop in Berlin by Françoise Frenkel
• Ninety Percent of Everything by Rose George *
• Betsey : A Memoir by Betsey Johnson
• How to Be an Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi
• Let Love Rule by Lenny Kravitz
• Tightrope by Nicholas D. Kristof
• The Splendid and Vile by Erik Larson *
• I.M. : A Memoir by Isaac Mizrahi
• Born to Run by Bruce Springsteen
• Caste by Isabel Wilkerson

 

( * – this book was recommended by more than one staff member)