At least 2020 was a great year for books
Americans are united on one thing: 2020 was a terrible year. But there were some spots of sunshine in those 12 dreary months, and one of them was this: It was a pretty terrific year for books.
Despite huge disruptions in the publishing industry that ranged from supply chain gridlock to the abrupt cancellation of thousands of author book tours, many wonderful new books were published and millions of readers welcomed them.
Spending more time at home meant that many of us had more time to read, and we took advantage of it. Book sales rose all year; final figures aren’t available, but Publishers Weekly reports that print sales during the first week of December were 16.9% above the same week in 2019.
YA and children’s books saw especially strong increases in 2020, but almost all categories and formats showed gains.
Another positive development came in response to the pandemic’s impact on author book tours and book festivals. Many authors, bookstores and book fair organizers turned to virtual events, whether it was single-author book talks sponsored by bookstores or massive multi-author extravaganzas like the Miami Book Fair and the National Book Festival.
Fans could watch authors on Zoom, Facebook Live and other platforms, either as the event happened or, in many cases, afterward. The virtual version of the Tampa Bay Times Festival of Reading, for example, became a virtual event, and we were able to present authors we had long hoped to host (John Grisham, Barbara Kingsolver, Walter Mosley and Colson Whitehead, to name a few) because scheduling them for a recorded interview was easier than arranging to get them to St. Petersburg in person.
As a book reviewer, I saw no falling off in either the number or the quality of the books that came my way in 2020. As always, there were far more than I could possibly read.
So here is a list of not the best books of 2020, but the best covered by the Tampa Bay Times. They’re organized into eccentric categories, and I’m starting with a two-category winner (three if you count that it also has my favorite book cover of 2020), Maggie O’Farrell’s magnificent novel Hamnet.
I hope this list might remind you of a book or two you meant to read. And here’s to a better 2021, in every way!
Best novel set during a plague
“Hamnet” by Maggie
O’Farrell
Best memoir
“A Promised Land” by Barack Obama
Best book about a president who is not Barack Obama
“Squeeze Me” by Carl Hiaasen
Best comic novel
“Deacon King Kong” by James McBride
Best pub crawl novel
“Love” by Roddy Doyle
Best novel about millennials in love in the gig economy
“True Love” by Sarah Gerard
Best historical novels
“The Cold Millions” by Jess Walter
“The Long Petal of the Sea” by Isabel Allende
“The Night Watchman” by Louise Erdrich
“The Book of Lost
Names” by Kristin Harmel
“The Committee” by Sterling Watson
Best memoirs-in-essays by former journalists
“My Life as a Villainess” by Laura Lippman
“Where I Come From” by Rick Bragg
“Rules for the Southern Rulebreaker” by Katherine Snow Smith
Best book about family dysfunction, nonfiction division
“Hidden Valley Road” by Robert Kolker
Best books about family dysfunction, fiction division
“The Vanishing Half” by Brit Bennett
“Memorial” by Bryan Washington
Best book by the 2020 winner of the National Book Foundation’s lifetime achievement award, Walter Mosley (tie)
“Trouble Is What I Do” “TheAwkwardBlackMan”
Best 40th novel by a national treasure
“A Private Cathedral” by James Lee Burke
Best 2020 book by Michael Connelly (tie)
“Fair Warning”
“The Law of Innocence”
Best poetry collection by a bestselling novelist
“How to Fly (In Ten Thousand Easy Lessons)” by Barbara Kingsolver