I’m so please to hear Susanna Clarke’s wonderful book Piranesi just won The Women’s Prize for Fiction. I mentioned this novella last January, placing it among my own 2020 Best Reads. The Storytelling Blog has acquired a lot of new readers since that post, so I though I’d celebrate her achievement by repeating my yearly book round-up blog.

Ms. Clarke is inspirational to all of us, but especially writers, in that she produced this lovely story even as she coped with serious illness. While promoting her debut novel, Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell, she fell ill with chronic fatigue syndrome. As she recently told The Guardian, “Having written about a woman with a nineteenth-century illness I then seemed to fall prey to a nineteenth-century illness myself,” she says. “Don’t write about fairies. They don’t like it.”

So without further ado, my thoughts on the fiction of 2020. This blog was first published on January 14, 2021.

The new calendar year inspires us to look back over the last twelve months. While I vote to avoid all that unpleasantness, I’m happy to talk about my favorite books of 2020. Use the comments to share your favorites from the past year or friend me on Goodreads so we can really discuss books!

Some Book Data

I love statistics, so let’s start with some numbers. Thanks to Goodreads and Kindle, I have excellent reading records. In 2020, I read twenty-six books. I also started four that I didn’t finish. In one case, the 1000+ page tome had to go back to the library. The other three were simply half-baked reads, in my opinion. Life is too short for underdone books. 

How The Books Found Me

I wondered if a book’s provenance would affect my opinion of it: that is, was it published by the author versus a publishing company? A related question is how I learned of the book’s existence in the first place. Publishing companies, especially large ones, spend more money than independent authors on ads, book reviews, feature articles, and interviews, all of which catch readers’ attention. Promotional messages impact the general impression the book has on a reader before that consumer encounters the words on the page.

Of the thirty books I attempted to read:

• Thirteen were from large and medium publishers.
• Nine were from small and university presses. (One was too long to finish.)
• Eight were author published. (I didn’t finish three due to poor quality.)

I Needed Books In 2020

            Beyond the obvious desire for books to entertain and distract me, I had several goals for my reading list. Some books ticked off more than one box.

            Support The Publishing Industry and Bookstores—I read four books in 2020 that I purchased in hardback from local independent bookstores.

            Learn My Writing Craft and Business—While a writer learns something from everything they read, I read several books about writing, as well as horror, romance, and young adult fiction to get a better idea of the tropes of those sorts of stories. That group totals seven books. One of my historical research sources was so interesting I read the whole book. 

            Widen My Horizons—A great way to get out of your comfort zone is to deliberate seek out narrative points-of-view different from your own. Seven of the titles on my 2020 reading list featured protagonists who were not heterosexual white Americans.

            Lift Up Other Storytellers—I bought seven books published independently by their author or by a micro press. Most of these were promoted through the #IndieApril social media thread on Twitter. In addition to purchasing from indie authors, I also made a point to review the indie books I liked well enough to finish reading. 

            Promote My Own Writing Business—I write for Independent Book Review, which gets my byline and website address before a new audience. These titles are all small press or author published. Thus, four of my 2020 reads were advanced reader copies provided for review purposes. One pained me so much I couldn’t finish it; another was so outstanding I bought a physical copy. 

My Favorite Books of 2020

Piranesi by Susanna Clarke (Bloomsbury)

I pre-ordered Susanna Clarke’s new novella from a local bookseller (Main Street Books). It’s literary, it’s fantasy, it’s unlike anything else. A balm for the stress of these times. I think I need to read it again this weekend.

Broken Metropolis: Queer Tales Of a City That Never Was by Dave Ring, ed (Mason Jar Press) 

I reviewed this anthology of LGBTQ urban fantasy short stories for Independent Book Review and liked it so much I bought the paperback. Its existence is proof that a small press can not only produce a book comparable in quality to the large publishing houses, but also break barriers in content and creativity. 

False Value by Ben Aaronovitch (Penguin-DAW)

False Value is the latest in the Rivers of London series. I first encountered these stories as a comparable title for my Sean Joye Investigations series. Contemporary London cop-turned-mage Peter Grant is a wisecracking delight as he works undercover to solve magical crime at a big tech company. I experienced this one as an audiobook read by the wonderful Kobna Holdbrook-Smith. 

Broken by Don Winslow (William Morrow)

Broken is another book I purchased from Main Street Books to save the publishing industry. A collection of cop stories, the brutal, corrupt police actions of the first story were difficult to read, but the rest of the book harkened back to my favorite stylish detectives of the past. The final tale, about a child detained at the Mexican border and the guard who must, at long last, choose a side, will make you cry. 

The Weird: a Compendium of Strange And Dark Stories by Ann and Jeff vanderMeer, ed. (Tor)

The Weird is over a thousand pages of not-Lovecraft weird fiction, a wide array of lesser-known gems from all over the world. I borrowed this one from the library and couldn’t finish it, but did ask for it as a Christmas present. And Santa came through. 

A Word About Book Evaluation Standards

I have mixed feeling about comparing author-published books to those from large publishing houses. Big publishers have many resources the independent author does not.  But does that matter to the reader who is paying hard-earned money and spending precious time on a tale?

Authors sometimes expect readers to overlook the book package and just appreciate the story. But story is only one aspect of book-as-consumer-product. A fine narrative can be marred by unprofessional production in cover and interior design, proofreading, or editing. Book promotion for small press and author-published stories is a constant and expensive problem. 

As a reader, I can’t cut the independent presses I read last year much slack: I somehow found and read (or tried to read) their book, so the promotion worked. I got past the cover and the book description, for good or ill. I read at least fifty pages, no matter if the design was alluring or ugly; the tale engrossing or boring. Although I gave the novels every opportunity to wow me, I couldn’t finish three of the books I tried to read last year.  All independently published, they weren’t ready for prime time. While some of the traditionally published books weren’t very good, I could at least finish them. 

The Fine Print

My 2020 reading list is “stories I read (or tried to read) or listened to in 2020.” Many weren’t published in 2020. I count “read” as physical book, e-book, and audiobook. 

And Now a Word From Our Sponsor

If you enjoyed reading about these books, check out some of my other book reviews. If you’re brave enough to read about fairies, try Nightjar or 100 Ghost Soup.

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