Pleasure Reading 2020
What I read this year:
*reviews (mostly from the New York Times) linked*
Ian McEwan, Atonement (2001): Finally read this, and not a moment too soon. Brilliant, and devastating.
Curtis Sittenfeld, Rodham (2020)
Lawrence Wright, The End of October (2020): Written pre-COVID.
Todd S. Purdum, Something Wonderful: Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Broadway Revolution (2018)
Suzanne Collins, The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes (2020): The Hunger Games prequel. I had to check this box.
Darrell Issa, Watchdog: The Real Stories Behind the Headlines from the Congressman Who Exposed Washjington’s Biggest Scandals (2016): I don’t like the guy, but he’s got some great stories.
Dave Eggers, The Circle (2017)
Lisa Genova, Left Neglected (2011)
Lauren Mechling, How Could She (2019) [Mechling also wrote a great opinion piece for the NYT about the disintegration of a frienship.]
Kristen Roupenian, You Know You Want This (2019)
Donna Tartt, The Goldfinch (2013)
Louis Sachar, Wayside School Beneath the Cloud of Doom (2020): The first Wayside School book in 25 years! I lived for Louis Sachar in elementary school.
Malcolm Gladwell, Talking to Strangers: What We Should Know About the People We Don’t Know (2019)
Elijah Cummings, We’re Better Than This (2020)
Matt Taibbi, Hate, Inc.: Why Today’s Media Makes Us Despise One Another (2019)
Scott Turow, One L: The Turbulent True Story of a First Year at Harvard Law School (1977)
Emily Giffin, The Lies That Bind (2020)
Alyssa Mastromonaco, Who Thought This Was a Good Idea?: And Other Questions You Should Have Answers to When You Work in the White House (2018): White House memoir from Obama’s deputy COS.
Dan Lyons, Lab Rats: Tech Gurus, Junk Science and Management Fads—My Quest to Make Work Less Miserable (2018)
Thrillers:
Scott Turow, Presumed Innocent (1988)
A.J. Finn, The Woman in the Window (2018)
Lauren Oliver, Before I Fall (2010) and Vanishing Girls (2015)
Gilly Macmillan, What She Knew (2015), The Perfect Girl (2016) and Odd Child Out (2017)
Jessica Knoll, The Favorite Sister (2018)
Ruth Ware, In A Dark, Dark Wood (2016), The Woman in Cabin 10 (2016) and The Lying Game (2017)
