Best Book You Read in 2020

[stoaX]

Donbas by Jacques Sandulescu

The author was kidnapped by Soviets from his home in Romania after WWII and taken to work in coal mines in the Donbas region of the Ukraine.  Prisoners were essentially worked to death and most did not last more than a year or two.  The story follows his capture, time at the prison and eventual escape and some of his life afterwards.  It was written in the 70s or 80s, so it's not modern. 

Funny thing was, I found out about this book while reading the worst book I read in 2020, "Communion" (crappy 80s book about an purported alien abduction).  The author of Donbas was a peripheral character in the abduction story.

I laughed at the serendipity of how your best book came out of your worst book  I've added Donbas to my reading list - thanks!

[frogstomp81]

Chasing the Scream - Johann Hari

When: The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing - Daniel H. Pink

Humble Pi: When Math Goes Wrong in the Real World - Matt Parker

[FrugalFisherman10]

"Less" by Andrew Sean Greer


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[ambimammular]

A Face Like Glass by Frances Hardinge

Oooooh, its good one. I've gotten 3 people to read this already, and made my bff pause HER book to read MINE instead because I needed someone to talk to about it. Later I saw NPR did an excellent book review.

https://www.npr.org/2017/05/13/527629909/a-face-like-glass-is-a-magical-perfectly-ticking-machine-of-a-tale

[cool7hand]

Chasing the Scream - Johann Hari

Great book. Also enjoyed his book, Lost Connections.

[cool7hand]

Thanks to everyone who recommended, A Gentleman In Moscow.

[cooker3]

I will go with 2

Why we sleep by Matthew Walker. The name says it all. It's very rare a book makes me change my behaviour immediately but how I viewed sleep and the importance of it drastically altered. I made a point to try get 8 hours per night by setting my alarm for when to get to bed. I banned myself from caffeine after 4pm so tea and chocolate, which was a big change for me amongst other changes. I think it will resonate with people here.

The other is not exactly a new book as it was written in 1959... It's Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage by Alfred Lansing
It's about the 1914-1916 failed expedition to Antarctica. It is almost absurd the trials and tribulations they all went through, like a Hollywood screenplay, and completely and totally life affirming.

[cool7hand]

The other is not exactly a new book as it was written in 1959... It's Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage by Alfred Lansing
It's about the 1914-1916 failed expedition to Antarctica. It is almost absurd the trials and tribulations they all went through, like a Hollywood screenplay, and completely and totally life affirming.

Great book. The Lansing version isn't the only book on the subject, but it's the best!

[rosarugosa]

I will go with 2
The other is not exactly a new book as it was written in 1959... It's Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage by Alfred Lansing
It's about the 1914-1916 failed expedition to Antarctica. It is almost absurd the trials and tribulations they all went through, like a Hollywood screenplay, and completely and totally life affirming.

Endurance is one of the best non-fiction adventures I've ever read!

[ChpBstrd]

Hitler's Pope by John Cornwell, for a vivid illustration of how religious morality can be adjusted when convenient.

[Road42]

Tyll by Daniel Kehlmann: amazing magical realism/historical fiction mashup was the first. Kehlmann takes the German folkloric trickster figure of Tyll Eulenspiegel through the phantasmagoria of the Thirty Years’ War in the early 17th century. It is an incredible novel - and I also highly recommend Kehlmann’s earlier work, “Measuring the World.”

Piranesi by Susanna Clarke: A man survives in a labyrinth made of variations of classical architecture and ocean tides. Is he a scientist exploring a new world? A prisoner of his own mind? Of someone else’s? Is this a novel, or a fairy tale, or an allegory of our planet? Imagine Plato mixed with Jorge Luis Borges, with some Daniel Defoe sprinkled in for good measure. Also Clarke’s first novel, “Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell” is one of my absolute favorites.

[draco44]

Road 42's mention of magical realism inspired me to comment I'm proud that I just finished reading One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. It's one of those classics I'd been meaning to get to for years, and it seemed appropriate to finally get around to reading it during quarantine.

I'm glad I invested the time. But thank goodness for the family tree chart included at the front of the book! Seven generations of characters with mostly the same names requires a lot of concentration.

[jpdx]

Educated.

[stoaX]

Educated.

Agreed!