the 20 best books i read in 2020

1. The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Cartoonist, Adrian Tomine (graphic novel): I don't think I've ever LOL'd at an Adrian Tomine graphic novel before. There was a first for everything in 2020, I guess. Presented as a comic book hastily drawn and written in a Moleskine, The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Cartoonist traces Tomine's earliest days as a cartoonist and New Yorker cover illustrator. But it's the self-deprecating spin on this early success that makes this graphic novel, hands-down, my favorite comic-related book this year. 
2. Familiar Face, Michael DeForge (graphic novel): DeForge is the *it* guy in underground comics right now — or has been for a while I guess. Either way, Familiar Face will likely show you why he's also controversially so. All of his best gifts are here: idiosyncratic sci-fi grounded in a love story combined with a unique line-art style juxtaposed against bright, almost-primary color backgrounds. For many, the sum of the parts don't add up to the incredible hype. Like a moth to the flame, I'm attracted to just this type of pretentiousness, admittedly. YMMV. 
3. Underground Railroad, Colson Whitehead (fiction): I absolutely LOVED Whitehead's magical realism take on the underground railroad. In this case, the underground railroad is a real-life railroad that's literally underground. 
4. Big Machine, Victor LaValle (fiction): Everything I read from LaValle always seems perfectly suited for my current preoccupations and predicaments. This one continues the streak with a plot about a cult hiring former junkies and other won't-be-misseds for metaphysical detective work.
5. Dear Ijeawele, or a Feminist Manifesto in 15 Suggestions, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (non-fiction): The title says it all. Required reading for all parents. It's supremely short but just as powerfully thought-provoking. 
6. The Hard Tomorrow, Eleanor Davis (graphic novel): This may be a bleak look at a near-future but the book's calls to activism, empathy and belief in another world was somehow just the shot of hope I needed.
7. Outline, Rachel Cusk (fiction): Cusk's attempt at a protagonist- and plot-less novel isn't quite all it's billed as, but I still find myself wishing to be whisked away by her prose and the attempt nonetheless. This is the first of a trilogy, all of which I read basically back to back, so that's saying something, too. If I'm allowed to cheat here, I'll also include the other two books of this trilogy, Transit and Kudos.
8. Is This How You See Me?, Jaime Hernandez (graphic novel): Another masterpiece by a Hernandez brother. Surprise surprise. 
9. I Remember, Joe Brainard (fiction): True story: About 10 years ago, I was convinced I wrote a first chapter of a novel where the entire premise was a series of "I remember..." statements. Turns out, that's the entire premise of this beat cult fave. This book enraptured me — it also made me a little jealous, but that's a small price to pay for a masterpiece like this.
10. Havoc, Tom Kristensen (fiction): A Danish classic that's almost like "Breaking Bad" but with a newspaper writer and a lot of booze instead of a teacher and meth. I read Havoc in anticipation of our trip to Denmark — a trip, of course, that never happened (thanks again, COVID). But this book was an absolute gem of a discovery, and one I've found myself recommending most often from this year.
11. How to Do Nothing, Jenny Odell (non-fiction): The perfect manifesto for the capitalistic attention economy that's sucking all of us dry. This book is not so much about how to be lazy but how to instead embrace rest and avoid the hyper-productive calls of our modern society.
12. Homie, Danez Smith (poetry): The best poetry collection I've read in a minute. Contemporary, urgent, accessible — a must-read. 
13. Chronicle of a Death Foretold, Gabriel Garcia Marquez (fiction): Every summer I read Marquez. It's never let me down yet. This miiiight be among my Top Three Marquez. 
14. Drifts, Kate Zambreno (fiction): One of those books where the author has writer's block, which itself turns into the book. This isn't exactly that, but it's close. At times, this reads like a memoir or diary, with Zambreno blending reality and fiction into a fog-addled novella about creativity and its death and rebirth through motherhood. I'm also learning my absolute favorite books are written by women who blur boundaries between memoir, fiction and other genres. This was a wonderful, contemporary example of that. 
15. A Fortune for Your Disaster, Hanif Abqurraqib (poetry): You can basically copy-and-paste my review of Homie for my Columbus pal's poetry collection. 
16. The Lying Lives of Adults, Elena Ferrante (fiction): I still have Ferrante fever, all these years later. This did nothing to quell that. It's not among my favorite five Ferrante books but it's well worth the read.
17. The Word Pretty, Elisa Gabbert (non-fiction): Just about any book that describes itself as a meditation on writing or words grabs me. This one did that and more. My highest praise for it is it's a book I wish I had written but know I never could've pulled off. 
18. Their Eyes Were Watching God, Zora Neale Hurston (fiction): One of those classics that are a classic for a reason and when you finish it you wonder what took you so long to read it. This book is so good I'm now obsessed with Neale Hurston. 
19. True Grit, Charles Portis (fiction): A short Western that's perhaps most famous for its two movie versions. I ADORED this and, like Neale Hurston, consider myself obsessed with Portis after reading only one book.
20. No Man Is an Island, Thomas Merton (non-fiction): A digressive but at times profound look at Merton's ideas of community and Oneness, with a glimpse at the latter blending of mystical Christianity and Eastern thought that would later captivate so many. Merton is perhaps my all-time favorite spiritual writer, so it's no surprise this is on an end-of-year list. 

Find the full list of 2020 books I read here.