2020 reading summary:
67 books (including 4 DNFs)
Average length: 342 pages
Average rating: 3.6 stars

Books I would take to a desert island, or otherwise landed on my all-time favorites list:
The Nightingale
A pick off my "can't believe I haven't read" shelf during the height of lockdown and what really kicked off my epic devouring of books this year.
The Midnight Library
A well deserved Best Fiction of 2020 winner I already want to reread. Imagine the afterlife is a library and every book is a different version of your life if you'd married your ex/taken that job/gone on that vacation/etc.
The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue
As much doomed romance and historical fiction as it is a fantasy... so exactly my brand of fantasy. A 17th century girl makes a deal with the devil - she will live forever, but everyone she meets will forget her almost instantly.

Other Five-Star Reads:
The Alchemist
Another off the "can't believe I haven't read" shelf. I totally get how this became an instant classic.
The Vanishing Half
100% worth the hype. Brit Bennet seamlessly jumps along the timeline and every character, no matter how minor a role they play, is so richly developed.
The Henna Artist
A vividly detailed debut about women in 1950s India.
The Space Between Worlds
Sci-fi and the multiverse take on issues of race, class and colonialism. Fantastic plot start to finish.
The Guest List
Solid whodunnit with multiple POVs.
None Shall Sleep
A college freshman is recruited by the FBI to help interrogate juvenile serial killers. Why didn't they make great YA thrillers like this when I was a teenager?
The Once and Future Witches
Witches > Suffragettes. Love the language, love the relationship between the three sisters.
Written in the Stars
They made Mr. Darcy a lesbian and I'm here for it. Less a straight retelling (pun intended) and more its own good queer romance drawing strong character inspiration from Pride & Prejudice.
Tweet Cute
A YA contemporary romance that a) made me embarrassingly invested in the lives of fictional teenagers, and b) gave me a hardcore craving for a grilled cheese sandwich.
The Arctic Fury
Part adventure novel as a group of 19th century women trek into the unmapped Arctic, part courtroom drama as their leader stands on trial for murder upon their return.
Grown
The only book on my 5-stars list I won't re-read. A YA take on #MeToo. Not a thing I would change about it, but OOF it was intense.

Good Mystery Thrillers & Horror
The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle and The Devil and the Dark Water
Stuart Turton is officially an auto-buy author for me. I read both his books this year and while they are standalones with very different settings, they do have a lot in common so I feel I should discuss them together. Evelyn Hardcastle is Agatha Christie meets Groundhog Day. Dark Water is more Sherlock Holmes meets Pirates of the Caribbean. Both are active supernatural-laced mysteries sporting big twist endings and great characterization.
The Hazel Wood
A YA fairytale noir fantasy that's really grown on me over time. The sequel comes out in paperback in a couple weeks and I have it on preorder.
Circe
The feminist retelling of ancient Greek myths
Mexican Gothic
Does what it says on the tin. Great modern take on the Gothic novel, and very different to Silvia Moreno-Garcia's last book Gods of Jade and Shadow. (Which I also read this year and have more mixed feelings about.) This is evidently Moreno-Garcia's "thing" - genre-hopping - and her next book is something more akin to a Regency romance.
Home Before Dark
Very entertaining haunted house mystery.
Plain Bad Heroines
Extremely meta and extremely queer, full of Gothic horrors, snarky humor and early 19th century VIBES. Basically my innermost soul poured into book form.
The Sun Down Motel
It's a haunted motel - that's all you need to know.

Good Beach Reads & Romances
Daisy Jones & the Six
The 1970s music scene as told in documentary transcript format - not what I'd usually pick up but I pretty much devoured it in a single sitting.
Crazy Rich Asians
Start to a trilogy and inspiration for the movie of the same name. I appreciate that it was more extended family drama than pure rom com.
Something to Talk About
A slow burn Sapphic romance with a gentler, empowering take on #MeToo.
One to Watch
A fun Bachelorette-inspired romp starring a plus-size heroine.
The Kiss Quotient
A little too sexy for my personal tastes, but I totally get why this start to a trilogy starring an autistic heroine is so popular. It's very well written with great characters.

Also Notable
Anxious People
Apparently I didn't read much contemporary or literary fiction this year. (#2020escapism) But I did read Anxious People and it was a great blend of funny and heartfelt.
Untamed
A love it or hate it, for sure, but Glennon Doyle clicked with me in a way that many similar memoirists and self-proclaimed self-help experts very much do not.
Me and White Supremacy
More month-long group journaling exercise than true book, but still it made up a significant portion of my summer reading and warrants a mention.
1000 Places to See Before You Die
I've been chipping away at this for years and finally finished it. Turns out it's pretty old fashioned and I wish I hadn't. Still it was almost 1000 pages long and I'd like some credit for that.

Read Harder Challenges completed: 8
#3. A mystery where the victim is not a woman -- can't say because spoilers
#4. A graphic memoir -- Fun House (thanks Brandi for the loan)
#7. A historical fiction novel not set in WWII -- several, but the first of the year was The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle which is set in the 1920s
#10. A book that takes place in a rural setting -- probably more than one, but the first of the year was The Alchemist
#11. A debut novel by a queer author -- Something to Talk About
#14. A romance starring a single parent -- Would Like to Meet (though technically this was a DNF)
#16. A doorstopper written by a woman after 1950 -- The Once and Future Witches, and Plain Bad Heroines
#21. A book whose protagonist has a disability -- The Kiss Quotient