My 2020 Book list

These are the books I read in 2020 and my one sentence summary/reviews of them, except my faves which I will gush about at greater length. asterisk indicates that it was a fave, tilde indicates it was a reread.

OK THAT"S IT THIS HAS BEEN SITTING IN MY DRAFT FOR TOO LONG HERE YOU GO AS IS

The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up (this one sparks joy)
The Motel of the Mysteries (adventures in archaeology of the future)
The Devil in the White City (too much white city, not enough devil)
Call Down the Hawk (I didn't like it as much as the Raven Cycle but still enjoyed it and look forward to the next book in the series)
The Disappearing Spoon (not as good as Dueling Neurosurgeons)
The Rest of Us Just Live Here (what all the background characters were up to)
The I-5 Killer (ted bundy but dumber and only in the oregon part of I-5)
*Marriage, a History*

How can I get all the General Authorities to read this book. A really eye opening look at the institution of marriage across time. I wish there had been more time spent on marriage in non-western cultures, but the deep dive on western marriage was still really fascinating

Gulp (all I remember from this book is elvis hamburger jewelry)
No Country for Old Men (I have not seen the movie of this, but I actually really enjoyed the I-adapted-this-from-a-screenplay-so-there's-no-description style)
The Way We Never Were (Not as good as Marriage, A History and it was originally published in the early nineties so a little out of date, but still really interesting and worth a read)
The Illustrated Man~ (The UK version doesn't have The Rocket Man and I hate that)
Why Won't You Apologize?* (how to be sorry)
Furious Hours (look just listen to the criminal episode about this one ok)
The Three-Body Problem (what if we did a sci fi but this time the characters are cardboard cutouts)
The Less People Know About Us (Ummmm just listen to the criminal episode about this one too)
The Tale of the Dueling Neurosurgeons*
Feminism is for Everybody (bell hooks)
Emma (disappointed that Emma and Harriet didn't end up together, oops spoilers)

Dreams from My Father (Obama: the prequel)
*Radicalized*
Dandelion Wine
Information Doesn't Want to Be Free
Cloud Atlas*
You Look Like a Thing and I Love You (adventures in AI wackiness)
Teaching to Transgress (more bell hooks, I'm not the target audience since I don't teach but still very interesting and insightful)
Digital Minimalism (how to be an internet hermit)
In the Time of the Butterflies
*The Righteous Mind*

The Things They Carried (AUGH I FINALLY FINISHED IT. It's good)
Five Days Gone (stiff upper lip)
Norse Mythology (great intro to norse mythology, somewhat geared toward kids)
Seven brief lessons in physics (Dane read this book to me while I was driving so I absorbed maybe 13% of it)
Highest Duty (too much grousing about kids and their iPods, not enough grousing about geese and their being bad for airplane engines)
Upright women wanted* (look it's a dystopic western about lesbians, what more do you need in life?)
What if? (probably better as not an audiobook, but Wil Wheaton is still great)
*The Empire of Gold*
Magic for Liars (harry potter noir but make it gay)

Permission Marketing (this book was published in 2000 and it correctly predicted many unpleasant things about surveillance capitalism, v spooky)
Naturally Tan
Will My Cat Eat My Eyeballs? (Yes, with caveats)
Tribe (pretty interesting except part of the book was the author doing "yet you participate in society" about people's anti-Iraq War bumper stickers)
*Piranesi*

SHE DID IT AGAIN FOLKS, hope we don't have to wait another fifteen years for the next Susanna Clarke book. Anyway it was just lovely, a quick read that is really engaging.

You Just Don't Understand (the most infuriating book I've read in my entire life !)
Deep Work (how to be a normal hermit)
City of Secrets (cute little graphic novel. Well made but a little short on substance)
Cringeworthy
In the Dreamhouse*
Superforecasting

ok well tune in next year for my 2021 books if I manage to read any (so far, not good)