Reading lists

Top 20 Favorite Books in 2020 From 20K Book Clubs

Updated: Jan 26, 2023

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Author

Nancy Brown

Over the summer we reached 20,000 book clubs on our platform! We are honoring these clubs and their book club picks with a 20 in 2020 list! Recognize any of these titles? They are based on the meeting selections of all of the clubs on Bookclubz. Maybe some inspiration for your 2021 meetings?! 

 

 

 

 

"The Vanishing Half" by Brit Bennett is one of the most talked about books of the year -- a stunning page-turner about twin sisters, inseparable as children, who ultimately choose to live in two very different worlds: one black, and one white. It’s a powerful story about family, compassion, identity and roots

 

  Alicia Berenson’s life is seemingly perfect. She is a famous painter and her husband, Gabriel, an in-demand fashion photographer. Until one evening, when Gabriel returns home late from work and Alicia shoots him five times in the face and then never speaks another word #1 New York Times bestseller

 

  A #1 New York Times Best Seller and Reese Witherspoon Book Club pick, Where the Crawdads Sing is at once an exquisite ode to the natural world, a heartbreaking coming-of-age story, and a surprising tale of possible murder. Owens reminds us that we are forever shaped by the children we once were, and that we are all subject to the beautiful and violent secrets that nature keeps

 

  From the author of Me Before You, set in Depression-era America, a breathtaking story of five extraordinary women and their remarkable journey through the mountains of Kentucky and beyond

 

  This controversial, cross-genre novel is hailed as "a Grapes of Wrath for our times" and "a new American classic." American Dirt is an exploration into the inner hearts of people willing to sacrifice everything for a glimmer of hope, telling the story of Lydia and Luca, a mother and son forced to leave their Mexican home and cross the US border

 

  In her most revealing and powerful memoir yet, Glennon Doyle, the activist, speaker, bestselling author, and “patron saint of female empowerment” (People) explores the joy and peace we discover when we stop striving to meet others’ expectations and start trusting the voice deep within us

 

  Educated is a memoir by the American author Tara Westover. In it, Westover recounts overcoming her survivalist Mormon family in order to go to college, and emphasizes the importance of education to enlarging her world

 

  Kendi weaves an electrifying combination of ethics, history, law, and science with his own personal story of awakening to antiracism. This is an essential work for anyone who wants to go beyond the awareness of racism to the next step: contributing to the formation of a just and equitable society

 

  In So You Want to Talk About Race, Ijeoma Oluo guides readers of all races through subjects ranging from intersectionality and affirmative action to “model minorities” in an attempt to make the seemingly impossible possible: honest conversations about race and racism, and how they infect almost every aspect of American life

 

  From the bestselling author of Everything I Never Told You, a riveting novel tha traces the intertwined fates of the picture-perfect Richardson family and the enigmatic mother and daughter who upend their lives

 

  From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of A Man Called Ove comes a charming, poignant novel about a crime that never took place, a would-be bank robber who disappears into thin air, and eight extremely anxious strangers who find they have more in common than they ever imagined

 

  In this brilliant book, Isabel Wilkerson gives us a masterful portrait of an unseen phenomenon in America as she explores, through an immersive, deeply researched narrative and stories about real people, how America today and throughout its history has been shaped by a hidden caste system, a rigid hierarchy of human rankings

 

  Mexican Gothic is a 2020 gothic horror novel by Mexican Canadian author Silvia Moreno-Garcia. It centers on a young woman investigating her cousin's claims that her husband is trying to murder her

 

  A wedding celebration turns dark and deadly in this deliciously wicked and atmospheric thriller reminiscent of Agatha Christie from the New York Times bestselling author of The Hunting Party

 

  A richly moving story that explores the indelible bond between two siblings, the house of their childhood, and a past that will not let them go. The Dutch House is the story of a paradise lost, a tour de force that digs deeply into questions of inheritance, love and forgiveness, of how we want to see ourselves and of who we really are

 

  A striking and surprising debut novel from an exhilarating new voice, Such a Fu Age is a big-hearted story about race and privilege, set around a young black babysitter, her well-intentioned employer, and a surprising connection that threatens to undo them both

 

  Lisa Wingate’s riveting, wrenching, and ultimately uplifting tale reminds us how, even though the paths we take can lead to many places, the heart never forgets where we belong

 

  In her memoir, a work of deep reflection and mesmerizing storytelling, Michelle Obama invites readers into her world, chronicling the experiences that have shaped her—from her childhood on the South Side of Chicago to her years as an executive balancing the demands of motherhood and work, to her time spent at the world’s most famous address

 

  Normal People is the story of mutual fascination, friendship and love. It takes us from that first conversation to the years beyond, in the company of two people who try to stay apart but find that they can’t

 

  Robin DiAngelo coined the term 'White Fragility' in 2011 to describe this process and is here to show us how it serves to uphold the system of white supremacy. Using knowledge and insight gained over decades of running racial awareness workshops and working on this idea as a Professor of Whiteness Studies, she shows us how we can start having more honest conversations, listen to each other better and react to feedback with grace and humility

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