hardcover
Hardcover

The 100 Must-Read Books of 2020 by Time Magazine

Satiate your curiosity and escape while learning a little something along the way. These are Time's 100 must-read books of 2020 as collected by Andrew R. Chow, Eliana Dockterman, Mahita Gajanan, Annabel Gutterman, Suyin Haynes, Nate Hopper, Cady Lang and Lucas Wittmann.

A Burning

A Burning
ByMegha Majumdar

2020 • 159 Readers • 288 pages 3.4

A Children's Bible

A Children's Bible
ByLydia Millet

2020 • 151 Readers • 6h 3.7

Actress

Actress
ByAnne Enright

2020 • 16 Readers • 265 pages 3.5

African American Poetry: 250 Years of Struggle and Song

2020 • 2 Readers • 1,150 pages

Afterlife

Afterlife
ByJulia Alvarez

53 Readers 3.5

Agency

#2 of 2 in Jackpot

Agency
ByWilliam Gibson

2020 • 213 Readers • 418 pages 3.8

Begin Again

Begin Again
ByEddie S. Glaude (Jr.)

2020 • 54 Readers • 269 pages 4.1

Big Friendship

Big Friendship
ByAminatou Sow,Ann Friedman

2020 • 15 Readers • 251 pages 5

Black Leopard, Red Wolf

#1 of 2 in The Dark Star Trilogy

2019 • 640 Readers • 620 pages 3.1

Breasts and Eggs

Breasts and Eggs
ByMieko Kawakami,Sam Bett(Translator),+1 more

2008 • 394 Readers • 430 pages 3.9

Can't Even: How Millennials Became the Burnout Generation

2021 • 94 Readers • 320 pages 4

Caste

Caste
ByIsabel Wilkerson

2020 • 684 Readers • 497 pages 4.4

Children of Virtue and Vengeance

#2 of 3 in Legacy of Orïsha

2018 • 284 Readers • 404 pages 3.6

Cleanness

Cleanness
ByGarth Greenwell

2020 • 80 Readers • 225 pages 4

Conditional Citizens: On Belonging in America

2020 • 47 Readers • 208 pages 4

Crooked Hallelujah

Crooked Hallelujah
ByKelli Jo Ford

2020 • 37 Readers • 304 pages 3.3

Culture Warlords: Dispatches from the Dark Web of White Supremacy

2020 • 74 Readers • 256 pages 4.3

Deacon King Kong

Deacon King Kong
ByJames McBride

2020 • 199 Readers 4.2

Earthlings

Earthlings
BySayaka Murata,Ginny Tapley Takemori(Translator)

2018 • 663 Readers • 247 pages 3.6

Elatsoe

#1 of 1 in Elatsoe

Elatsoe
ByDarcie Little Badger

2020 • 336 Readers • 368 pages 4

Entangled Life: How Fungi Make Our Worlds, Change Our Minds & Shape Our Futures

2020 • 433 Readers • 370 pages 4.3

Enter the Aardvark

Enter the Aardvark
ByJessica Anthony

2020 • 24 Readers • 6 pages 3.6

Followers

Followers
ByMegan Angelo

2020 • 92 Readers • 384 pages 3.3

Having and Being Had

2020 • 65 Readers 3.5

Hidden Valley Road

Hidden Valley Road
ByRobert Kolker

2020 • 41 Readers • 370 pages 4.2

His Only Wife

His Only Wife
ByPeace Adzo Medie

2020 • 59 Readers • 289 pages 3.8

Hitler

Hitler
ByVolker Ullrich

2016 • 6 Readers 4.5

Hitting a Straight Lick with a Crooked Stick: Stories from the Harlem Renaissance

2020 • 45 Readers • 304 pages 3.6

Homeland Elegies

Homeland Elegies
ByAyad Akhtar

2020 • 123 Readers • 384 pages 4.1

Hood Feminism: Notes from the Women That a Movement Forgot

2020 • 392 Readers • 289 pages 4.3

If I Had Your Face

If I Had Your Face
ByFrances Cha

2020 • 311 Readers • 235 pages 3.8

I Hold a Wolf by the Ears

I Hold a Wolf by the Ears
ByLaura van den Berg

2020 • 224 pages

Interior Chinatown

Interior Chinatown
ByCharles Yu

2020 • 361 Readers • 289 pages 3.9

Jack

#4 of 4 in Gilead

Jack
ByMarilynne Robinson

2020 • 6 Readers • 322 pages 4

Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982

Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982
ByCho Nam-Joo,Jamie Chang(Translator)

2016 • 563 Readers • 168 pages 4.1

Leave the World Behind

2020 • 460 Readers • 241 pages 3.3

Luster

Luster
ByRaven Leilani

2020 • 371 Readers • 203 pages 3.6

Memorial

Memorial
ByBryan Washington

2020 • 190 Readers 3.5

Memorial Drive: A Daughter's Memoir

2020 • 64 Readers 4.4

Migrations

Migrations
ByCharlotte McConaghy

2020 • 295 Readers • 272 pages 4.1

Minor Feelings

Minor Feelings
ByCathy Park Hong

2020 • 180 Readers • 209 pages 4.1

My Autobiography of Carson McCullers

2020 • 31 Readers • 266 pages 3.7

Obit

Obit
ByVictoria Chang

2020 • 36 Readers • 120 pages 4.2

One to Watch

One to Watch
ByKate Stayman-London

2020 • 221 Readers • 434 pages 3.7

Open Book

Open Book
ByJessica Simpson,Kevin Carr O'Leary

2019 • 73 Readers • 416 pages 4

Party of Two

#5 of 6 in The Wedding Date

Party of Two
ByJasmine Guillory

2020 • 99 Readers • 332 pages 3.9

Piranesi

Piranesi
BySusanna Clarke

2019 • 2,856 Readers • 246 pages 4.2

Postcolonial Love Poem

Postcolonial Love Poem
ByNatalie Díaz

2020 • 47 Readers • 120 pages 4.8

Queen of the Conquered

#1 of 2 in Islands of Blood and Storm

Queen of the Conquered
ByKacen Callender

2019 • 84 Readers • 400 pages 3.6

Recollections of My Nonexistence: A Memoir

2020 • 48 Readers 4.3

Run Me to Earth

Run Me to Earth
ByPaul Yoon

2020 • 33 Readers • 272 pages 3.6

Sex and Vanity

2 Cities

Sex and Vanity
ByKevin Kwan

2020 • 80 Readers • 336 pages 3

Shadowshaper

#1 of 3 in Shadowshaper Cypher

Shadowshaper
ByDaniel José Older

2015 • 74 Readers • 297 pages 3.6

Shuggie Bain

Shuggie Bain
ByDouglas Stuart

2020 • 411 Readers • 448 pages 4.3

Song of Blood & Stone

#1 of 4 in Earthsinger Chronicles

2015 • 56 Readers • 528 pages 3.2

The Address Book: What Street Addresses Reveal About Identity, Race, Wealth, and Power

2020 • 119 Readers • 336 pages 4

The Black Tides of Heaven

#1 of 4 in Tensorate

2017 • 278 Readers • 240 pages 3.7

The Book of Eels

The Book of Eels
ByPatrik Svensson,Agnes Broomé(Translator)

2019 • 91 Readers • 256 pages 3.5

The City We Became

#1 of 2 in Great Cities

The City We Became
ByN.K. Jemisin

2020 • 1,048 Readers • 437 pages 3.8

The Dead Are Arising: The Life of Malcolm X

2020 • 42 Readers • 612 pages 4.7

The Glass Hotel

The Glass Hotel
ByEmily St. John Mandel

2020 • 702 Readers • 302 pages 3.8

The Grace of Kings

#1 of 4 in The Dandelion Dynasty

2015 • 848 Readers • 640 pages 3.7

The Lying Life of Adults

The Lying Life of Adults
ByElena Ferrante,Ann Goldstein(translator)

2019 • 122 Readers • 322 pages 3.5

The Mirror & the Light

#3 of 3 in Thomas Cromwell

The Mirror & the Light
ByHilary Mantel

2020 • 118 Readers • 784 pages 4.4

The Night Watchman

The Night Watchman
ByLouise Erdrich

2020 • 280 Readers • 464 pages 4.1

The Only Good Indians

The Only Good Indians
ByStephen Graham Jones

2020 • 760 Readers • 352 pages 3.8

The Rage of Dragons

#1 of 2 in The Burning

The Rage of Dragons
ByEvan Winter

2017 • 770 Readers • 528 pages 4.3

The Splendid and the Vile: A Saga of Churchill, Family, and Defiance During the Blitz

2020 • 366 Readers • 585 pages 4.2

The Undocumented Americans

The Undocumented Americans
ByKarla Cornejo Villavicencio(Author, Narrator)

2020 • 114 Readers • 4h 53m 4.3

The Vanishing Half

The Vanishing Half
ByBrit Bennett

2020 • 1,241 Readers • 400 pages 4.1

The Wall of Storms

#2 of 4 in The Dandelion Dynasty

2016 • 198 Readers • 852 pages 4.3

Tokyo Ueno Station

Tokyo Ueno Station
ByMiri Yū,Morgan Giles(Translator)

2014 • 171 Readers • 197 pages 3.4

Wandering in Strange Lands

2020 • 43 Readers • 304 pages 2

Want

Want
ByLynn Steger Strong

2020 • 41 Readers • 209 pages 3.6

Weather

Weather
ByJenny Offill

168 Readers 3.5

We Ride Upon Sticks

2020 • 147 Readers • 367 pages 3.9

Where the Wild Ladies Are

Where the Wild Ladies Are
ByAoko Matsuda,Asri Pratiwi Wulandari(Translator)

2016 • 89 Readers • 264 pages 3.7

Why We Swim

Why We Swim
ByBonnie Tsui

2020 • 85 Readers • 288 pages 3.8

Wow, No Thank You.: Essays

2020 • 183 Readers • 319 pages 3.9

You Never Forget Your First: A Biography of George Washington

2020 • 69 Readers • 304 pages 3.7