hardcover
Hardcover

The Ultimate Best Books of 2020 List from 41 Lists

Lithub's Emily Temple has read 41 lists totalling 952 books to distill the most frequently included titles that zigzag between fiction and non-fiction and back again.

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

A Promised Land

#1 of 1 in The Presidential Memoirs

A Promised Land
ByBarack Obama

2020 • 646 Readers • 768 pages 4.3

Blacktop Wasteland

Blacktop Wasteland
ByS. A. Cosby

2020 • 211 Readers • 304 pages 4.3

Caste

Caste
ByIsabel Wilkerson

2020 • 684 Readers • 497 pages 4.4

Cleanness

Cleanness
ByGarth Greenwell

2020 • 80 Readers • 225 pages 4

Deacon King Kong

Deacon King Kong
ByJames McBride

2020 • 199 Readers 4.2

Hamnet

Hamnet
ByMaggie O'Farrell

2020 • 747 Readers • 321 pages 4.2

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

Homeland Elegies

Homeland Elegies
ByAyad Akhtar

2020 • 123 Readers • 384 pages 4.1

Homie

Homie
ByDanez Smith(Author, Narrator)

2020 • 62 Readers • 2 pages 4.6

Hood Feminism: Notes from the Women That a Movement Forgot

2020 • 392 Readers • 289 pages 4.3

How Much of These Hills Is Gold

2020 • 192 Readers • 288 pages 4

Interior Chinatown

Interior Chinatown
ByCharles Yu

2020 • 361 Readers • 289 pages 3.9

Intimations

Intimations
ByZadie Smith(Author and Narrator)

2020 • 101 Readers • 97 pages 3.8

Jack

#4 of 4 in Gilead

Jack
ByMarilynne Robinson

2020 • 6 Readers • 322 pages 4

Cover 7

Just Us
ByClaudia Rankine

2020 • 2 Readers

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

Mexican Gothic

Mexican Gothic
BySilvia Moreno-Garcia,Dan Sociu(Translator)

2020 • 1,468 Readers • 10h 40m 3.8

Minor Feelings

Minor Feelings
ByCathy Park Hong

2020 • 180 Readers • 209 pages 4.1

My Dark Vanessa

My Dark Vanessa
ByKate Elizabeth Russell

2020 • 858 Readers • 395 pages 4.2

Notes on a Silencing

Notes on a Silencing
ByLacy Crawford

2020 • 65 Readers • 400 pages 4.1

Piranesi

Piranesi
BySusanna Clarke

2019 • 2,855 Readers • 246 pages 4.2

Plain Bad Heroines

Plain Bad Heroines
ByEmily M. Danforth

2020 • 328 Readers • 640 pages 3.6

Real Life

Real Life
ByBrandon Taylor

2020 • 244 Readers • 329 pages 4

Rodham

Rodham
ByCurtis Sittenfeld

2020 • 98 Readers • 417 pages 3.9

Sharks in the Time of Saviors

Sharks in the Time of Saviors
ByKawai Strong Washburn

2020 • 134 Readers • 376 pages 4.1

Shuggie Bain

Shuggie Bain
ByDouglas Stuart

2020 • 411 Readers • 448 pages 4.3

Such a Fun Age

Such a Fun Age
ByKiley Reid

2019 • 806 Readers • 313 pages 3.8

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 Cold Millions

The Cold Millions
ByJess Walter

2020 • 68 Readers • 342 pages 4

The Dead Are Arising: The Life of Malcolm X

2020 • 42 Readers • 612 pages 4.7

The Death of Vivek Oji

The Death of Vivek Oji
ByAkwaeke Emezi

2020 • 327 Readers • 304 pages 4.2

The Dragons, the Giant, the Women: A Memoir

2020 • 24 Readers • 272 pages 4.3

The Glass Hotel

The Glass Hotel
ByEmily St. John Mandel

2020 • 702 Readers • 302 pages 3.8

The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue

2020 • 2,712 Readers • 448 pages 4.1

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 New Wilderness

The New Wilderness
ByDiane Cook

2020 • 115 Readers • 416 pages 3.5

The Night Watchman

The Night Watchman
ByLouise Erdrich

2020 • 280 Readers • 464 pages 4.1

The Office of Historical Corrections

2020 • 207 Readers • 7h 13m 4.1

The Only Good Indians

The Only Good Indians
ByStephen Graham Jones

2020 • 760 Readers • 352 pages 3.8

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

Transcendent Kingdom

2020 • 439 Readers • 288 pages 4.1

Uncanny Valley

Uncanny Valley
ByAnna Wiener

2020 • 257 Readers • 304 pages 3.9

Utopia Avenue

Utopia Avenue
ByDavid Mitchell

2020 • 191 Readers • 576 pages 4

Vesper Flights

Vesper Flights
ByHelen Macdonald

2020 • 73 Readers 4.3

Weather

Weather
ByJenny Offill

168 Readers 3.5

What Are You Going Through

2020 • 94 Readers • 210 pages 3.8

When No One is Watching

388 Readers 3.6

World of Wonders: In Praise of Fireflies, Whale Sharks, and Other Astonishments

2020 • 123 Readers • 152 pages 4.1

Wow, No Thank You.: Essays

2020 • 183 Readers • 319 pages 3.9

Writers & Lovers

Writers & Lovers
ByLily King

2020 • 361 Readers • 320 pages 3.9