The Ultimate Best Books of 2020 List from 41 Lists

Updated about 1 year ago
61 Books
lithub.com

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.

Details	Rating	Readers Count
A Burning Megha Majumdar	3.42	52 reads
A Children's Bible Lydia Millet	3.7	75 reads
Actress Anne Enright	3.5	6 reads
African American Poetry: 250 Years of Struggle and Song	0	1 read
A Promised Land Barack Obama	4.28	299 reads
Blacktop Wasteland S. A. Cosby	4.26	89 reads
Caste Isabel Wilkerson	4.43	225 reads
Cleanness Garth Greenwell	4	22 reads
Deacon King Kong James McBride	4.19	66 reads
Hamnet Maggie O'Farrell	4.17	258 reads
Hidden Valley Road Robert Kolker	4.2	27 reads
His Only Wife Peace Adzo Medie	3.81	18 reads
Homeland Elegies Ayad Akhtar	4.14	35 reads
Homie	4.57	25 reads
Hood Feminism: Notes from the Women That a Movement Forgot Mikki Kendall	4.28	105 reads
How Much of These Hills Is Gold C Pam Zhang	3.99	49 reads
Interior Chinatown Charles Yu	3.86	194 reads
Intimations	3.8	43 reads
Jack Marilynne Robinson	4	3 reads
Just Us Just Us Claudia Rankine	0	0 reads
Leave the World Behind Rumaan Alam	3.27	243 reads
Luster Raven Leilani	3.6	157 reads
Memorial Bryan Washington	3.47	59 reads
Memorial Drive: A Daughter's Memoir Natasha Trethewey	4.38	25 reads
Mexican Gothic Silvia Moreno-Garcia Dan Sociu (Translator)	3.76	713 reads
Minor Feelings Cathy Park Hong	4.09	66 reads
My Dark Vanessa Kate Elizabeth Russell	4.2	351 reads
Notes on a Silencing Lacy Crawford	4.14	9 reads
Piranesi Susanna Clarke	4.24	1,408 reads
Plain Bad Heroines Emily M. Danforth	3.56	74 reads
Real Life Brandon Taylor	3.97	59 reads
Rodham Curtis Sittenfeld	3.94	43 reads
Sharks in the Time of Saviors Kawai Strong Washburn	4.1	37 reads
Shuggie Bain Douglas Stuart	4.26	153 reads
Such a Fun Age Kiley Reid	3.81	389 reads
The City We Became N.K. Jemisin	3.84	353 reads
The Cold Millions Jess Walter	4	20 reads
The Dead Are Arising: The Life of Malcolm X Les Payne Tamara Payne	4.7	8 reads
The Death of Vivek Oji Akwaeke Emezi	4.17	121 reads
The Dragons, the Giant, the Women: A Memoir Wayétu Moore	4.33	4 reads
The Glass Hotel Emily St. John Mandel	3.8	336 reads
The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue V.E. Schwab	4.11	1,329 reads
The Lying Life of Adults Elena Ferrante Ann Goldstein (translator)	3.53	48 reads
The Mirror & the Light Hilary Mantel	4.41	48 reads
The New Wilderness Diane Cook	3.5	27 reads
The Night Watchman Louise Erdrich	4.12	92 reads
The Office of Historical Corrections Danielle Evans	4.12	79 reads
The Only Good Indians Stephen Graham Jones	3.78	290 reads
The Splendid and the Vile: A Saga of Churchill, Family, and Defiance During the Blitz Erik Larson	4.22	125 reads
The Undocumented Americans	4.28	35 reads
The Vanishing Half Brit Bennett	4.12	522 reads
Transcendent Kingdom Yaa Gyasi	4.13	161 reads
Uncanny Valley Anna Wiener	3.9	127 reads
Utopia Avenue David Mitchell	3.97	74 reads
Vesper Flights Helen Macdonald	4.25	17 reads
Weather Jenny Offill	3.54	75 reads
What Are You Going Through Sigrid Nunez	3.83	32 reads
When No One is Watching Alyssa Cole	3.62	151 reads
World of Wonders: In Praise of Fireflies, Whale Sharks, and Other Astonishments Aimee Nezhukumatathil	4.07	32 reads
Wow, No Thank You.: Essays Samantha Irby	3.94	71 reads
Writers & Lovers Lily King	3.9	128 reads