10 Best Books of 2020 (So Far)

My favourite time of the year. Taking stock of the many wonderful books read and then subjecting myself to the torture of selecting ten. This year is particularly important because we read books through a pandemic! Phew! I was in a big slump for long, then read many ABSOLUTELY FANTASTIC backlisted books. Here’s a separate list of The Best Backlisted Books Read in 2020. Now for the shiny, new releases!

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Best Books of 2020 (So Far)

Here are the best books of 2020 (So Far). I am going to use ‘(So Far)’ every time I mention ‘best books’ in here because yesterday many people though I am writing off the rest of the  year because I tweeted about best books of 2020 (So far. See!). I wish I could; the year is almost at a negligent existence. I cannot wait for us to be done with this Covid-19 stress. And I sincerely hope good days are in store. But for now, here are some amazing books to make things a little better. We have ghosts solving murder mysteries, a toxic sister bond, and a black woman playing third wheel in a open marriage.

BONUS : I am listening to Tweet Cute by Emma Lord on audio (Sign up for TWO months of FREE Scribd) and it is the cutest! Reminds me of The Flatshare, one of my favourite books last year and a new Twitter version of You’ve got Mail. I haven’t finished Tweet Cute, so I can’t say if it is a favourite yet. But definitely promising. Check it out for something light and fun.

1. The First woman by Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi

What a ride! I feel naked while reading Makumbi—because there is so much history, and cultural nuances packed into her novels. She makes me aware of how little I know. Makumbi does not dumb it down. Quoting her own words “I don’t write for a Western audience. If I can understand Shakespeare, you can understand me.”

In The First Woman, you will be enamoured by the Ugandan folktales with witches, men and betrayal, or sympathize with the coming of age narrative, or find yourself plunged into patriarchy, colonialism, spread of religion and power dynamics. The First Woman is indefinitely layered and Makumbi leaves it to the reader to find the depth they are looking for. I loved the women in the book, be it the motherless teenager Kirabo (finding and losing love, searching for her mother, trying to understand herself) or the grandmothers who have a long history between them or the wife who is unwelcoming of her husband’s illegitimate child. On a sly sarcastic note, if you are one of those people who equate Africa to a dot on the map instead of the many countries and cultures that make it, or read one hyped book by a black author and tweet ‘I read diverse books’, then let Makumbi cure you.

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2. If I had your Face by Frances Cha

I wish we had more books about women in the contemporary world. If girl friendships—the non-toxic but real, raw ones—are your cup of tea, pick up If I had your Face. It is set in contemporary Seoul and follows the life of five women. The blurb says ‘four’ but I felt the friend of one of the main characters was very well developed which ample page space, hence five!). I love it when a book presents multiple POVs and I feel invested in all of them! Here we follow a mute hairstylist who is a fangirl, a woman with multiple cosmetic procedures done to her face to help with the competitions in room salons, an orphan artist, a friend who wants to help her friend get plastic surgery and a pregnant woman. I enjoyed immersing in the patriarchal framework binding these women as they traverse beauty standards, prostitution, love and friendship.

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3. Sisters by Daisy Johnson

I’ve loved all of Daisy Johnson’s works so far which makes her a favourite author of mine. Her latest, Sisters, is suffocating and claustrophobic. It was a horror house that I wanted to flee from, but could not look away. Just not yet. They say curiosity killed the cat and yes, this book nearly killed me.

In Sisters, we follow two sisters (no surprise there) born ten months apart, who are almost like twin souls. They move to a house that is ‘dirtyallover ‘and ‘bentoutofshape’—as creepy as it can get, because the house has a mind of its own with its gargles and groans. The bond between the girls is more noxious than sisterly. On one hand the elder sister takes care of the younger in a motherly fashion—providing food, washing her up—but there’s a kind-of Simon Says game where you have to obey everything the leader says. Johnson’s prowess as an inventive and skilled writer shines through the novel—Bulb clickclick(s), blood goes boom boom boom and movement is judder judder judder. You’ll find yourself longing to look away, but then you just can’t.

Sisters is not published yet. It would be an excellent idea to familiarize yourself with Johnson’s stellar prose in Everything Under (Buy) about a mother-daughter relationship in an Odedipal retelling or her lovely, weird stories in Fen (Buy)

4.  Chats with the Dead by Shehan Karunatilaka

Praise heavens for books like this! And all the five stars. In Chats with the Dead, a gay photographer ghost tries to solve his murder mystery. There’s only one problem; he cannot remember much of his life. We are told about press assignments, media heads, lovers and friends, through sleazy bars, casinos, secret shoe boxes; set in a country caught in the aftermath of the Sri Lankan civil war. Needless to say, this quest is often interrupted by chatty ghosts, and parades of dead people. This book is a wonder and definitely a must-read of the year.

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5. The Inugami Curse by Seishi Yokomizi, translated by Yumiko Yamakazi

I keep recommending The Inugami Curse by Seishi Yokomizo in every list. So no surprise I am shouting again that The Inugami Curse is one of the best books of 2020 (so far). I really enjoyed this campy, golden murder mystery set in 1930s Japan. A patriarch is murdered but turns out there is a very unusual will, too many heirs, his own secrets of past, and cunning sisters. And really, a comfort mystery with bloody weapons is what we all need right now.

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Also Read : Two Golden Mysteries from Japan’s master crime writer, Seishi Yokomizo

6. The Perfect World of Miwako Sumida by Clarissa Goenawan

I am always worried about second novels from authors whose debuts I love. I thought Clarissa Goenawan’s Rainbirds was a wonderful debut on grief, loneliness and death. Her second, The Perfect World of Miwako Sumida tiptoes on similar themes. I could think of little else than the eponymous Miwako Sumida and what tortures her soul. There’s young love, and loneliness. Mixed into the calm and melancholic story, we also have ghosts, and disappearing cats. If you are thinking Murakami, yes, Goenawan has a Murakami-style of writing especially in her attention to mundane tasks. But she is less vague, more eager to give answers—so this is a great read.

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Also Read : Book Review: The Perfect World of Miwako Sumida

7. The Frightened Ones by Dima Wannous, translated by Elisabeth Jacquette

Do you love books that surprise you? I do. I had such a rush reading The Frightened Ones translated from the Arabic. The same kind when I read Bunny by Mona Awad—dark, trippy novel about MFA students and decapitated rabbit heads—and Supper Club by Lara Williams—women indulging in food, gluttony and sex.

In The Frightened Ones, we meet Suleima—artist with anorexia prone to panic attacks—who meets a self-harming doctor and writer, Naseem, at her therapist’s office in Damascus, and falls in love. When Naseem flees Syria, he entrusts his manuscript with Suleima but she finds an uncanny resemblance between the protagonist and herself. Things get stranger as she wonders if they have crossed paths earlier, and whether she was manipulated for a story. She goes in search of the muse. Fiction blurs into reality, giving us a maddening, dizzying, psychological thrill through a story told in loneliness and fear.

The Frightened Ones reminds me a bit of Helen Oyeyemi’s Mr. Fox where the lines blur between the fictional muse and real life. I admit this book isn’t for everyone. It might be lost on some. There’s only one way to know if you will fall head over heels with Dima Wannous—read her book. In my defense, those who picked The Frightened Ones upon my recommendation messaged me that it was mind-blowing, so there’s a very good chance that you’ll love it. I certainly did.

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Also Read : Mr. Fox by Helen Oyeyemi—Prerequisites and after effects to enjoy this mad, wonderful novel

8. Luster by Raven Leilani

Debuts as accomplished as Luster make you exclaim ‘what a find’ at the end of the novel. I read this towards the beginning of the year and promptly noted it on my ever-changing list of Best Books of 2020 (So far). Edie, a twenty something black art school dropout, is fired from her job at a publishing house due to sexual misconduct. She finds herself being invited to stay by Rebecca, the wife of Edie’s much older lover, Eric. Edie spends her time painting and bonding with the couple’s adopted black daughter. She finds paychecks of varying amounts on her dresser, but is often confused where the lines are drawn. I found Luster pulling me deeper into the open marriage of the white suburban couple and Edie who falls into it. It is disruptive, darkly funny, and searing—five stars! Read it if you like to navigate social landscapes, sexual politics and inter racial relationships clothed as an entertaining, and riveting book.

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9. Fangs by Sarah Andersen

Sarah Andersen at it again! If you loved Andersen’s Adulthood comics, actually whether you loved it or not, Fangs is for you! This is a riotously funny—loud laughs kind (I had to read the book again because my husband kept interrupting me with his laughs pointing at the comic panels when he picked it up on my recommendation, and that is not helpful when you are trying to get some work done)—and dark novel about a vampire and a werewolf falling in love. Cute date nights, fridge stocked with blood, garlic being a no-no in food—this was delightful on every page.

10. Little Eyes by Samantha Schweblin, translated by Megan Mc Dowell

Little Eyes by Samantha Schweblin was pure sorcery. Hands down, one of the best books of 2020 (So far). Meet kentukis. Cuddly plush toys that are a superior version of the Tamagotchi pets (if you don’t know what they are, you are too young). Here, you can buy a pet—crow, panda etc—and this pet has a screen which a ‘dweller’ stranger, somewhere in the world, can access to view and find voyeuristic pleasure in your life. The ‘keepers’ own the physical pet. The dwellers can control the movements of the pets and their squeals. They both can chat, if they like, but also lie. The matching between the keeper and dweller is completely random with no bars on age, or geography.

As I was reading, I kept thinking whether this would ever be a reality (why ever?). But when we live in an Instagram world where we find joy in showcasing the best parts of our life to strangers, the world of Little Eyes does not seem as bizarre. These connections reveal the beauty and ugliness of humans. I did want more by the end of the book—I was hoping for a connected reveal between all characters—but also I was intoxicated by the voyeuristic pleasure from these stranger-duos presented as vignettes. People save lives, a boy sees snow for the first time, an old woman becomes protective of a younger woman, pranks are planned and some get a little naughty on camera.

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That’s it for now. Happy reading x

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