best-books.publishersweekly.comBest Books 2020: Publishers Weekly : Publishers Weekly

GENRES 2020 Top 10 Fiction Mystery Poetry Romance SF/Fantasy/Horror Comics Nonfiction Religion Lifestyle Picture Books Middle Grade Young Adult 2020 2019 2018 2017 2016 2015 2014 2013 2012 2011 2010 2009 Summer 2020 Summer 2019 Summer 2018 Summer 2017 Summer 2016 Summer 2015 Summer 2014 Summer 2013 Summer 2012 Best Books: 2020 | 2019 | 2018 | 2017 | 2016 | 2015 | 2014 | 2013 | 2012 | 2011 | 2010 Summer Reads: 2020 | 2019 | 2018 | 2017 | 2016 | 2015 | 2014 | 2013 | 2012 As we start winding down a year that can't end soon enough, it's nice to focus on something—dare we say—positive? In this case, it's PW 's best books of 2020. Our editors took their usual debates online. We argued over Zoom and Slack and email about the works that deserved to be on this list, and what we landed on is a powerful mix of books that speak to the times, and some that are timeless. On our cover is Ayad Akhtar, a Pulitzer-winning playwright and incoming PEN America president, whose Homeland Elegies blew us away. It's very much steeped in the now, and it'll read as fresh as it does today a decade or two from now. Nine other standout works join Akhtar's on our top ten list, and we follow that up with deeper dives into fiction, nonfiction, and poetry, as well as 50 excellent titles for children and teens. Take a look. TOP 10 > CHILDREN'S PICKS > The City We Became N.K. Jemisin (Orbit) The personified boroughs of New York battle cosmic horrors that threaten the soul of their city in the blockbuster urban fantasy that opens Jemisin’s Great Cities trilogy. Equally playful and poetic, this exquisite novel works as an action-packed romp, a searing indictment of gentrification, and a heartfelt ode to N.Y.C. Becoming Muhammad Ali James Patterson and Kwame Alexander, illus. by Dawud Anyabwile (Little, Brown/Patterson and HMH) Alexander and Patterson team up to deliver this propulsive fictionalized biography of boxer, activist, and cultural icon Muhammad Ali, beginning with his early life as Cassius Clay. Structured in “rounds,” the book’s anecdotal narration describes his rise to prominence, starting with 16-year-old Cassius’s fight for the Golden Gloves championship, while witty lines of free verse illustrate the figure’s charisma and drive. All the Days Past, All the Days to Come Mildred D. Taylor (Viking) This absorbing historical novel concludes the five-volume story of the Logan family, which began in 1975. Through narrator Cassie, Taylor deftly sketches the strong characters of this tight-knit, though increasingly far-flung, family, and offers insights into seismic social movements amid the grim realities of racism. A satisfying conclusion to a landmark saga. Bedtime for Sweet Creatures Nikki Grimes, illus. by Elizabeth Zunon (Sourcebooks Jabberwocky) “No! No! No!” begins Grimes’s rhythmic, playful romp through a restless child’s bedtime routine. As the toddler resists sleep, a mother patiently creates an imaginary animal menagerie—“Your eyes swell, wide as owls”—transforming a bedroom into a forest full of friendly creatures, shown in Zunon’s expressive, heavily textured collage. A loving, effective lullaby. The Address Book: What Street Addresses Reveal About Identity, Wealth, Race and Power Deirdre Mask (St. Martin’s) Mask’s enthusiastic debut explores the stories and histories behind street names and how they often have the power to determine who matters, and who doesn’t. The research is impressive, covering thousands of years of history from the ancient Romans to the present day while also revealing remarkable truths about power, class, race, and history. Come Home, Indio: A Memoir Jim Terry (Street Noise) Terry’s unflinching memoir navigates coming of age between two worlds as he passes between divorced dysfunctional households, from his stern Irish-American father to his troubled Native American mother and their extended family on the reservation. As Terry deals with his own addictions as an adult, the graphic work evolves into a stunning portrait of healing through art, self-discovery, and spirituality. The Book of St. John Fergus Henderson and Trevor Gulliver (Ebury) One doesn’t necessarily come to this cookbook for the recipes, but rather for its one-of-a-kind perspective on cuisine, technique, ingredients, and life in general. In Henderson and Gulliver’s world, every meal is an occasion, nothing goes to waste, and the wine never stops flowing. And Now She’s Gone Rachel Howzell Hall (Forge) L.A. PI Gray Sykes, who grew up in the foster care system and escaped an abusive relationship, looks into the mysterious disappearance of Isabel Lincoln, who may not want to be found. Gray soon discovers that she and Isabel have a lot in common. Hall brilliantly explores themes of Blackness, abuse, and mirrored identities. The Address Book: What Street Addresses Reveal About Identity, Wealth, Race and Power Deirdre Mask (St. Martin’s) Mask’s enthusiastic debut explores the stories and histories behind street names and how they often have the power to determine who matters, and who doesn’t. The research is impressive, covering thousands of years of history from the ancient Romans to the present day while also revealing remarkable truths about power, class, race, and history. DMZ Colony Don Mee Choi (Wave) Choi’s captivating collection is a cross-genre achievement in docupoetics, offering a voice to those silenced in the Korean War and the Park Chung Hee military dictatorship. Choi’s personal narrative (including her family’s flight from South Korea and her father’s work as a photojournalist) is contextualized through larger considerations of political history, making this a vital investigative work. American Sweethearts Adriana Herrera (Carina) Priscilla Gutierrez and Juan Pablo Campos have been on and off for years and finally find a way to make it work in the knock out conclusion to Herrera’s Dreamers series. In writing characters who know each other so well, Herrera creates a dynamic that is simultaneously comfortable and vulnerable, playful and passionate. After Whiteness: An Education in Belonging Willie James Jennings (Eerdmans) Theologian Jennings recounts a series of distressing personal experiences within academia and lambasts mainstream curricula within American divinity schools. The result is a clarion indictment of systemic inequalities within universities, which Jennings argues elevate primarily white voices. The Abstainer Ian McGuire (Random House) Irish-born widower James O’Connell, a Manchester cop, hunts down an American Civil War veteran at the center of a Fenian rebel plot in McGuire’s taut, deeply immersive masterpiece. The city’s brutal, rain-soaked streets become a character of their own and provide unforgiving backdrop for grief-stricken O’Connell’s punishing search for redemption. Being Frog April Pulley Sayre (Beach Lane) Focused on frogs’ essential frog-ness rather than anthropomorphized interpretations of amphibian life, Sayre uses rich photographs and evocative language to explore how frogs might understand and experience their environments. Sayre’s gentle argument—“for me a made-up frog cannot match the beauty of a real frog—a creature so alive in its pond world”—persuades. Chance: Escape from the Holocaust Uri Shulevitz (Farrar, Straus and Giroux) This searing, evocative memoir chronicles the wartime experiences of Caldecott Medalist Shulevitz, whose family fled 1939 Warsaw to avoid persecution when he was four years old. The spare, keenly observed narrative offers a harrowing look at a Jewish family’s plight during WWII while documenting the birth of an artist with a great capacity for creativity. Being Heumann: An Unrepentant Memoir of a Disability Rights Activist Judith Heumann (Beacon) In this bold memoir, civil rights activist Judy Heumann, paralyzed from polio at 18 months, tells the harrowing tale of her lifelong fight for equality. Her activism helped lead to the creation of the Americans with Disabilities Act. This riveting account commemo...