2020 Book List

A list of all of the books I read in 2020 with summaries and my ratings and impressions of them.

1. Citizen by Claudia Rankine

Summary:

Citizen: An American Lyric is a 2014 book-length poem by American poet Claudia Rankine. Citizen stretches the conventions of traditional lyric poetry by interweaving several forms of text and media into a collective portrait of racial relations in the United States. Rating: 8.5/10 Impressions: Powerful read. Addresses a lot of issues within the US’ racial relations while simultaneously implicating the readers and inviting them into the conversation. The book reads as one continuous poem, so many issues are tied together and connected, which reinforces the notion that racism is a systemic issue. Intertwined with jarring artwork. 2. American Sonnets for My Past and Future Assassin by Terrance Heyes Summary:

American Sonnets for My Past and Future Assassin is a 2018 collection of more than seventy sonnets by Terrance Hayes. Written after the 2016 American elections, this collection treats topics like racism, masculinity, and politics.

Rating: 8.5/10

Impressions:

Addresses a ton of contemporary and past issues within racial relations in the US. Each sonnet takes several readings because each one is packed with information and eloquent expressions. Requires background knowledge of the issues to understand all of the references, so might not be accessible to all, but makes its points well. Interlaces political commentary with truly cool uses of literary formal features, which has a very powerful effect.

3. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

Summary:

Pride and Prejudice is a romantic novel of manners written by Jane Austen in 1813. The novel follows the character development of Elizabeth Bennet, the dynamic protagonist of the book who learns about the repercussions of hasty judgments and comes to appreciate the difference between superficial goodness and actual goodness. Its humour lies in its honest depiction of manners, education, marriage, and money during the Regency era in Great Britain.

Rating: 7/10

Impressions:

The actual events of the novel are quite dated, which can make the reading boring, but Austen writes with very accessible irony and honesty that both aged quite well. One of the first writers to introduce Free Indirect Discourse, which is a type of narration that switches between many characters instead of coming from the main character only. Pretty cool to see its beginning since it’s quite commonly used now.

4. Brother by David Chariandy

Summary:

An intensely beautiful, searingly powerful, tightly constructed novel, Brother explores questions of masculinity, family, race, and identity as they are played out in a Scarborough housing complex during the sweltering heat and simmering violence of the summer of 1991.

Rating: 8/10

Impressions:

Reads very easily despite concerning difficult themes of immigration, social inequality, masculinity, racial and familial relations, and police brutality. Very honest and jarring and clear in its messages. Nothing in this novel feels unnecessary, each section is working toward the novel’s point with no distractions. Manages to highlight the good in the midst of the bad.

5. Forage by Rita Wong

Summary:

Rita Wong's new collection of poems explores how ecological crises relate to the injustices of our international political landscape. Querying the relations between writing and other forms of action, Wong seeks a shift in consciousness through poems that bespeak a range of responses to our world: anger, protest, anxiety, bewilderment, hope and love.

Rating: 8/10

Impressions:

Very unusual style of writing. Takes a few readings and a lot of close reading to understand the messages. Very nuanced and jarring criticisms. Seems very relevant because of addressing pressing issues such as climate change and GMOs. Probably not for everyone, but the close readings can be worthwhile.

6. A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki

Summary:

A Tale for the Time Being is a metafictional novel by Ruth Ozeki narrated by two characters, a sixteen-year-old Japanese American girl in Tokyo who keeps a diary, and a Japanese American writer living on an island off British Columbia who finds the diary washed up on shore some time after the 2011 tsunami that devastated Japan.

Rating: 9.5/10

Impressions:

One of the best books I’ve read all year and one of the most thought-out ones I’ve ever read. It’s set in two different places and time periods, but its main theme is global interconnectedness, so as it goes on, time and space between those two places begin to merge. Addresses multiple themes such as environmentalism, racial tensions, and spirituality all at once, somehow gradually tying them all together throughout the novel. Extremely thought-out and full. Blew my mind, left me thinking about it for months. 7. White Tiger by Aravind Adiga Summary: The White Tiger is the debut novel by Indian author Aravind Adiga. It was first published in 2008 and won the 40th Man Booker Prize in the same year. The novel provides a darkly humorous perspective of India's class struggle in a globalized world as told through a retrospective narration from Balram Halwai, a village boy. Rating: 9.5/10 Impressions: A very engaging and accessible read. Goes deep into analyzing wealth disparity in India while maintaining a light tone. One of my all time favourite books, learned a lot without feeling like I was learning. 8. Affiliate by Sergei Dovlatov Summary: The story is told in the first person by a man called Dalmatov, loosely based on Dovlatov himself: he is an immigrant from Russia, and an unsuccessful writer, working for the American-based Russian-language press. Dalmatov presents a programme in Russian on the radio in New York, and is sent to Los Angeles to report on a conference of Soviet dissidents. When he arrives, he bumps into his first love, Tasya, and the memories of their courtship when they both lived in the Soviet Union come flooding back. Rating: 9.5/10 Impressions: Beautifully nostalgic and romantic. Quite short, but manages to say a lot and has many gems. Ironic in a nonchalant way. Fulfils all your dreams of being a broke author with a past love that never worked out!

9. Ishmael by Daniel Quinn

Summary:

Ishmael is a 1992 philosophical novel by Daniel Quinn. The novel examines the hidden cultural biases driving modern civilization and explores themes of ethics, sustainability, and global catastrophe.

Rating: 9.5/10

Impressions:

Very eye-opening. A good summary of the effects of globalization on the environment and a critique of cultural biases associated with progress. The whole book is a conversation between two characters, but it doesn’t get boring and has a lot to say. Was written nearly 30 years ago but, if anything, seems even more relevant now. A very important novel. 10. Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel García Márquez

Summary:

In their youth, Florentino Ariza and Fermina Daza fall passionately in love. When Fermina eventually chooses to marry a wealthy, well-born doctor, Florentino is heartbroken, but he is a romantic. As he rises in his business career he whiles away the years in 622 affairs—yet he reserves his heart for Fermina. Her husband dies at last, and Florentino purposefully attends the funeral. Fifty years, nine months, and four days after he first declared his love for Fermina, he will do so again.

Rating: 9.5/10

Impressions:

Beautiful and sad, winning combination. No better time to read about cholera than during Covid. Exquisitely written, the following quote is one of my favourites of the book: “With her Florentino Ariza learned what he had already experienced many times without realizing it: that one can be in love with several people at the same time, feel the same sorrow with each, and not betray any of them.” 11. The Drowned and the Saved by Primo Levi Summary: The Drowned and the Saved is a book of essays by Italian-Jewish author and Holocaust survivor Primo Levi on life and death in the Nazi extermination camps, drawing on his personal experience as a survivor of Auschwitz. Rating: 9/10 Impressions: These are technically essays but read very personally and are very accessible, hard to put down. A very jarring personal account of Auschwitz, recounts trauma in a way that feels very necessary to preventing another genocide like the Holocaust. Get ready to cry. 12. Maus by Art Spiegelman Summary: Maus is a graphic novel by American cartoonist Art Spiegelman, serialized from 1980 to 1991. It depicts Spiegelman interviewing his father about his experiences as a Polish Jew and Holocaust survivor. The work employs postmodernist techniques and represents Jews as mice, Germans as cats, and Poles as pigs. Rating: 9/10 Impressions: Telling Holocaust stories through the style of a graphic novel makes the ideas the author is trying to convey very clear. Uses really cool formal features and tells chilling stories. Has themes of intergenerational trauma, bringing the legacy of the Holocaust into the contemporary world. If you didn’t think a comic book could make you cry, you might be wrong! I was!! 13. Another World by Pat Barker

Summary:

Another World is a novel by Pat Barker, published in 1998. The novel concerns Geordie, a 101-year-old Somme veteran in the last days before his death. Rating: 5/10

Impressions:

The subject of war trauma and the theme of connections with the past are developed pretty nicely, but way too much of the novel is devoted to dysfunctional family drama. Uses too many very weird sexual references and events that seem to be intended at shocking the reader but don’t do anything for the plot and are honestly very uncomfortable. Parts of the story don’t hang together very well, there doesn’t seem to be a clear chain tying everything together. 14. Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl by Harriet Jacobs

Summary:

Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, written by herself is an autobiography by Harriet Jacobs, a mother and fugitive slave, published in 1861.

Rating: 8.5/10

Impressions:

Despite concerning a difficult subject matter, this novel is very accessible and easy to read. A fascinating first-hand account of a fugitive slave’s experiences. Especially interesting to read her appeals to the free people of that time to hear her story and change the regime - she masterfully implicates both them and the reader. Doesn’t recount as much brutality as some other books of this kind, but focuses instead on the dehumanizing aspects of slavery, so it’s more subtle, but very very powerful nonetheless. A prominent quote: “Reader, it is not to awaken sympathy for myself that I am telling you truthfully what I suffered in slavery. I do it to kindle the flame of compassion in your heart for my sisters who are still in bondage, suffering as I once suffered”

15. Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

Summary:

Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus is an 1818 novel written by English author Mary Shelley that tells the story of Victor Frankenstein, a young scientist who creates a sapient creature in an unorthodox scientific experiment.

Rating: 8/10

Impressions:

Was honestly kind of dreading reading this, but it’s so much more accessible than I thought it would be, its themes are still very relevant today. The nesting doll narration style is very interesting and ties in with the theme of silencing marginalized people.

16. Sentimental Education by Gustave Flaubert

Summary:

Based on Flaubert’s own youthful passion for an older woman, Sentimental Education was described by its author as “the moral history of the men of my generation.” It follows the amorous adventures of Frederic Moreau, a law student who, returning home to Normandy from Paris, notices Mme Arnoux, a slender, dark woman several years older than himself.

Rating: 6/10

Impressions:

Well-written, a good depiction of life in a French society in the 1800s. Could be a lot shorter, there are some drawn out parts that don’t do much to move the plot forward or tell us much about the characters. For the gems it did have, the overall time spent reading it didn’t seem entirely worth it. 17. The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, Or Gustavus Vassa, The African by Olaudah Equiano Summary: The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, Or Gustavus Vassa, The African, first published in 1789 in London, is the autobiography of Olaudah Equiano. The narrative is argued to represent a variety of styles, such as a slavery narrative, travel narrative, and spiritual narrative. Rating: 6.5/10 Impressions: A very important novel in that it provides a very unique insight into experiences that were very rarely recorded at the time. The first slave narrative that received international attention, so a good one to read as context for the ones that followed. The actual language is very dry though, so a bit difficult to get through. Doesn’t devalue the storyline, but can’t honestly say it was an enjoyable read. 18. Binti by Nnedi Okorafor Summary: Her name is Binti, and she is the first of the Himba people ever to be offered a place at Oomza University, the finest institution of higher learning in the galaxy. But to accept the offer will mean giving up her place in her family to travel between the stars among strangers who do not share her ways or respect her customs. Rating: 7/10 Impressions: Very economically written, maybe too economically - it’s very short. Uses the genre of science fiction to develop very common themes of identity, belonging, and cultural differences. It’s quite charming and a fun read, but these same themes have been developed a lot more thoroughly and explored more deeply in other novels, so this doesn’t feel like it’s adding anything new to the conversation, just sort of restating what has already been said and simplifying it. 19. Privilege: The Making of an Adolescent Elite at St. Paul's School by Shamus Khan

Summary:

As one of the most prestigious high schools in the nation, St. Paul's School in Concord, New Hampshire, has long been the exclusive domain of America's wealthiest sons. But times have changed. Today, a new elite of boys and girls is being molded at St. Paul's, one that reflects the hope of openness but also the persistence of inequality.

Rating: 9/10

Impressions:

One of those books that explains things you may know of but never understood thoroughly enough to fully formulate into concepts. An interesting insider account of how a private school shapes the children of the elite into a new elite generation. Feels like an eloquently formulated research project. 20. Pedigree: How Elite Students Get Elite Jobs by Lauren A. Rivera Summary: Americans are taught to believe that upward mobility is possible for anyone who is willing to work hard, regardless of their social status, yet it is often those from affluent backgrounds who land the best jobs. Pedigree takes readers behind the closed doors of top-tier investment banks, consulting firms, and law firms to reveal the truth about who really gets hired for the nation's highest-paying entry-level jobs, who doesn’t, and why. Rating: 9/10 Impressions: Shows how elites hire elites, perpetuating a system in which certain social classes, ethnicities, and genders overpower others. Is technically research, but reads very easily and is very accessible. Can be understood as a critique of systemic discrimination. Kind of sad, makes you feel powerless by showing how strong these structures are, but important to know. 21. Uneasy Street: The Anxieties of Affluence by Rachel Sherman

Summary: From TV’s “real housewives” to The Wolf of Wall Street, our popular culture portrays the wealthy as materialistic and entitled. But what do we really know about those who live on “easy street”? In this penetrating book, Rachel Sherman draws on rare in-depth interviews that she conducted with fifty affluent New Yorkers—including hedge fund financiers and corporate lawyers, professors and artists, and stay-at-home mothers—to examine their lifestyle choices and their understanding of privilege. Rating: 9/10

Impressions:

A very interesting insight into how wealthy people view their wealth. Shows some interesting patterns in their justification of it and helps to understand them from their own perspective as opposed to external portrayals of them.

22. Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City by Matthew Desmond

Summary:

In Evicted, Princeton sociologist and MacArthur "Genius" Matthew Desmond follows eight families in Milwaukee as they struggle to keep a roof over their heads. Evicted transforms our understanding of poverty and economic exploitation while providing fresh ideas for solving one of 21st-century America's most devastating problems.

Rating: 9/10

Impressions:

Sociological research on systemic failure. Shows how poor marginalized individuals are not supported and how certain systems perpetuate their struggles, specifically with housing situations. Devastating and infuriating. Important to know. 23. On The Road by Jack Kerouac Summary: On the Road is a 1957 novel by American writer Jack Kerouac, based on the travels of Kerouac and his friends across the United States. It is considered a defining work of the postwar Beat and Counterculture generations, with its protagonists living life against a backdrop of jazz, poetry, and drug use. Rating: 8/10 Impressions: Kerouac wrote this as a stream of consciousness, so there is little to no rising action, climax, and resolution, which can be somewhat unsatisfying. However, the novel is very open and honest, and represents this defining time for the United States very well, giving a valuable insight into the lives of some of the most active agents of the Beat Generation. Surprisingly melancholic. “There was nowhere to go but everywhere, so just keep on rolling under the stars.”

24. Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Harari Summary: Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind is based on a series of lectures Harari taught at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem. The book surveys the history of humankind from the evolutions of archaic human species in the Stone Age up to the twenty-first century, focusing on Homo sapiens. The account is situated within a framework that intersects the natural sciences with the social sciences. Rating: 9.5/10 Impressions: A very important book that thoroughly explains the history of our species as well as our contemporary world. Despite being quite long it is economically written and is very straightforward and engaging. A very important book to read to understand how our world works. 25. Beloved by Toni Morrison Summary:

Beloved is a 1987 novel by the American writer Toni Morrison. Set after the American Civil War, it tells the story of a family of former slaves whose Cincinnati home is haunted by a malevolent spirit.

Rating: 8.5/10

Impressions:

Masterfully conveys pain, trauma, and a lack of belonging. Can be difficult to follow due to the non-linear narrative style, uses flashbacks that have unclear beginnings and endings. It works well for this type of storytelling though and the overall experience is very powerful. Hopefully this can be useful in supplying some recommendations! Happy reading!