Modern Mrs. Darcy: My favorite books of 2020. I’m afraid that Anne Bogel and I are just not into the same books, and that’s O.K. You may find some gems on her list of favorites. I didn’t see anything except Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell, which I’ve already put on my TBR list.
Barack Obama’s favorite books of 2020. Well, I want to read Jack by Marilynne Robinson and The Splendid and the Vile by Erik Larsson (about Churchill who is someone I love reading about). I read The Glass Hotel by Emily St. John Mandel, and I thought it was meh. Not horrible, just not great. The rest of Mr. Obama’s list seems to be made up of books about race, immigration, politics, drugs, and more race, which is fine but just not what I’m looking for right now.
Trevin Wax: My 10 Favorite Reads of 2020. Now this list is right up my alley. Mr. Wax begins his list with The Last Lion, a three volume biography of Winston Churchill by William Manchester, which I have read and loved. So, the rest of the list is bound to be good. Yes, Breaking Bread With the Dead by Alan Jacobs is one I already have on my TBR list. The Body: A Guide for Occupants by Bill Bryson sounds fantastic. And maybe I’ll even try Reading While Black by Esau McCaulley.
Jared C. Wilson: My Top 10 Books of 2020. Also, most of Jared’s picks are too much for me to try to read this year, although he does recommend (again) Gentle and Lowly by Dane Ortlund, a book I’ve already seen recommended over and over, and one I do plan to read ASAP. And I would like to read Jared’s YA novel, published in 2020, Echo Island.
Adventures of a Digitabulist: My Top 5 Books of 2020. This list was different and intriguing. 600 Hours of Edward by Craig Lancaster sounds like something I’d like. The blogger, Francesca, says she “took a chance” with Edward, and I think I might do so as well.
Bright April by Marguerite de Angeli. Doubleday & Company, 1946. Reprint published by Purple House Press.Bright April was a ground-breaking story in its time, about a little girl living in Philadelphia with her mother and father and older brother and sister, an intact and loving African American family. April does experience prejudice and some discouragement, but mostly the book is about her and her family and her Brownie troop, celebrating the ordinary days and the holidays throughout the year and acting as any American family might with one son in the military and three young people at home, growing up in the Birthplace of Freedom.
Brian Wildsmith’s Animal Gallery. Oxford University Press, 2008. Reprint published by Candlewick. I can hardly wait to get my hands on this one. It’s a book of collective nouns, like Eve Merriam’s Gaggle of Geese or Ruth Heller’s Cache of Jewels, but I think this one may become my new favorite collective nouns books. Brian Wildsmith is one of my top ten illustrators, and I’ve enjoyed every books of his that I’ve seen. Thanks to Betsy at A Fuse #8 Production for bringing this reprint to my attention.
The Ark and Rowan Farm by Margot Benary-Isbert. Harcourt Brace, 1953. Reprint published by Purple House Press. Really, these are the only historical fiction books I know of that are set in post-war Germany, about an ordinary German family trying to survive in the aftermath of the war. I read both books when I was a young teen, and I think I’ll take some time in January to re-read them. I remember the drama of the family subsisting on limited resources, and I remember the love of animals that characterized the story. And I remember Benary-Isbert as just an excellent storyteller.
Hallelujah: Cultivating Advent Traditions with Handel’s Messiah by Cindy Rollins. New edition published by Blue Sky Daisies. Not exactly a reprint, this little book constitutes a new edition of Cindy Rollins’ Advent family traditions book. It includes Scripture passages, hymns, poems, information about the church calendar, recipes, and suggestions for celebrating the feasts of St. Lucia and St. Nicholas. Get it now for next year’s Advent celebration.
Gladiola Garden by Effie Lee Newsome. Published by Living Book Press. I looked through the preview of this book of poetry by an African American poet of the early twentieth century, and I found the poems to be delightful, short and sweet and all about childhood and nature in the voice of a black child and influenced by the Harlem Renaissance. The illustrations are the original ones by artist Lois Mailou Jones, also a black artist influenced by the Harlem Renaissance and by her life and studies in both the U.S. and in France.
Our Little Italian and Spartan Twins, and Roman Cousin by Lucy Fitch Perkins.
Our Little Irish and Scotch Twins, and Celtic Cousin by Lucy Fitch Perkins.
Our Little Dutch and Belgian Twins by Lucy Fitch Perkins.
Our Little Japanese Twins and Siamese Cousin by Lucy Fitch Perkins.
Published by Libraries of Hope. I absolutely loved the Little Twins books by Lucy Fitch Perkins when I was a beginning reader. I can’t wait to see them again and see if the magic holds up.
No Flying in the House by Betty Brock HarperCollins, 1970. Republished in paperback by Harper Trophy. This 1970 title was recommended to me by someone at Reshelving Alexandria, I think. I haven’t read it, but it looks adorable. It’s about a little girl who finds out she’s part fairy and must choose whether to be fully human or completely a part of the fairy world.
Master Skylark: A Story of Shakspere’s Time. by John Bennett, 1897. Published by Yesterday’s Classics. A choir-boy, kidnapped and taken to London, eventually sings before the Queen herself. Another book that I can look forward to enjoying, this story was quite popular around the turn of the century when it was first published.
I used to have a feature here on Saturdays called the Saturday Review of Books. And every year around the end of the year, I dedicated that Saturday Review to lists of books for the old year or for the new year or for anything in between: Favorite Books of This Year or What I’m Reading Next Year or The Best Books of All Time According to Blogger #1 or really any book list that came out on a blog somewhere at the end of the year. So, I’ve been collecting these lists, and now I’ll post a few each day. If I don’t already have yours linked here, please leave a comment and a link. I love book lists, and I like sharing them with you all.
Sarah’s Bookshelves: Most Underrated Gems of 2020. I guess they are underrated because I’ve never heard of any of them, nor have I encountered any of their authors before. Sea Wife by Amity Gaige sounds particularly interesting.
Blue Willow Bookshop: Best Books of 2020. Some of these sounded worth checking out. I’ve seen several recommendations for the picture book The Old Truck by Jarret and Jerome Pumphrey. Everything Sad Is Untrue by Daniel Nayeri is a book I just finished reading a few days ago, and I highly recommend it. A couple of nonfiction books from this list appeal to me for reading next year: The Third Rainbow Girl: The Long Life of a Double Murder in Appalachia by Emma Eisenberg and The Book of Eels by Patrik Svensson.
Bibliosanctum: Best of 2020, New-to-me Author Discoveries. I didn’t now that Christopher Paolini (Eragon) had written an adult science fiction book. I didn’t care for his Eragon series, but some of these other authors look interesting.
Bookstoker: Books for Christmas 2020. These recommendations from a British blogger are not your heart-warming Christmas tales of peace and goodwill, but rather the books this blogger enjoyed reading in 2020, mostly thrillers and poetry, and a couple of nonfiction books. She recommends Maggie O’Farrell’s Hamnet and American Dirt by Jeanine Cummins, among others.
neverimitate: My Books of 2020. Another British blogger recommends some favourites. These are more literary, mostly published by small, independent presses. And the selections are very British, Irish, and European. Miss Benson’s Beetle by Rachel Joyce sounds like something I might enjoy from this list.
I used to have a feature here on Saturdays called the Saturday Review of Books. And every year around the end of the year, I dedicated that Saturday Review to lists of books for the old year or for the new year or for anything in between: Favorite Books of This Year or What I’m Reading Next Year or The Best Books of All Time According to Blogger #1 or really any book list that came out on a blog somewhere at the end of the year. So, I’ve been collecting these lists, and now I’ll post a few each day. If I don’t already have yours linked here, please leave a comment and a link. I love book lists, and I like sharing them with you all.
Let the listing begin!
My Favorite Books of 2020 by Russell Moore. Most of Mr. Moore’s list is non-fiction of the theological and sociological persuasion, and for the most part I’m not a fan of those kinds of books. But I am looking forward to reading Marilynne Robinson’s Jack, the newest in her Gilead set of stories.
The 2020 For the Church Book Awards by Ronni Kurtz. “[W]e are pleased to present our readers with a few books that stuck out as exceptional from this past year. In this, our fourth annual For the Church book awards, each member of the editorial team chose two books—a winner and a runner-up—to honor and to recommend to you.” Of the book on this award list, I am most interested in Alan Jacobs’ Breaking Bread With the Dead, about reading and learning from old books.
Cody Glen Barnhardt: 10 Favorite Books I Read in 2020. Mr. Barnhardt is not the first to suggest Gentle and Lowly: The Heart of Christ for Sufferers and Sinners by Dane Ortlund. My pastor also suggested it earlier this year, and I’ve seen it on other lists. Maybe someone is trying to tell me something?
Hungry for Good Books?: The Annual List 2020 Edition. Trina Hayes has her entire list of 100 or more books read during this year of the plague. And I spotted a few possibilities there: Simon the Fiddler by Paulette Jiles, The Printed Letter Bookshop by Katherine Reay, The Women of Copper County by Mary Doria Russell, Eliza Hamilton: the Extraordinary Life and Times of the Wife of Alexander Hamilton by Tilar Mazzeo. I could probably find more, but my TBR list is already way too long.
Dewey’s Treehouse: 25 Top Books I Want to Read in 2021. “Enough with long lists. If I get these done, I’ll be happy.” ~Mama Squirrel. OK, it’s a great idea in theory, but MY list is already miles long. And I can’t resist the this (long) title on the Treehouse short list: Why You Should Read Children’s Books, Even Though You Are So Old and Wise by Katherine Rundell.
Gift Books for Grown-ups by Betsy at Redeemed Reader. Several of these are already on my own TBR list, and several others I’ve already read and enjoyed. I daresay any of them would make a lovely gift—for someone else or for yourself. (And I still added more books to the TBR list from this one.)
I’ll link to a few more book lists tomorrow, maybe yours if you leave me a comment?
I found a copy of this 1962 boy and his dog story while I was in Tennessee a few weeks back. It’s a sweet tale about Colin who is sent a magical helper, Parsifal, because Colin’s need is great. Colin is in the hospital, and although his body is nearly healed from injuries sustained in a bad accident, he is still grieving the loss of his beloved dog, Lad, who saved Colin from being killed in the accident at the cost of the dog’s life. So, Parsifal the Poddley’s first assignment is to help Colin deal with his grief.
Then, by means of a magical time wave, Colin is able to travel back in time to twelfth century Scotland where he meets his hero Robert the Bruce. The time travel part of this simple book is easy enough to understand, but still quite magical. The story is suitable for young readers, ages five to nine, what we would now called a beginning chapter book, but the introduction to the historical heroes of Scotland is sure to inspire further and more challenging reading. The time period, reading level, and length of the story (85 pages) reminded me of the books by Clyde Robert Bulla or Gertrude Chandler Warner (The Boxcar Children), but the magical and time travel elements put this book in a class of its own.
I read some reviews on Amazon for this book in which the reviewers said that Parsifal Rides the Time Wave was a book they remembered fondly from childhood. It’s perhaps a forerunner of the Magic Treehouse books, but the lessons Colin learns are timeless and gentle in their application. (There is a battle scene in which Robert the Bruce fights and kills his would-be assassins, so if violence in books for young children is a problem for you, you might want to skip this one.) I’m glad I found this one, and I’m happy to add it to my library.
Oh, it looks as if there’s another book about Parsifal the Poddley and time travel that came before this one, just called Parsifal the Poddley. Unfortunately this first book about Parsifal seems to be a unicorn, priced at over $100 on used book sites that I checked. If you come across a copy at thrift store prices, I would grab it. From the review at Kirkus Reviews:
Eight-year-old Christopher of Butterfield, Vermont, is badly in need of a Poddley, the special creature who comes to serve lonely little boys. And Parsifal the Poddley, on his first mission shows himself to be ideally suited for Christopher. Not only does he educate him to be more thoughtful, but he takes Christopher back in time to 1659 and introduces him to Vermont in its pioneer period. Christopher participates in a conflict between the Indians and settlers and arrives home just in time to find a neighbor and friend in the person of a new little boy whose family has just moved next door.
I spoke with a friend recently who implied, perhaps without intending to do so, that my story and my growth in wisdom and understanding are at an end. This friend was, of course, a young person, and I am, to her, a very old person. Because I am not becoming more progressive in my political ideas and more culturally attuned in my thoughts and beliefs, I must be stuck in the past and somewhat irrelevant. I am not growing.
A lot of that first paragraph consists of what I read into and sensed from my friend’s attitude, but I don’t think it’s inaccurate. There is an idea abroad in the culture that if you are not moving in a progressive direction in your beliefs and convictions, you are not growing. Conservatives are assumed to be mired in a web of out-dated and prejudicial beliefs that are destined to die. In fact, as far as the life of the mind and the spirit are concerned, conservatives, particularly Christian conservatives, are half-dead already.
But I say, along with Mr. Twain, that the report of my death is an exaggeration. I am not becoming more unsure and doubting and open-to-all-comers in my beliefs. I no longer feel the need to revisit the intellectual and emotional struggles and insecurities that I went through and that were resolved (by my own work and the work of the Holy Spirit) years ago. I believe in certain things by faith and by decision, according to the preponderance of the evidence that I have been able to see and evaluate. I believe in God, in Jesus Christ His only Son, in the Christian church, in the authority of Scripture, in Christian marriage and family, in life, liberty, and the pursuit of joy in a free society. I believe in representative democracy with all its flaws and in a free market economy with all its limitations and inequities as the best political and economic systems geared to produce the most human flourishing in a broken world. I have seen very little that inclines me to doubt those fundamental truths and much that leads me to trust them.
But that does not mean that I have ceased to grow. I believe that, with much hesitation, vacillation, and indecision, three steps back and then four or five ahead, I am growing in the right direction, thanks to the Holy Spirit within me. I am growing in trust in a good God who will make all things right and just. I am growing in peace and acceptance of what is and what will be. I am growing in firmness of conviction and courage to face whatever may come, whether it be pandemic or hurricane or misunderstanding or disappointment or grief. I am growing in the knowledge that God is enough, that the life He gives is abundant and filled with joy, and that I am allowed to rest in Him. I am growing in prayer that believes even when the answers are not seen. I am growing in the assurance that even death itself will not put an end to the growth that I will experience in Him because Jesus Christ has promised me eternal life through His name.
If my friend sees me as old and set in my ways, perhaps she is right, in a certain sense. Nevertheless, just wait! “Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is.” (I John 3:2) And that, my dear young friend, is growth indeed!
From the author’s website: “I’m enby/nonbinary, which means I don’t have strong leanings involving gender identification! My pronouns are they/them.”
From the book for middle grade readers: “Katybird shuddered as she recalled the crinkly, uncomfortable paper covering of the medical exam table and the sterile smell of the doctor’s office. The place had felt about as hospitable as a bed of skunk-infested stinging nettles outside a funeral parlor. A monotonous specialist had announced to Katy’s mother that Katy was ‘androgen insensitive,’ meaning she had XY chromosomes like most boys, but that nature had knitted her body up using a more traditionally female pattern. That hadn’t phased Katy much. She was a girl. That’s all she cared about. According to the doctor, she also had a pair of internal testes (the doohickeys that made all that testosterone her body didn’t use). No biggie, Katybird had yawned and swung her heels over the exam table, itching to go home. “
p.43
Also: “Except she wasn’t the same, not really, at least in her family’s eyes. There was a question now. Katybird was a girl, obviously, but words like ‘internal gonads,’ ‘testes,’ and ‘Y chromosome’ seemed to muddy the creek in their minds, as far as magic was concerned. Hearn magic had always been used by females. When her family talked about conjure now, Katybird always felt studied. She imagined them thinking, Is she a witch or isn’t she?
Quintessence by Jess Redman. Ms. Redman is both a therapist and an author, and it shows. Quintessence is all about stars, and the essence of life, and finding one’s true self. It’s also about a girl, Alma Lucas, who after moving with her family to a new town, begins to experience panic attacks. Alma manages to join forces with three other children to form an Astronomy Club as well as a group dedicated to returning a fallen Starling to the heavens. As the children work together, they discover both their limitations and their strengths. The writing is beautiful at times throughout the book, but it’s all a little too therapeutic for my taste.
Catalyst by Sarah Beth Durst. When Zoe’s newfound kitten Pipsqueak grows to an enormous size almost overnight, Zoe and her best friend Harrison try to keep the giant kitten a secret. However, the only people they can trust to help are Zoe’s estranged aunt, Aunt Alecia, and the summer babysitter, Surita. Can Zoe and Harrison make it to New Hampshire during the time they’re supposed to be at summer camp without anyone finding out about Pipsqueak? A lion-size kitten is hard to hide, hard to move, and hard to keep quiet. The premise was good for this fantasy adventure, but the plot felt jerky. The denouement was too long in coming, and then it happened too quickly. And after the solution to the problem was revealed, then the mop-up action felt disappointing. Still, cat lovers and cat fantasy lovers will enjoy.
The Forest of Stars by Heather Kassner. Deserted by her father long ago, twelve year old Louisa LaRoche is left alone when her mother dies. For some reason, she decides that her father might be found in forest at the Carnival Beneath the Stars. If you want a book about magic at the circus, I would recommend Circus Mirandus and The Bootlace Magician, both by Cassie Beasley. The Forest of Stars is darker and much more incoherent than I prefer.
Scritch Scratch by Lindsay Currie. Claire has absolutely no belief or interest in ghosts, unlike her father who makes his living writing about Chicago’s ghost stories and leading a ghost tour of the most haunted sites in the city. But she can’t ignore the ghostly boy who keeps playing tricks to get her attention and writing, whispering, and scratching the number 396 for some unknown reason. Claire is afraid the ghost boy might injure, or even kill her, and she needs help. But where can she get that help now thather best friend, Casley, prefers to hang out with the new girl, Emily, instead of Claire? Unfortunately, the ghostly number changes from 396 to 369 in the middle of a page (169)–an editorial error that threw me out of the story and into a rant (in my own head) about the lack of good editing these days.
The Copycat by Wendy McLeod MacKnight has protagonist Ali Sloane discovering her own magical ability to transform into copies of other creatures as she’s trying to fit in at a new school and to resolve old family rifts and to deal with her great-grandmother’s illness and aging and to deal with her family’s lack of money in comparison to other kids at school. It’s all a bit much rolled into one book. Or as the blurb in the front says, “The Copycat is a perfect storm of family, magic, mystery, and friendship.”
Arcade and the Fiery Metal Tester (The Coin Slot Chronicles) by Rashad Jennings. This book is from Zonderkidz, a Christian imprint, and I really liked the way prayer and faith in a good God are presented as natural parts of everyday life for Arcade Livingston and his Black family living in New York City. It reminded me a little of Adventures in Odyssey, in a good way. But the plot is sometimes creaky and episodic as Arcade and his friends experience unexpected and uncontrollable time travel, care for a displaced flamingo, and search for Arcade’s lost dog. In a somewhat implausible subplot, Arcade’s friend Doug has been living with his great-grandmother, but when she has to go to a nursing home, eleven year old Doug is left to live alone in the building his great-grandmother owns.
For the kids who are afraid—whether it’s of bullies or ghosts or grumpy moms, first days or bad days or everything in-between days. You have more courage than you know.
Thank you to my parents, who never told me “this book is too scary for you.”
~Dedication at the beginning and Acknowledgements at the end of The Girl and the Ghost by Hanna Alkaf
Well, my first reaction is to tell all but the most intrepid readers that this book is too scary and dark and psychologically twisty for you. This is not a Casper-the-Friendly-Ghost sort of story. It is instead a story steeped in Malaysian folklore and culture about a witch grandmother who bequeaths to her granddaughter a pelesit, a ghost-monster-demon that lives to serve and obey its master but also survives by sucking a bit of its master’s blood every month during the full moon. Yeah, it’s called a blood-binding, and yes, this is a middle grade fiction book.
Suraya is the granddaughter, and she lives in rural Malaysia with her widowed mother and the pelesit that Suraya names Pink. Pink is Suraya’s only companion and only friend, and even though Pink is a rather dark and brooding presence in Suraya’s life, he’s certainly better than nothing—until Suraya makes a real friend, Jing Wei, who is wealthy, happy, and obsessed with Star Wars. Pink becomes jealous, and essentially goes over to the Dark Side.
Other than Jing Wei and her sunny and heedless personality, there’s not much in this book to lighten the darkness. Bullies, demons, an evil exorcist, and tortures (think: nightmares, blood, and insect infestations) inflicted by one’s erstwhile best friend are the main aspects of the plot and characters, and the sort of happy ending doesn’t really make up for the nightmare inducing remainder of the book. I was strangely fascinated and at the same time repelled by this story. I wouldn’t recommend it to any middle grade readers I know. But there may be some who would enjoy it and identify with the deeper themes of betrayal and family dysfunction and overcoming the darkness within ourselves and our own families.
Written as a sort of prequel to Disney’s Mulan (movie), Before the Sword takes Hua Mulan on a journey with the healer Jade Rabbit to save Mulan’s sister, Xiu, from dying from the bite of a poisonous spider. It turns out that the spider is more than a simple spider, and even Mulan herself might be something more than a clumsy, persistent, horse-loving, and unconventional village girl.
I’ve never watched the movie Mulan (can you believe it?), so I can’t say how well the book meshes with the characters and plot of the movie. However, Ms. Lin, a best-selling author of middle grade novels, easy readers, and picture books, with Disney’s permission and imprimatur. So, someone must have thought it paired well with the franchise.
The book read a lot like Ms. Lin’s previous non-Disney character middle grade novels—Where the Mountain Meets the Moon, When the Sea Turned to Silver, and Starry River of the Sky—which all have short legends and stories embedded in between chapters that tell an over-arching story. Before the Sword not only has short legends and folktales that illuminate and explain the main novel’s story, but it also switches point of view from time to time to tell the story from the perspective of the enslaved servant, the Red Fox, of the villain of the piece, who is Daji, the White Fox.
Fans of Ms. Lin’s previous novels of Chinese folklore and culture will enjoy this one, too. I actually liked it better than the others she has written because it seemed more approachable from my own cultural background. Maybe it’s more Westernized? Or maybe I’m just getting better at understanding how a story from a Chinese/Asian culture works? I’m not sure. At any rate, with the live-action movie version of Mulan already streaming on Disney+, this book should get some traction and should please a number of young readers.
