I read 52 books in 2020, as reading was a singular pleasure in a year when pleasure felt impossible.

I discovered Sager this year courtesy of Book of the Month, and my goodness. I’d never have picked up one of his books otherwise. But the pacing and the creepiness are just perfectly haunting. The Last Time I Lied was like, a BSC mystery and Twin Peaks had a baby. And I love that baby.

I actually listened to the first three books in the Expanse series this year because my love for Amos Burton is truly profound. The vision of the future begun in Leviathan Wakes feels so real and human and flawed and lovely in unexpected ways. I loved the hell out of the second book, too, Caliban’s War, because Chrisjen Avasarala is a treasure. But I really struggled with Abaddon’s Gate and I’m not sure if I’ll continue the series. If anyone I trust can tell me it’s worth sticking with the series, please do.

The Epic Crush of Genie Lo was such a romp and full of such rowdy surprises. The characters were so vivid I wanted to kiss them, and the humor and ferocity of the book was just everything I needed and wanted out of a read at the time. It just made me feel good, and I can’t wait to read the sequel.

Everything Henry writes is basically gold, so I’m not surprised that I loved her first adult novel. I love how easy it is for me to relate to her characters and all their awkwardness and misunderstandings. I also don’t read a lot of romance because I find the conflict after the initial hookup feels manufactured, but in Beach Read it felt all too real and made the resolution so much sweeter.

This collection was a gift from a friend and I savored the stories, reading just one at a time. Stories of Your Life and Others is masterfully strange and reminded me a lot of Jason Sanford, another science fiction short story writer that I really admire.

And bonus starry eyes for Micaiah Johnson’s The Space Between Worlds, which I still find myself thinking about and wondering over. If there’s anything I read this year that had more stories to be told between the lines, it was definitely this multiverse dream of a read.