Books of 2020: Best Fiction

Because I believe that warding each other off bad books is a public service, I have already done that for 2020.  That said, I know most people are looking for ideas to add to their list (or confirm items already in the "to read" category).  So, onto the good stuff!

Although I read more fiction than non-fiction this year, and generally liked what I read, one title stood out among all the others.  I consider that making it easy for those whose "to read" list is already overwhelmingly long.

A warning, though: there's a mother lode of non-fiction recommendations coming tomorrow.

Best Fiction

The Secret Lives of Church Ladies, Deesha Philyaw, 2020

We've known Deesha Philyaw as an acquaintance for a long time.  We didn't know her when she was a few years ahead of us at college, but we met her when we attended the same church with her and her then husband and their young family.  Social media made us more aware of her work as a writer, and we started hearing about this book weeks before it came out.  I read one of the stories - How to Make Love to a Physicist - months before that, but I can't remember where.  Blah, blah, blah.  The short story collection gets released, gets long-listed for the National Book Award for fiction (!), gets short-listed soon after, and Paige and I can both see why.  (Paige read it before I did.)  Ultimately, it did not win the NBA, but still!  

Deesha writes polished little gems of intimate, revelatory stories, each with at least one African American woman at the center of it.  She shows immense creativity; each story's setting, characters, and plot are distinct.  She peoples a universe, a spectrum of experience, opportunity, aspiration, and perspective that is common among story collections but feels like more of an accomplishment for what one might naively suppose would be a narrow scope of "church lady" characters.  Many of these stories are steamy - secret lives and all.  She does not hold back.   The writing is clear as a bell.  It was a pleasure to read, and we're so happy and proud to know Deesha even a little bit.

Honorable Mentions:

Code Name Verity, Elizabeth Wien, 2012

Nothing to See Here, Kevin Wilson, 2019