Favorite Literature of 2020

1. Abraham, Tola Rotimi. Black Sunday. Catapult, 2020.

2. Alam, Rumaan. Leave the World Behind. Ecco, 2020.

3. Arudpragasam, Anuk. The Story of a Brief Marriage. Flatiron Books, 2016.

4. Arundhati, Roy. The God of Small Things. Random House, 1997.

5. Bennett, Brit. The Mothers. Riverhead Books, 2016.

6. Bennett, Brit. The Vanishing Half. Riverhead Books, 2020.

7. Choi, Susan. Trust Exercise. Serpent’s Tail, 2020. 

8. Cohen, Leah Hager. Strangers and Cousins. Riverhead Books, 2019. 

9. Cusk, Rachel. Outline. Faber and Faber, 2015.  

10. Czapnik, Dana. The Falconer. Faber & Faber, 2019.

11. Dolan, Naoise. Exciting Times. Ecco, 2020.

12. Evans, Diana. Ordinary People. Liveright Publishing Corporation, 2018.

13. Evaristo, Bernadine. Girl, Woman, Other. Grove Press, 2019.

14. Freudenberger, Nell. Lost and Wanted. Alfred A. Knopf, 2019. 

15. Greer, Andrew Sean. Less. Lee Boudreaux Books, 2017.

16. Hornby, Nick. Just Like You. Riverhead Books, 2020.

17. Jin, Ha. Waiting. Paw Prints, 2010. 

18. Kim, Angie. Miracle Creek. Sarah Crichton Books, 2019.

19. Leilani, Raven. Luster. Doubleday Canada, 2020. 

20. Lerner, Ben. The Topeka School. Picador, 2020. 

21. Majumdar, Megha. A Burning. Knopf, 2020.

22. McBride, Eimear. The Lesser Bohemians. Faber and Faber, 2016. 

23. Medie, Peace Adzo. His Only Wife. Algonquin Books, 2020.

24. Miller, Sue. Monogamy. Harper, 2020.

25. Ng, Celeste. Everything I Never Told You. Penguin Press, 2014.

26. Ng, Celeste. Little Fires Everywhere. Penguin Press, 2017.

27. Reid, Kiley. Such a Fun Age. G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 2019.

28. Schine, Cathleen. The Grammarians. Straus and Giroux, 2019. 

29. Schulman, Helen. Come With Me. NY Harper, 2018. 

30. Shriver, Lionel. The Motion of the Body Through Space. Harper, 2020.

31. Shriver, Lionel. Property. HarperCollins UK, 2019.

32. Smith, Ali. Autumn. Hamish Hamilton, 2016.

33. Steger Strong, Lynn. Want. Henry Holt and Co., 2020.

34. Straub, Emma. All Adults Here. Riverhead Books, 2020.

35. Vuong, Ocean. On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous. Vintage Publishing, 2019. 

36. Washington, Bryan. Memorial. Riverhead Books, 2020. 

37. Wayne, Teddy. Apartment. Bloomsbury Publishing, 2020.

38. Wilson, Kevin. Nothing to See Here. Ecco Press, 2019.  

39. Wison, Kevin. The Family Fang. Ecco Press, 2011.  

40. Wolitzer, Meg. The Female Persuasion. Riverhead Books, 2018.

41. Wolitzer, Meg. The Interestings. Riverhead Books, 2014.

42. Woodson, Jacqueline. Red at the Bone. Riverhead Books, 2019.

43. Yang, Susie. White Ivy. Simon & Schuster, 2020.

Currently Reading

1. Angelou, Maya. Celebrations: Rituals of Peace and Prayer. Random House, 2006.

2. Achebe, Chinua. Things Fall Apart. William Heinemann Ltd., 1958.

3. Fowler, Theresa Anne. A Good Neighborhood. St. Martin’s Press, 2020.

4. Mbue, Imbolo. Behold the Dreamers. Random House, 2016.

5. McBride, James. Deacon King Kong. Riverhead Books, 2020.

6. Sedaris, David. The Best of Me. Little, Brown and Company, 2020.

7. Weiner, Anna. Uncanny Valley: A Memoir. MCD, 2020.

On my Imminent Stack

1. Adichie, Chimamanda Ngozi. Americanah. Narrative Landscape, 2018.

2. Adichie, Chimamanda Ngozi. Dear Ijeawele, or a Feminist Manifesto in Fifteen Suggestions. HarperCollins, 2017.

3. Akhtar, Ayad. Homeland Elegies: A Novel. Little, Brown and Company, 2020.

4. Anonymous. Becoming Duchess Goldblatt. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2020.

5. Arundhati, Roy. The Ministry of Utmost Happiness. Penguin Books, 2018. 

6. Audrain, Ashley. The Push. Viking, 2021.

7. Clemmons, Zinzi. What We Lose: A Novel. New York Penguin USA, 2018.

8. Duckworth, Angela. Grit: The Power of Passions and Perseverance. Scribner, 2018.

9. Harper, Michele. The Beauty in Breaking: A Memoir. Riverhead Books, 2020.

10. Jones Jr., Robert. The Prophets. G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 2021.  

11. Jones, Tayari. An American Marriage. Oneworld, 2019. 

12. Kim, Nancy Jooyoun. The Last Story of Mina Lee. Park Row, 2020.

13. Kolker, Robert. Hidden Valley Road: Inside the Mind of an American Family. Doubleday, 2020.

14. Lee, Min Jin. Pachinko. Grand Central Publishing, 2017. 

15. Millet, Lydia. A Children’s Bible. W. W. Norton & Company, 2020.

16. Morrison, Toni. Song of Solomon. Alfred Knopf, Inc., 1977. 

17. Orange, Tommy. There There. McLelland & Stewart, 2018.

18. Sacks, Oliver. Gratitude. Picador, 2015.

19. Thien, Madeleine. Do Not Say We Have Nothing. W.W. Norton & Company, 2016.

20. Tolentino, Jia. Trick Mirror: Reflections on Self-Delusion. Random House, 2019.

21. Wade, Cleo. Where to Begin: A Small Book About Your Power to Create Big Change in Our Crazy World. Atria Books, 2019.

22. Ward, Jesmyn. Salvage the Bones. Bloomsbury, 2011. 

23. Wuertz, Yoojin Grace. Everything Belongs to Us. Random House, 2017. 

24. Yu, Charles. Interior Chinatown. Pantheon, 2020.

Leadership and Life

1. Aurelius, Marcus. Meditations. Penguin Classics, 1964.

2. Berns, Gregory. Satisfaction: Sensation Seeking, Novelty, and the Science of Finding True Fulfillment. Henry Holt and Co., 2010.

3. Brown, Brene. Dare to Lead. Random House, 2018.

4. Burnett, Bill and Evans, Dave. Designing Your Life: How to Build a Well-Lived, Joyful Life. Knopf, 2016.

5. Didion, Joan. The Year of Magical Thinking. Vintage, 2007.

6. Doyle, Glennon. Untamed. The Dial Press, 2020.

7. Dweck, Carol S. Mindset: The New Psychology of Success. Ballantine Books, 2007.

8. Eagly, Alice H. and Carli, Linda L. Through the Labyrinth: The Truth About How Women Become Leaders (Center for Public Leadership). Harvard Business Review Press, 2007.

9. Fei, Frances and Morriss, Anne. Unleashed: The Unapologetic Leader’s Guide to Empowering Everyone Around You. Harvard Business Review Press, 2020. 

10. Fey, Tina. BossyPants. Back Bay Books, 2012.

11. Gilbert, Elizabeth. Big Magic. Riverhead Books, 2016.

12. Gruenfeld, Deborah. Acting with Power: Why We Are More Powerful Than We Believe. Currency, 2020.

13. Horowitz, Ben. The Hard Thing About Hard Things: Building a Business When There Are No Easy Answers. Harper Business, 2014.

14. Horowitz, Ben. What You Do Is Who You Are: How to Create Your Business Culture. Harper Business, 2019.

15. Huffington, Arianna. Thrive. Harmony, 2015.

16. Kalanithi, Paul and Verghese, Abraham. When Breath Becomes Air. Random House, 2016.

17. Kellerman, Barbara and Rhode, Deborah L. Women and Leadership: The State of Play and Strategies for Change. Jossey-Bass, 2007.

18. Kishimi, Ichiro and Koga, Fumitake. The Courage to Be Disliked: The Japanese Phenomenon That Shows You How to Change Your LIfe and Achieve Real Happiness. Atria Books, 2018.

19. Lorde, Audre. Sisters Outside: Essays and Speeches. Crossing Press, 2007.

20. Norris, Mary. Between You & Me: Confessions of a Comma Queen. W. W. Norton & Company, 2016.

21. Obama, Michelle. Becoming. Crown Publishing Group, 2018.

22. Peterson, Jordan B. 12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos. Random House Canada, 2018.

23. Pfeffer, Jeffrey. Power: Why Some People Have It and Others Don’t. Harper Business, 2010. 

24. Sandberg, Sheryl. Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead. Knopf, 2013.

25. Sandberg, Sheryl and Grant, Adam. Option B: Facing Adversity, Building Resilience, and Finding Joy. Knopf, 2017.

26. Thiel, Peter and Masters, Blake. Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future. Currency, 2014.

27. Venkatesh, Sudhir. Gang Leader for a Day. Penguin Books; Reprint Edition, 2008. 

28. Welteroth, Elaine. More Than Enough: Claiming Space for Who You Are (No Matter What They Say). Penguin Books; Reprint Edition, 2020.

29. Willink, Jocko. Extreme Ownership: How U.S. Navy SEALs Lead and Win. St. Martin’s Press, 2017.

30. Wiseman, Liz. Multipliers. Harper Business, 2017.

Giving, Justice, Equality, Empathy, Social Change

1. Alexander, Elizabeth. The Light of the World: A Memoir. Grand Central Publishing, 2016. 

2. Boo, Katherine. Beyond the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity. Random House, 2014.

3. Brest, Paul and Harvey, Hal. Money Well Spent: A Strategic Plan for Smart Philanthropy. Stanford Business Books, 2018 

4. Coates, Ta-Nehisi. Between the World and Me. One World, 2015. 

5. Higashida, Naoki. Fall Down 7 Times Get Up 8. Random House, 2019.

6. Higashida, Naoki. The Reason I Jump. Random House, 2016.

7. Kendall, Mikki. Hood Feminism. Viking, 2020.

8. Shore, Bill. The Cathedral Within: Transforming Your Life by Giving Something Back. Random House, 2001. 

9. Stevenson, Brian. Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption. One World, 2015.

10. Suskin, Ron. A Hope in the Unseen: An American Odyssey from the Inner CIty to the Ivy League. Broadway Books, 1999.

11. Usher, Shaun. Speeches of Note: An Eclectic Collection of Orations Deserving of a Wider Audience. Ten Speed Press, 2018.  

12. Venkatesh, Sudhir. Gang Leader for a Day: A Rogue Sociologist Takes to the Streets. Penguin Books, 2008.

13. Walker, Darren. From Generosity To Justice: A New Gospel of Wealth. Ford Foundation, 2019.

14. Westover, Tara. Educated: A Memoir. Random House, 2018.

Favorite Literature Pre-2020 

1. Angelou, Maya. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. Random House, 1969.

2. Arundhati, Roy. The God of Small Things. Random House, 1997.

3. Austen, Jane. Emma. John Murray, 1815.

4. Austen, Jane. Persuasian. John Murray, 1817.

5. Austen, Jane. Pride and Prejudice. T. Egerton, 1813.

6. Austen, Jane. Sense and Sensibility. T. Egerton, 1811. 

7. Barnes, Julian. Levels of Life. Knopf, 2013.

8. Barnes, Julian. The Sense of an Ending. Knopf, 2011.

9. Bronte, Charlotte. Jane Eyre. Smith, Elder & Co., 1847.

10. Bronte, Emily. Wuthering Heights. Thomas Cautley Newby, 1847.

11. Byatt, A.S. Possession. Random House, 1990.

12. Coates, Ta-Nehisi. Between the World and Me. One World, 2015.

13. Courtenay, Bryce. The Power of One. Random House, 1989.

14. Diaz, Junot. This Is How You Lose Her. Riverhead Books, 2012.

15. Fitzgerald, F. Scott. Tender is the Night. Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1934. 

16. Fitzgerald, F. Scott. The Beautiful and the Damned. Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1922. 

17. Fitzgerald, F. Scott. The Great Gatsby. Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1925. 

18. Fitzgerald, F. Scott. The Last Tycoon. Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1941. 

19. Fitzgerald, F. Scott. This Side of Paradise. Scribner’s, 1920. 

20. Forster, E.M. A Passage to India. Edward Arnold, 1924.

21. Forster, E.M. A Room with a View. Edward Anrold, 1908.

22. Forster, E.M. Howard’s End. Edward Arnold, 1910.

23. Forster, E.M. Maurice, Hodder Arnold, 1971.  

24. Franzen, Jonathan. The Corrections: A Novel. Picador, 2002.

25. Glass, Julia. Three Junes. Pantheon Books, 2002.

26. Golding, William. Lord of the Flies. Farber and Farber, 1954. 

27. Grahame, Kenneth. The Wind in the Willows. Egmont Publishing, 1908.

28. Groff, Lauren. Fates and Furies. Riverhead Books, 2015.

29. Gyasi, Yaa. Homegoing. Penguin Random House, 2016.  

30. Gyasi, Yaa. Transcendent Kingdom. Knopf, 2020. 

31. Heminway, Ernerst. A Farewell to Arms. Scribner, 1929. 

32. Heminway, Ernerst. A Moveable Feast. Scribner, 1964. 

33. Heminway, Ernerst. For Whom the Bell Tolls. Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1940. 

34. Heminway, Ernerst. The Sun Also Rises. Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1926.

35. Hollinghurst, Alan. The Line of Beauty. Bloomsbury, 2004.

36. Ishiguro, Kazuo. The Remains of the Day. Faber and Faber, 1989.

37. James, Henry. Roderick Hudson. Macmillan & Co., 1875.

38. James, Henry. The Portrait of a Lady. Macmillan & Co., 1881. 

39. Knowles, John. A Separate Peace. Scribner, 2003. 

40. Lahiri, Jhumpa. Interpreter of Maladies. Houghton Mifflin, 1999.

41. Lahiri, Jhumpa. The Lowland. Random House, 2013.  

42. Lahiri, Jhumpa. Unaccustomed Earth. Alfred A. Knopf, 2008.  

43. Lee, Min Jin. Free Food for Millionaires. Warner Books, 2007.

44. Lewis, C.S. The Chronicles of Narnia. Geoffrey Bles, The Bodley Head, 1949-1954.

45. London, Jack. Call of the Wild. Dover Publications, 1990.  

46. Marquez, Gabriel Garcia. Love in the Time of Cholera. Knopf, 1985.

47. Marquez, Gabriel Garcia. One Hundred Years of Solitude. Harper & Row, 1967.

48. Martel, Yann. The Life of Pi. Alfred A Knopf, 2001.

49. Mc Ewan, Ian. Atonement. Jonathan Cape, 2001.

50. Mc Ewan, Ian. Enduring Love. Jonathan Cape, 1997.

51. Mc Ewan, Ian. On Chesil Beach. Jonathan Cape, 2007.

52. Mc Ewan, Ian. Saturday. Jonathan Cape, 2005.

53. Mc Ewan, Ian. The Comfort of Strangers. Jonathan Cape, 1981.

54. Messud, Claire. The Burning Girl. W.W. Norton & Company, 2017.

55. Messud, Claire. The Emperor’s Children. Picador, 2015.

56. Messud, Claire. The Woman Upstairs. Books on Tape, 2013.

57. Otsuka, Julie. The Buddha in the Attic. Alfred A. Knopf, 2011.

58. Proulx, Annie E. The Shipping News. Scribner, 1993.  

59. Robinson, Marilynne. Gilead. Picador, 2006. 

60. Salinger, J.D. Franny and Zooey. Little, Brown & Company, 1961.

61. Salinger, J.D. The Catcher in the Rye. Little, Brown & Company, 1951.

62. Sedaris, David. Calypso. Karl Blessing Verlag, 2018.

63. Sedaris, David. Children Playing Before a Statue of Hercules. Simon & Schuster, 2005. 

64. Sedaris, David. Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim. Back Bay Books, 2005.

65. Sedaris, David. Holidays on Ice. Back Bay Books, 2010.

66. Sedaris, David. Let’s Explore Diabetes with Owls. Back Bay Books, 2014. 

67. Sedaris, David. Me Talk Pretty One Day. Back Bay Books, 2001. 

68. Sedaris, David. Naked. Back Bay Books, 1998.

69. Sedaris, David. Theft by Finding Diaries 1977-2002. Back Bay Books, 2018.

70. Shriver, Lionel. The Mandibles. HarperCollins, 2016.

71. Shriver, Lionel. The Post-Birthday World. HarperCollins, 2007.

72. Smith, Betty. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. Harper and Brothers, 1943.  

73. Stegner, Wallace. Angle of Repose. Doubleday, 1971.

74. Stegner, Wallace. Crossing to Safety. Random House, 1987.

75. Stegner, Wallace. Recapitulation. Doubleday, 1979.

76. Toole, John Kennedy. A Confederacy of Dunces. Grove Press, 2006. 

77. Warren, Robert Penn. All The King’s Men. Harcourt, Brace & Company, 1927.

78. Waugh, Evelyn. Brideshead Revisited. Penguin Books, 1954.

79. Wharton, Edith. Ethan Frome. Scribner’s, 1911.

80. Wharton, Edith. The Age of Innocence. D. Appleton & Company, 1920.

81. Wilde, Oscar. The Importance of Being Ernest. Dover Publications, Inc., 2008. 

82. Wilde, Oscar. The Picture of Dorian Gray. Lippincott’s Monthly Magazine, 1890. 

83. Winterson, Jeannette. The Passion. Bloomsbury Press, 1987. 

84. Woolf, Virginia. A Room of One’s Own. Hogarth Press, 1929.

85. Woolf, Virginia. Mrs. Dalloway. Hogarth Press, 1925.

86. Woolf, Virginia. Orlando. Hogarth Press, 1928.

87. Woolf, Virginia. To the Lighthouse. Hogarth Press, 1927.

88. Zora Neale Hurston. Their Eyes Were Watching God. J. B. Lippincott, 1937.

Art

1. Braford, Chris and Bradford, Mark. Mark Bradford: Through Darkest America by Truck and Tank. White Cube, 2014.

2. Donovan, Fiona. Jasper Johns: Pictures within Pictures, 1980-2015. Thames & Hudson, 2017.

3. Elsen, Albert Edward. Purposes of Art. Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1962.

4. Gabriel, Mary. Ninth Street Women: Lee Krasner, Elaine de Kooning, Grace Hartigan, Joan Mitchell, and Helen Frankenthaler: Five Painters and the Movement That Changed Modern Art. Back Bay Books, 2019.

5. Gill, Anton. Art Lover: A Biography of Peggy Guggenheim. Harper Perennial, 2003.

6. Glimcher, Arne. Agnes Martin: Paintings, Writings, Remembrances. Phaidon Press, 2012.

7. Guggenheim, Peggy. Confessions of an Art Addict. HarperCollins, 1997.

8. Guggenheim, Peggy. Out of this Century: The Informal Memoirs of Peggy Guggenheim. Chameleon, 1987.

9. Morris, Catherine and Hockley, Rujeko. We Wanted A Revolution: Black Radical Women, 1965-85: A Sourcebook. Duke University Press Books, 2017.

10. Nicholas, Lynn H. The Rape of Europa: The Fate of Europe’s Treasures in the Third Reich and the Second World War. Vintage, 1995.

11. Phaidon Editors. Great Women Artists. Phaidon Press, 2019.

12. Prose, Francine. Peggy Guggenheim: The Shock of the Modern. Yale University Press, 2016.

13. Rachum, Stephanie and Gois, Yve-Alain. Glenstone The Inaugural Exhibition. The Glenstone Foundation, 2008.

14. Sandler, Irving. Goodbye To Tenth Street. Pleasure Boat Studio: A Literary Press, 2018.

15. Turrell, James. James Turrell: Extraordinary Ideas—Realized. Hatje Cantz, 2018.  

For the Soul and Psyche

1. Collins, Billy. Aimless Love: New and Selected Poems. Random House, 2014.

2. Collins, Billy. Picnic Lightning. University of Pittsburgh Press, 1998.  

3. Collins, Billy. Questions About Angels. University of Pittsburgh Press, 1999. 

4. Collins, Billy. Sailing Alone Around the Room: New and Selected Poems. Random House Trade Paperbacks, 2002. 

5. Collins, Billy. Taking Off Emily Dickinson’s Clothes: Selected Poems. Picador, 2000. 

6. Collins, Billy. The Apple That Astounded Paris: Poems. University of Arkansas Press, 2006. 

7. Collins, Billy. The Art of Drowning. University of Pittsburgh Press, 1995. 

8. Collins, Billy. The Trouble with Poetry and Other Poems. Random House Trade Paperbacks, 2007. 

9. Jampolsky, Gerald G. Love Is Letting Go of Fear: 12 Steps to Greater Happiness.  Nightingale-Conant, 1982.

10. Lamott, Anne. Almost Everything: Notes on Hope. Riverhead Books, 2018.

11. Lamott, Anne. Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life. Anchor, 1995.

12. Lamott, Anne. Grace (Eventually): Thoughts on Faith. Riverhead Books, 2008.

13. Lamott, Anne. Hallelujah Anyway: Rediscovering Mercy. Riverhead Books, 2017.

14. Lamott, Anne. Help, Thanks, Wow: The Three Essential Prayers. Riverhead Books, 2012.

15. Lamott, Anne. Operating Instructions: A Journal of My Son’s First Year. Anchor, 2005.

16. Lamott, Anne. Plan B: Further Thoughts on Faith. Riverhead Books, 2006.

17. Lamott, Anne. Small Victories: Spotting Improbable Moments of Grace. Riverhead Books, 2014.

18. Lamott, Anne. Stitches: A Handbook on Meaning, Hope and Repair. Riverhead Books, 2013.

19. Lamott, Anne. Traveling Mercies: Some Thoughts on Faith. Anchor, 2000.

20. Lewis, C.S. Mere Christianity. HarperOne, 2015.

21. Oliver, Mary. Felicity: Poems. Penguin Books, 2017.

22. The Bible

23. Williamson, Marianne. A Year of Miracles: Daily Devotions and Reflections. HarperOne, 2015.

24. Wiman, Christian. Joy: 100 Poems. Yale University Press, 2019.