The Best Books to Add to Your Reading List in 2020

In Frasier's explosive debut novel, our unnamed narrator is eighteen, pregnant, and feeling adrift as she stumbles through her days as a pizza delivery driver in Los Angeles, while mourning the death of her alcoholic father and avoiding the suffocating worries of her loving mother. and guy. Everything changes when she gives a peculiar order to a suburban housewife, who becomes a hotbed of psychosexual obsession with dangerous consequences. Just 193 curves, moving pagesPizza girl drifting through the dark waters of obsession and addiction, and our dysfunctional Pizza Girl knocking Miller Lights down while carefully avoiding any semblance of forward movement. But at the same time, the novel is replete with witty wit and optimism, each page a celebration of Chito's heart, humor and lyricism.

V Must I Go, Lee captures a difficult woman nearing the end of her days. At the age of 88, after three husbands, five children and seventeen grandchildren, Lilia Liska looks back on her uncompromising life from the stupefying stagnation in a nursing home where she spends her hours commenting on the recently published diaries of the late writer Roland Bouly. with whom she once had a fleeting affair. Although Lily was just a footnote in Roland's life, she struggles with his memories of the events, reflecting on his two great love relationships while hiding the brutal details of her own long-buried personal history. She endlessly returns to the memory of her daughter Lucy, who committed suicide at 27, and to the bottomless grief of losing a child due to suicide. Lee's greatest talent lies in her incomparable experiments with our language of human emotions - its flaws,Must I Go is another great entry in Lee's years-long struggle with the English language, which, thankfully for its devoted readers, is showing no signs of easing anytime soon.

When Max moves from the chilly nature reserve of Germany to the sweaty American South, he brings with him a host of supernatural secrets. But as he is embraced by his new football teammates, his past-drenched and unwaveringly Christian environment in the red mud of Alabama makes him question everything from his faith and sexuality to the very nature of his desires. Hudson's debut, written in undeniable, visceral prose, is utterly delightful.— Madison Wayne

Entry into the ruling inner circle of Long Island's elite Gold Coast Prep is delightfully served in this senior editor's debut YA novelCosmopolitan Jessica Goodman. The chilling murder mystery is an irresistible hook, but it's the careful construction of each character's fraught internal conflicts that really kicks in, elevating the job from a high society detective block to a conscious mission to not just discover their identity, but build it. .— Madison Wayne

Few rock memoirs start on the grounds of an infamous American cult following, but that's just one of the features of the Airborne Toxic Event frontman's personal tome that separates him from the crowd. The cinematic account of his family's exit from the commune of Synanon in California, followed by Jollette's revelation of the abuse that shaped his stolen childhood, is impressive. His pain feels both unknowable and universal, and his rapturous lyrics make Hollywood park impossible.— Madison Wayne

In this brilliant debut, Zhang sets the scene in the final days of the gold rush when two orphaned children of Chinese immigrants roam the devastated American West in search of a new home, only to be met with hostility everywhere, not just out of ruthlessness. landscape, but from the racist and inhospitable locals. As these brothers and sisters shape their nascent identity under the colossal weight of their loss, they reimagine their own history and their own legacy. This novel is both a gripping adventure, a tender coming-of-age story, an unearthing of the devastating myths surrounding the American west, and the emergence of a major literary talent.

One of our most ambitious writers returns with a sublime new tale about a woman struggling to finish her overdue novel as she becomes increasingly obsessed with writing in the present tense and capturing the slippery nature of time. Her creative blockage causes her to engage in lengthy correspondence with friends, as well as to get lost in the works of dead greats whose creative crusades shed light on her own. Immerse yourself in the unbridled music of this bold novel and let yourself be taken on a hectic journey of the storyteller's creative awakening.

In Seoul, South Korea, four young women living in the same apartment complex face a K-pop-infused cultural miasma of misogyny, consumerism and unattainable beauty standards. Come for a tender portrait of female friendship in all its tears and triumphs, but stay for a poignant analysis of the contemporary lives of women mired in cultural debasement, male supremacy and dwindling economic opportunity.

In these bold and delightful stories, Yamashita remixes classic Jane Austen novels with Japanese American immigrant experiences seen in the lives of SoCal families in the sixties and seventies. When Mr. Darcy leads the football team, and public school bake sales replace Austin's campy country balls, Yamashita questions the wisdom of generations and the meaning of heredity in these bold stories that transcend race, place, and time.

Religious bigotry meets ecological crisis in "Godshot" , gripping romanceBeaker about a teenager thrown into a local cult following her troubled mother's expulsion from society. In drought-stricken Peaches, California, a charismatic cult pastor promises to bring rain if his brainwashed followers complete the "tasks" he asks of them. When fourteen-year-old Lacey learns the truth about this community built on patriarchal norms and sexual abuse, she leaves town in search of her mother. What follows is a bold, gripping tale of girlhood, spirituality, and how salvation comes in the most unexpected places.

In this ridiculous and stylish debut, Dolan targets Ava, an Irish immigrant teaching English to Hong Kong's wealthy kids. Ava soon becomes romantically involved with Julian, a wealthy banker who can't make commitments, and Edith, a lawyer who is both envious and desirable. In this witty satire of the haves and have-nots, Dolan explores tender, insightful truths about the vagaries of modern love.

For Natasha Trethevy, the end is pretty much the beginning of both her amazing new memoir and, as we'll find out in its pages, her second iteration. The work opens immediately after the murder of her mother by Trethevy's ex-stepfather when the author was only 19 years old, before beginning a meeting with the years leading up to this event, which she admits she had long treated with "voluntary amnesia, buried deep in me like a root. Brought to you by the Pulitzer Prize-winning American poet's remarkable command of the language, this story reaches deep into your emotional center. And often, when non-linear retelling dances between years, dreams and hazy memories, the work delights like a thriller, unraveling it, struggling with the inevitable. -Madison Wayne

When Jessica and Mitch Butler first got married, they were one of four college best friend couples - also known as the "Big Four" - from college who all got together. 15 years later, they are the only ones still together. Stranded but desperate to avoid a divorce, Jessica suggests they try an "evolved" marriage, in which one-night stands and casual hook-ups with strangers are seen as potential ways to spark a spark in the house. It's an idea that runs counter to their relationship as much as reality, but Norman's funny and sensual writing makes for a compelling read. -Madison Wayne

In the film Eyre Ward ("Howget lost", "The same sky" ) "Jetsetters" all, to put it mildly, are a colossal wreck. Luckily for us, each of them - all three of the Perkins children, plus their widowed matriarch Charlotte - also have a vote. In alternating chapters, Eyre Ward's authentic, hilarious text rotates between each character's point of view over a week-long European cruise, crafting a story of deep-seated family rifts and desires that unravel as spectacularly as they did themselves. If you are looking for a market escape, look no further. -Madison Wayne

In this fascinating book, Porter explores America's racial matrix. Weaving together social science research and historical context, he analyzes how racism affects all sections of American society, from labor unions to public education and immigration policy. Porter, economic reporterNew York Times , who has covered the intersection of race and economy around the world, is uniquely knowledgeable and has a global perspective on these issues.

This collection of Ehrenreich's newspaper and magazine columns covers topics as diverse as cults, the health food craze, housework, welfare programs, and O. J. Simpson. In the era of late capitalism, Ehrenreich's prophetic view of the fragility of systems is more relevant than ever.

Biography and memoir, this heartfelt and insightful book tells the story of Weight Watchers founder Jean Nidetch and his lifelong journey through various fad diets. What comes out is a surprising portrait of a wonderful but obscure life in business, as well as a thoughtful critique of America's obsession with thinness. Meltzer, who herself subscribes to Body Watchers magazine, provides a personal look at this fascinating and far-reaching story of a phenomenon that has touched the lives of hundreds of thousands of women.

In this funny and uplifting book, O'Connell travels the globe in search of a balm to his worries about the impending climate apocalypse. He interviews everyone from doomsday preppers to conspiracy theorists, creating detailed portraits of unique subcultures, each characterized by a different practical and spiritual perspective on the end of days. With a warm and humorous look, O'Connell argues that even if we're going down, we're going down together.

In this brilliant book, McNeil traces his personal stories on the Internet, tracing his way from the forums and Friendster to today's toxic cesspool.Lurking is a far-reaching and furious mind, spoken from the hearts and minds of users, not from the profit and loss statements of tech conglomerates. Focusing his research on the user experience of the ever-changing Internet rather than theatrics and myth-making of big tech, McNeil weaves the folk history of the Internet into a humane and candid account of how the Internet has changed. – and how it has changed us.

Formally adventurous and incredibly topical, spanning almost two decades of conversations between women, this debut novel wrestles with the stories women tell about desire, friendship and violence, among other things. In brilliant prose, Popkey highlights the performative nature of storytelling, appreciating whether the stories we tell about our lives are fiction.

In this continuation of his pioneering Girls and sex» Peggy Orenstein turns her reporting eye on young people who, in compassionate and candid interviews, reveal the fears, pressures and aspirations that shape their growing sexual identity. Combined with the testimonies of psychologists and scientists, Orenstein's careful and sensitive research paints a clear portrait of how toxic masculinity takes root - and how we need to properly raise our boys before it's too late.

V Movie "Purity" Garth Greenwell returns to the rugged Eastern European landscape with his 2016 sensational debut novel, What belongs to you" . In post-Soviet Bulgaria, an American teacher makes his way through the tangled romantic years spent abroad, bruised by love and cruelty that coalesce into an evocative portrait of the vagaries of desire. Melancholy and lyrical, this little volume confirms Greenwell as one of our best writers on sex and desire.

The titan of literature presents a new novel set in 1930s Spain, where a pregnant widow makes a harrowing pilgrimage across mountains and oceans to escape civil war. Linked to the brother of her deceased lover by a marriage of convenience, she settles in Allende's native Chile, where she builds a new house, reconsidering her attitude towards the house she left behind. In this captivating novel, Allende is more transcendent and life-affirming than ever, finding joy even in the experiences of refugees and light even in the dark.

In this definitive investigation into a brutal double homicide in Pocahontas County, West Virginia, Eisenberg uncovers the surprising story of a harrowing crime. but"Third Rainbow Girl" - it's so much more - it's a deeply felt exploration of Appalachia, a land where deep lines of divergence, gender and class run deep. Eisenberg, a former Pocahontas County resident, never lets go of her former home easily, but instead evokes a portrait that is both lavish and devastating.

Compact and thoroughly contemporary, Jenny Offill's third novel shows the librarian finding deep meaning and deep despair in her side job as a therapist for those in an existential crisis, including liberals fearing a climate apocalypse and conservatives fearing the decline of "American values". ". Trying to save everyone, our heroine has exhausted all her possibilities, creating a witty comic story about the power of human needs.

In this fascinating memoir, the first female literary editor Esquire , appointed at the age of twenty-five, recounts her remarkable experiences as a cultural gatekeeper in a sparse, male-dominated world. Miller's memoirs of this formative chapter of her life explore her complicated friendship with David Foster Wallace; Meanwhile, she also counts on power and the dark truth about who gets it.

In this gripping period piece, teenage girls in an 1870s New England school undergo outrageous treatment by paternalistic doctors. Frightening, disturbing and timely,"A Lesson in Disease" explores the crushing weight of oppression and the tireless power of female defiance.

In this radical study of the Asian American psyche, Hong masterfully describes his experience of "minor feelings": the painful cognitive dissonance you experience when the cultural messages you receive conflict with the lived experience of your identity. Through cultural criticism, memoirs and historical research, Hong names and illuminates issues of race and gender that have long remained unnamed, creating a brilliant new guide to the state of race in America.

"My Dark Vanessa" is a unique achievement, a masterpiece of tension and tone that will simultaneously captivate, terrify and touch. In 2000, young Vanessa Wye is drawn into an affair with her older English teacher; In 2017, when her teacher was prosecuted for abusing underage girls amid widespread cultural practices, Vanessa must revisit her mythology of their decades-long relationship. With the utmost sensitivity and vivid, moving detail, Russell illuminates Vanessa's struggle to see her life story and see the tragedy she really is. Before you start" My dark Vanessa" clear your schedule for the next few days - this harrowing account of sexual abuse and its life-long jolts will completely engulf you.

Weird, wonderful and mostly relevant, Enter the Aardvark is a landmark political novel of the Trump era. Anthony navigates political and temporal divisions with a time-travelling taxidermy aardvark that travels between Victorian England, where it was hunted and stuffed, and present-day Washington, D.C., where his arrival on the doorstep of a young Republican congressman threatens to turn his career upside down. With heart and humor Enter the Aardvark artfully distorts our current political climate.

Author "Friendship" returns with a second novel about the intricacies of relationships between women, this time centered on a mother and daughter searching for answers in the mysterious abyss of a mother's past. As Marie asks questions about her mother's early life as a songwriter in New York, Laura must open the door to a moment in her life she's been trying to forget.Perfect Tunes, filled with incredible insight and humour, is a moving exploration of love, loss and fatherhood.