This certainly was a year like no other. With all its few ups and many downs, at least it got me back into reading. I was an extremely avid reader during my childhood, but in recent times I only finished a handful of books each year. Luckily, this has drastically changed in 2020 and it has enriched my life in every sense.

Altogether, I read 13,727 pages across 39 books.

23 of these were non-fiction, 16 fiction. The overwhelming majority of books were written in English (35), I only read four in German, my native language. I want to share some of my highlights from various categories that may help you decide which books to add to your reading list. At the end, you also find my complete list from this year with ratings (out of 10) for all books. If you are interested in my favourite scientific papers from this year you can find them here.

Some Highlights

Feminist Fiction: Girl, Woman, Other – Bernadine Evaristo 

This book shines through its unique voice and its perspective on a variety of people whose stories are cleverly intertwined. It is both extremely current and timeless and leaves you breathless as you plunge from one story into the next one.
Read this: to broaden your horizon.

Crime: Camino Island – John Grisham 

First and foremost John Grisham is known as a legal thriller author, but his detour to general crime has been very successful! Camino Island is a fast paced, easy going novel, ideal to dive in and spend some hours curled up on the couch under a thick throw!
Read this: if you want to escape to a seaside town and like a game of hide and seek.

Popular Science: You’re Not Listening – Kate Murphy

This is one of the books that could be summarised in a TED talk or an article. In typical American fashion one core idea is presented from a variety of viewpoints and embellished with examples and anecdotes. While the hard facts of this book might be summed up on a few pages, I nevertheless advocate to read this book as it forces you to spend time with its ideas and concepts and nudges you to reflect on your own habits. It takes you on a well laid out journey about a key human competence: listening.
Read this: if you think you are a bad listener – and even more so if you think you are a good listener!

Feminist Non-Fiction: The Guilty Feminist – Deborah Frances White 

Deborah Frances White is the creator of the amazing Guilty Feminist Podcast, “the podcast to discuss the big topics all 21st century feminists agree on, whilst confessing our “buts” – the insecurities, hypocrisies and fears that undermine our lofty principles.”. This sentiment is very much carried forward in the book! It is a great romp through everything that may concern women (and men!) around the topic of feminism. Frances White strikes the extraordinary balance of being both kind and informative, while always remaining funny!
Read this: if you have a vulva or (vaguely) know someone who has one.

The Very Best

Best Fiction: Middle England – Jonathan Coe

This book takes you on an extraordinary journey from a pre to a post-Brexit Britain. Coe excels at dissecting the topics from a variety of vantage points through the multiple characters he creates. Moreover, he paints a painstakingly accurate (and through that hilarious) picture of the United Kingdom. For example, his vivid three page long description of what a garden center is made me laugh out loud. 
Read this: if you ever happen to be stuck in a pandemic.

Best Non-Fiction: Machtmaschinen (“Power Machines”) – Thomas Ramge and Viktor Mayer-Schönberger

While this work builds upon some of the ideas from an earlier book by these two authors called “Reinventing Capitalism in the Age of Big Data”, it works perfectly as a stand-alone book and, in my opinion, expresses their ideas even better and in a more refined way. Drawing their concepts from various disciplines the authors provide a multifaceted view of why data monopolies pose a threat to our democracy and society. It’s a short and catchy read that works for any (or no) level of prior knowledge. 
Read this: as soon as it is translated into English (probably April 2021)

Bonus: The books I did not finish

Too bad to finish: Sex Robots and Vegan Meat – Jenny Kleeman

I really do believe that the author had great intentions when she set out to investigate the prospects of life, death, food, and sex in the future. However, she obsessively focuses on obscure edge cases that don’t have any relevance for broader society (yet), and then complains just about that very fact. Her writing style is snarky and comes from a position of superiority that has no justification. Don’t bother with this. 
Read this: if you really don’t trust my judgement.

Too good to finish: Invisible Women – Caroline Criado-Perez

This book really has it all: a strong, feminist agenda backed by an abundance of scientific evidence, wrapped up in a captivating writing style. Criado-Perez highlights the structural bias caused by data that women live with everyday. Her diligent research made me so angry with everything that is wrong in our world that I could only read a few pages in one sitting to contain my rage.
Read this. Fullstop. Just go and read it!

My 2020 Reading List 

	Title	Author	Pages	F/NF	Language	Rating/10
1	Camino Island	John Grisham	336	F	ENG	8
2	Rogue Lawyer	John Grisham	352	F	ENG	5
3	The Partner	John Grisham	412	F	ENG	7
4	Finders Keepers	Stephen King	434	F	ENG	7
5	The Firm	John Grisham	544	F	ENG	6.5
6	11/22/63	Stephen King	850	F	ENG	7
7	Knots and Crosses	Iain Rankin	270	F	ENG	5.5
8	Camino Winds	John Grisham	304	F	ENG	6.5
9	The Guardians	John Grisham	384	F	ENG	6
10	The Hate U Give	Angie Thomas	464	NF	ENG	7.5
11	A time to kill	John Grisham	752	F	ENG	6.5
12	The Girl on the train	Paula Hawkins	408	F	ENG	3
13	Why I’m no longer talking to white people about race	Reni Eddo-Lodge	288	NF	ENG	7.5
14	Women don’t owe you pretty	Florence Given	220	NF	ENG	8
15	The Associate	John Grisham	370	F	ENG	6
16	Normal People	Sally Rooney	266	F	ENG	3.5
17	Middle England	Jonathan Coe	420	F	ENG	9
18	More Than Enough	Elaine Welteroth	320	NF	ENG	7.5
19	Metropolos	Philip Kerr	391	F	ENG	6
20	You’re Not Listening	Kate Murphy	220	NF	ENG	8.5
21	Girl, Woman, Other	Bernadine Evaristo	452	F	ENG	8.5
22	Personal MBA	Josh Kaufman	420	NF	ENG	7
23	Future Politics	Jamie Susskind	367	NF	ENG	8
24	The Guilty Feminist	Deborah Frances White	320	NF	ENG	8.5
25	Why we sleep	Matthew Walker	339	NF	ENG	8
26	Dirty Money	Marina Adshade	251	NF	ENG	7
27	Atomic Habits	James Clear	369	NF	ENG	8.5
28	Dear Oxbridge	Nele Pollatschek	258	NF	GER	7.5
29	Reinventing capitalism in the age of big data	Thomas Ramge and Viktor Mayer-Schönberger	225	NF	ENG	8
30	Sex at Dawn	Cacilda Jethá and Christopher Ryan	315	NF	ENG	7.5
31	Low Born	Kerry Hudson	239	NF	ENG	7
32	Generation Haram	Melisa Erkurt	188	NF	GER	7
33	Lean In	Sheryl Sandberg	180	NF	ENG	7
34	Machtmaschinen	Thomas Ramge and Viktor Mayer-Schönberger	200	NF	GER	8.5
35	Uncanny Valley	Anna Wiener	280	NF	ENG	6.5
36	Starkes Weiches Herz	Madleine Alizadeh	296	NF	GER	6
37	Learning from the Germans	Susan Neiman	391	NF	ENG	5.5
38	Tescopoly	Andrew Wimms	336	NF	ENG	7
39	How Spies Think	David Oman	296	NF	ENG	8