2020 in review: another disappointing year for books

You would think that 2020 would be a year with lots of reading, which would lead to lots of great books to recommend. The former was certainly true as I have finished 135 books since last December, but just like in 2019, I found very few that were worthy of discussing in my 18th annual Best Books of the Year list. When my local library shut down in April and May, I turned to my personal collection and reread classic adventures from Trevanian, espionage from Ivor Drummond, Nero Wolfe detective tales from Rex Stout, and even a Nancy Drew mystery. Similar to last year, I found several excellent new television series: Westworld (which needs no introduction), Shetland (a police procedural set off the coast of contemporary Scotland), and The Simple Heist (a quirky Swedish show about two mature ladies who commit crimes and demonstrates that not all Scandinavian television is cold and gloomy).

I will be publishing short reviews of the four titles that did make the cut over the next few days and there are now over 100 options from my previous “books of the year” lists on my dedicated page.