Lady Demelza's Year in Books 2020

Here we go for my traditional yearly book list, which traditionally I would publish at New Year. However, I seem to have spent most of January floundering around like a shipwreck, and I'm just finding my feet again now. I can face things like embedded links again. Here is what I read in 2020.

1. The Night Brother by Rosie Garland 2017

2. To The Land of Long Lost Friends by Alexander McCall Smith 2019

3. Melmoth by Sarah Perry 2018

4. Journal of a Solitude by May Sarton 1973

5. Heroes and Villains by Angela Carter 1969

6. The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson 1959

7. Mother, Sister, Daughter, Lover by Jan Clausen 1980

8. Everything is F*cked by Mark Manson 2019

9. The Animals in That Country by Laura Jean McKay 2020

10. The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern 2019

11. Boys Will Be Boys by Clementine Ford 2018

12. Sand Talk by Tyson Yunkaporta 2019

13. The Great Cosmic Mother by Monica Sjoo & Barbara Mor 1987

14. Nightflowers by Kathleen Stewart 1996

15. Fireworks by Angela Carter 1974, rev. ed. 1987

16. Too Much Lip by Melissa Lucashenko 2018

17. Rosie Little's Cautionary Tales for Girls by Danielle Wood 2007 (re-read)

I reckon the star of the year was Sand Talk: How Indigenous Thinking Can Save the World by Tyson Yunkaporta. I feel like this is the next level of uncovering the truth of Indigenous history and culture in this country since Bruce Pascoe's Dark Emu debunked the myth of the hunter-gatherer. Mind blown. And then blown again.

Special Mention goes to The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson. I had wanted to read this book for years, and in 2020 I finally found a copy. Now I understand why it is such a masterpiece. The intellectual thrill of the brilliance of the writing matches the psychological thrill of the classic horror story. 

 And the dud for this year was Everything is F*cked: A Book About Hope by Mark Manson. This bloke is interesting and clever and his writing is entertaining, but his philosophy just doesn't hold up to the varieties of reality that we have to negotiate in this world. 

You can also see my reading lists for 2019, 2018, 2017, 2015, 2014, 2013 and 2012.