100 Books of 2020

This year I exceeded my normal reading goal of 52 books in a year. With all that was going on around me, I often needed to shut out the world, and immerse myself in story. More often than not it was an unabridged audiobook. This year wasn't really one for taking it slow. It was a pel-mel kind of year. And crowded more with books and less with people. So I don't necessarily desire a repeat of this for every person or every year. But it was a good way to add solace to the long hours of 2020. To inspire and escape, to give insight and courage, and a broader horizon. I read 25 of them with my eyes, listened to 75 audiobooks. 26 I'd read before, and 74 were new to me...

Some were old

Some were new

Some were borrowed

Some were true

Many were audio

A few dog-eared

Quite a few gems

A couple were weird

I'm inclined to the mystery

As you can no doubt tell

Perhaps its that most

Are wrapped up rather well

I don't need an idyll

A rose-tinted lorgnette 

But show me the courage

I haven't mustered quite yet

Give examples of wit

Sharp thought, action, grace

That serve me as tools

For this world that we face

 

Nine Coaches Waiting - Mary Stewart

Requiem for a Mezzo - Carola Dunn

Joy in the Morning - P.G. Wodehouse (rr)

Death on the Flying Scotsman - Carola Dunn

The Moonspinners - Mary Stewart

A Gentleman in Moscow - Amor Towles (rr)

Damsel in Distress - Carola Dunn

To Be Where You Are - Jan Karon

Prince Caspian - C.S. Lewis (rr)

Death in Berlin - M.M. Kaye (rr)

The Piper on the Mountain - Ellis Peters (rr)

Becoming - Michelle Obama

Dead in the Water - Carola Dunn

Wildfires at Midnight - Mary Stewart

Airs Above the Ground - Mary Stewart (rr)

Hound of the Baskervilles - Arthur Conan Doyle (rr)

The Crystal Cave - Mary Stewart

Styx and Stones - Carola Dunn

The Red Keep - Allen French (rr)

Death in the Andamans - M.M. Kaye

Black is the Color of My True Love's Heart -Ellis Peters

Now May You Weep - Deborah Crombie

Rattle His Bones - Carola Dunn

My Brother Michael - Mary Stewart (rr)

To Davy Jones Below - Carola Dunn

A Gentleman of Leisure - P.G. Wodehouse (rr)

The Lightning Thief - Rick Riordan (rr)

The Potter's Field - Ellis Peters (rr)

A Share in Death - Deborah Crombie

Digital Minimalism - Cal Newport

The Case of the Murdered Muckraker - Carola Dunn

All Shall be Well - Deborah Crombie

Leave the Grave Green - Deborah Crombie

Mourn Not Your Dead - Deborah Crombie

Kingdom of the Blind - Louise Penny

Son of Neptune - Rick Riordan (rr)

Dreaming of the Bones - Deborah Crombie

Crime on the Fens - Joy Ellis

Shadow over the Fens - Joy Ellis

Hunted on the Fens - Joy Ellis

Kissed a Sad Goodbye - Deborah Crombie

Killer on the Fens - Joy Ellis

A Finer End - Deborah Crombie

Wild in the Hollow - Amber C. Haines

Justice There is None - Deborah Crombie

In a Dark House - Deborah Crombie

 

Unnatural Causes - P.D. James

The Door Before - N.D. Wilson (rr)

The Dragon's Tooth - N.D. Wilson (rr)

Over Sea, Under Stone - Susan Cooper (rr)

Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll

Journey to Munich - Jacqueline Winspear

How to be an Anti-Racist - Ibram X. Kendi

The Grave's a Fine and Private Place - Alan Bradley

 

The Beholder -Anna Bright

The Grass Widow's Tale - Ellis Peters

The House of Green Turf - Ellis Peters (rr)

The Hate U Give - Angie Thomas

Mistletoe and Murder - Carola Dunn

Die Laughing - Carola Dunn

Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone - J.K. Rowling (rr)

A Mourning Wedding - Carola Dunn

Under Gemini - Rosamund Pilcher

Are Women Human? - Dorothy Sayers, essays

The Sign of Four - Arthur Conan Doyle (rr)

The Gate Keeper - Charles Todd

The Fall of the Philanderer - Carola Dunn

A Shilling for Candles - Josephine Tey

The Singing Sands - Josephine Tey

A Test of Wills - Charles Todd

Damsel in Distress - Carola Dunn (rr)

The Gunpowder Plot - Carola Dunn

Maisie Dobbs - Jacqueline Winspear

A Forgotten Place - Charles Todd

Marianna - Susanna Kearsley

The Shadowy Horses - Susannah Kearsley

Winter Sea - Susanna Kearsley

Frederica - Georgette Heyer

The Quiet Gentleman - Georgette Heyer (rr)

Feather on the Moon - Phyllis Whitney

Mourning Raga - Ellis Peters

An Unmarked Grave - Charles Todd

My Cousin Rachel - Daphne du Murier

The Bloody Tower - Carola Dunn

The Rose Garden - Susanna Kearsley

Birds of a Feather - Jacqueline Winspear

Footsteps in the Dark - Georgette Heyer (rr)

Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen (rr)

Perilous Gard - Elizabeth Marie Pope (rr)

The Thief - Megan Whalen Turner (rr)

The Splendour Falls - Susanna Kearsley

Bellewether - Susanna Kearsley

The Firebird - Susanna Kearsley

Renaissance Buck - Georgette Heyer

Becoming Mrs. Lewis - Patti Callahan

 

Shepherds Abiding - Jan Karon (rr)

Mistletoe and Murder -Carola Dunn (rr)

 

A Christmas Resolution -Anne Perry  

 

The Dark is Rising - Susan Cooper (rr)

 

Hercule Poirot's Christmas - Agatha Christie