2020 Archives - Novel Visits

My Year in Books 2020, plus Goals for 2021

Susie — Mon, 04 Jan 2021 11:00:16 +0000

Well 2020 certainly didn’t go as planned! What a crazy, scary, l-o-n-g year. It’s been a decades since the world was so united in being truly happy to turn the calendar to a brand new year. Despite COVID, teaching from home, and quarantining it turns out I had a pretty good year in books, hitting my all time high of 120 books finished. My reading was slow at the beginning of the lockdown, but after the initial shock wore off, my pace really picked up and as always books were a comfort to me. So, let’s look at how I did with books in 2020!

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December 2020 Mini-Reviews ~ Print and Audiobooks

Susie — Thu, 31 Dec 2020 11:00:07 +0000

It’s the last day of the year. FINALLY! Enough said about the woes of 2020, so I’ll move on to five 2020 books that I’ve read in the last month or so. Most are books I missed earlier in the year, and one is a book I returned to after quitting on last summer. (Something I never do.) These won’t be my last 2020 books to share. As I write this I’m listening to another 2020 book, but for the most part I’ve moved on to 2021 releases which I’ll begin sharing next week. Next week I’ll also be looking at My Year in Books 2020, My Goals for 2021, so stop on by and see how I did. Now let’s get on to today’s reviews!…

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My Week in Books for 12/28/20 | More

Susie — Mon, 28 Dec 2020 11:00:18 +0000

I hope everyone is recovered from your holiday celebrations, whatever form they may have taken. We still have New Year’s Day to look forward to, where we just might all shout “FINALLY!” I don’t think the world has ever been more ready to see a year end. It’s been so strange, so long, and so sad that turning the calendar to 2021 will feel like a relief even with the tough months that we still have coming. Through it all books have remained a steady, and calming presence in my life. I’m happy to report that the last couple of weeks my reading has been on fire. January 2021 has one great book after another being released.

Incase you missed it a couple of weeks back, many of those books were featured in my Winter Preview 2021 and last week I revealed my Best Books of 2020. Tomorrow I’m excited to be sharing my Favorite Backlist Books Read in 2020 and Thursday will be my December Book Reviews, which will include the last five 2020 books I read. So, I have a lot going on this week!

Hosted by Kathryn at Book Date

Last 2 Weeks’ Reads

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BEST BOOKS of 2020 | More

Susie — Mon, 21 Dec 2020 11:00:22 +0000

There’s no doubt about it, 2020 will probably be the most memorable year in most of our lives. It’s also a year no one will be sad to see coming to an end. I think almost everyone experienced stress and emotions that we’d never expected. I know I was a hot mess in the early spring and again in September, but no matter what I always had books. Throughout my life, books have always offered me an escape when I most needed it, and though sometimes this year it was hard to concentrate, books still delivered the freedom to venture into other realities. For that I am always grateful.

Narrowing down my Best Books of 2020 was no easy task. I initially had 30 books in the running, all ones I’d given a grade of A or A- to this year. Gradually, I eliminated books until I reached 12 and could cull no further. Interestingly, I eliminated some books that I originally rated higher than some of the books I kept, but my Best Books of 2020 are the ones that had staying power for me, the books I still think about. I think you’ll find some of my choices a bit surprising, but then this has been a year overflowing with surprises!

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Nonfiction – My Favorites of 2020

Susie — Tue, 15 Dec 2020 11:00:24 +0000

2020 was not the year for me and nonfiction. With so much upheaval caused by COVID, learning to teach remotely, and the election, I simply was not drawn to nonfiction. I’ve read 114 books as of today and only 14 of those have been nonfiction. That’s only 12% of my reading versus 18% of my reading being nonfiction in 2019. I didn’t participate in Nonfiction November because I knew I couldn’t stick with a month of the genre. Still, I liked most of the nonfiction I read, including the seven 2020 releases I’m sharing today, plus a few backlist nonfictions that I’ll be covering in an upcoming post, Backlist Books – My Favorites Read in 2020. You’re going to find some overlap here with last week’s post, AUDIOBOOKS – My Favorites of 2020, since I tend to like to listen to nonfiction. And now, let’s go! (In order of publication.)…

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My Week in Books for 12/14/20 | More

Susie — Mon, 14 Dec 2020 11:00:42 +0000

Happy Holidays to all of you! I hope this strangest of holiday seasons is going well for you and that you’re finding plenty of time for books. I’m excited that we’re all going to be getting the gift of a COVID vaccine in the coming year (and some even sooner), but sadly we have some dark days to get through first. We can do it! I’m also excited that this is my last week of school for 2020 and then I’ll have a much needed break.

On the reading front, I’ve been on a pretty good roll and have been VERY busy with end of year posts. The following have already posted:

Six Books That Deserved the Hype, Plus Six That Didn’t
Six 2020 Underrated Gems to Read Right Now!
DEBUTS – My Favorites of 2020
AUDIOBOOKS – My Favorites from 2020

Coming up:
NONFICTION – My Favorites of 2020 (tomorrow)
Novel Visits ~ Winter Preview 2021 (Thursday)
Best Books of 2020 (next Monday)
Best Backlist Books I Read in 2020 (December 29th)

Now let’s get on to books!

Hosted by Kathryn at Book Date

Last 2 Weeks’ Reads

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AUDIOBOOKS – My Favorites from 2020

Susie — Thu, 10 Dec 2020 11:00:29 +0000

There’s no denying it, 2020 has been a really awful year in so many ways. COVID, the election season, figuring out how to work remotely, and a couple of family tragedies all played into making my reading tastes really different this year. I tended to go for lighter books and that was especially true when it came to audiobooks. Thanks to lots of walking, I made up for not commuting and kept my number of audiobooks up to about a third of my reading or 36 books listened to as of this writing. Today I’m sharing my nine favorite audiobooks released in 2020. I also listened to some amazing backlist audiobooks that I’ll be sharing in a post later this month. Now on to my faves!…

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DEBUTS ~ My Favorites of 2020

Susie — Tue, 08 Dec 2020 11:00:16 +0000

I’ve always been drawn to debut novels and 2020 was no exception. Of the 110 books I’ve finished as of this writing, 39 have been debuts. That’s 35% of my reading! I feel like so many debuts are really special because the author held their story inside for a long time and then worked so hard to put it on paper for all of us. I may be romanticizing it a little, but I so appreciate that initial effort of getting a first book published. Though many 2020 debuts were excellent, these nine books stand out, and more than one will surely make my 2020 Best Books of the Year. (In order of publication.)…

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Six 2020 Underrated Gems to Read Right Now!

Susie — Thu, 03 Dec 2020 11:00:45 +0000

You know how it is sometimes. You read a book and love it, but feel like few other people are talking about the book and you just want to get it in more people’s hands. I think of these as “Underrated Gems.” They’re books that just didn’t seem to get the hype they deserved and didn’t gain quite the traction they should have. That was especially true this year, with SO much else to keep readers distracted, often making reading more difficult than normal. So, today I’m sharing six 2020 books that I think you might want to take a serious look at!

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Six 2020 Books That Deserved the Hype,Plus, Six That Didn’t

Susie — Tue, 01 Dec 2020 11:00:56 +0000

Hyped books! With so many out there every single year, all that hype can be a blessing or a curse. When a great book intersects with a boatload of hype, readers are happy and sales can soar. It’s a win, win! On the flip side, when pre-publication hype gets readers excited, anxious to dive into a book, and then it disappoints, it almost hurts. As a reader you might feel a little cheated having expected SO much and then the book not quite delivering. When you cross a book like this with a favorite author and it gets down right painful! Today, I’m sharing a dozen hyped books from 2020, half lived up to all that hype, and the other half didn’t quite do it for me.

2020 Books That Deserved the Hype

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Plus, Six That Didn’t appeared first on Novel Visits.