Best Books of 2020 - Part II.

5 through 1.

5. Postcolonial Love Poem by Natalie Diaz

Diaz communes with the earth and her family with the same startling tenderness used to address her lover. The titular poem sets the tone with stunning imagery:

So I wage love and worse –
always another campaign to march across
a desert night for the cannon flash of your pale skin
settling in a silver lagoon of smoke at your breast.

4. Deacon King Kong by James McBride

McBride sets Deacon King King in a housing project in South Brooklyn with enough characters for 10 books. The main character, a perenially drunk former deacon referred to locally as Sportcoat, kicks things off by shooting a former protege-turned-drug dealer. As the story takes us deeper into the Cause Houses, the fabric of the neighborhood and its deep alliances reveal their origins.

3. Writers & Lovers by Lily King

About Writers & Lovers, The Washington Post’s book critic, Ron Charles, wrote “Don’t write a novel about trying to write a novel. It’s cliche and insular and lazy. Just don’t do it. Unless it’s this novel.”

The recently-turned-30 protagonist is adrift after the dual losses of a family member and a lover. Instead of a suitable life raft, she clings to her creative dreams. If you’re a Millenial with an MFA, I apologize for triggering you multiple ways in a matter of sentences, but please don’t let that keep you from picking this up.

2. Bluets by Maggie Nelson

This is the only book on the list that wasn’t published this year, but I imagine many who read it in the past might have come back to its template for processing grief. It’s a truly singular work that spans multiple genres, ultimately gifting the reader with meditations on loss, longing, and love.

1. The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett

It’s a weighty book disguised as a beach read. I was engrossed in a way that only one or two books a year still have the ability to do, and that’s ultimately what put it at the top of the list. In a year of exhausting news cycles and limited room to roam, it was nice to get pulled into a story for a few hours and wonder about nothing besides where these characters would be on the last page.