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 Credit: ReadWithKirby Was it just me, or was 2020 a doozy of a year? (Sarcasm!!!) It goes without saying that we all had at least one plan go awry last year from something big like postponing travel or seeing loved ones or something small like — oh, I don’t know — not reaching your yearly reading goal.
In the grand scheme of 2020, not completing my Goodreads challenge is pretty (read: very) miniscule. But as someone who turns to books as a form of comfort, lacking the motivation to lose myself in fictional worlds during a difficult year SUCKED. I went months without reading something I actually enjoyed — I found myself absently skimming where I should have been hungrily devouring, and letting book sleeves gather dust on my shelves instead of being drawn to their covers.
So now that we’re one month into the new year — which, so far, has thankfully been filled with almost non-stop reading — I thought I’d look back on the books I read in 2020 that did let me escape, even for just a few hours. These are the books that somehow felt both otherwordly and reflective of where I was in my life; made me cry or laugh or both; and let me remember what a love for reading felt like.
Happy reading,
Kirby, @readwithkirby Currently Reading: Honey Girl by Morgan Rogers
 Atria Books Anxious People by Fredrik Backman I can’t imagine a better year for this novel to come out — a story about the universal internal struggles that exist alongside our capacities for kindness; a reminder that everyone you know (or don’t know) is going through something. A group of strangers find themselves caught in the middle of a bank robbery gone wrong and realize they have a lot more in common than they think. As someone who started therapy to finally address lifelong anxiety only a few months before reading this, I have to admit it totally broke me, but in the best way. I laughed, I sobbed, I recommended it to literally everyone I know. Now including all of you!
 Tor Books, William Morrow The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab and The Unraveling of Cassidy Holmes by Elissa R. Sloan Two very different books about two women who are seen but never truly known. Addie LaRue follows a girl from 18th century France who makes a deal with the wrong god and is doomed to live forever but be forgotten by every person she meets. Despite its magical realism elements, it’s surprisingly grounded in reality and more relatable than a book about a 300-year-old woman ought to be. Cassidy Holmes is an Evelyn Hugo-style take on early 2000s pop stars, following a group of teen girls as they rise to fame — and then mysteriously break up at their height. Both novels switch between the past and present, seamlessly interweaving them until suddenly the present makes total sense. *Cut to me patiently waiting for the day 2020 will make sense.*
Get The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue from Bookshop or Amazon; get The Unraveling of Cassidy Holmes from Bookshop or Amazon.
 Little, Brown Books for Young Readers The Nevermoor series by Jessica Townsend Yes, this is a middle grade novel, but hear me out! Reading this series in 2020 was like falling into a soft bed after a long, hard day. Morrigan Crow has been told she’s cursed to die on her 11th birthday, but just before midnight a mysterious man sweeps her away to a magical land called Nevermoor, where she begins a series of trials in order to join a coveted secret society. Instantly, I felt like a kid again, back when I learned to love reading by binging Harry Potter under the covers at night. The feeling of losing myself in a fantastical world came back to me like a muscle memory. One that, to be honest, I’d been worried I’d lost. 2020 may have taken a lot, but it couldn’t take that.
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