Your Reading List For 2020

From celebrated wordsmiths to debut novelists, these are the conversation-stirring books we’ll be stuffing in our carry ons throughout 2020.

2019 was a good one for bookworms, with the likes of Sally Rooney, Lisa Taddeo and Bernardine Evaristo taking centre shelf. Nevertheless, the new year is bringing with it a slew of fantastic new titles. From celebrated wordsmiths to debut novelists, these are the conversation-stirring books we'll be stuffing in our carry ons throughout 2020.

Read our pick of the 30 best books for 2020

Such a Fun Age

by Kiley Reid, 7 January

Reid's page-turning novel offers a darkly humorous commentary on the complicated dynamics of race and privilege when Emira, an underemployed black 25-year-old, is apprehended at a supermarket for "kidnapping" the blonde toddler she's actually babysitting.

Long Bright River

by Liz Moore, 9 January

Moore brings the US's opioid crisis into sharp relief in this gripping mystery and family saga. As a string of mysterious murders plague a Philadelphia neighbourhood, the story hones in on the disappearance of drug-addict Kacey, sister of police officer Mickey Fitzpatrick.

How to Break Up with Fast Fashion

by Lauren Bravo, 9 January

No outfit should cost the earth - and yet it's estimated that, in the UK, 300,000 tonnes of clothing go to landfill every year. Chronicling a year of quitting fast fashion, Lauren Bravo offers down-to-earth advice on how to repair and recycle garments without sacrificing style.

Uncanny Valley

Anna Wiener, 14 January

In her mid-20s, Wiener left her publishing job in New York to join a San Francisco tech start-up. Uncanny Valley unveils the casual sexism, dubious success and unchecked ambition that she experienced, and examines our life-changing addiction to technology.

American Dirt

by Jeanine Cummins, 21 January

Shining a light on the US's border crisis, American Dirt is the heart-rending tale of a Mexican mother, Lydia Quixano Pérez, and her son Luca who are forced to flee Acapulco after her journalist husband publishes an exposé on cartel kingpin, Javier.

Interior Chinatown

by Charles Yu, 28 January

Young actor Willis Wu dreams of progressing from roles such as "generic Asian man" to "kung-fu guy". In this inventive seven-part novel, Charles Yu dissects the impact of racial stereotypes, immigration and otherness.

Adults

by Emma Jane Unsworth, 30 January

Jenny's life according to her social media profiles is perfect - and yet in reality she is unloved, unemployable and emotionally unfiltered. With painful hilarity, Unsworth's satirical narrative examines our age of self-promotion and the impossibility of adulthood.

Brother and Sister

by Diane Keaton, 4 February

While Diane Keaton is best known for her idiosyncratic silver-screen characters (hello, Annie Hall), the actress has in fact already penned two memoirs. In her third, she shares the story of Randy, her troubled younger brother, and considers the bonds that hold families together.

Verge

by Lidia Yuknavitch, 4 February

Yuknavitch's collection of short stories paints beautifully brutal portraits of those who have been marginalised by modern society. Readers will meet an eight-year-old trauma victim turned organ carrier and a janitor who transforms discarded objects into a miniature city.

Apeirogon: A Novel

by Colum McCann, 25 February

Apeirogon (a geometrical term meaning "infinte number of sides") revolves around the improbable friendship between Bassam Aramin, a Palestinian, and Israeli Rami Elhanan. It's an unflinching story of love, loss and belonging grounded in a harsh reality.

Hood Feminism: Notes from the Women White Feminists Forgot

by Mikki Kendall, 25 February

Kendall offers a fresh voice in black feminism. She argues that mainstream feminism focuses on increasing privilege for the few rather than ensuring the basic needs - food security, education, safety, medical care, a living wage - needed by the many.

Topics of Conversation

by Miranda Popkey, 27 February

Liked Sally Rooney? You'll love Popkey's electric debut. The book's unnamed 21-year-old protagonist is navigating a break up. Spanning across 20 years, her story of lust, disgust, loneliness and power is told almost entirely through conversations between women.

The Night Watchman

by Louise Erdrich, 5 March

Based on the life of her grandfather who fought against Native dispossession in the 50s, Erdrich's narrative weaves the stories of night watchman and council member Thomas Wazhashk and Pixie Paranteau, a factory worker pushing against traditional female roles.

The Girl With the Louding Voice

by Abi Daré, 5 March

Fourteen-year-old Nigerian girl Adunni is destined for a life of servitude, having been sold as a third wife to a local man and later, in Lagos, acting as a servant to a wealthy family. Instead, she wants an education and freedom - her "louding voice".

The Mirror and the Light

by Hilary Mantel, 5 March

The final instalment of Mantel's Booker Prize-winning Tudor trilogy concludes the saga of Thomas Cromwell. Readers followed the plotting politician's rise in Wolf Hall (2009) and Bring Up the Bodies (2012); now they be privy to his fall.

Table Manners: The Cookbook

by Jessie and Lennie Ware, 5 March

We devoured the Table Manners podcast, and now we're hungry for Jessie and Lennie's cookbook. More than 100 recipes (including bean casserole served to Ed Sheeran and custard tarts enjoyed by Nigella Lawson) are found across six sections: Effortless, A Bit More Effort, Summertime, Desserts and Baking, Chrismukkah and Jewish-ish Food.

My Dark Vanessa

by Kate Elizabeth Russell, 10 March

Among 2020's most buzzed-about books, this thought-provoking psychological thriller revolves around an affair between a middle-aged teacher and his 15-year-old student, Vanessa. Seventeen years later, as the protagonist contends with her past, the tale raises complex and timely questions around sex, power and victimhood.

The Hungover Games

by Sophie Heawood, 12 March

We love journalist Sophie Heawood's celebrity interviews. Now she tells her own story of single motherhood in The Hungover Games, dubbed "Bridget Jones for the Tinder generation". What happens, she asks, when you have an accidental baby in your mid-30s, but you haven't yet worked out how to look after yourself?

The Recovery of Rose Gold

by Stephanie Wrobel, 19 March

Inspired by Munchausen syndrome as well as the true story of Dee Dee and Gypsy Blanchard, Wrobel tells the tale of Rose Gold who is poisoned by her mother, Patty, for 18 years. When the mother is released from a five-year jail sentence, Rose wants revenge.

Hamnet

by Maggie O’Farrell, 31 March

Drawing inspiration from the tragic death of William Shakespeare's son, O'Farrell's period chronicle set in 1596 imagines the short life of Hamnet Shakespeare while summoning timeless themes of grief and loss.

Raven Smith’s Trivial Pursuits

by Raven Smith, 2 April

"Life is the pursuit of big and small stuff, so I'm chewing it all over without gagging," Smith told SUITCASE about his book. Expect wryly intelligent musings on what goes through his head during yoga class and why Theresa May needs a visit from Queer Eye's Fab Five.

Joy at Work

by Marie Kondo and Scott Sonenshein, 7 April

Bid farewell to messy desks and office agro. Having sorted your underwear drawer (we're fans of sock rolling), Marie Kondo is honing in on your career with the help of psychologist Scott Sonenshein. If your work life doesn't spark joy, you need the KonMari method.

Funny Weather: Art in an Emergency

by Olivia Laing, 16 April

For Laing, art is an antidote to our turbulent political climate; it's a form of resistance and repair. In this inspiring essay collection - featuring a profile of Georgia O'Keefe, an interview with Ali Smith and a love letter to David Bowie - she makes the case for why art matters.

The Glass Hotel

by Emily St John Mandel, 30 April

The Glass Hotel has already been picked up for a TV series, so this book is bound to be a cracker. It ties the disparate disappearance of a woman off the coast of Vancouver Island with the collapse of a wicked Ponzi scheme in Manhattan. Read it before you see it.

The Lying Life of Adults

by Elena Ferrante, 9 June

We couldn't get enough of Ferrante's Neapolitan novels. Now, following a surprise announcement in September 2019, the best-selling anonymous author is back with the story of Giovanna and her painful adolescence in middle-class Naples.

Olive by Emma Gannon, 25 June

by Emma Gannon, 25 June

As Olive's best friends reach the traditional milestones of marriage and motherhood, she questions whether she wants to do the same. Gannon's debut novel will ignite conversations around female stereotypes and is a must-read for every woman at a crossroads.

Fat Cow, Fat Chance

by Dame Jenni Murray, 25 June

The star of BBC Radio 4's Woman's Hour lets us in on her struggles with weight in a world obsessed by thinness. At once political and personal, the book tackles issues such as the obesity epidemic, asks why fat shaming isn't a hate crime and examines how we can become comfortable in our own skin.

Summer

by Ali Smith, 2 July

This is the fourth and final book in Smith's seasonal state-of-the-nation quartet. While it can be enjoyed as a standalone novel, Summer is best paired on your shelf with Autumn, Winter and Spring - the exquisite Hockney-print dust covers prove that a book can be as good as its cover.

How Do We Know We’re Doing It Right? & Other Essays on Modern Life

by Pandora Sykes, 16 July

What should our best life look like? What if we get it wrong? Covering topics such as consumerism, wellness and womanhood, Sykes' penetrating essays explore the anxieties and agendas that consume our modern lives, and interrogates the stories we tell ourselves.

Ghosts

by Dolly Alderton, 15 October

As she tries to piece together her unravelling life, 32-year-old food writer Nina Dean becomes a victim of ghosting. Navigating the minefields of online dating, friendship and family (read: her father's encroaching dementia and a mother's midlife makeover), Alderton's foray into fiction promises to be devilishly funny and relatable.

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