In 2020, I continued catching up on classics I’d never read. Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Montgomery, Jackson. Reading these books as an adult, instead of in high school or middle school, or whenever kids typically read them, I am positive my appreciation was deeper than it otherwise would have been.

Rather than framing it as having missed out on them all these years, I like to think that I simply waited to enjoy the stories for the first time until I was experienced enough to recognize the extent of their literary mastery.

For as many “serious” books as I read in 2020, I read just as many for fun. I revisited the American Girl collection, some childhood favorites. Reading them as an adult was perhaps more gratifying, as I now have a more expansive knowledge of historical events and their often vast complexities.

Every book on this list offered something special, evoking thoughts and feelings unique and unforgettable. Each one was an experience in itself.

I think books are like people, in the sense that they’ll turn up in your life when you most need them.

Emma Thompson

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1. The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway
2. Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
3. Everyone Brave is Forgiven by Chris Cleave
4. The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson
5. The Hellbound Heart by Clive Barker
6. The Man in the Picture by Susan Hill
7. The Torrents of Spring by Ernest Hemingway
8. We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson
9. Meet Samantha: An American Girl by Susan Adler
10. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
11. On Writing by Stephen King
12. Murder After Hours by Agatha Christie
13. Meet Kirsten: An American Girl by Janet Shaw
14. Kirsten Learns a Lesson by Janet Shaw
15. Kirsten’s Surprise by Janet Shaw
16. Human Acts by Han Kang
17. Happy Birthday, Kirsten by Janet Shaw
18. She Rises by Kate Worsley
19. Untamed by Glennon Doyle
20. From a Buick 8 by Stephen King
21. Zone One by Colson Whitehead
22. Gay and Catholic by Eve Tushnet
23. Made for Love by Fr. Michael Schmitz
24. Kirsten Saves the Day by Janet Shaw
25. Sherlock Holmes: A Study in Scarlet by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (audiobook)
26. The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende
27. Confessions of a Closet Catholic by Sarah Darer Littman
28. The Stand by Stephen King (audiobook)
29. The Bone Farm by Dean Koontz (audiobook)
30. The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis (audiobook)
31. How to Leave a Country by Cris Mazza
32. The Halloween Tree by Ray Bradbury
33. Meet Molly: An American Girl by Valerie Tripp
34. The Only Good Indians by Stephen Graham Jones
35. LaRose by Louise Erdrich
36. The Ambrose J. and Vivian T. Seagrave Museum of 20th Century American Art by Matthew Kirkpatrick
37. Samantha Learns a Lesson by Susan Adler
38. Samantha’s Surprise by Maxine Schur
39. Happy Birthday, Samatha! by Valerie Tripp
40. Samantha Saves the Day by Valerie Tripp
41. Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie
42. Changes for Samantha by Valerie Tripp
43. Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery
44. The Shadow of the Bear by Regina Doman
45. Why We’re Catholic by Trent Horn