Favorite Books of 2020 [CC] | Pucksandpaperbacks

00:06 - This list has taken a while for me to compile.

00:10 - I just have so many books that I read in 2020 that I loved. So that’s why this is just called my favorite books of the year because I have 24 books that I’m going to be sharing with you.

00:22 - I’ve mentioned these on my channel throughout the year or I just haven’t given them enough love and so I present to you my favorite books of 2020.

00:33 - Let’s get started. Number 24, I have Sheets by Brenna Thummler.

00:41 - This a graphic novel and I loved it so much that I dressed up as the ghost, Wendell for Halloween.

00:48 - This is about a young girl who loses her mother and after her passing, she has to manage the laundromat while her father is in a depressive episode and she’s just trying to make ends meet and make sure that her house and the laundromat don’t get foreclosed.

01:03 - So, it is just about a girl who is running a laundromat and there are some sheets that become ghosts and they help her and it is an excellent graphic novel.

01:12 - Coming in at number 23, I have Us Against You by Fredrik Backman.

01:17 - This is the sequel to Beartown it made me cry a lot and I thought it was an excellent sequel to Beartown following Benji who is one of my favorite characters from Beartown.

01:28 - So I’m just biased but I also listened to it on audio and I cried a lot.

01:33 - Number 22 is Rick by Alex Gino. This is a middle grade about a boy named Rick who enters middle school and is all about him discovering that he’s asexual.

01:42 - Coming in at number 21 is There, There by Tommy Orange.

01:45 - This follows 12 natives who are all going to a powwow in Oakland.

01:50 - I love character-driven books and this was an excellent book that followed 12 characters and [you] didn’t get confused.

01:57 - The author was really great about giving you context clues because as I would get to another character I’d be like, “ Wait, who is this?”.

02:04 - There’s a whole cast of characters at the beginning.

02:07 - That was really nice. But he also gives you some context clues.

02:11 - So, you’re like, “ oh wait, this is who that is!” and I thought it was awesome and I loved it very much.

02:17 - Coming in at Number 20 is Mapping the Interior by Stephen Graham Jones.

02:21 - This is a short story narrated by a 40-year-old Blackfeet man and this is him telling the story of him at 14 when he loses his father and he’s dealing with the first step of grief which is denial.

02:33 - And he is seeing a figure that is similar to his father. So he is believing that his father is back and he didn’t actually die.

02:41 - It is an excellent exploration of grief and it’s one of my favorite books that talks about grief especially in the way that it talks about the Blackfeet heritage as they don’t believe in guardian angels and I just really love books about grief.

02:55 - So I loved this one. Number 19 is Homie by Danez Smith.

02:58 - This is a poetry collection by a black, queer, non-binary author.

03:03 - I listened to it on audio and it was awesome! It has some of my favorite poems in it and I really enjoyed it.

03:10 - Number 18 is a middle grade, Other Words for Home by Jasmine Warga.

03:14 - I listened to this on audio. It is a middle grade about a girl who flees Syria with her mother and comes to America.

03:20 - It is about her in ESL classes. It is about her love for theater and it is also about her trying to fit in with the American children and I just loved this so much.

03:33 - I think this is a middle grade that everybody should read.

03:37 - Number 17 is Little Universes by Heather Demetrios.

03:39 - I have a whole reading vlog for this. This follows two sisters, Mae and Hannah.

03:44 - Mae is actually adopted and it is their grief as they learn that their parents both died in a tsunami in Malaysia and they are forced to move from California to Boston to live with their relatives for the remainder of their senior year.

03:59 - Hannah has an opioid addiction and it just talks about her addiction.

04:04 - Her trying to get help. I just loved the way that this book wrapped up and as a really long contemporary, it was organized very well.

04:13 - It also does talk about overdose and how it is a privilege to be able to get access to rehab and be able to get help for the addiction.

04:25 - There’s also some side characters who are cis and they wear nail polish and are not afraid to show their femininity which I really enjoyed and overall I really enjoyed this and you can go and watch my reading vlog for it.

04:40 - Number 16 is Cattywampus by Ash Van Otterloo.

04:43 - This is an Indigenous middle grade set in the Appalachians and it follows an intersex girl and it is all about magic and them trying to defeat zombies.

04:56 - I loved this so much. It is one of my favorite middle grades.

05:00 - It was very fun and action-packed and I flew through it and it was very delightful.

05:07 - Number 15 is Don’t Date Rosa Santos by Nina Moreno.

05:10 - This is a contemporary about a Cuban-American girl who is bisexual and she is living in Miami, Florida with her grandmother and her mother has been out of the picture.

05:21 - She’s been in and out of her life and one day she appears and stays for a while.

05:25 - It is about her setting boundaries for herself and it is also about her romance with a boy on the island and I just loved this! It also talks about grief and I listened to it on audio and I just loved this. It was a great contemporary.

05:41 - It was a very food-filled book and it was great.

05:46 - I really enjoyed it and I can’t wait to read more of Nina Moreno’s work.

05:50 - Number fourteen is Ghost Squad by Claribel A. Ortega This is a middle grade that is an ode to The Goonies.

05:56 - This is about a girl who sees her relatives who have passed over as fireflies.

06:00 - One day she realizes that the fireflies are acting strange  and that their lights have gone out. And on Halloween night, they have to try and reverse it.

06:10 - As a fan of The Goonies, I loved this one and I also have a reading vlog where I read this along with two other Latinx middle grades.

06:18 - Number 13 is Check Please Volume 2: Sticks and Scones.

06:21 - This is the final book for the Check, Please series. This is following the main character, Bitty in his junior and senior year of college on the hockey team and it’s very gay and is very good and i also have a reading vlog of me reading this.

06:35 - 12 is Only Mostly Devastated by Sophie Gonzales.

06:40 - This is a male/male romance about two boys, Will and Ollie and it is a retelling of the movie Grease.

06:48 - I love this so much. It is an Australian author who writes an American book very well! This is about a boy named Ollie who moves to North Carolina with his family because his aunt is sick with cancer.

06:58 - They have to help and his job is to babysit the kids.

07:01 - This was so great and I put it on this list because I did not stop thinking about it after.

07:08 - For months, I did not stop thinking about these characters.

07:10 - So that’s why I had to put it on this list.

07:13 - Number 11 is When You Were Everything by Ashley Woodfolk.

07:17 - I love her. She is one of my favorite authors and it would be a disservice  if i did not put this book on my favorites of the year.

07:24 - This is about two girls Layla and Cleo and they have a falling out in their friendship.

07:28 - They’ve been friends for a long time and something happens  where they stop being friends and it is about the grief of losing a friend.

07:37 - It is awesome. I love this because it is such a real thing and I feel like we don’t have enough books that are about friendship grief and breakups.

07:49 - It was just awesome. There’s also some lisp representation. I love Ashley Woodfolk and her imagery.

07:55 - Layla goes to a diner every week and I felt like I was going to the diner with her.

08:01 - I just love this author. She is so underrated. So if you pick up any author in 2021, I hope it’ll be her.

08:09 - Going into the top 10 is where my list is more refined and number 10 is Cemetery Boys by Aiden Thomas.

08:18 - I don’t think I really need to say much more? I just really enjoyed this.

08:22 - It was a great book. It is a paranormal book about a boy named Yadriel who accidentally summons the ghost of the high school bad boy, Julian Diaz.

08:35 - They are my favorite characters. I have not stopped thinking about this book and I can’t wait to reread it in 2021.

08:43 - Number nine is In the Dream House by Carmen Maria Machado.

08:46 - This is a memoir about Carmen’s experience in a domestic [abusive] relationship  with a queer woman and it is amazing.

08:54 - The way that she wrote this was so unique. Each part of “The Dream House” is a different genre.

09:01 - I mentioned in my previous quarterly wrap up that she was on a podcast called Code Switch from NPR.

09:07 - So I’ll link that down below if you have also read it.

09:09 - I just loved this book so much and I don’t really have more detail. I describe it as just a book that you need to read to experience but it is beautiful and I really enjoyed it.

09:22 - Number eight is Stay Gold by Toby McSmith. This is one of my favorite books of the year because I felt very represented.

09:30 - I also have a reading vlog for it. It’s an own voices trans book about a boy named Pony who goes  stealth at his school and he meets a girl named Georgia, who is a cheerleader.

09:41 - He’s also working for a former celebrity helping him clean out his attic  so that he can save up for top surgery  and I just felt really represented by this book, so I had to include it on this list.

09:51 - Number seven is Clap When You Land by Elizabeth Acevedo. This is written in verse about two girls  who are sisters but they don’t know that they are.

10:02 - Their father dies in a plane crash and they find out about each other.

10:05 - and it’s about them finding out who their father really was.

10:10 - They really admired him and loved him but they have different feelings now  that they know that he lived a double life.

10:17 - I loved this so much. I did film a video for it but I decided to scrap it. So, I am going to put the unseen footage of me reading this book and reading another book on Patreon.

10:27 - But this was one of my favorite books by Elizabeth Acevedo and probably one of my favorite books of all time.

10:34 - It is a great book about grief. It has some queer rep and I just really enjoyed it.

10:39 - It is set in the Dominican Republic and it has very hard topics.

10:43 - I loved it so much. Number six is Pet by Akwaeke Emezi. This is a middle grade about a girl who is one day roaming  around in her mother’s studio when some creature called Pet,  comes out of one of the paintings and Pet says that it’s here to hunt a monster  but in the world Lucille, all the monsters are gone.

11:07 - So it’s Pet’s job to try and find out what the hunt is and it was done so well.

11:13 - And Akwaeke Emezi became one of my favorite authors from this book.

11:18 - Number five is Between Perfect and Real by Ray Stoeve.

11:21 - This actually comes out this year  and it is about a boy named Dean who is out as a lesbian  but finds out through his role as Romeo in his high school’s production  of Romeo and Juliet that he is actually a trans guy And it is awesome. I love Dean so much.

11:40 - He is a skater boy and I related to him a lot.

11:43 - Number four is All Boys Aren’t Blue by George M. Johnson.

11:46 - This is a queer memoir following the events of George’s life and it also has really great themes.

11:55 - I especially love it for the grief which i’ve talked about a lot on my channel recently but it suddenly became one of my favorite books as it made me sob uncontrollably.

12:05 - Number three is Full Disclosure by Camryn Garrett which is now one of my favorite contemporaries of all time.

12:11 - It is about a girl named Simone who was born with HIV  and she is directing her high school’s production of RENT.

12:16 - I love RENT, so I am a little biased for this book but it was done very well.

12:22 - She is also bisexual. She is awesome and I really enjoyed how this was done.

12:28 - It was a really great contemporary and I can’t wait for Camryn’s sophomore novel coming out this year.

12:33 - (exhales) Okay, folks. We’re down to the last two.

12:36 - Number two is The Pretty One: On Life, Disability, Pop Culture and Other Reasons to Fall in love with me by Keah Brown.

12:42 - This is one of my favorite non-fictions of the year.

12:45 - This is about a black woman who has cerebral palsy and she talks all about pop culture,  about her life, and what makes things difficult  about her just having to sit down walking in the mall and also talks about the poor disability representation in media  and how it leads to an ableist society.

13:05 - It is excellent and it is a must read nonfiction.

13:09 - And taking the first spot for my favorite book of the year is Felix Ever After by Kacen Callender. This is an excellent book. I loved it so much. I could relate to it very much and I loved it a lot. Um (laughing) that’s why it’s here because it’s awesome and everyone should read it.

13:29 - So, that was my favorite books of the year! Let me know what your favorite book of the year was. And like I said I’m going to be posting some unseen footage  in February on my Patreon.

13:39 - For exclusive videos and monthly wrap-ups you can become a Paperback pal on Patreon for only one dollar a month.

13:45 - I have a lot of fun on there. So if you could become a patron,  I would really appreciate it.

13:49 - Hit subscribe if you haven’t for more content this year and go and watch my 2021 resolutions video if you haven’t. I talk about more goals in that video.

13:59 - Thank you all for watching. I hope you’re having a great day and staying safe.

14:02 - I’ll see you next time. Bye! (Bumblee by Gooseleaf playing).