Top 5

2020 has been a weird, bad year, with some lone bright spots: it has allowed me a lot more time to consume media I otherwise would not have, I got to play a lot of games with my friends (stay tuned for a little video game ranking at the end), I got to write more than I ever have, and read more, too. My reading statistics leaned a more nonfiction, around 300-500 pages, and a wide, wide variety of genres (over 31!). I got to my 52 books goal, but just missed out on 20,000 pages, which would’ve been a nice cherry on top.

I thought about doing a top 10 for this year, but 10/52 is just about 20% of books, and I thought I had to be a little more discerning with my choices. So a top 5 makes sense - it’s the upper echelon, the top 10%. I know you’re asking yourself: Thomas, you haven’t reviewed 52 books, have you? You lie!

True, but I have read 52 books. I’m just lazy. The other books in consideration here include: Answers in the Form of Questions, Claire McNear’s book on Jeopardy! The Art of War, The Mechanic’s Tale, and I Am Malala. I enjoyed all of the, especially Answers and Malala, but they do not find themselves on my top five. My original short list looked like this:

Say Nothing - Non-Fiction

Contact - Fiction

The Sun is a Compass - N

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy - F

A Man on the Moon - N

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo - F

Sphere - F

Catch and Kill - N

Friday Night Lights - N

Race Against Time - N

Shoe Dog - N

Answers in the Form of Questions - N

I Am Malala - N

So it was a it was more top-loaded by nonfiction than fiction this year, and by a pretty wide margin, which makes sense. I feel like I took more risks with fiction, but chose what I knew would be good in nonfiction. With that out of the way, let’s start the countdown with, shocking I know, number 5:

5. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

Freezing, bone-chilling, cold. Whatever you want to call this book, I think it’s all of those things at the very least. It’s not too often that a mystery crime-drama aligns with what I want to read, but for the most part, this book delivered. Larsson does such a good job setting up the world, and the rules and laws that even though it doesn’t take place in a system of justice I am familiar with, I still understand it. The characters feel fully realized… for the most part (looking at you, Mikael). The real star of this book is the mystery. It carries the characters, I think, throughout the book. Larsson gives you just enough information and variables, but doesn’t overwhelm you with stupid coincidences that it works really well.

4. Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

Ok now imagine Girl with the Dragon Tattoo but with a better mystery and characters, and you get Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. We lost John Le Carré this year, which is a shame. He was a master of the spy novel. It is not only fully immersed in the spy world, it also keeps you guessing, and really makes you a member of George Smiley’s team. By the end, you feel like you have a gun in hand, ready to tell whoever is about to walk through the door to drop theirs.

3. Contact

Contact is the scientist’s sci-fi story. Written by Carl Sagan, it’s not fast and loose with the rules of the world, in fact it stays away from the fiction part of science fiction mostly. It deals with politics, the future, and human decisions, all while interweaving themes of humanity and religion in a very science-y book. Definitely worth your time. So is the movie!

2. Catch and Kill

MeToo was and still is one of the biggest movements to come out of social media. It has drastically changed landscapes, particularly in the entertainment industry, though many, myself included, never really realized how bad things were. Catch and Kill is just a small slice of the systematic problems that many industries have, but is a good representation of all of them. Ronan Farrow does a spectacular job combining his personal stories, specifically of his early life and immediate (at the time of writing) work life, and those he reports on. Oh yeah, and then he combines that with a spy novel to come up with Catch and Kill. It’s amazingly good, well worth your time, and will change the way you look at the world. It did for me.

1. Say Nothing

This was my leader in the clubhouse for a while. Narrative driven nonfiction was my top genre this year, and this was the best I read. The Troubles in Ireland is a time that I knew about, but didn’t quite understand. After reading this book, I felt like not only I understood it, but was even more interested in learning more about it, which says a lot, I think. Not only worth your time, it will teach you something and make you want to learn more, which is exactly the thing these types of books should be doing.