My Reading Year - 2020

2020 was my year of reading women. All the books I read this year were written by women, and while my commitment to reading female authors this year meant some of the male authors I would normally have read were pushed to the sidelines, I took comfort and inspiration in the female voice during this most challenging year.

The pandemic impacted my reading. I was not completely locked in like some of my family and friends - there were no sourdough starters and home DIY projects for me. But my work was all consuming, creating an emotional drain and perpetual anxiety that at times would prevent me from taking my usual pleasure in reading. Once I got my mojo back, I found that reading allowed me the escape I desperately needed, taking me to new worlds and new experiences.

My reading goal for 2020 was 30 books with a focus on fiction, which I achieved by reading 31 titles this year. When planning for 2020 at the start of the year, I did not really name any specific titles, which served me well as I went wherever my interests took me.  Instead I used the reading bingo card I created to help me diversify my reading and my achievements are highlighted below. 

B	I	N	G	O
19th Century Classic	First Novel in a Series	Lesser known Book  by a Famous Author	Features Strong  Female Protagonist	Short Story Collection
Essay Collection	Pre-19th Century Classic	Banned Book	Fiction Based on a True Story	Australian Literary  Prize Longlister
Book on the 1001 List	Women's Prize  Longlister	20th Century Classic	Set in the Future	New York Times Bestseller
Set in Space or at Sea	Mystery or Crime Novel	Booker Prize  Longlister	Published in 2020	Book with a  colour in title
Current Affairs / Politics	Biography  or Memoir	Set during Wartime	Poetry  Collection	Adapted into a Film/TV Show

So here's what I read in 2020:

Fiction

This year I was determined to read some old paperbacks that have been gathering dust on my bookshelves for a long time. Long-neglected titles I read included Muriel Spark's The Driver's Seat (1970), Edith Wharton's Bunner Sisters (1916) and Daphne Du Maurier's Jamaica Inn (1936). While I enjoyed some more than others, I was pleased to have explored these titles and finally read them.

I continued my discovery of Patricia Highsmith's novels and read three in rapid succession. The Tremor of Forgery (1969), This Sweet Sickness (1960) and The Two Faces of January were great fun and these page-turning novels helped me to get my reading mojo back by allowing me to travel in my mind to far-flung locales. I could have easily continued on to read many more Highsmith novels from her extensive works, but decided to pursue other titles instead lest it become the Year of Reading Highsmith!

The Stella Prize Longlist provided me with many hours of reading pleasure. From this list I read two collection of short stories - Josephine Rowe's Here Until August (2019) and Joey Bui's Lucky Ticket (2019) - from authors I would never have otherwise read. I also loved Charlotte Wood's The Weekend (2019), about four older women who have been lifelong friends despite having very little in common. I am disappointed that I did not get to read Tara June Winch's The Yield (2019) but it lies on my bedside table waiting!

Recommendations from friends introduced me to some wonderful titles. I absolutely loved Madeline Miller's Circe (2019). This feminist retelling of this ancient myth from the perspective of Circe, made me long to travel to Greece and reignited my interest in classics. Curtis Sittenfeld's Rodham (2020) was a fascinating alternative history of the Clintons with Hillary dumping Bill and forging a new path on her own. Another alternative perspective on a real person, Kate Grenville's novel A Room Made of Leaves (2020) about Elizabeth Macarthur was simply wonderful. 

I love a good crime thriller and this year I read a few that I would recommend (in addition to the Highsmith novels above).  Jane Harper is always fantastic and her latest novel The Survivors (2020) is excellent. Set in Tasmania, Harper creates an incredible sense of place which provides a backdrop to the twisty-turny crime drama. The newly released Robert Galbraith (JK Rowling) novel, Troubled Blood (2020), continues the Cormoran Strike/Robin Ellacott adventures and is a gripping novel. Sarah Bailey's debut The Dark Lake (2017) is great and I look forward to getting to know Detective Sergeant Gemma Woodstock better in Bailey's subsequent novels. 

I know a book has made a real impact on me when I think about it for days/weeks/months after and long to discuss it with others. This year there were a handful of incredible novels that made a lasting impact.  I read My Dark Vanessa (2020) by Kate Elizabeth Russell and immediately passed it on to two of my friends and we engaged in a lot of discussion about the way in which young people are groomed, shamed and traumatised. Emily St John Mandel's Station Eleven (2014) had me gripped from the first page with its story about the aftermath of a global pandemic. Finally, Maggie O'Farrell's masterpiece, Hamnet (2020) - winner of the Women's Prize for Fiction - is undoubtedly my favourite novel of the year and the one I have most often recommended to others. 

Non-Fiction

Investigative journalists wrote most of the non-fiction I consumed this year.

I began the year reading a fascinating work of non-fiction by Lisa Taddeo. Three Women explores the sexual lives of three young Americans over a decade.  My friends and I discussed this book a lot (along with My Dark Vanessa) as it was such a strangely compelling work. Another book that got me talking was Michelle McNamara's I'll Be Gone in the Dark (2018) a true crime story about McNamara's quest to solve the decades-old mystery of California's Golden State Killer. 

Julia Baird's Phosphorescence (2020) was just what I needed mid-pandemic when my resilience was wearing thin. Baird is such an excellent writer and in this book she encourages readers to slow down and pay attention to the world around us. It is a magical read and one I have recommended and/or gifted to many people this year. 

The Stella Prize Longlist can also take credit for two non-fiction books I read this year. Mandy Ord's memoir When One Person Dies the World is Over (2019) is a remarkable year-long diary in four panel comic form. While I have read many graphic novels, this is the first graphic non-fiction work I have read. Winner of this year's Stella Prize is Jess Hill's See What You Made Me Do (2019), an incredible investigation into the causes and impacts of domestic abuse. 

Other works I really enjoyed include Amy Goldstein's Janesville - an American Story (2017) about the demise of the auto industry in Wisconsin and its impact on society, Helen Garner's diaries One Day I'll Remember This (2020) and Katherine Murphy's Quarterly Essay - The End of Certainty (2020).

While I really enjoyed all the non-fiction I read this year, if I had to choose one favourite, without hesitation I would select Jess Hill's See What You Made Me Do (2019). I am so thrilled that Jess Hill has been lauded for this important work and I hope that as the book is released in the UK and America it will turn the spotlight on this issue in those countries as well. Despite the heavy subject matter, it is an essential read.

Best of 2020
I read so many great books this year. I loved and highly recommend:

• Madeline Miller - Circe
• Emily St John Mandel - Station Eleven
• Kate Elizabeth Russell - My Dark Vanessa 
• Jane Harper - The Survivors
• Charlotte Wood - The Weekend 
• Kate Grenville - A Room Made of Leaves 

If I had to choose my absolute favourites, I would pick Maggie O'Farrell's Hamnet (2020) and Jess Hill's See What You Made Me Do.

Postcards from Sydney

The second volume of Helen Garner's diaries, One Day I'll Remember This (2020), focusses on the period 1987-1995. It is time of transition for Garner as she has moved to Sydney after the end of her marriage to F.  She begins an affair with V, another writer, who is married when they meet. Now in her late forties, she is experiencing the onset of menopause and the invisibility of women as they age. 

During this period, Garner is busily working on a screenplay (The Last Days of Chez Nous), a novel (Cosmo Cosmolino), a work of non-fiction (The First Stone) and writing film reviews. She is invited to literary festivals and takes up a residency in New York City. These are years of great professional output, and her diaries give insight to her process and her insecurities as a writer. She writes

'I will probably never write anything large, lasting, solid or influential. Is this a proper life I am leading?' (p134)

We know now that nothing could be further from the truth, but I wonder how much of her insecurity might have come from her relationship with V.  Eventually V will leave his wife, Helen will move in with him, and in 1992 they will marry. V is Murray Bail, author of award-winning novels Homesickness (1980) and Eucalyptus (1998) among others. The two have completely different approaches as writers, and throughout the diaries it is clear that Bail put his own needs above Garner's. 

Garner's relationship with Bail is a mystery to me. As seen through her eyes, Bail is arrogant, privileged and uncompromising. He may have been inspiring to her as an intellectual and creative, but he is no real partner to her. She describes their interactions and there were many times where I was angered on her behalf for his behaviour.

Like her previous volume of diaries, Yellow Notebook: Diaries Volume 1 - 1978-1987 (2019) Garner is at her unfiltered best when writing about the world around her. She is vulnerable, witty and curious. Her relationships with friends are fascinating, particularly where they intersect with her work - as they do when she publishes Cosmo Cosmolino which alienates certain friends. Her family too is interesting - particularly the interactions between Helen's father and her partner. 

What comes across strongly in One Day I'll Remember This is Helen's longing to find a home. She writes about her displacement, of not being settled in Sydney, and her desire to have place she feels at home in. There is a tinge of sadness throughout these diaries, despite the professional success. 

The publication of these diaries is a huge gift to Garner fans but may also appeal to aspiring writers. I look forward to the next instalment. 

Cold Case

Forty years ago Dr Margot Bamborough left her GP clinic after working late, rushing to meet a girlfriend at a local pub in Clerkenwell, London. She never arrived, disappearing without a trace. Her daughter Anna, an infant at the time of Margot's disappearance, needs closure and engages London's most famous detective, Cormoran Strike, to find the truth of what happened.

Troubled Blood (2020) is the fifth instalment of the Cormoran Strike series by Robert Galbraith (JK Rowling). It is a whopper of a novel (at 900 pages it is almost double the length of the first Strike book - The Cuckoo's Calling) with so many twists, subplots, red herrings and intrigue that it can be a challenge to keep all the threads of the story together in the reader's mind. But for fans of the series there is a lot on offer as we see the lead characters of Strike and his business partner Robin Ellacott develop and their relationship mature. Plus there is a cracker of a mystery to solve.

What I love about this series is how the main characters are depicted as complex, whole people. Often in crime novels the protagonists are all about the job and you don't get to see the impact of their personal lives on their work. In Troubled Blood, both Strike and Ellacott are juggling the pressures of work and family. Strike's beloved aunt is battling terminal illness, his father is trying to reconnect, and various step/half siblings and his former flame Charlotte are vying for his attention. Meanwhile Robin is divorcing her husband, fending off unwanted attention from a work colleague, and figuring out that the unconventional lifestyle of a private detective is what she wants from her career. Rowling has created well-rounded, fallible and endearing characters, especially for her two leads.

There is so much controversy around this novel that it cannot go unmentioned. Even before the book was published there were calls for it to be banned by people who consider JK Rowling transphobic from her comments about gender identity, which she revealed on Twitter and in an essay. I do not agree with or condone her views in any way, but I also do not believe she should be cancelled. 

That is not to say that gender is not explored in this novel, it most definitely is: abortion, pornography, sexual harassment, sexuality, reproductive rights, motherhood, rape, domestic violence and more permeate Troubled Blood.  Plus, as the plot revolves around a cold case, many of these issue are explored in two time horizons from the 1970s and 2016 which makes for a more nuanced read. 

I have previously read and enjoyed Robin and Strike's adventures in The Cuckoo's Calling (2013), The Silkworm (2014), Career of Evil (2016) and Lethal White (2018). For the first time I listened to the audiobook of Troubled Blood, performed by Robert Glenister while reading the text alongside and greatly enjoyed his characterisation. Highly recommended.