Story for the Week

If you’re a reader (and I assume you are if you’re reading this blog—either that or you’re a super supportive friend or family member), you probably know about Goodreads. And if everything I’ve read about it is correct, you either love it or you hate it.

I’m on the love side of the spectrum. I joined Goodreads in 2015, and I first talked about the site and “My Year in Books” in my It’s the “Blank” for Me post, where I admitted that I typically have to be drawn to a book cover in order to even get close to reading the book. When I wrote that post in August, I had finished 23 books since January. After my husband passed away in September, my reading motivation tanked a bit, so I only added 5 more to the total in the last three months. (In a normal year, that would be closer to 10.)

For my final post of the year, I thought it would be nice to review my favorite reads of the last 12 months. Let’s face it, no one wants to revisit my least favorite books, so I’ll stick with 3 stars and up. These are worth adding to your to-be-read list.

Enjoy my year in review, and bring on 2021!

⭐⭐⭐ 3 Star Reads of 2020

• The Strange Case of Origami Yoda by Tom Angleberger – children’s humor
  A sixth-grader creates an origami finger puppet of Yoda, which seems to predict the future and offer advice to the boy’s friends.
• The Secrets They Left Behind by Lissa Marie Redmond – thriller, suspense
  When three college freshman go missing from a rural New York town, a Buffalo-based detective goes undercover to find them.
  Featured in What Do We Have on the DVR?
• Night by Elie Wiesel – biography
  An autobiographical account of Elie Wiesel’s teenage years at the start of the Holocaust and in the Nazi death camps.
• The Second Home by Christina Clancy – women’s fiction
  Fifteen years after a disastrous summer that fractured a family, a woman and her sister are faced with selling the family summer home after their parents’ death in a car accident.
  Featured in Skeletons in the Closet
• 500 Miles From You by Jenny Colgan – romance, women’s fiction
  A nurse in hectic London, needing to recover from PTSD after witnessing a crime, does a job swap with a nurse/paramedic/former military man from a small town in Scotland.
  Featured in Long-Distance Liaisons
• Everyone Knows How Much I Love You by Kyle McCarthy – general fiction
  A 30-year-old woman reconnects in New York with a former best friend who she betrayed, and the two fall into some old, uneasy habits.
  Featured in Hell Hath No Fury….
• The Boys’ Club by Erica Katz – general fiction, literary fiction
  A look at a powerful Manhattan corporate law firm through the eyes of a new female associate during her first year.
  Featured in Contents Under (Peer) Pressure
• With or Without You by Caroline Leavitt – women’s fiction
  A nurse and her long-time rock-star boyfriend seem to be on different paths until she has an accident that changes both of their futures as she recovers.
  Featured in The Best Laid Plans….
• Love Sold Separately by Ellen Meister – mystery, romance
  A newly hired shopping channel host gets involved in trying to solve a murder that occurs on set on her first day of work.
  Featured in What Happens When You Marry a Shopper

⭐⭐⭐⭐ 4 Star Reads of 2020

• Unfollow Me by Charlotte Duckworth – mystery, thriller/suspense
  A social media star vanishes unexpectedly from social media, and her followers are determined to find out the truth.
  Featured in Who Wants to Be Internet Famous?
• The Perfect Mother by Caroline Mitchell – thriller/suspense
  An unplanned pregnancy leads to an adoption contract with a celebrity couple, but the mother may lose more than she bargained for.
  Featured in Gotcha! A Special Kind of Celebration
• You are Not Alone by Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen – thriller/suspense
  A woman finds herself drawn increasingly deeper into a circle of glamorous friends, and she would do almost anything for them to like her.
  Featured in Confessions of a Reality TV Junkie
• Logging Off by Nick Spalding – humor
  A man suffering neck aches, anxiety, and insomnia is ordered by his doctor to do a digital detox, giving up all his beloved screens. They are a hilarious and powerful addiction.
  Featured in Poop! Is There an App for That?
• Four Days of You and Me by Miranda Kenneally – teen/young adult, romance
  A friends-to-enemies high school romance.
  Featured in Ross and Rachel, Meet Lulu and Alex
• You’re Next by Kylie Schachte – teen/young adult
  A teenage girl with a history of finding dead bodies uncovers a plot to put herself and everyone else on a list of who might be next.
  Featured in Nancy Drew Meets Fight Club
• Jam Sessions by Jerry Harwood – middle grade
  A middle-school student who relocates halfway through the school year feels out of place until a teacher introduces him to writing prompts he calls “jam sessions.”
  Featured in Memories of Middle School Teachers

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 5 Star Reads of 2020

• To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee – classic American literature
  The Pulitzer Prize-winning novel about racial injustice and hatred in the South.
• You and Me and Us by Alison Hammer – contemporary fiction, women’s fiction
  A man receives a terminal cancer diagnosis and convinces his long-time love to spend the summer at the ocean so that mother and daughter can learn to navigate what life will be like without him.
  Featured in In Honor of Mother’s Daughter, a Bittersweet Mother/Daughter Story
• The Same Ledge by Daniel James – contemporary fiction
  A story of two friends with similar turbulent childhoods and the paths they take into adulthood.
  Featured in There, But for the Grace of God….
• The Day She Came Back by Amanda Prowse – women’s fiction
  A woman loses the grandmother who raised her and is subsequently sought out by the mother she thought had died years before.
  Featured in Who’s Your Ride or Die
• Playing Nice by J.P. Delaney – thriller/suspense
  Two couples discover their babies were switched at birth and have the intention of working amicably together to maintain relationships, but those intentions quickly fall apart.
  Featured in Baby Swap
• You Have a Match by Emma Lord – teen/young adult
  A high school girl accidentally discovers that she has a secret sister—an older sister she never knew existed.
  Featured in “I Can’t Break the Bonds of Sisterhood”

If you enjoyed this post, please comment below. Subscribe for regular updates, and share it with your friends. If you’re interested in starting a conversation, send an email to booksundertheblanket@gmail.com.

^{As an Amazon affiliate, I earn a small commission at no cost to you when you make a purchase using the links on my site.}