📚 10 best books of 2020 to gift this Christmas
It's that time of the year to be a good secret santa and stop regifting past Christmas presents. BONUS: You get to borrow the book after they're done reading it, how neat is that?
With people staying home, COVID-19 has spurred quite a large reading frenzy (amidst exercising, gardening and cooking frenzies). Strangely enough, I only caught the reading bug towards the tail end of 2020.
Here’s an alphabetical list of gems published in 2020 that I’ve discovered after combing through endless recommendations and pouring my soul to reading both physical and e-books aggressively.
Here are the top 10 books of 2020, in no order of merit, that you can get for your friends or family members this Christmas. Perhaps this year will be the year that you’ll stop giving mugs, ugly sweaters, static-inducing socks or gift cards for a change.
BONUS: You’ll get to borrow these books from them after they’re done. Books are gifts that keep giving after all.
For the romantic:
Beach Read
by Emily Henry
This is a story of how a young adult accepted her broken family after her cheating father passed away, leaving her with a psychological mess to clean up, all while being circumstantially forced to stay in a beach house that her father and his mistress shared.
It follows the protagonist as she broke free from what was thought to be happiness, with the help of a love interest that gradually became that very definition of happiness, of course.
If you’re craving for an accidental reconnection turned budding romance, turned pressure-cooked love, turned confusion and uncertainty, turned true love, this is the book to reach out for.
Coming from someone who doesn’t enjoy reading romance, some parts were a little cheesy, but in a good way. All in all, Beach Read is a good romantic getaway.
For the Japanese novel addict:
Before the Coffee Gets Cold: Tales from the Café
by Toshikazu Kawaguchi
First things first, I read this book, which is the second in the ‘series’, as opposed to starting with the first book, ‘Before the coffee gets cold’.
I fell in love with the simple and smart premise of this book. Basically, there’s a cafe that allows you to travel back in time if you follow a couple of simple rules. All you need to do to return back to the present safely is to finish drinking the coffee before it gets cold. I shall not reveal the other rules, but it’s, as aforementioned, simple, and brilliant.
This book is great if you enjoy learning life lessons through the regrets of others. The storytelling is to the point and the concept is great. I like that the author jumps straight into the whole time travelling elements instead of building an unnecessary foundation. Instead, the plot grows alongside the time traveling adventures. You’ll kind of fantasize about time traveling the next time you visit a quaint and quiet cafe for sure. I can also imagine this book being made into a movie.
I have to say though, that I was a tad annoyed in the first third of the book where the author kept repeating the simple time travel rules. it’s understandable though, as a reminder.
This book is perfect for fans of short reads. You can wolf it down in about three to four hours (the physical book had just 192 pages, which makes it an unbulky one to carry around too). Also, I thought the character map in the beginning was kind of helpful for readers unfamiliar with Japanese names.
For the time-travelling fanatic:
Before the Coffee Gets Cold
by Toshikazu Kawaguchi
I actually prefer the second book as opposed to this. As strange as it sounds, I’d recommend reading the second book in this ‘series’ first to give a better appreciation of the full storyline. This preference could be biased though, because that is the sequence of reading that I unintentionally did.
For that one crudely quirky friend:
Be Wild Be Free
by Amber Fossey
“Remember, flowers grow from shite, they just need a little light.”
If you’re looking for ridiculous and cute illustrations, a crazy series of random animal insights, and crude life lessons, this is for you. You’ll realise very early on that this is not a picture book suitable for children.
For the friend in need of a wholesome read:
Dear Edward
by Ann Napolitano
The story has an interesting premise centered around a boy as the sole survivor of a plane crash. There is a lot of heart in this book, but the stories seem a little confusingly muddled together as opposed to being tastefully woven tight.
Although there were good reviews for this book, I found myself feeling less and less connected with the individual characters to be spurred to read on over time. I just thought that the book could cut away two or three side character stories to shine better, since it is difficult to execute good flashbacks of so many people’s lives and the plane accident itself.
For the writer:
I Will Judge You by Your Bookshelf
by Grant Snider
There were some pages of illustrations that spoke to me as a writer. Writers or book fanatics will definitely enjoy browsing through this comic.
For the feminist:
Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982
by Cho Nam-Joo
I felt sheer anger at the disgustingly absurd gender bias, but also happiness towards how our far society has come. Being an Asian millennial, I can only, thankfully, truly relate to a fraction of the gender bias in this book.
The feminism movement for equality is still, unfortunately, incomplete. We have got wage disparity and all sorts of societal expectations of what a young woman, a working mother, or a single woman must fulfil. This is not to say that men do not have their fair share of woes, but at this point in time, it seems that women have it worse, particularly in some less developed nation.
I’m including this book into the list because it’s a rather short read that summarises what one Korean women had to go through over the years. While the description isn’t as poetic as I’d like, and many times it’s like reading a factual and almost emotionless description of what happened, it is still a decent read.
For the kid who wants to be cool:
The Cool Bean
by Jory John, Pete Oswald
This is a cute story that teaches kids what it really means to be 'cool'. Although the actions of the characters are a bit idealistic, I suppose that's what children's books are about.
For the child who needs motivation to learn:
The Oldest Student: How Mary Walker Learned to Read
by Rita Lorraine Hubbard, Oge Mora
This is a nicely illustrated book inspiring children to not give up when the going gets tough. As a children's book, the story is light hearted. You’ll follow the life of Mary Walker, who was born into slavery and only learnt to read at age 116. As an adult reading this, one can only imagine the insane struggles that Mary had to endure.
For the child who needs a laugh:
The Serious Goose
by Jimmy Kimmel
This is an adorable story for little kids, with sale proceeds going towards charity, making it a decent Christmas gift.