Top Reads of 2020: 5 star reads

Here's just a list of the books I read in 2020 that I rated 5 out of 5 stars. Not, "oh, I read a bunch of books and here are the books I consider the better ones," but here are books I gave the highest possible rating and thing everyone else should read. Like always, these are books I finished in respective months. Their respective reviews are linked.

January

1. The Little Book of Japanese Living (Yukata Yazawa)
2. Tapestries (Rosita Sheen)
3. Witchcraft: A Secret History (Michael Streeter)
4. 30-Second Literature (Ella Berthoud)
5. The Case of the Missing Auntie (Michael Hutchinson)

February

1. We Can Sign! (Tara Adams)
2. Jujutsu Kaisen, Vol.1 (Gege Akutami)
3. Bix (Scott Chantler)
4. Ocean Anatomy (Julia Rothman)
5. Star Pig (Delilah S. Dawson)

March

1. How Birds Behave (Sharon Sorenson)
2. The Kingdom of the Gods (In-Wan Youn)
3. Once & Future, Vol. 1 (Kieron Gillen)
4. Essential Vegetable Fermentation (Kelly McVicker)
5. The Secret Lives of Garden Bees (Jean Vernon)
6. Shrubs and Hedges (Eva Monheim)

April

1. Plant Magic (Christine Buckley)
2. Twisted: The Tangled History of Black Hair Culture (Emma Dabiri)
3. The Address Book (Deirdre Mask)

May 

1. Foxfire Story (T.J. Smith)
2. The Southeast Native Plant Primer (Larry Mellichamp; Paula Gross)
3. Monopolized (David Dayen)

June

1. Northeast Medicinal Plants (Liz Neves)
2. Who Gives a Poop? (Heather L. Montgomery)

July

---None--

August 

1. Ferns mini (Mobee Weinstein)

September

1. The Most Beautiful Job in the World (Giulia Mensitieri)
2. Deep Space (Robert Harvey)

October

1. Shoplifters Will Be Liquidated (Patrick Kindlon; Stefano Simeone)
2. Japan - Connecting You To Wonderlands (Takashi Sato)
3. The Chinese Medicine Companion (Misha Ruth Cohen)
4. Candy Hearts (Tommy Siegel)

November

1. The Frog at the Window (Scott Langteau)
2. Great Pilgrimage Sites of Europe (Derry Brabbs)
3. Frozen 2: Dangerous Secrets: The Story of Iduna and Agnarr (Mari Mancusi)

December

1. The Encyclopedia of New York (The Editors of New York Magazine)
2. Flash Forward (Rose Eveleth)
3. You'll Never Believe What Happened to Lacey (Amber Ruffin; Lacey Lamar)
4. * Attack on Titan, Vol. 1 (Hajime Isayama)
5. * Attack on Titan, Vol. 4 (Hajime Isayama)
6. * Attack on Titan, Vol. 5 (Hajime Isayama)
7. * Attack on Titan, Vol. 6 (Hajime Isayama)

Unsurprisingly, my favorite reads tend to be nonfiction reference types. I finished 151 books in 2020. Of them, 40 were 5 star reads. 27%, that's a pretty good reading year! My GoodReads Reading Challenge goal for 2021 is set for 150 books. 27% is a solid percentage, between a quarter and a third of the books I read. (Do I know how to pick 'em or do I know how to pick 'em?!) Because I can't control in advance the quality of books I end up reading I can only hope I still end up picking solid reads. I guess we'll see. Maybe the manga reading will continue. Hopefully I will hit that 150 and I won't get burnt out from reading or overwhelmed by the world. Que sera sera.  

*Library loan