LibraryReads is a monthly nationwide list of library staff picks for recommended adult fiction and nonfiction books published that month.  The goal is to “help connect librarians’ favorite books to as many readers as possible, while drawing upon the incredible power that public library staff has in helping to build word-of-mouth for new books, and the important role that libraries play in creating audiences for all kinds of authors.” 

 

This month LibraryReads is offering Voter Favorites 2020; the top ten books published this year that library staff across the country love.  The Top Pick is “The Vanishing Half” by Brit Bennett.  This is not surprising since this book has graced most of the best books of the year lists.  It is the story of two twin sisters whose lives diverge when one passes for white while the other grows up in the Jim Crow south. 

 

Fredrik Backman’s “Anxious People” also makes the top ten with this story of a bunch of house hunters who are taken hostage by a less than competent bank robber.  “The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue” by V. E. Schwab has a fantasy element but is mostly a moving book about what it is like to live an immortal life in which no one remembers you.  Until the day, someone does. 

 

“Mexican Gothic” by Silvia Moreno-Garcia is “a perfect gothic mystery” according to the LibraryReads recommender about a Mexican socialite who is sent by her father to check on her cousin in a remote mansion. 

 

“Transcendent Kingdom” by Yaa Gyasi is another book that can be found on all the Best Books lists.  It is the story of a student who tries to understand why her brother is addicted and her mother depressed. 

 

“The Midnight Library” by Matt Haig involves a woman who finds that every book in a strange library is about what her life could have been if she had chosen differently. 

 

“Caste” by Isabel Wilkerson looks at how three different societies implemented caste including the United States and how it has influenced all our lives.  “The Splendid and the Vile” by Erik Larson is the vivid retelling of Churchill’s early days as Prime Minister during World War II. 

Dear Edward” by Ann Napolitano and “My Dark Vanessa” by Kate Elizabeth Russell round out their recommendations.