Hi folks and happy New Year! I hope 2020 is nicer to you than 2019 was. I also hope our politicians realise that they need to act now to help save the planet rather than continuing to stick their heads up their …. anyway.

A lot of folks post their top book of the year or their top few favourites. I admire people’s discipline. I am not disciplined so I am bringing you my Top 5(ish) books from by usual genres. These are in no particular order. I think they are all great!

Non Fiction

1. Educated by Tara Westover – an amazing and brave memoir of her experiences growing up with fanatical parents.

2. The Arsonist by Chloe Hooper – a brilliant piece of analytical writing examining the trial and sentencing of the man who caused the Black Friday bushfires in 2009.

3. The Collected Schizophrenias by Esme Weijun Wang – a collection of insightful and brave writings about living with schizophrenia and how poorly understood the condition actually is.

4. Headscarves and Hymens by Mona Eltahawy – a raw and angry account of misogyny in Arab countries and a rousing call to action.

5. David Bowie Made Me Gay by Darryl W Bullock – I enjoyed the crap out of this look at gay music over the last hundred years.

Literary Fiction

1. The Fragments by Toni Jordan – this story is beautifully crafted with lots of ducking and weaving and the end just blew me away.

2. The Moor’s Account by Leila Lalami – I’ve already raved about this one on the blog. This is one of those books that I’m sad I will never read again for the first time.

3. There There by Tommy Orange – if you’ve not read this book you should stop what you’re doing immediately and go get on that. This is honest, heart wrenching and absolutely gutting.

4. The Natural Way of Things by Charlotte Wood – a Handmaid’s Tale-ish story of bad things being done to women by men who can. Holy crap that ending.

5. The Runaways by Fatima Bhutto – a look at why different young people become radicalised, this is sad and hard hitting.

I could legit add another five books to my top lit fic for the year – like The Yield by Tara June Winch and The White Girl by Tony Birch but I shall control myself.

Young Adult

1. Highway Bodies by Alison Evans – queer found families plus zombies equals a very happy camper. Although the straight people were so much scarier than the zombies.

2. Laurinda by Alice Pung – set in a girls’ school, this book is so smart and Pung’s writing is razor sharp.

3. I Wish You All the Best by Mason Deaver – I’m a bit of a sucker for coming out stories and this one has a lot of hope in it. A beautiful debut.

4. Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir – hello lesbian necromancers! People seem to either love or hate this book but it gets a big yes from me.

5. Slay by Brittney Morris – I have also raved about this book elsewhere on the blog. It’s fantastic.

I’m going to save the rest of my faves for tomorrow rather than make your brain explode.

Happy 2020!