6 Books I Read in 2020 that I loved

 Hi pals. I'm back with a post with some book recommendations. So I use Goodreads a lot to keep track of everything I've read. If you don't use Goodreads, I highly recommend it. You can set a yearly goal for yourself of how many books you want to read. This can help motivate you to meet your target. This year, I set a target for 30 books and read 29. I usually read like 28-30 books every year. I'm thinking of setting a more ambitious target next year however. Maybe something like 100 books. This is because I know I should be reading a lot more and I think I can if I stop procrastinating. At the end of the year, Goodreads has a feature called "year in books" where you can see all the books you've read as well as some stats about your reading goal such as how many pages you've read, what the longest and shortest books you've read were and which of your books were the most popular and least popular with other Goodreads readers.

I also wanted to take the time to recommend some books I read this year to y'all. If you think you might be interested in some of these books, add them to your "want to read" shelf on Goodreads and maybe you can use them to meet your 2021 reading target. 

1. Gods of Jade and Shadow by Silvia Moreno-Garcia 

This is a young adult fantasy novel based on Mayan mythology. The main character is an 18 year old girl from a town in Yucatan who meets a Mayan god. There's also some romance between the girl and the god (it's actually important for the plot, so even if you don't like romance I don't think this should turn you away from giving it a read). 

2. I am not your Perfect Mexican Daughter by Erika Sanchez 

This book is about a Mexican-American girl who is a high school student who has to deal with the tragic death of her older sister. She loves literature and wants to go to college to study English, so in this novel we get to read some of her poems as well. There is are also touching and heartwarming scenes about her relationship with her mother and other relatives. I loved the main character in this book. 

I must say, this isn't the first time I've read a book where an immigrant who comes from a non-English speaking background falls in love with English literature and writing and who finds the arts (especially creative writing) to be liberating when it comes to all the other struggles they've faced in life. The plot of On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong follows a similar plot as it's about a Vietnamese immigrant. 

Also, if we're being completely honest here, my life follows a similar plot lmao. 

3. The Marrow Thieves by Cherie Dimaline

omg ok get ready for epicness. This is a dystopian novel set in the near-future when climate change takes a toll on the world and people are struggling to survive. The main characters are all Indigenous and this book is targeted to a young-adult audience. It's also kind of terrifying and disturbing at times because it's inspired by the discrimination and historical atrocities that Indigenous people in Canada faced/still face. The author is Metis. 

4. When we were Vikings by Andrew David MacDonald 

This books will give you the feels. I know a bunch of the books I've mentioned so far were cultural-inspired but this one is different. I know the title may make you think this book has a lot to do with the Vikings, but it really doesn't other than that the main character liked learning about Vikings and is inspired by their bravery and epic mythology. The protagonist has fetal alcohol syndrome and has to deal with a lot of discrimination and people believing that she is not smart enough to be independent. She has an overprotective and overcontrolling brother who gets involved with some really bad drug-dealing gang members which causes her life to take a twist. Many parts of this book are sad but this is definitely worth reading if you wanto to be in your feels. 

5. Aru Shah and the End of Time by Roshani Chokshi 

This is a fun novel for those who like Hindu mythology and want to see some good South Asian representation in children's media. It's inspired by the Mahabarat. The main character is a descendent of the Pandavas and has to stop the end of the world. If you think this sounds very Rick Riordanish, that's kind of the point of this series. Rick Riordan promotes a series by diverse authors called "Rick Riordan presents" where you can read stories about mythology you may be less familiar with than the Greek/Roman/Egyptian/Norse stuff that Riordan has written about.

6. The Inconvenient Indian: a Curious Account of Native People in North America by Thomas King

I love this book and highly recommend it to people who want to learn more about Indigenous people. The book covers history from both Canada and the United States. The author frequently references media representations of Indigenous people such as in Hollywood. This is the best out of all the nonfiction books I read this year.

Those are 6 of the 28 books I read this year which I enjoyed the most.

I'm also just going to list a few of the other books which I enjoyed a lot this year but that I don't feel like going into detail about. 

• The Travels by Marco Polo 
• Don Quixote by Miguel Cervantes 

Those two are classics that have aged quite well because they are still enjoyable today. 

I also continued reading the manga "a Bride's Story" by Kaoru Mori about Central Asian nomadic tribes which I highly recommend for the beautiful artwork and wholesome slice-of-life stories. 

Speaking of graphic novels, Louis Riel: a comic-strip biography by Chester Brown is also another graphic novel I enjoyed this year if you find history to be entertaining and if u think Louis Riel was one of the coolest people in Canadian history. 

If any of you have any recommendations, please let me know ;D  

Have a great 2021!