Best Books of 2020

if you win it's emily fox today's video is going to be all about the best books that i've read in 2020 it's one of my favorite videos to post every year just to rave about the books i love also don't forget to subscribe because this is the beginning of my end the year series where i talk about the best the worst most surprising and most disappointing books that i've read during the year i will link the videos down below once they are up but let's get to it because i still have a good amount to talk about i feel like every year about 10 15 of the books that i read make it to this video so let's do this i did read less this year but i still found quite a few new favorites the first book is a very obvious one the way of kings by brendan sanderson i waited this long until this year to start it because i hate waiting between books and series and there are going to be 10 books in this one the fourth one just came out so i feel a little bit safer because they're technically two groups of five so it's not too bad we're all gonna have to wait until we were old to finish this series but i'm okay with it adult fantasy everyone has been talking about it ever since this came out everyone says it's his best work and frankly i can see how that will be the case because there's a lot of world building as usual fantastic magic system as usual but i do think that his characters are actually better in this one than all his other books even though there's a ton of just like starting the story because a bunch of characters uh in this one this is the first book um i can see how amazing it's going to be there's a ton of potential i'm very very excited i will be continuing in 2021 the series for sure but this was definitely as good as i expected it to be it's a very very big book there's a thousand pages but i loved it and i highly recommend this series if you wanted to continue reading some brandon sanderson it wouldn't be my first choice to begin by him because why start with the best work that is you know not even completed but once you get there it's awesome might as well continue with some brandon sanderson um star site this is the second book in is why sci-fi series the first book being skyward which i put in my best was it last year whenever i read it it made it to my best and i adored it i was kind of relieved because it's first why sci-fi series that i've read by him didn't really care for it but this was awesome it's her first contact with aliens which i adore and uh the first book it starts basically the remnant of humanity is constantly under attack by aliens and you're following this main character was pretty abrasive that's usually the main complaint that i hear is that she's not likable but she's not meant to be uh she definitely grows quite a bit throughout the series at least so far and she wants to become a pilot so that's what happens during the first book and to keep things very vague because obviously this video is completely spoiler free um the world expense there's still quite a bit of humor between her and her spaceship which is uh intelligent and uh doom slug always team doom slug gotta mention it every time and yes you just learn more about the world more about the aliens and the story goes in a direction that i wasn't really expecting but in a good way a lot of political intrigue actually in this one and i just need to know how it's going to end and continue because there are going to be four books and book three is coming out in 2021 supposed to so yes if you're looking to read some white sci-fi and you like spaceship battles you need to pick this up next i absolutely need to rave in length about this book the midnight library by matt hegg this is my third book by the author uh the first book that i read by him was the humans and it made it in the best of the year that i read it in and i'm noticing a pattern with him that he tends to write about mental health probably because he has been dealing with this his whole life and it's no different in this book i don't own a copy of it because i'm trying to get one with this edition which is so beautiful obviously trigger warning for uh depression and suicide with this book definitely difficult to read the first part of it but you're following this woman who is depressed and suicidal and she ends up between life and death and she goes to this midnight library in there every book is a different version of her life if she had made different decisions so she gets to try a couple ones just to see if her life regrets are worth anything you know maybe she is regretting things that she wouldn't have really enjoyed is she living her life herself or others and it goes in that direction and i love the teams and the messages in his books in general it was the same thing again with the humans i find that it's not necessarily like the concept is really brilliant the characters are fine the writing style is fine but it's definitely the messages that make it so worth it i devoured this book and i know since i mentioned that i loved it a few of you picked it up and felt the same do not start it late at night you're gonna regret it uh i did that and i didn't want to go to bed and the next day during the whole day i was thinking about this book until i was done with work and i was able to finish it so i've read it in 24 hours it's about 300 pages and it reads really fast but still fantastic messages fantastic uh topic and just concept and i adore it it's something i would actually reread so i don't do that pretty much ever but this one is definitely something very very special and i know a lot of you will enjoy it i do want to put a little sterix uh a spoiler that i will not mention but i'll link down below my goodreads review i will be adding a little spoiler there's one thing that i've made me a little towards the end but we were okay but i just want to mention it because i think it's important the next book i need to rave about is the invisible life of adsilefu by v.e schwab um wow that's all i want to say wow really not something i thought i would love as much as i did the first thing i heard about it was that it was supposed to be a romance book between the devil and a french woman over 300 years and it's not quite that but kinda i do think it's not a better way of mentioning it uh so i'm just throwing it on there this is a very character driven story and the writing is stunning i absolutely think this is a rest work and really not something again i thought i was going to love as much as i did so you're following this woman in the 1700s and she is basically being forced to marry this widow and she just really doesn't want to so on that night she escapes and makes a wish to basically devil not a spoiler um and obviously it tricks her she wants her freedom and he gives it to her but he makes it sure that nobody will remember her so if she leaves the room if she falls asleep or that other person falls asleep or something they just forget about her so you can imagine how difficult her life is and there's a lot of back and forth between the 1700s you know as she's going through life and then the present time as she's still living life like this and again i feel like it's more characters even more about the messages uh less romancy it's definitely more about figuring out who you are in life uh what it is to be loved remembered and i'm gonna keep it vague because i do think it's worth going into it not knowing much more than this so if you i'm sure you've seen it everywhere on booktube everyone's been raving about it and i gave it five stars and it's a romance not really um and i adored it so if you're looking for a new character-driven story to just enjoy the writing enjoy the messages pick it up it's awesome next book is something that i've literally been calling my baby to be thought a fortunate by vicky chambers if you've been following me you've heard of this book and i'm so not done talking about it this is amazing i do think once again this is her best work she tends to write really uh well adult sci-fi that are very wholesome and character-driven and there's always really great representation with the characters and this is no different it is super short it's like 200 something pages so you have nothing to lose really to pick it up and just try it um in this one you're following four astronauts that are sent to on a mission to try and figure out if they can see uh signs of life on a few different planets and moons in a different solar system but again it's more about the messages more about the characters more about uh these kind of things really than like actions this is for everyone that says i only like action-packed stories no um i adore this and i always want to mention it because i think it's fun i like the first sentence in a book when he grips you and in this one it starts with if you read nothing else we've sent home please at least read this so you know something happened but you don't know what so you kind of go back in time and see what happened with them and then there's more science in here than i expected from this author uh but i do think it's very accessible for everyone and yes absolutely adored it by the way i'm rereading this right now have i ever reread a book on this channel it's not something i really do and this one i needed needed to reread it now so it says it all the next book is one of the last ones that i finished like two days ago the burning god which is the last book in the puppy war trilogy which oh my god i was so nervous because i feel like a lot of really popular fantasy series the last book is always the weakest one in my opinion things are just left unanswered and kind of open probably because the authors want to write you know more in this world or something but i like when things are explained you ask a bunch of questions for two three books i want you to answer them i want to know what's going on with these things and i think this was really well done like really well done i am so happy with it um if i have to actually put them in order like one two three uh the third book is the best one of the three books i never say that so super happy with that you following character rin who wants to make it to this special military school this is how it starts with the first book fantasy world there's magic based on gods gods basically drive you crazy whenever you use your magical powers and um i like that the main female character okay that's going to sound weird you know how it's been pushed a lot especially why i've had to see this is adult but still um main female characters being so different you know they're stronger than every male character but yet they're magically tiny and pretty i hate that throw i just can't deal with it anymore but she's not like that she has weaknesses she's kind of morally gray at times and she's just really different but not in that stereotypical way and i really appreciated some of the comments the author made about um cologne music i can't say that in english i'll put it on the screen you know what i mean uh which were fun too uh so yes the first book basically starts with her going to school the first half and then you realize that there's a war on this continent definitely trigger warnings for pretty much everything you can think of definitely look it up but obviously a war a lot of horrible stuff happens and i feel like the second book everything expands the world expands and even more with the third book but it was so well done i was scared at times because again spoiler free but i felt like sometimes like it was going in the direction it was like but then it came back and wrote okay and then the ending did not see it coming absolutely adore it absolute word i will read anything else the author comes out with i believe someone told me that there's actually a short story on our website about one of these psych not really character other character so i will be uh reading this as soon as possible but yes amazing five stars loved it can't recommend this enough last but definitely not least i want to talk about whole trilogy the remembrance of earth's past trilogy the first book being the three body problem um if you enjoyed hard sci-fi very very heavy on the signs you will adore this um the physics concept blew my mind i didn't expect anything that happened in the series this is an adult uh first contact again series the second book is dark forest and then you have death's end and wow i always have a hard time describing this series because again like this section you know the physics in it it's like a ten out of five like it's absolutely mind-blowing and the author i think he's the one that came up with that concept the dark force concept in this one which is one of the possible explanation of why we haven't been contacted by aliens yet because by the first book there's a contact which again i feel like in trilogies it's usually the last book not with this one it starts really mind-blowing and it keeps going but i do have quite a few issues with it too that i need to mention uh first off sexism wow wow horribly sexist uh the writing style is incredibly dry and i mean incredibly dry the characters are not the best but again if you love the concepts and focus on that amazing um but yeah quite a few issues also for anyone that cares the author is problematic he has made some comments about the concentration camps in china the author is chinese so definitely look that up if you are concerned but yes uh i i needed to still mention it in here like even though i've mentioned a ton of negatives the concepts are just so brilliant i feel like i will never find anything remotely like this like ever again so yes if you want to give them a shot the first two books the first half you really have to push yourself through it but then after that it's totally worth it i feel like i'm not saying a lot of positive but still if you have actually anything that is remotely close to this that you you know about please i'm begging you let me know because i feel like i'm never going to find anything remotely like this which is sad so this is it these were the best books that i have read in 2020 that i can't recommend enough hopefully you will pick up some of these maybe you already have please let me know in the comment section actually if you have any reviews about the books i've mentioned thumbs up subscribe because once again you do not want to miss the rest of this series i will be putting more videos on the screen that i recommend you check out and i will see you very soon in the upcoming video bye oh and please let me know your favorite ones of the year because i need to know you

Channel: BookswithEmilyFox

Views: 50,561

Rating: 4.9771361 out of 5

Keywords: best books of 2020, best books 2020, best books, best books to read, books to read in 2021, best books to read in 2021, book recommendations, book recommendations 2021, book, books, book review, book reviews, bookswithemilyfox, booktube, the way of kings, starsight, the midnight library, the invisible life of Addie larue, to be taught if fortunate, the three body problem, the burning god

Id: oA1I4JJDRXA

Length: 13min 35sec (815 seconds)

Published: Sat Dec 12 2020