My Favorite Books of 2020

hey everyone how's it going my name is elias welcome back to my channel and today we are going to be talking about the best books i read in 2020 2020 what what a year honestly despite everything that has happened i think 2020 i think for a lot of people as well it's like probably one of my best reading years to date not only in the quantity of books that i read but also in the quality there were so many books i enjoyed reading and loved some new favorites so in 2020 i read a total number of 85 books my most read genre surprisingly was urban paranormal fantasy which was really unexpected but hey i really enjoyed a lot of the books i read last year i can't believe we're 20 21 now i wasn't expecting to go into 2020 reading about werewolves and vampires but here we are i will be making another video talking about my worst reads of 2020 but honestly i have you know surprising thoughts and opinions about that which you guys will see in another video and you guys will also see my most anticipated reads of 2021 this year as well as i might do another video talking about sort of my reading goals and achievements and all that um talking about the books i want to read and everything but before we officially start i would like to thank this video sponsor book of the month so if you guys are new to my channel you guys have definitely heard me talking about book of month before i've worked with them in the last couple of months of 2020 and i'm happy to announce that i will be working with them again in this year of 2021 so if you guys didn't know book of the month is a super popular and fast growing book service for readers their mission is to promote new and emerging authors and help readers discover books they love every month their team vets hundreds of books and gives readers their choice from a curated selection of new and early release titles most of the time you can actually get some of these books a month two months early one of the best aspects of book of the month however is their skit policy book of the month is risk free meaning you can skip any month any time and you won't be charged they also have the best prices for new release hardcover fiction so if you guys are interested you guys can use this code here on the screen to get your first book for only 9.99 it's a win-win situation if you ask me as always i'll leave everything down below and let's go ahead and check out their january selections first we have the dating plan a contemporary romance about two people who become fake engaged next we have the removed a contemporary fiction looking at the tragedies and legacies that impact one cherokee family next we have the prophets a literary fiction about a queer love story between two enslaved men on a deep south plantation so of all the books on this list is probably one of my most anticipated because it sounds beautiful and devastating next is outlawed a feminist western spin on a group of outcasts who search of a better life last and not least is the survivors a thriller mystery about a town that is burdened by secrets storms and an unsolved murder so those are all the picks for this month's election so thank you so much again to book of the month for sending these books my way and sponsoring today's video alright so with that being said let's go ahead and go straight into the top five books of 2020. the five books i'll be talking about they're all chef's kiss they're all wonderful they're all great so i will be ranking them from favorites to most favorites basically the best book i'll save for the end of the video so coming at number five the death of eve ogie by akwake emezy this book was so beautiful for such a short book it packs so much i don't think i've ever read such a short book that has left such an impact before so this book follows a variety of people we are able to read from their povs and this follows a young man whose body is left at the doorstep of his parents home his parents find his body and they don't know the reason or the cause of his death and we follow this young man's story prior before his death in the eyes of his father his mother his cousins and his friends it was honestly really interesting and intricate how it unfolded how it led to his untimely death i didn't cry however if you guys have been watching my videos i'm pretty sure you'll know a couple of books on this list i wouldn't say it's a love story to be exact it's more of someone who is coming to terms with their sexuality and exploring that and not being able to do so and sort of the prejudice and the hate that comes from you know wanting to live or be who you are you guys can't probably see but i've tabbed some passages in here they were written so beautifully i believe this was um the author's debut novel they wrote such a beautifully incredible book and i can't wait to read more from them and i loved the aspect of reading from different povs and we're not just reading from the main character his puppy we're reading from different people you know and how they're affected by his death and his life beforehand it was just a really beautiful thing to unfold in the end i gave this book a 4.5 out of 5. it just wasn't a full five for me just because i wanted to see more of the characters more of vex life surrounded by his family and friends i wanted more from these people there were a lot of flashbacks and a lot of snippets here and there especially from the chapters that we're reading but i wanted just a little bit more it would switch from a different pov to another character like one character for example would only have like a couple chapters and i feel like i couldn't get that connection i would have if i had read maybe more a couple of chapters from their point of view this was the last book i read in 2020 and honestly i couldn't have asked to end it in a better way overall solid debut loved it and can't wait to read more from this author so the next book also a debut so many good debuts this year the girl with the louding voice by abby darey so i read this book in the summer for the reading rush the reading rush was the only readathon i participated in and a couple of favorites have come out of this into today's video this book follows a young girl who is forced to marry this older man in her village basically to help and sustain her family however she wants to break out of this oppressive hold that they have over her and it follows this young nigerian girl on her journey striving to make a better life for herself and for other young girls and for all the other girls who have come to follow it was so inspiring to see where she was at at the beginning of the book to where she was at the end it was such an inspiring story of self-preservation and strong will you know it got me really thinking about how especially here in the us people are always talking about oh you know to be a true american you have to know how to speak full english fluent english and if you don't speak fluent english you should definitely go back to where you came from and you're lesser than the only reason why i gave it a 4.5 instead of a five was because i wished more from the ending i felt like throughout the entire story we were all coming to this sort of not climax but sort of this turning point this really huge turning point in the story we got there but we never really elevated that sort of that aspect if that makes any sense it just left me wanting a little bit more also another debut that i really loved alright the next one on this list vita nostra this one is by marina and cersei diacenko translated by julia metov hersey i said that all in one go be proud of me as you can tell from the author's last name this book was translated from russian i haven't heard a lot of people talking about this probably before reading this book this year i literally heard nothing about this book before never seen it and then back in the good old days you know when we were able to go into bookstores free nilly willy i saw this book on like the bottom shelf and the cover really intrigued me and i picked it up read the synopsis and i was gone this book ensnared me and honestly one of the best things that ever happened to me in 2020 this one took me by surprise because i had no idea what to expect one of the best feelings ever i heard people comparing this book to harry potter just because it has a magic school this book holds so much better so much stronger on its own than harry potter in my opinion so this one follows a young girl who meets this mysterious stranger who makes her do these weird tasks for him when she completes these tasks successfully she sort of vomits these gold coins and with these gold coins she is able to enroll in this prestigious mysterious magic school however at the school they're not learning the typical magic stuff that you would expect at like sort of a magic school instead of a straightforward path to learning magic they're sort of taking a scientific and philosophical way of learning about it they're learning in a way how to manifest how to transcend beyond who they are as human beings into something else i can't even give you guys a really concrete summary of what this book is about to this day even finishing it i can't even believe that two human beings two simple human brains came up with a story wrote it on a piece of paper how to translate it and have other people with a human brain read this book how do i say this this feels like you're learning something without learning anything at all you know it's very metaphorical philosophy philosophical philosophical i can't even say that word you might hate this book you might love it but at the end i think it'll leave an impact something you probably wouldn't expect so 5 out of 5 stars a definite favorite this one was just fantastic it's also a latin phrase if you guys weren't aware this means our life so so much meaning in that title alone so a huge favorite all right so now we are down to the last two if you guys um haven't guessed already i'm pretty sure you guys already know what those last two books are a little life by hanya yanigahara honestly what i what do i even need to say what do i even need to talk about about this book i've already talked about in a video i talked about on twitter i've talked about countless times on instagram nothing to talk about and so much to talk about about this book so if you guys didn't know i read this in the beginning of 2020. i carried this book over with me um from 2019. i started in 2019 i think in sort of the fall and i had to put it down because overall i was just emotionally exhausted how this book made me i picked it up back up again in the new year of 2020 and let me just say i started 2020 with one of the best if not the worst books i've ever read in my entire life i made a whole video about it non-spoiler this book just filled me with such devastating sorrow and trauma honestly i would not recommend this book to anyone i've gotten so many dms ever since i talked about this book asking me if i would recommend it honestly no because i feel like you have to be in the right mindset you have to be in a different sort of mindset because a lot of people have actually saying this book is really manipulative you know emotion wise i guess you can almost say glorification of trauma of how one person can go through so many things just for the sake of evoking a feeling so just a brief rundown this book is about a group of friends and their friendships with each other and the friendships and the dynamics that they have with other people surrounding this surrounding them centering grounding this friendship the glue that holds them all together this is the character that we're mostly following about that we're reading about that we're sort of feeling for and how his past affects him as a person we follow these group of friends at an age where i believe they're in college until well in their 60s 50s so we're following them for a really good chunk of majority of their life it was unexpected because i did not think i would really enjoy reading about sort of character-driven heavy books or pretentious writing if you can even call it that it was just really really devastating and i think um you know the person i am i didn't really have a lot of problems with the triggers however however i implore you to do please do your research in my other video i listed a bunch of triggers that were in this book also there are other reviews on youtube who are more elaborate and more eloquent than i am who talk about you know the things that are in this book and you know sort of the manipulative emotion side of it as well i love this book at the same time as well even though it was probably one of my worst wreaths in terms of like devastatement and like sadness but there you go um five out of five make sure that you're able to equip and handle yourself to read this book because this book not for everybody not for anyone maybe but there it is so now we're gonna go into the last and final book my favorite book of 2020 if not probably of all time if you haven't guessed it by now i'm pretty sure you all already know what it is house in the cerulean sea by tj clune look at this i tap the ever living out of this book i did a whole reading vlog about it um i read this also during the reading rush along with the girl with the lotting voice two of those books made it into the top five of 2020. you guys can go ahead and watch that video i'll leave a link to it somewhere on the screen if a little life was devastating sad brutal and tragic this book was the total opposite polar opposites this book is like a cup of warm hot chocolate on a cold day a fuzzy blanket next to a fireplace this book is just warm fuzzy happy everything that is contrasted especially to this year i think i especially just vibed with this book overall in general because of how just how happy it made me feel this book has everything i could ever want in a queer love story two gay men taking care of these kids with unusual strange abilities in a house by the sea that's like sort of the abridged gist of what this book is about the writing was fine that didn't really stick out to me as much as the characters the characters are literally everything about this book their relationships with each other was such a beautiful thing to read and the romance who would have ever thought that i would love to read a romance about two middle-aged men taking care of kids who would have thought i am begging tj clune to write a sequel to this amazing incredible 10 out of 10 chef's kiss story even if you didn't like even if this book isn't for you you can agree that at its core it's just a really happy found family story about love about relationships about accepting and embracing different things about different people this book had it all for me i cried i laughed i did everything so again this is the one book i would constantly you know every other week go to re-read certain passages just grasping and reaching for some of those feelings that i had reading this book and i am so happy that so many of you guys have dm'd me or tagged me in posts on instagram or twitter and whatnot telling me how much you guys have loved this book i am so happy that a lot of you feel the same way that i do about this particular book this one just just hits different this one just it's close to home in your heart as sappy and cringy as that sounds you will understand everything once you read this book 10 out of 10 chefs kiss beautiful and so on that note that ends my top five books of 2020. let me know down in the comments below your top favorite book of 2020 i would love to know um but yeah that's pretty much it thank you so much for watching guys and i will see you guys all soon with a new video

Channel: ellias

Views: 59,597

Rating: 4.9763894 out of 5

Keywords: book of the month, january books, best books of 2020, favorite books, favorite books of 2020, 2020 books, books, reading, booktube, ellias, elliasreads, best books, top books, all the books, house in the cerulean sea, a little life book, vita nostra book, queer books

Id: dkeKxWb7YzI

Length: 13min 50sec (830 seconds)

Published: Thu Jan 07 2021