Local Book Lovers Found More Time to Read in 2020 (with lists)

Updated to include additional lists and additions

Greg Wilson/Anderson Observer

“I cannot remember the books I’ve read any more than the meals I have eaten; even so, they have made me.” —Ralph Waldo Emerson 

“Reading takes us away from home, but more important, it finds homes for us everywhere.” —Hazel Rochman

One of the slim, silver linings streaking the dark clouds that crept across the skies of 2020, is the news of increased book sales.

Sales of printed copies are up almost 10 percent and e-book sales, which are a smaller part of the market and which have been declining in recent years, are up 17 percent.

Meanwhile, local libraries found new ways to serve their customers, and renewed education efforts of innovated programs already in place.

The Anderson County Library System already offered digital downloads of books, movies, music and magazines/comics. Shortly after the pandemic began shutting down their physical locations, they extended service by offering digital library card signups for those who for some reason didn’t already have a card (809 were issued). 

The library also began to offer curbside pickup of physical books and other materials when restrictions loosened. They also provided an additional 139 virtual programs and other activities such as book clubs and at-home craft activity tutorials.

“Books break the shackles of time, proof that humans can work magic.” —Carl Sagan

All of this provided those of us who cannot imagine life without books, easier access than ever.

My father taught me to read before I started Kindergarten. His promise was the purchase of any book I wanted to read, and in the years that followed, he bought me countless volumes, some of which I still own.

Helen George, the librarian in my small town library, added to the magic of books for, allowing me to help open boxes of new volumes and talking about favorite stories and books on long summer afternoons.  

The smell of those books and of the ink stamp reminder when they were to be returned, are burned in my senses. And the stacks of free books I carried home filled hours of my childhood with wonder. 

I wrote of my appreciate in 2019 during library card week here. 

Reading books remains a part of my daily ritual, and this year brought increased opportunities to read more. For that I am grateful.

Others have expressed similar gratitude for this blessing of 2020. Some of those are represented below, others are not. 

The following is a series of lists of books read by some of our community’s venerable readers. They include many of our librarians, and other community leaders from various walks of life whom I know to love books. These are not exhaustive lists, and these folks were kind enough to offer some of their reading lists on short notice. 

A special thanks to Librarian Brianna McDonell for her assistance in gathering some of these lists.

The variety in these lists is wondrous. These books are presented without comment, but represent titles that many will find worthy of adding to their own reading list for 2021. I conclude this list with a few of my own recommendations.

“People can lose their lives in libraries. They ought to be warned.” —Saul Bellow

Faith Line - Anderson County Library Director

“Wrath of Poseidon,” Clive Cussler

“All the Devils are Here,” Louise Penny

“The Informationist,” Taylor Stevens

“The Order,” Daniel Silva

“The Black Swan of Paris,” Karen Robards

“A Minute to Midnight,” David Baldacci

“Dragonfly,” Leila Meacham

“The Warsaw Protocol,” Steve Berry

“Near Dark,” Brad Thor

“Lethal Agent,” Vince Flynn

Annie Sutton - Assistant Director Anderson County Library

“Cold Mountain,” Charles Frazier

“The Brutal Telling,” Louise Penny

“Coming Home,” Rosamunde Pilcher

“One Day in December,” Josie Silver

“The Testaments,” Margaret Atwood

“Telling Tales,” Ann Cleeves

“Something Wicked This Way Comes,” Ray Bradbury

“The Flatshare,” Beth O’Leary

“Normal People,” Sally Rooney

“The Alice Network,” Kate Quinn  

Sara Leady - Reader’s Advisory/Reference Librarian Anderson County Library

“Mexican Gothic,” Silvia Moreno-garcia

“Stamped: the Remix,” Ibram X. Kendi & Jason Reynolds

“Gideon the Ninth,” Tamsyn Muir

“The Only Good Indians,” Stephen Graham-Jones

“Black Sun,” Rebecca Roanhorse

“Caste: the Origins of Our Discontent,”  Isabel Wilkerson

“Mr Penumbra's 24hr Bookstore,” Robin Sloan

“The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires,” Grady Hendrix

“Anxious People,” Fredrik Backman

“Tristian Strong Punches a Whole in the Sky,” Kwame Mbalia

Ivoree's Malcolm - Circulation Manager, Anderson County Library

“Free Cyntoia,” Cyntoia Brown-Long

“Children of Virtue and Vengeance,” Toni Adeyemi

“Damsel,” Elana K. Arnold

“The First Part Last,” Angela Johnson

“The Book of Longings.” Sue Monk Kidd

“White Fragility,” Robin DiAngelo

“No Disrespect,” Sister Souljah

“Pizza Girl,” Jean Kyoung Frazier

“Conjure Women,” Afia Atakora

“You Should See Me In A Crown,” Leah Johnson

Dan Bonsall - Pendleton Branch Manager

“The Good Lord Bird,” James McBride

“How Long ‘Til Black Future Month,” NK Jemisin

“The Resisters,” Gish Jen

“Mexican Gothic,” Sylvia Moreno-Garcia

“Before the Coffee Gets Cold,” Toshikazu Kawaguchi

“Piranesi,” Susanna Clarke

“The Devil and the Dark Water,” Stuart Turton

“With the Fire on High,” Elizabeth Acevedo

“The Argonauts,” Maggie Nelson

“Persepolis,” Marjane Satrapi 

Brianna McDonell - Marketing Communications Manager 

“The Priory of the Orange Tree,” Samantha Shannon

“Hollow Kingdom,” Kira Jane Buxton

“The Mountains Sing,” Nguyen Phan Que Mai

“The Night Watchman,” Louise Erdrich

“Invisible Kingdom (vol. 1),” G. Willow Wilson and Christian Ward

“Ring Shout,” P. Djeli Clark

“Territory of Lights,” Yuko Tsushima

“Mexican Gothic,” Siliva Moreno-Garcia

“The Duke Who Didn’t,” Courtney Milan

“The Empire of Gold,” S. A. Chakraborty

Sh’Kur Francis - Pastor of New Hope Methodist Church

“The Duke and I,” Julia Quinn

“Promised Land,” Barak Obama

"Across That Bridge: A Vision for Change and the Future of America," by John Lewis 

"Reading the Bible From the Margins," by Miguel A. De La Torre

"The Truths We Hold: An American Journey," by Kamala Harris

Steve Newton - Governmental Affairs and Special Projects Director-- Anderson County Government

“Night Soldiers,” Alan Furst

“All Systems Red (The Murderbot Diaries#1),” Martha Wells

“The Last Policeman,” Ben H. Winters

“October,” China Mieville

Austin Carty - Pastor Boulevard Baptist Church

“To the Lighthouse,”  Virginia Woolf

“Love in the Time of Cholera,” Gabriel Garcia Marquez

“Angle if Repose,” Wallace Stegner

“Moby Dick,” Herman Melville

“Home,” Marilynne Robinson

Josh Hunt, Pastor First Baptist Church of Anderson

“The Soul of America: The Battle for Our Better Angels,” Jon Meacham

“1000 Mornings,” Mary Oliver

“God and the Pandemic,” NT Wright

“The Splendid and the Vile” by Erik Larson

“Zombies Don’t Eat Veggies!” by Megan and Jorge Lacera

Kathryn Smith, Author

"Apollow's Arrow: The Profound and Enduring Impact of Coronavirus on the Way We Live" by Nicholas A. Christakis

"In the Valley" by Ron Rash

"The Soul of America" by Jon Meacham

"Promise Me, Dad" by Joe Biden

"All of the Devils Are Here" by Louise Penny

"Ghosts of Eden Park: The Bootleg King, the Women Who Pursued Him, and the Murder That Shocked the Jazz Age World" by Karen Abbott

"Rage" by Bob Woodward

"The Queen and I" by Sue Townsend

"Murder, Forgotten" by Deb Richardson-Moore

"The Mirror and the Light" by Hillary Mantel

Blake Sanders, Mayor West Pelzer

"Hillbilly Elegy," J.D. Vance

"American Character," Colin Woodward

"Suburban Nation," Andrés Duany

"One Mile Radius," Mark Deutschmann

"The Death and Life of Great American Cities," Jane Jacobs

"Triumph of the City," Edward Glaeser

"The Company Town," Hardy Green

"Evicted," Matthew Desmond

And finally, here is a list of some of my favorite books from 2020:

Greg Wilson, Editor/Publisher The Anderson Observer

“The Defining Moment: FDR’s Hundred Days and the Triumph of Hope,” Jonathan Alter

“The Year of Magical Thinking,” Joan Didion

“The Complete Western Stories,” Elmore Leonard

“Everything is Spiritual,” Rob Bell

“If It Bleeds,” Stephen King

“The Chill,” Scott Carson

“The Splendid and the Vile,” Erik Larson

“Nothing to See Hear,” Kevin Wilson

“Ninth House,” Leigh Bardugo

“The Dutch House,: Ann Patchett

“The Passage of Power: The Years of Lyndon Johnson,” Robert Caro

“Experiments in Truth,” Ram Dass

“City of Girls,” Elizabeth Gilbert

“Almost Everything,” Anne Lamott

“The Plot Against America,” Philip Roth

“The Midnight Library,” Matt Haig

“The Ghosts of Eden Park,” Karen Abbott

“The Neil Gaiman Reader,” Neil Gaiman

“The Secret Life of Groceries,” Benjamin Lorr