It’s a new season and there are loads a books to get your hands on. Fall is the perfect time to cozy upon your favorite chair, grab a drink, pull your hair up and grab a new book. Here are a few must read books of 2020. I included fun stories that I’ve added to my TBR and a few currently sitting on my desk. There also a few that I’ve read in the past that I highly recommend. I hope you enjoy!

Transcendent Kingdom by Yaa Gyasi 

Number one must read of 2020. Gifty is a sixth-year PhD candidate in neuroscience at the Stanford University School of Medicine studying reward-seeking behavior in mice and the neural circuits of depression and addiction. Her brother, Nana, was a gifted high school athlete who died of a heroin overdose after an ankle injury left him hooked on OxyContin. Her suicidal mother is living in her bed. Gifty is determined to discover the scientific basis for the suffering she sees all around her.

Sitting Pretty by Rebekah Taussig

Number two must read of 2020. Growing up as a paralyzed girl during the 90s and early 2000s, Rebekah Taussig only saw disability depicted as something monstrous (The Hunchback of Notre Dame), inspirational (Helen Keller), or angelic (Forrest Gump). None of this felt right; and as she got older, she longed for more stories that allowed disability to be complex and ordinary, uncomfortable and fine, painful and fulfilling.

All The Devils Are Here by Louise Penny

Number three must read of 2020. On their first night in Paris, the Gamaches gather as a family for a bistro dinner with Armand’s godfather, the billionaire Stephen Horowitz. Walking home together after the meal, they watch in horror as Stephen is knocked down and critically injured in what Gamache knows is no accident, but a deliberate attempt on the elderly man’s life.

 The Girl With The Louding Voice by Abi Dare

Number four must read of 2020. The unforgettable, inspiring story of a teenage girl growing up in a rural Nigerian village who longs to get an education so that she can find her “louding voice” and speak up for herself, The Girl with the Louding Voice is a simultaneously heartbreaking and triumphant tale about the power of fighting for your dreams.  Despite the seemingly insurmountable obstacles in her path, Adunni never loses sight of her goal of escaping the life of poverty she was born into so that she can build the future she chooses for herself – and help other girls like her do the same.

A Duke, A Lady, and A Baby by Vanessa Riley

Number five must read of 2020. When headstrong West Indian heiress Patience Jordan questioned her English husband’s mysterious suicide, she lost everything. Her newborn son, Lionel, her fortune—and her freedom. Falsely imprisoned, she risks her life to be near her chi. Until The Widow’s Grace gets her hired as her own son’s nanny. But working for his unsuspecting new guardian. Busick Strathmore, Duke of Repington, has perils of its own. Especially when Patience discovers his military strictness belies an ex-rake of unswerving honor. Unexpected passion . . .

The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett

Number six is my favorite of the  must read books of 2020 and my current read. The Vignes twin sisters will always be identical. But after growing up together in a small, southern black community and running away at age sixteen. It’s not just the shape of their daily lives that is different as adults. It’s everything: their families, their communities, their racial identities. Many years later, one sister lives with her black daughter in the same southern town she once tried to escape. The other secretly passes for white, and her white husband knows nothing of her past. Even separated by so many miles and just as many lies, the fates of the twins remain intertwined. What will happen to the next generation. When their own daughters’ storylines intersect?

The Voting Booth by Brandy Colbert

Number seven must read of 2020. A romance book like no otherMarva Sheridan was born ready for this day. She’s always been driven to make a difference in the world, and what better way than to vote in her first election? Duke Crenshaw is so done with this election. He just wants to get voting over with so he can prepare for his band’s first paying gig tonight. Only problem? Duke can’t vote. What happens when she can’t vote. She hasn’t spent months doorbelling and registering voters just to see someone denied their right.

Thanks for trusting my recommendations. They are truly must read books of 2020.  *Disclosure: The links above are affiliate links. These picks are editorially selected, but if you purchase, She Reads may get something in return. This does not impact your purchase price.

Remember to follow all things messy. . .

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