Whatever grand plans I originally had about the books I was going to read in 2020 went entirely out the window about halfway through March, along with many other plans. I still tried to focus on authors who were Black, indigenous, immigrant, queer or part of other marginalized groups, but when the libraries unexpectedly closed, my reading options was suddenly limited to whatever I bought from my local bookstore or was already in the house. These 42 books span 81 years, from 1939 to 2020. Several of the books link to comparisons of the original texts and film adaptations.

1. You Don’t Have to Say You Love Me (2017) by Sherman Alexie
2. Go Tell It On the Mountain (1953) by James Baldwin
3. Notes of a Native Son (1955) by James Baldwin
4. Race After Technology: Abolitionist Tools for the New Jim Code (2019) by Ruha Benjamin
5. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (1968) by Philip K. Dick
6. Sabrina (2018) by Nick Drnaso
7. A Visit From the Goon Squad (2010) by Jennifer Egan
8. Short Nights of the Shadow Catcher (2012) by Timothy Egan
9. Another Bullshit Night in Suck City (2004) by Nick Flynn
10. The Secret Place (2014) by Tana French
11. The Searcher (2020) by Tana French
12. Charlie Chan is Dead: An Anthology of Contemporary Asian American Fiction (1993) edited by Jessica Hagedorn
13. Lands of Lost Borders (2018) by Kate Harris
14. Dune (1965) by Frank Herbert
15. The Talented Mr. Ripley (1955) by Patricia Highsmith
16. The Kite Runner (2003) by Khaled Hosseini
17. Never Let Me Go (2005) by Kazuo Ishiguro
18. Beasts of No Nation (2005) by Uzodinma Iweala
19. How Long ‘Til Black Future Month? (2018) by N.K. Jemisin
20. Girl, Interrupted (1993) by Susanna Kaysen
21. Sometimes a Great Notion (1964) by Ken Kesey
22. The Secret Life of Bees (2001) by Sue Monk Kidd
23. The Constant Gardener (2001) by John le Carré
24. To Kill a Mockingbird (1960) by Harper Lee
25. An Onion in My Pocket: My Life With Vegetables (2020) by Deborah Madison
26. The Singer’s Gun (2010) by Emily St. John Mandel
27. All the Pretty Horses (1992) by Cormac McCarthy
28. Atonement (2001) by Ian McEwan
29. Crossing Into America: The New Literature of Immigration (2003) edited by Louis Mendoza and S. Shankar
30. The Drunkard’s Walk: How Randomness Rules Our Lives (2008) by Leonard Mlodinow
31. True Crime Japan (2016) by Paul Murphy
32. The Thirst (2017) by Jo Nesbo
33. Mediocre: the Dangerous Legacy of White Male America (2020) by Ijeoma Oluo
34. Tender at the Bone: Growing Up at the Table (1998) by Ruth Reichl
35. Hope Never Dies (2018) by Andrew Shaffer
36. Lake Success (2018) by Gary Shteyngart
37. The Joy Luck Club (1989) by Amy Tan
38. From #BlackLivesMatter to Black Liberation (2016) by Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor
39. Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry (1976) by Mildred D. Taylor
40. The Hate U Give (2017) by Angie Thomas
41. The Color Purple (1982) by Alice Walker
42. Native Son (1939) by Richard Wright