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