2020, THE Year To Read At Home…

Well, I took a blog break in March of 2020 as kid care shut down and schools closed due to the emergence of COVID-19. Most moms/dads took over as full-time care givers and homeschoolers while continuing their own full-time jobs. We all thought it would be temporary. Just a few weeks or, maybe, months. HAHAHA.

To say that 2020 was THE year for reading at home is certainly an over simplification of the catastrophic year, but sometimes keeping it simple (especially in the midst of a global pandemic) is the best way to go.

So, we stayed home in 2020 and read. A lot. Here’s what I read in 2020:

1. How Not To Die by Michael Greger, MD
2. Searching For Sunday: Loving, Leaving, and Finding the Church by Rachel Held Evans
3. Me Elton John by Elton John
4. Forces of Nature by Jane Harper
5. How Happiness Happen by Max Lucado
6. Faithful Families For Advent & Christmas by Traci Smith
7. Evicted: Poverty and Profit in The American City by Matthew Desmond
8. The Biggest Bluff: How I Learned to Pay Attention, Master Myself and Win by Maria Konnikova
9. There There by Tommy Orange
10. Peaceful Parent, Happy Sibling: How to Stop the Fighting and Raise Friends for Life by Dr. Laura Markham
11. Adventures in Opting Out: A Field Guide to Leading an Intentional Life by Cait Flanders
12. Why We Sleep: Unlocking the Power of Sleep and Dreams by Matthew Walker, PhD
13. The Last Black Unicorn by Tiffany Haddish
14. David And Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits, and The Art of Battling Giants by Malcolm Gladwell
15. Normal People by Sally Rooney
16. All Adults Here by Emma Straub
17. Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents by Isabel Wilkerson
18. How To Raise a Boy: The Power of Connection to Build Good Men by Michael C. Reichert
19. I Am Malala: The Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban by Malala Yousafzai
20. The Joy of Missing Out by Tanya Dalton
21. The Great Alone by Kristin Hannah
22. Such a Fun Age by Kiley Reid
23. The Girl with the Lower Back Tattoo by Amy Schumer
24. Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die by Chip Heath & Dan Heath
25. To Sell is Human: The Surprising Truth About Moving Others by Daniel Pink
26. Curious: The Desire to Know and Why Your Future Depends on It by Ian Leslie
27. The Lazy Genius Way by Kendra Adachi
28. The Ride of a Lifetime: Lessons Learned From 15 Years as CEO of the Walt Disney Company by Robert Iger
29. Bezonomics: How Amazon is Changing Our Lives and What the World’s Best Companies Are Learning From It by Brian Dumaine
30. Zero Waster Home: The Ultimate Guide to Simplifying Your Life by Reducing Your Waste by Bea Johnson
31. Peaceful Parent, Happy Kids: How to Stop Yelling and Start Connecting by Dr. Laura Markham
32. Humankind: A Hopeful History by Rutger Bregman
33. Let’s Pretend This Never Happened: A Mostly True Memoir by Jenny Lawson
34. The Effective Executive: The Definitive Guide to Getting the Right Things Done by Peter E. Drucker
35. The Art of Self-Directed Learning: 23 Tips for Giving Yourself and Unconventional Education by Blake Boles
36. Pattern Language by Christopher Alexander, Sara Ishikawa, Murray Silverstein with Max Jacobson, Ingrid Fiksdahl-King, Shlomo Angel
37. We Need to Talk: How to Have Conversations That Matter by Celeste Headlee
38. Getting the Love You Want: A Guide for Couples by Harville Hendrix, PhD
39. The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 905, Live Anywhere, and Join The New Rich by Timothy Ferriss
40. Fair Play: A Game-Changing Solution for When You Have Too Much to Do (and More Life to Live) by Eve Rodsky
41. The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America by Richard Rothstein
42. Next Year in Havana by Chanel Cleeton
43. Call of The Wild + Free: Reclaiming Wonder in Your Child’s Education by Ainsley Arment
44. The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander
45. Rage Against The Minivan: Learning to Parent Without Perfection by Kristen Howerton
46. How To Be An Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi
47. White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism by Robin Diangelo
48. I’m Still Here: Black Dignity In a World Made for Whiteness by Austin Channing Brown
49. The Souls of Black Folk by W.E.B DuBois
50. Happiness by Thich Nhay Hanh
51. The 5 Love Languages of Children: The Secret to Loving Children Effectively by Gary Chapman
52. White Rage by Carol Anderson
53. So You Want to Talk About Race by Ijeoma Oluo
54. Untamed by Glennon Doyle
55. Stillness Is The Key by Ryan Holiday
56. The Art of War by Sun-Tzu
57. I Miss You When I Blink by Mary Laura Philpott
58. The Hate You Give by Angie Thomas
59. The Power of Vulnerability: Teachings on Authenticity, Connection, and Courage by Brene Brown
60. The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
61. Maybe You Should Talk To Someone by Lori Gottlieb
62. The Lean Startup: How Today’s Entrepreneurs Use Continuous Innovation to Create Radically Successful Businesses by Eric Ries
63. Dear Girls: Intimate Tales, Untold Stories & Secret Advice for Living Your Best Life by Ali Wong
64. Nine Perfect Strangers by Liane Moriarty
65. That Will Never Work: The Birth of Netflix and the Amazing Life of an Idea by Marc Randolph
66. Surrounded by Idiots: The Four Types of Human Behavior and How to Effectively Communicate with Each in Business (and Life) by Thomas Erickson
67. Tough Love: My Story of the Things Worth Fighting for by Susan Rice
68. Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari
69. Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance by Angela Duckworth
70. Almost Everything: Notes on Hope by Anne Lamott
71. Value Selling: Driving Up Sales One Conversation at a Time. A Powerful, Proven Methodology to Accelerate Sales Performance in Any Situation by Julie Thomas
72. Expect To Win: 10 Proven Strategies for Thriving in the Workplace by Carla A. Harris
73. The Challenger Sale: Taking Control of Customer Conversation by Brent Adamson and Matthew Dixon
74. Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption by Bryan Stevenson
75. Talking to Strangers: What We Should Know About The People We Don’t Know by Malcolm Gladwell
76. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot
77. Man’s Search For Meaning by Viktor E. Frankl
78. Kindness and Wonder: Why Mister Rogers Matters Now More Than Ever by Gavin Edwards
79. 24/6: The Power of Unplugging One Day A Week by Tiffany Shlain
80. It’s a Long Story: My Life by Willie Nelson
81. Grain Brain: The Surprising Truth About Wheat, Carbs, and Sugar– Your Brain’s Silent Killer by David Perlmutter, MD
82. Work Optional: Retire Early the Non-Penny-Pinching Way by Tanja Hester
83. When: The Scientific Secretes of Perfect Timing by Daniel Pink
84. The Power of Less: The Fine Art of Limiting Yourself to the Essential… In Business and In Life by Leo Babauta
85. Better Than Before: What I Learned About Making And Breaking Habits by Gretchen Rubin
86. Financial Freedom: A Proven Path to All the Money You Will Ever Need by Grant Sabatier
87. Raising Good Humans: A Mindful Guide to Breaking the Cycle of Reactive Parenting and Raising Kind, Confident Kids by Hunter Clarke-Fields
88. The 5AM Club: Own Your Morning, Elevate Your Life by Robin Sharma
89. The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-First Century by Thomas L. Friedman
90. American Like Me: Reflections On Life Between Cultures by America Ferrera
91. 100 Side Hustles: Unexpected Ideas For Making Extra Money Without Quitting Your Day Job by Christ Guillebeau
92. How To B Everything: A Guide For Those Who (Still) Don’t Know What They Want To Be When They Grow Up by Emilie Wapnick
93. Zero to One: Notes on Startups or How to Build the Future by Peter Thiel
94. The Found Tendencies: The Indispensable Personality Profiles That Reveal How to Make Your Life Better (and Other People’s Lives Better, Too) by Gretchen Rubin
95. The Greatest Salesman in the World by OG Mandino

Wow! Look at that! I was 5 books shy of 100 <– an arbitrary goal I’d like to hit one year, but I don’t keep count of how many books I’m reading at the time so come December I’m always eager to see how far I am from the mark.

Let me know if you see any themes emerge from the titles of my selections or if you have any recommendations for reading based off this list.

As the world “opens up,” I’m still reading…