Deliberate Freelancer #87: My Most Anticipated 2021 Books (and Fave 2020 Books)
On today’s show, I quickly go over my top 10 favorite books of 2020—and the one I absolutely hated—before listing out my most anticipated books of 2021. The 2021 list will include several nonfiction books that could help you as you think about your freelance business.
For more in-depth descriptions and information on my top 10 list for 2020, read my blog post “The Best—and Worst—Books I Read in 2020.”
My Top 10 Books (listed in the order I read them) of 2020:
- “Daisy Jones and The Six” by Taylor Jenkins Reid
- “Long Bright River” by Liz Moore
- “Evvie Drake Starts Over” by Linda Holmes 4. “The Vanishing Half” by Brit Bennett
- “The Family Upstairs” by Lisa Jewell 6. “The Warmth of Other Suns” by Isabel Wilkerson 7. “We Were Liars” by E. Lockhart 8. “Eight Perfect Murders” by Peter Swanson 9. “Mexican Gothic” by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
- “Know My Name” by Chanel Miller
Honorable mention: “The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires” by Grady Hendrix
My most hated book in 2020:
“Leave the World Behind” by Rumaan Alam
My Most Anticipated Books of 2021
12 Fiction:
“Hour of the Witch” by Chris Bohjalian — available April 20 in the U.S.
“The Four Winds” by Kristin Hannah — available February 2
“The Survivors” by Jane Harper — available February 2
“Malibu Rising” by Taylor Jenkins Reid — available June 1
“The Whispering House” by Elizabeth Brooks — available March 16
“The House on Vesper Sands” by Paraic O’Donnell — published January 12
“Before She Disappeared” by Lisa Gardner — published January 19
“What Comes After” by JoAnne Tompkins — available April 13
“My Year Abroad” by Chang-rae Lee — available February 2
“The Wife Upstairs” by Rachel Hawkins — published January 5
“Ring Shout” by P. Djèlí Clark — published October 13, 2020
“The Women in Black” by Madeleine St. John — paperback published February 11, 2020
9 Nonfiction:
“A World Without Email: Reimagining Work in an Age of Communication Overload” by Cal Newport — available March 2
“Unwinding Anxiety: New Science Shows How to Break the Cycles of Worry and Fear to Heal Your Mind” by Dr. Judson Brewer — available March 9
“Chatter: The Voice in Our Head, Why It Matters, and How to Harness It” by Ethan Kross — published January 26
“Remember: The Science of Memory and the Art of Forgetting” by Lisa Genova — available March 23
“Unbound: A Woman's Guide to Power” by Kasia Urbaniak — available March 9
“Four Hundred Souls: A Community History of African America, 1619-2019” edited by Ibram X. Kendi and Keisha N. Blain — available February 2
“The Address Book: What Street Addresses Reveal About Identity, Race, Wealth, and Power” by Deirdre Mask — paperback published January 26, 2021
“The Purpose of Power: How We Come Together When We Fall Apart” by Alicia Garza — published October 20, 2020
“Once I Was You: A Memoir of Love and Hate in a Torn America” by Maria Hinojosa — hardback published September 15, 2020; paperback available August 31, 2021
Biz Bite: No Talk Mondays
Resources:
MelEdits blog post “The Best—and Worst—Books I Read in 2020.”
Episode #51 of Deliberate Freelancer: Reading and Book Recommendations during Coronavirus
Episode #69 of Deliberate Freelancer: 9 Nonfiction Books that Improved My Freelance Business
Read in January 2021: “The Promised Land” by Barack Obama