It’s been quite a while since I participated in a Top Ten Tuesday post but this week’s prompt was one I really wanted to share. Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl and every Tuesday she has a new topic to get you thinking about books and all things bookish.
This week’s topic is: New to Me Authors I read in 2020. I do typically read a lot of new to me authors every year. Last year for example, 70% of my reads were new authors. So I wanted to focus on the authors whose books I really enjoyed. They didn’t quite make my favorites of the year list but I would certainly read more from them:
Bodega Dreams by Ernesto Quinoez. Willie Bodega is the king of Spanish Harlem. He’ll help anyone out but the help comes along with a debt to repay. Will Chino fall for the “easy” life or will his dreams of a future with Blanca prompt him to make better choices? Filled with memorable characters.
Good Talk by Mira Jacob. Like many six-year-olds, Mira Jacob’s half-Jewish, half-Indian son, Z, has questions about everything. How does a mom talk to her young child about race and racism? How would you answer the questions? Thought-provoking and funny and sad all at once.
Scars Like Wings by Erin Stewart. This one made me tear up a bit. Great YA story.
The New Me by Halle Butler. Thirty-year-old Millie just can’t pull it together. She spends her days working a thankless temp job and her nights alone in her apartment, fixating on all the ways she might change her situation–her job, her attitude, her appearance, her life. Then she watches TV until she falls asleep, and the cycle begins again.
Pizza Girl by Jean Young Frazier. A young woman is pregnant and seemingly has the support she needs but she’s on a downward spiral. Athira recently posted a great review of this novel.
The Enlightenment of the Greengage Tree by Shokoofeh Azar. AÂ family story about the unbreakable connection between the living and the dead. This novel is narrated by Bahar, a thirteen-year-old girl whose family has fled their home in Tehran during the Islamic Revolution. If you enjoy magical realism you need to add this to your list.
All the Flowers in Paris by Sarah Jio. Two women are connected across time by the city of Paris, a mysterious stack of love letters, and shocking secrets sweeping from World War II to the present. I preferred the wartime setting part of the story but regardless it was very readable.
The Address by Fiona Davis. One day I still want to go to New York and pass by The Dakota which was the inspiration for this historical novel.
Signs Preceding the End of the World by Yuri Herrera. An almost surreal story about a young Mexican woman who needs to travel across the border to get a message to her brother. Sometimes it felt dreamlike but danger always present.
Two Girls Down by Louisa Luna. When two young sisters disappear from a strip mall parking lot in a small Pennsylvania town, their devastated mother hires an enigmatic bounty hunter, Alice Vega, to help find the girls. I read this just as we were getting news of the pandemic and so I think my enjoyment of this book was not what it should have been as it was hard to concentrate on anything  but I did like Alice Vega a lot and would love to read the second book in this series.
Would love to hear if you read any of these books and about the new authors you discovered.
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I hope your first month of 2021 has been a good one. My husband and I are still working from home so we’re grateful for that and while normally we would already be discussing summer travels given the pandemic we are focusing on some other personal projects but for now let’s talk books.