Some years ago, I realized that I wasn’t reading much. Like, I was big time not reading much. I wanted to change that so I started reading much. (Terrible sentences, I know.) And, as is my nature, once I was reading much (I’m just going with it now, I’m sorry), I continued to read much. 2020 was, I believe, the third year in a row in which I completed 52 books. The vast majority of them were consumed through the audiobook format but reading is reading no matter how you do the reading in my book. As much as I like reading, I like making lists even more so here is my list of all 52 of my 2020 reads ranked from worst to first. Two of the books are combined because they are part of the same series and I read them back-to-back (and they’re of about the same general quality) and one of my reads, “Ready Player One”, is not included herein because I have read it several times.
50. Alice Isn’t Dead - Joseph Fink (Audiobook)
One of the first books I read this year and the only one I’d mark down as actually a bad book. The best thing I can say about “Alice” is it’s short. Otherwise, my “never quit in the middle of a book” policy would’ve been put to the test.
49. Of Dice and Men - David M. Ewalt (Audiobook)
I enjoyed the parts of this book that concerned the history of Dungeons and Dragons and its creators. Less so the parts concerning Ewalt’s own on and off history of playing the game. I generally appreciate an author tying his or her own story to the subject matter in a book or article but felt that element fell flat here.
48. Console Wars - Blake J. Harris (eBook)
Harris’ tome on the battle between Nintendo and Sega in the 80’s and 90’s was well-sourced and thorough. Unfortunately, it was also incredibly droll. I’m not a prolific reader of business-related books but “Console” in particular was laborious to get through in parts and dragged on and on too often.
47. What Should Be Wild - Julia Fine (Audiobook)
It turns out that I read several modern fairy tale-esque books in 2020, although I certainly didn’t set out to do so. The set up for “Wild” was decent and then there was a solid two-hour listening stretch in which I thought the book really found its groove but ultimately it settled back into “this is fine” territory and became mostly forgettable.
46. Solar War and Lost Colony - Albert G. Riddle (Audiobooks)
I read these books back to back, having read the first in the series (“Winter World”) near the end of 2019. Ultimately, I felt the first book was much better than the follow ups and that Riddle ran out of steam on his story early in “Lost Colony.” This pair was enjoyable enough but I think the trilogy as a whole would’ve been better served as one well-edited book instead of a series.
45. How to Defeat a Demon Knight - Andrew Rowe (Audiobook)
The first (of several!) free Audible titles that were added through the course of the year, “Demon Knight” had a fun concept that lost my interest somewhere in the second act. I think it was somewhat stuck between a children’s book and a YA book and ultimately needed to pick a lane. Still, it was fun enough and I’d be interested in Rowe’s future works.
44. Nut Jobs - Marc Fennell (Audiobook)
A big feature in the free title section of Audible is a large collection of true crime books. I’m not big on Murder Books revolving around grisly deaths but I do love a good heist story which accounts for a handful of entries on this list. “Nut” involves the theft of, you guessed it, trucks full of freshly harvested nuts and it made for a fun, albeit too light, read.
43. Sisters - Dervla McTiernan (Audiobook)
The weakest of the three McTiernan’s I read this year, “Sisters” is a fine add-on short read to the more substantial stories of Cormac Reilly, McTiernan’s Irish detective. This one BARELY qualifies as a book given its short length but I listened to it back to back with an even shorter book in this series that I didn’t add to my list so I feel like the two combined equal one book. Sue me.
42. Terminus - Peter Clines (Audiobook)
Clines is not super consistent but he is quite prolific and I like the semi-connected world he’s created with the Threshold Universe, even when they are often uneven. “Terminus” is, I think, probably the worst of the series thus far but it had some strong moments and some solid characters that made it easy to stick with.
41. Nothing More Dangerous - Allen Eskens (Audiobook)
I read Eskens’ breakout book “The Life We Bury” a couple years ago and liked it quite a bit. “Nothing” is a more relevant, significant story but a lesser book overall, I think, but it is apparently a book he’s had on the backburner for years and I respect that he went back to write it before carrying on with the series he launched with “Bury.”
40. Heist - Jeff Diament (Audiobook)
Another heist book from Audible, this one involved a semi-famous Loomis Fargo theft in the 90’s by a group of very dumb criminals. This book was adapted as Masterminds, a movie with Zack Galifianakis and Kristen Wiig that no one saw (and rightly so). The biggest take away from this book is how easy it would’ve been for this crew to pull this off had they only been smart enough to just keep their mouths shut. When I pull my heist, no one will ever catc- I’ve already said too much. Disregard.
39. The Big Heist - Anthony DeStefano (Audiobook)
Oh wow, another heist book! This one concerns the Lufthansa heist of 1978 perpetrated by members of the New York City branch of the mob. If you’ve seen Goodfellas, this is a key part of the plot and much of the information regarding this story comes from Henry Hill (Ray Liotta), the central figure in the film. It’s a very well-researched and sourced book but it also dragged far more than I expected for an eight-hour read about a mob heist. I thought DeStefano perhaps went too long on some of the ancillary details and could’ve streamlined it a bit more.
38. Billion Dollar Fantasy - Albert Chen (Audiobook)
I think my fantasy football days are over but I have spent a ton of time playing fantasy sports over the years. “Billion Dollar” focused on the rise of daily fantasy sports and the companies, like Draft Kings and Fanduel, that brought the game to the forefront. Nothing spectacular but an easy, enjoyable read overall.
37. Super Mario - Jeff Ryan (Audiobook)
A much less comprehensive, but much less tedious, read than “The Console Wars.” This one focused more on Mario the character and the games he’s featured in than on the entire history of Nintendo and I think that targeting helped the writing as well as my own listening/reading.
36. The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet - Becky Chambers (Audiobook)
There are some real Firefly/Serenity vibes to this book and I think Chambers created some fun characters and settings. The issue for me was the plotting which dragged heavily in places and tried my patience more than I would’ve expected from an accessible work of science fiction like this is. “Angry Planet” is a 14-hour book that I probably would’ve wanted to be ten hours. I think that will ultimately hold me back from continuing the series which is a bummer given that, again, I really dug the universe and the characters therein.
35. Ready Player Two - Ernest Cline (Audiobook)
“Ready Player One” is one of my favorite books if not my actual favorite. I’ve re-read it a few times and always thoroughly enjoy the read while I understand why it doesn’t work for some. I expected “RP2” to be a letdown in comparison and tempered my expectations before reading but was still mildly disappointed. I think the book is fine and will make a good movie but I can’t say I’m excited to re-read this one anytime soon.
34. The Scholar - Dervla McTiernan (Audiobook)
“The Scholar” is a bit of a drop off from the first Cormac Reilly book in this series (see below) but still had an interesting premise with solid execution. I really like the reader of these books (Aoife McMahon) and I think her voice adds something to the overall experience.
33. Polar Vortex - Matthew Mather (Audiobook)
Can I confess to you, dear reader, that I am very interested in plane disappearances? I’m pretty sure that’s the main reason why I picked this one up. I thought this was going to be more dime store sci-fi than the mystery/survival fare it turned out to be. But still, it was a light, harmless read that held my attention in some places and sank into the background of my office hours in others. Obviously if you’re as interested in plane disappearances as I am, you stopped reading after you saw “plane disappearances” in the first sentence and have already begun reading this one. I get it.
32. Movies (and Other Things) - Shea Serrano (Book)
I love Serrano’s writing style and I have enjoyed his previous books, “The Rap Year Book” and “Basketball (and Other Things)” quite a bit. In fact, “The Rap Year Book” was my number one favorite read of 2017. This one, though, didn’t hit the mark for me quite as much as his previous efforts. I think it came down to the fact that our movie tastes do not align very often and I found myself gritting my teeth through his praise of movies I think are terrible. I’m sure he would say the same about my movie tastes if I were to ever publish a book.
31. Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore - Robin Sloan (eBook)
This is another book that I thought was going to be a bit more sci-fi than it turned out to be but still enjoyed nonetheless. It’s a bit bumpy; in fact, I think I recommended this to a friend when I was about half-way through the book then retracted my recommendation as I continued to read then ultimately re-instated said recommendation. So, in essence, I quite enjoyed the first and third act and struggled with the second.
30. Moon Over Soho - Ben Aaronovitch (Audiobook)
I read the first book in this series (“Rivers of London”) last year on the recommendation of a like-minded friend and enjoyed it quite a bit. Then I moved away from the series and forgot about it until that same friend mentioned the series again, at which point I read this book and once again quite enjoyed it. This series (much like “The Invisible Library” below) scratches the Neil Gaiman itch even if they are much more pulpy and less Literary with a capital L. It’s all magic and jazz and the seedy streets of London and I look forward to (apparently) reading one a year but no more than one a year for the rest of my life.
29. Force of Nature - Jane Harper (Audiobook)
I’m not a mystery reader but a few mystery titles find their way into my eyes or ears each year, usually when I’m looking for a semi-short, easy read coming off of a longer/more serious piece of nonfiction. Such was the case with “Force of Nature”, which I read right after completing “How to Be an Anti-Racist” (see below). The book served as a pleasant and much needed decompression. I’d say it’s a bit lesser than the first book in the series, “The Dry”, which I read a year or two ago, but I like Harper’s style and find the reader’s voice (Stephen Shanahan) to be soothing.
28. The Lesson - Cadwell Turnball (eBook)
“The Lesson” is set primarily in the Virgin Islands a few years after an alien occupation that seems peaceful to the outside world but which the locals know to be much more dangerous. Turnball took a very interesting, nontraditional look at alien invasion and worked in subplots regarding systemic racism and slavery quite well. I really, really loved this book for a while but at a certain point it sort of lost the plot for me and it didn’t think it stuck the landing. But Turnball is a name I’ll be watching in the future.
27. How the Internet Happened - Brian McCullough (Audiobook)
There are some non-fiction subjects about which I want the full story on every branch of the tree. I’ll read just about any book on basketball, for instance, and the more focused the story is, the better (see below at least three times). On some subjects, however, a broad strokes approach is preferred, as is the case here. I’m sure there are superior tomes concerning every tiny corner of the first decade of the internet’s existence but “How the Internet Happened” did a good job of hitting all the high notes, some of which I knew and some I didn’t, without ever bogging down too much on any one person, website, or trend. It’s a solid read if you want “The Internet 101” course.
26. Victory Machine - Ethan Sherwood Strauss (Audiobook)
As mentioned above, I am a very willing reader of virtually any basketball book that hits the market. “Victory Machine” was the least of those reads this year but still brought forth quality information about a team (the 2015-2020 Golden State Warriors) that dominated the NBA and much of the media coverage surrounding the league. There wasn’t a ton of stuff I didn’t know coming in but I dug Strauss’ inside man look into the inner workings of a dynasty.
25. The Ruin - Dervla McTiernan (Audiobook)
The first of McTiernan’s Cormac Reilly series is also the best of the bunch so far. Again, mysteries aren’t really my favorite genre but this series in particular hit the mark for me and held my attention throughout. Reilly is a solid character and McTiernan uses him quite well. The follow ups were a bit weaker in my mind than “The Ruin” (as you can see above) but I’ve already got the next in the series queued up for an early 2021 reading and expect to go back to the well as long as McTiernan wants to keep the ball rolling.
24. The Invisible Library - Genevieve Cogman (Audiobook)
A recommendation from a friend, “Library” is light fantasy with a well-thought out world and a compelling protagonist. I like series’ like this that are fun and engaging but that don’t require me to immediately run out and read the next book in the series. I’ll step back into this universe at some point this year but I don’t think I’ll need a refresher on the events herein and I appreciate that simplicity.
23. The Adventurer’s Son - Roman Dial (Audiobook)
Definitely not a fun read, “The Adventurer’s Son” chronicles the author’s quest to find his missing son. As the book goes on, it begins to feel less and less likely that he will be found alive and the narrative becomes more about closure than anything else. I thought the actual writing was only so-so but I greatly appreciated the story told and the importance of the book to Dial. Without spoiling the book, I’ll say that at some point I realized I needed this story to have an ending, even a sad ending, and was thankful that ultimately there was a definitive conclusion.
22. Devolution - Max Brooks (Audiobook)
Brooks’ last book, “World War Z”, is a favorite of mine and I really love the way Brooks uses the oral history medium to tell a fictional story. “Devolution” revolves around Big Foot instead of a zombie outbreak and while I don’t think it’s anywhere near as refined as the previous effort, it was a fun read and the audiobook made great use of a full voice cast.
21. Black Planet - David Shields (Book)
This is probably the most obscure read on my list this year; I’m not even sure if the book is still in print. A friend of mine recommended “Black Planet” and loaned me the book based on our shared infatuation with the mid-90’s Seattle Supersonics. This is less a sports book, though, and more a cultural ponderance mixed with a memoir (which is one of the more pretentious sentences I’ve ever written, sorry). Shields’ research-based approach to things we don’t typically look at scientifically was very interesting.
20. Range - David Epstein (Audiobook)
One of the first books I finished in 2020, “Range” stuck with me for the bulk of the year, standing out as one of my more unique reads in a sea of sci-fi, basketball, and fantasy. Epstein has a very strong writing voice and his curiosity about the subject (how developing a well-rounded skill set during our developmental years is often much better than focusing on one thing at an early age) came through in the reporting, which gave the book much more life than I expected.
19. Call of the Wild - Jack London (Audiobook)
I’ve read this one before but it had been many, many years and I didn’t remember much of the story so we’re counting it as a new read, which took place the week before the movie came out in February (remember movies?). “White Fang” may be London’s best work but “Call of the Wild” is, to me, his most important work and the one that best captures the spirit of adventure and the allure and beauty of the natural world.
18. The Ickabog - JK Rowling (Audiobook)
I’ve not enjoyed Rowling outside the “Harry Potter” books but “The Ickabog” was a nice, pleasant return to form. Occupying the middle of the three modern fairy tales I read in 2020 (“What Should Be Wild” above and “Echo” below), “Ickabog” reads like a slightly more mature version of “The BFG” with interesting young characters and an excellent narration done by Stephen Fry.
17. The Warehouse - Rob Hart (Audiobook)
Last year I read a book called “FKA USA” that revolved around the evils of a big bad company that was a stand-in for Amazon, Facebook, etc. It was not very good and got muddled in its attempts to worldbuild to an extreme level around a subject matter that was already very familiar. Hart’s narrative was much closer to our current reality which made the events of the book feel more significant and grounded. I liked its dual-narration set up and seeing the two main characters move toward each other through the story from opposite ends was quite engrossing.
16. Good Omens - Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett (Audiobook)
Friends, readers of this space, and listeners of my podcast alike know of my love for Neil Gaiman but I hadn’t worked my way through his entire bibliography until 2020 when I knocked out the remainder of his books, beginning with “Good Omens.” This was a very fun read and I was very impressed with the way Gaiman and Pratchett handled controversial material. The audiobook featured an excellent reader, too, (Martin Jarvis) which always helps. I’ve heard the TV adaptation with Michael Sheen and David Tennant is very good as well but I probably will never watch it because Michael Sheen has a very punchable face and it dominates my every thought when I see him on screen.
15. Where the Crawdads Sing - Delia Owens (Audiobook)
I missed the boat on this one in 2018 when literally everyone in the known world read it but ultimately I found it to be a great read with a compelling, sympathetic protagonist. There were parts of the non-linear storytelling I liked more than others but all told, I think it all came together quite beautifully. And, while obviously I won’t spoil the ending here in case you’re the one person in my circle who hasn’t yet read the book yourself, the last chapter of the book propelled “Crawdads” from a good book I enjoyed to a very good book I couldn’t forget.
14. Tanking to the Top - Yaron Weitzman (Audiobook)
I’ve mentioned previously my love for sports books and basketball books in particular. This one, concerning the Philadelphia 76ers and their quest over the last decade to be as bad as possible in order to eventually become good, was one of the more well-reported I’ve read in the genre in quite some time. I enjoyed reading “Victory Machine” (see above), there wasn’t too much in the book that was new or previously unknown to me. “Tanking”, though, was rife with inside information and interviews I hadn’t heard before and Weitzman did an excellent job of putting it all together into an insightful, engrossing read.
13. Dune - Frank Herbert (Audiobook)
In the 9th grade, I picked this book for a research paper and presentation in my English class. No matter how I tried, I could not get through the first 100 pages and ultimately, I had to switch to a different book (and also, let’s be real, I was lazy and I had read “Brave New World” previously and knew I could write the paper easily; the teacher never should’ve let me get away with this, frankly). Since then, I have picked up and attempted to dig into “Dune” at least three more times, all efforts that met the same failure. It’s so dense, y’all. But with the movie adaptation supposed to make its way into theaters this fall (RIP), I finally forced myself to get through it in preparation. It’s very good! I have no idea if it is even remotely filmable but the book itself is good and I understand its acclaim even if it was a struggle, in parts, to get through. I highly recommend the audiobook; it helped me tremendously and the full cast approach served the material quite well.
12. The Sandman - Neil Gaiman (Audiobook)
Previously Unread Gaiman Number Two of Three on my list, I’ve looked into the “Sandman” graphic novels previously but never had the opportunity to dig in. In the middle of 2020, Audible put together an exclusive collection of some of the series into audio form with a full cast (featuring James McAvoy as The Sandman) and I truly love the format so much. It has a radio play vibe, complete with a short theme song-like intro for each comic in the series (ten in total) and it fit this series so well. My complaints with this book are, number one, that at least one of the stories herein was so dark as to become uncomfortable to listen to, and number two, because of the nature of the project, it doesn’t really have an ending and the last story in the collection is probably the worst of the bunch so it leaves you on a semi-sour note. But overall I was so impressed with the production value and the way the stories lended themselves to this medium and I can’t wait to listen to volume two in the future.
11. Twilight of the Gods - Steven Hayden (eBook)
Hayden’s last book, “Your Favorite Band is Killing Me”, is one of my all-time favorites. He’s one of the best voices on rock ‘n roll going right now and I dig the way in which he interjects personal history and anecdotes into his reporting. “Twilight” focuses on the creation and subsequent radio domination of the classic rock genre with Hayden digging into the rock legends of the 60’s and 70’s and how classic rock has progressed (or stagnated) over the decades. I thought he did a great job of working through some of the bigger issues with the genre as a whole (particularly its lack of racial diversity and the sordid history of some of the bigger names in rock) while also appreciating the music for what it was and is.
10. Raised in Captivity - Chuck Klosterman (Audiobook)
I’m in the bag for anything Klosterman writes but I like him best in essay and short story form. This collection of shorts showed off his range tremendously but also really highlighted his strange sense of humor which I adore. If I have a criticism, it’s that the first story, about an eccentric high school football coach whose players go on to tremendous success in a variety of fields, is one of the best things Klosterman has ever written and thus the rest of the book is never quite able to live up to the collection’s intro.
9. Warbreaker - Brandon Sanderson (Audiobook)
I’ve heard great things about Sanderson’s works of sci-fi and fantasy over the years but to be honest, I’m often hesitant to jump into a series like this, despite how much I typically enjoy the genres, because I know it will take up so much of my reading time. “Warbreaker” was a selection in one of Audible’s sales last year and it was billed as somewhat of a standalone within Sanderson’s universe. That is true, it is a book that you can read without any knowledge of the universe but “unfortunately” I enjoyed it so much that I’m definitely going to be digging into more of Sanderson’s work in the coming months. “Warbreaker” includes some of the best worldbuilding I’ve seen in a while and compelling characters.
8. The Office Oral History - Andy Greene (Book)
I love “The Office” and I love a good oral history so this one was right up my alley. Greene covered everything from the inception of the show to the series finale through interviews with everyone from Steve Carell to the cameramen. Sometimes the mistake in an oral history is including too much but Greene and his editors did an excellent job of making sure this book was thorough but well-paced. I also loved the structural idea of inserting shorter chapters covering some of the most memorable episodes of the show in between the longer chapters covering each season and key events in the show’s history.
7. Three Ring Circus - Jeff Pearlman (Audiobook)
I wasn’t totally sure I was going to read “Circus”, which covers the LA Lakers in the Shaq-Kobe era from 1995 to 2005, despite my obvious connection to the material and the fact that Pearlman is one of the best authors in the genre. Like a lot of people, I get Laker Fatigue very easily and to be honest, I wasn’t sure the book would shed much light on a decade of basketball I am already very familiar with. But the book generated a ton of buzz and ultimately I gave in to my basketball jonesin’ instincts and I’m glad I did. Pearlman got interviews with virtually everyone even remotely connected to this team and unearthed a number of anecdotes and pieces of information I’d never heard previously. He also didn’t pull any punches on either side of the Kobe-Shaq divide but even still, the book never drifted into what I would consider salacious or agenda-based reporting. It was a great read and one I’ll probably revisit a few years down the line. One note, however. If you choose to pick up “Circus”, do so in book or eBook form. The narrator of the audiobook, whose name I won’t mention here, had no idea how to pronounce names, which is a pretty big deal for a non-fiction book featuring hundreds of names of real life actual human beings. For a while I blew off the insanely bad pronunciations but at a certain point it got so bad I started to wonder if the reader was doing a bit because there’s no possible way anyone actually thought these were the proper pronunciations. Book or eBook only, I beg of you.
6. Anansi Boys - Neil Gaiman (Audiobook)
The final hole in my Gaiman awareness (minus some short stories that I plan to get through early this year), “Anansi Boys” was everything I wanted it to be and more. While not nearly as expansive as “American Gods” or “Neverwhere”, the story herein is rich and the characters are wonderful. Gaiman is so good at creating immersive, complex settings and narratives without sacrificing levity or drowning the story in the pretension that sometimes accompanies works of fantasy. Great read and one that might serve as an excellent entry point for anyone new to Gaiman’s works.
5. The Big Picture: The Fight For the Future of Movies - Ben Fritz (Audiobook)
I hesitated to read this one when it debuted in 2018 because I knew much of Fritz’s reporting came from culling through the files from the infamous Sony hack in 2014 and that whole thing makes me uncomfortable. But the book kept coming up, so much so that I felt like I actually needed to read it in order to better understand the movie industry I spend so much time discussing. I give Fritz a lot of credit for his approach to the research and the writing of the book and I think he handled this subject matter as ethically as possible. “The Big Picture” provides tremendous insight into Hollywood and the film business as it stands now and, more importantly, where it’s headed.
4. The Cold Vanish - Jon Billman (Audiobook)
Truthfully, I liked “The Adventurer’s Son” (see above) quite a bit more before I read “The Cold Vanish.” These books occupy a similar space and in some ways they compliment each other. But whereas “Son” focuses entirely on one man’s quest (and rightly so), Billman’s book takes a wider look at a plethora of missing persons and adventures gone wrong as well as the psychology of exploration and the ways in which the natural world calls out to some individuals more than others. I hold Jon Krakauer (“Into the Wild”, “Into Thin Air”) in the highest esteem so when I say that in “Vanish” Billman channeled Krakauer, know that I mean that as a tremendous compliment. This book stuck with me long after I finished reading it and, like the best of Krakauer, I expect I’ll come back to read it again in the future.
3. How to Be an Anti-Racist - Ibram X. Kendi (Audiobook)
I’m not big on telling people they “need” to read a given book or more from a certain genre or whatever else. Life is hard and busy and if you read for educational purposes, great, and if you read for leisure, great, and if you read for escapism, great, I don’t care, good on you for finding the time to read, period. If I could break my own rule for just a second, however, I think this is a book that everyone actually needs to read. It’s tough and hard and challenging and difficult to get through in places but it is also necessary and remarkably well-written. This is certainly not the most enjoyable book I read this year but it is probably the best book I read and certainly the most important.
2. The Cost of These Dreams - Wright Thompson (Audiobook)
Thompson is one of my absolute favorite authors, a man whose writing voice and speaking voice alike seem custom built to appeal to Brian Gill. He has written some of the more memorable essays and longform articles I’ve read over the last decade and I always look forward to his name appearing on the byline. “The Cost of These Dreams” is a bit of a cheat on a list like this in that it’s a collection of some of his better pieces from over the years but I don’t care, it’s my list and I was, as always with Thompson, deeply affected by his writing. All of the stories here are related to, you guessed it, the costs associated with striving toward a goal. Michael Jordan looking back on his life at age 50, a basketball player who went missing while hanging on to the remnants of his career in the Brazilian league, the fight against racism at Ole Miss, etc. etc. It’s an exquisite collection of pieces and Thompson’s narration for the audiobook only heightens their impact. In the middle of quarantine, I found myself sobbing into a basket of clean laundry as I listened to the piece on Jordan which I had read AT LEAST TWICE BEFORE. Maybe that says something about my mental state in the year of our Lord 2020 but it also says something about the power of Thompson’s words.
1. Echo - Pam Munoz Ryan (Audiobook)
A Newbery award winner in 2015, I’d not heard of “Echo” until it popped up in an Audible sale and piqued my interest and it instantly became an all-time favorite and a book I’ll revisit plenty of times in the future. The story is told in three parts, each concerning a child in the midst of difficult circumstances, and the unknown connection they all share via an antique and semi-magical harmonica. Munoz Ryan handles some incredibly difficult subject matter with eloquence and grace and subtly connects her story to its relevance in today’s world because, you know, SOMEHOW WE ARE STILL DEALING WITH NAZIS. I can’t express how beautiful this book is and how moving I found the writing to be. I highly recommend the audiobook as well because of the excellent production of the reading, complete with harmonica interludes that may sound cheesy but, truly, only serve to deepen the reader’s connection to the story.
