The year in books: 20 to recommend in 2020

This year I finished 47 books, up from last year but not a personal best. The breakdown was 17 non-fiction and 30 fiction. Another 20-30 remain started but unfinished this year.

Non-fiction

The 8 non-fiction books I most recommend are:

• Fashionapolis: The Price of Fast Fashion and the Future of Clothes (Must read)
• Effective Python: 90 Specific Ways to Write Better Python (Must read; truly excellent for Python programmers, I recommend this to anyone I work with)
• The Machine that Changed the World (Must read)
• Europe: The Struggle for Supremacy from 1453 to the Present
• Wind, Sand and Stars
• American Colussus: The Triumph of Capitalism, 1865-1900
• Making Common Sense of Japan
• The German Genius

The 3 books I recommend you not to waste time on are: "The Two Koreas", "The Price of Inequality", and "Ninety Percent of Everything: Inside Shipping".

The whole list

• The Two Koreas by Don Oberdorfer
  • Interesting but not a huge fan, seemed pretty biased against South Korea somehow
• Forbidden Nation: A History of Taiwan by Jonathan Manthorpe
• Effective Python: 90 Specific Ways to Write Better Python by Brett Slatkin
• A Philosophy of Software Design by John Ousterhout
  • Came as a recommendation from someone on Twitter, ultimately not a huge fan. Still looking for high quality books on software design
• The Price of Inequality by Joseph E. Stiglitz
  • Agreed with the premise but the book was incoherent and too self-assuring
• Paris Reborn: Napoléon III, Baron Haussmann, and the Quest to Build a Modern City by Stephane Kirkland
• Fashionapolis: The Price of Fast Fashion and the Future of Clothes by Dana Thomas
• A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway
  • I normally love Hemingway's writing but this particular book was not very coherent
• Europe: The Struggle for Supremacy from 1453 to the Present by Brendan Simms
  • Such an excellent introduction to the continent for Americans who otherwise don't have great background
• Wind, Sand and Stars by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
  • A beautiful memoir of flights by the author of The Little Prince, very similar in style to Hemingway
• American Colussus: The Triumph of Capitalism, 1865-1900 by H.W. Brands
  • Baby's first primer on unions, (I need more recommendations on the history of unions)
• Making Common Sense of Japan by Steven R. Reed
  • It can be difficult to find English translations of Korean, Japanese history by Korean and Japanese authors; this is a good one by an American professor
• The Machine that Changed the World by James P. Womack
  • An excellent, well-researched history of automobile manufacturing in the US, Europe and Japan from the 1900s to 1990; how Japan ate everyone's lunch
• The United States of Europe by T.R. Reid
  • Very light introduction to the European Union
• The Soul of a New Machine by Tracy Kidder
  • Overhyped by the internets, but not bad
• The German Genius by Peter Watson
  • Dense but excellent introduction to many famous Germans in many fields throughout time
• Ninety Percent of Everything: Inside Shipping by Rose George

Fiction

I'm trying to read more from non-English authors. If you see non-English authors in the vein of these here that you can recommend, I'd love to hear from you.

The 12 fiction books I most recommend are:

• Planet of the Apes (Must read, yes even if you've seen the film)
• All Quiet on the Western Front (Must read)
• The Mouse That Roared (Must read)
• The Dead Mountaineer's Inn
• The Golem and the Jinni
• Neverwhere
• Dubliners
• Old Man's War
• The Inspector Barlach Mysteries: The Judge and His Hangman and Suspicion
• Fantômas
• Foundation
• Out of the Silent Planet

The only book I really didn't like was "Invisible Cities".

The whole list

• March Violets by Philip Kerr (Scottish)
• Liberty Bar by Georges Simenon (Belgian)
• The Late Monsieur Gallet by Georges Simenon (Belgian)
• Dubliners by James Joyce (Irish)
• Tales of the City by Amistead Maupin (American)
• The Third Policeman by Flann O'Brien (Irish)
• 44 Scotland Street by Alexander McCall Smith (British-African)
• Knots and Crosses by Ian Rankin (Scottish)
• I Hear Your Voice by Kim Young Ha (South Korean)
• The Golem and the Jinni by Helene Wecker (American)
• The Tokyo Zodiac Murders by Shimada Sōji (Japanese)
• The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis (English)
• Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman (English)
• Old Man's War by John Scalzi (American)
• Tales from Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin (American)
• Solaris by Stanisław Lem (Polish)
• A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin (American)
• Planet of the Apes by Pierre Boulle (French)
• The Dead Mountaineer's Inn by Arkady Strugatsky (Russian)
• Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino (Cuban-born Italian)
• The Inspector Barlach Mysteries: The Judge and His Hangman and Suspicion by Friedrich Dürrenmatt (Swiss)
• Fantômas by Marcel Allain (French)
• All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque (Germany)
• A Crime in Holland by Georges Simenon (Belgian)
• The Wonderful Adventure of Nils Holversson by Selma Lagerlöf (Swedish)
• Foundation by Isaac Asimov (Russian-born American)
• Out of the Silent Planet by C.S. Lewis (English)
• The Spy Who Came in from the Cold by John le Carré (English)
• The Bat by Jo Nesbø (Norwegian)
• The Mouse That Roared by Leonard Wibberley (Irish-born American)

Out of 47 books read this year, here's the 20 I recommend to you (gave them 4/5 stars or better). I'm trying to read more non-English authors so I'd love to hear if there are authors with similar style on this list you'd recommend!https://t.co/FjHcvHpRSr

— Phil Eaton (@phil_eaton) December 27, 2020