Staff 2020 favorites

Unsurprisingly, many of us have consumed more books, movies, and music this year than in the past. Here are the things that stood out to staff. Click on the title to place a hold!

Adult Fiction:

The Southern Books Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires by Grady Hendrix
Anxious People by Fredrik Backman
Eighty Days to Elsewhere by K.C. Dyer
The Lions of Fifth Avenue by Fiona Davis
Before She Was Helen by Caroline B. Cooney
How the Penguins Saved Veronica by Hazel Prior
The Big Door Prize by M. O. Walsh
Eliza Starts a Rumor by Jane L. Rosen
The Transatlantic Book Club by Felicity Hayes-McCoy
The Daughters of Foxcote Manor by Eve Chase
Death and the Butterfly by Colin Hester
500 Miles From You by Jenny Colgan
Big Lies in a Small Town by Diane Chamberlain
Being Known by Robin Jones Gunn
The Last Flight by Julie Clark
An Uncommon Woman by Laura Frantz
The Book of Lost Names by Kristin Harmel
What Are You Going Through by Sigrid Nunez
The Ancestor by Danielle Trussoni
The Book of Lost Friends by Lisa Wingate
The Orphan Collector by Ellen Marie Wiseman
The Hollow Places by T. Kingfisher
The Guest List by Lucy Foley
The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab
The Lies That Bind by Emily Giffin
An Everyday Hero by Laura Trentham
Jane in Love by Rachel Givney
In A Holidaze by Christina Lauren
Beheld by TaraShea Nesbit
Valentine by Elizabeth Wetmore
Slaughterhouse-Five graphic novel adaptation by Ryan North (YA)

Adult Non-fiction:

The Splendid and the Vile by Erik Larson
Ocean Anatomy by Julia Rothman
The Last Book on the Left: Stories of Murder and Mayhem from History’s Most Notorious Serial Killers by Ben Kissel
The Museum of Whales You Will Never See: And Other Excursions to Iceland’s Most Unusual Museums by A. Kendra Greene
The 4 Season Solution by Dallas Hartwig
The Happy in a Hurry Cookbook by Steve and Kathy Doocy
The Stars in Our Pockets: Getting Lost and Sometimes Found in the Digital Age by Howard Axelrod
Skincare: The Ultimate No-nonsense Guide by Caroline Hirons
I’ve Seen the End of You: A Neurosurgeon’s Look at Faith, Doubt, and the Things We Think We Know by W. Lee Warren

Movies/TV:

King of Staten Island
The Good Liar
The Way Back
Emma

Dark Waters
Ford vs Ferrari
Motherless Brooklyn
I Still Believe
Harriet
A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood
A Trip to Greece
Knives Out
The Tomorrow Man
Yellowstone
Durrells in Corfu

Honorable mentions (these titles are only available on streaming platforms):
The Queen’s Gambit (Netflix)
The Last Dance
(ESPN, Netflix)
Enola Holmes (Netflix)

Cobra Kai (Netflix)
Lovesick (Netflix)
Troop Zero (Amazon)

Music:

The Slow Rush by Tame Impala
The Speed of Now Part 1 by Keith Urban
folklore by Taylor Swift
As Long as You Are by Future Islands
Felis Catus and Silence by Leo Takami

Kids:

Prairie Lotus by Linda Sue Park
Things Seen from Above by Shelley Pearsall
The Space Between Lost and Found by Sandy Stark-McGinnis
Cinders and Sparrows by Stefan Bachmann
The Girl and the Witch’s Garden by Erin Bowman

Older titles discovered this year: 

The Guinevere Deception by Kiersten White (YA)
The Devil Aspect by Craig Russell
The Dutch House by Ann Patchett
Catching Christmas by Terri Blackstock
Meg & Jo by Virginia Kantra
Finding Dorothy by Elizabeth Betts
Blowout by Rachel Maddow
Europe’s Top 100 Masterpieces by Rick Steves
Tap Code: Epic Survival Tale of a Vietnam POW and the Secret Code that Changed Everything by Carlyle Harris
Heartland:  A Memoir of Working Hard & Being Broke in the Richest Country on Earth by Sarah Smarsh