The Atlantic

The Books Briefing: The Best Books of 2020

Our favorite titles from a year that has highlighted the particularities of that thing called reading: Your weekly guide to the best in books

This year has highlighted the particularities of that thing called reading. Some found books impossible to pick up; sustained attention to text on a page is hard when the world is in so much pain. Others turned to literature anew, rediscovering the ways it can refresh and inspire. Below are some of the titles we were most drawn to in 2020: a wide-ranging list that includes new spins on epic poems, stories about the interior lives of women, memoirs that eloquently challenged industries, and, yes, essays that made us laugh.

You can read the Culture team’s full selections here.

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