Ep. 72: Best Backlist Books We Read in 2020 with Catherine (@GilmoreGuide)
Sarah's Bookshelves Live
Sarah Dickinson
4.7 • 785 Ratings
🗓️ 9 December 2020
⏱️ 56 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In Episode 72, Catherine Gilmore (@gilmoreguide) and I share the best backlist books we read in 2020 and the high priority backlist books on our TBR lists.
This post contains affiliate links, through which I make a small commission when you make a purchase (at no cost to you!).
Announcements
Highlights
- Catherine and my 2020 backlist reading stats.
- Things that motivate Catherine and I to read more backlist throughout the year.
- The pressure Catherine and I sometimes feel to read mostly new releases (which inhibits our backlist reading).
The Top 5 Backlist Books We Read in 2020 [9:55]
Sarah
- Know My Name by Chanel Miller (My Review) | Buy from Amazon [10:06]
- Thirteen by Steve Cavanagh | Buy from Amazon [13:17]
- Maybe You Should Talk to Someone by Lori Gottlieb | Buy from Amazon [17:02]
- I'm Still Here by Austin Channing Brown (My Review) | Buy from Amazon [20:19]
- American Predator by Maureen Callahan (My Review) | Buy from Amazon [25:02]
Catherine
- Nothing to See Here
by Kevin Wilson (My Review)| Buy from Amazon
[11:23]
- The Road by Cormac McCarthy | Buy from Amazon
[14:32]
- American Royals by Katharine McGee | Buy from Amazon [18:11]
- The Bookish Life of Nina Hill by Abbi Waxman | Buy from Amazon [22:08]
- All This Could Be Yours by Jami Attenberg (My Review) | Buy from Amazon[26:33]
2020 Backlist Underrated Gems [29:07]
Sarah
- The Elephant in the Room by Tommy Tomlinson (My Review) | Buy from Amazon [29:14]
- My Times Among the Whites by Jennine Capo Crucet | Buy from Amazon [33:16]
Catherine
- The Majesties by Tiffany Tsao | Buy from Amazon
- The Unraveling of Mercy Louis by Keija Parssinen (My Review) | Buy from Amazon
Big Name Backlist Books We Finally Read in 2020 [36:57]
Sarah
- Mystic River
- Evicted by Matthew Desmond (My Review) | Buy from Amazon [39:14]
Catherine
- Blowout by Rachel Maddow | Buy from Amazon
- Pachinko by Min Jin Lee | Buy from Amazon
Authors Whose Backlist We've Been Meaning to Dig Into [41:46]
Sarah
- The Girls of Corona del Mar
by Rufi Thorpe | Buy from Amazon
- Truth & Beauty by Ann Patchett| Buy from Amazon [44:16]
Catherine
- The Family Fang by Kevin Wilson | Buy from Amazon
- Case Histories by Kate Atkinson| Buy from Amazon
High Priority Backlist Books on our TBR Lists [46:58]
Sarah
- Bluebird, Bluebird
- Kindred by Octavia Butler | Buy from Amazon [48:01]
- The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro | Buy from Amazon [49:39]
- The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen | Buy from Amazon [51:01]
- Catch and Kill by Ronan Farrow | Buy from Amazon [52:36]
- Fall and Rise: The Story of 9/11 by Mitchell Zuckoff | Buy from Amazon [53:03]
Catherine
- The Last Castle by Denise Kiernan | Buy from Amazon
- Philistines at the Hedgerow by Steven Gaines | Buy from Amazon
- The Notorious RBG by Irin Carmon | Buy from Amazon
- The Story of the Great British Bake Off by Anita Singh | Buy from Amazon
- Another City, Not My Own by Dominick Dunne | Buy from Amazon
Other Books Mentioned
- Majesty by Katharine McGee (My Review) | Buy from Amazon [19:06]
- Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine
- Mindhunter by John E. Douglas | Buy from Amazon [25:59]
- The Stranger Beside Me by Ann Rule | Buy from Amazon [26:07]
- All Grown Up
by Jami Attenberg (My Review)| Buy from Amazon
- Writers and Lovers by Lily King (My Review) | Buy from Amazon [26:59]
- Crazy Rich Asians by Kevin Kwan | Buy from Amazon [32:15]
- Miracle Creek
by Angie Kim (My Review) | Buy from Amazon
[37:31]
- Long Bright River by Liz Moore (My Review) | Buy from Amazon [37:31]
- The Knockout Queen by Rufi Thorpe (My Review) | Buy from Amazon
[42:09]
- Perfect Little World by Kevin Wilson | Buy from Amazon
- Life After Life by Kate Atkinson | Buy from Amazon
- Heaven, My Home by Attica Locke | Buy from Amazon
- Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro | Buy from Amazon [50:00]
- The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen | Buy from Amazon [51:22]
- She Said by Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey | Buy from Amazon [52:36]
- The Only Plane in the Sky: An Oral History of 9/11
Other Links
- "Hijacked by Grief", The Guardian (editorial by Lucy Grealy's sister)
About Catherine
Blog | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram
Catherine started The Gilmore Guide to Books over 6 years ago after wrapping up a career as a corporate librarian. She loves books and reading (surprise!) and currently lives in Ann Arbor, MI.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome to Sarah's Bookshelves Live. I'm Sarah of the blog Sarah's Bookshelves. Each week I'm |
| 0:15.5 | talking with one bookish guest about two old books they love, two new books they love, one book they don't love, and one new |
| 0:22.7 | release they're excited about. We're going to get real and sometimes a bit snarky about all things |
| 0:28.3 | books. If you like the show, I'd really love your support. Spread the word to your reader friends, |
| 0:33.8 | subscribe to the show, rate and review it wherever you listen to podcasts, or get bonus podcast episodes |
| 0:40.8 | by supporting the podcast on Patreon. There's a link in the show notes and in my Instagram bio |
| 0:46.5 | to my Patreon page. Let's get rolling. Hey everyone, welcome to our 2020 Backlist special. This is the first time we've done an episode like |
| 0:56.3 | this and I'm really excited. Number one, because I feel like I don't talk about backlist books |
| 1:01.8 | enough. And number two, because in the survey results that we did a very long time ago, |
| 1:08.8 | you all let me know that you wanted to hear more about |
| 1:11.5 | backlist books. So this is one of the ways that I'm trying to do that for you. Before we get to |
| 1:17.1 | our episode, I have a couple quick announcements. Number one, for those of you that don't also |
| 1:22.7 | follow my blog, I posted my annual holiday gift guide a couple weeks ago. So check that out if you are looking |
| 1:29.7 | for book recommendations for readers on your list. And y'all, this is a gift guide not of gift type |
| 1:36.9 | things for readers. This is a gift guide of actual books that you can give as gifts. I've got over 30 |
| 1:42.8 | books for you that I think would make |
| 1:44.3 | great holiday reading divided into seven categories. Go-to recommendations, edgy literary fiction, |
| 1:52.7 | or I guess just edgy fiction. These are the types of books that maybe think twice about |
| 1:56.6 | getting for your grandmother. And introspective books, page turners, something fun, books for |
| 2:02.2 | the hobbyist, which are kind of category specific books, like true crime is in there. There's a |
| 2:07.5 | chef memoir in there. And then along with some of my favorite bookish subscriptions and |
| 2:13.7 | gifty type books. And I will link to that in the show notes. Second announcement is that the |
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