On Literary Friction, our last show of the year is always a chance to take stock and look back at some of our favourite reads from the previous twelve months. 2020 was a wild, hard, long stretch and not always conducive to reading. But we found that in some ways the books we did manage to get through made an even bigger impact. On this list you’ll find a few of our favourites, most but not exclusively published in the last year, plus a few titles that we’re excited about in 2021. You can listen to the show here.
Carrie’s Favourite Reads in 2020
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Girl, Woman, Other Bernardine Evaristo£8.99 -
The Vanishing Half Brit Bennett£14.99 -
The Lying Life of Adults Elena Ferrante£20.00 -
Lost Cat Mary Gaitskill£8.99 -
The Years Annie Ernaux£12.99 -
In the Woods Tana French£8.99 -
Euphoria Lily King£9.99 -
The Secret Place Tana French£9.99
Octavia’s Favourite Reads in 2020
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Exciting Times Naoise Dolan£14.99 -
Blueberries Ellena Savage£9.99 -
Weather Jenny Offill£12.99 -
Things I Dont Want To Know Deborah Levy£7.99 -
This Brutal House Niven Govinden£8.99 -
In the Dream House Carmen Maria Machado£9.99 -
Unknown Language Hildegard of Bingen and Huw Lemmey£13.99 -
A Man’s Place Annie Ernaux£8.99
There’s a lot to look forward to in 2021 – a vaccine, no more Trump, it no longer being 2020… and there is also a glut of excellent literature about to come out. We each picked three books we’re really excited about, that you can pre-order now:
Carrie’s Looking Forward To in 2021
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Open Water Caleb Azumah Nelson£12.99 -
Fake Accounts Lauren Oyler£12.99 -
Checkout 19 Claire-Louise Bennett£14.99 -
Having and Being Had Eula Biss£15.99
Octavia’s Looking Forward To in 2021
About Literary Friction
Literary Friction is a conversation about books and ideas, hosted by friends Carrie and Octavia. Each month we interview an author about their book and build the show around a related theme – anything from resistance to coastlines to corpses. Listen in for lively discussion, book recommendations and a little music too.