"Everything goes. I am working very hard at not thinking about how everything goes." Play It As It Lays was one of the more heartbreaking and tangible reads for me this year. It's the second Didion book I've read and her main character Maria is broken in many ways. The loss of herself and just about everyone around her in the big city of Los Angeles is what makes Maria so frustrating, but her story also so relatable. From the very first line I was hooked and extremely invested in Maria's seemingly messed-up head and damaging thoughts, all the while rooting for her. A must read for women in their twenties frustrated by the banality of life.

"Weakness is treating someone as though they belong to you. Strength is knowing that everyone belongs to themselves." Homegoing will likely be one of the most important books I will ever read. Gyasi pushes the boundaries in telling the story of six generations descending of two Black women in West Africa. Throughout the book I was confronted by my own understandings of race, history success, happiness, and safety. I fell in love with all 14 characters, each one before their stories were even told. If there's only one book I leave 2020 with, it's this one.

"Life is a stew, and pot is poop.If someone stirred even a teeny-bit of poop in the stew, would you really want to eat it?" Maria Semple invented satire through this epistolary novel about one of the few privileged, rich white women I will ever love. I love Bernadette and everyone she loves (and I hate everyone she hates because that's just what friends of Bernadette's would do!). It was an all-in-one-sitting-read for me and a part of me wishes I prologued and cherished the story a bit more.