It’s our last Literary Friction of 2020, and as usual it’s time for our year in review show, packed full of recommendations just in time for your holiday shopping. We’ll be looking back over some of the books that got us through this wildly challenging year, and gently revisiting the reading resolutions we made in 2019, when we were still so innocent and full of optimism. We’ll also give some resolutions for the year ahead, plus some of the books we are excited to read in 2021.
We’ve teamed up with two of our favourite independent bookshops to offer some ace deals for LF listeners:
Burley Fisher (https://burleyfisherbooks.com/) are offering 10% off using the code LITFRICTION at checkout, available until midnight on 23/12.
If you spend over £20 at Pages of Hackney (https://pagesofhackney.co.uk/) they’ll throw in one of their brilliant totes for free, just add the tote plus books to your basket and use the code LITFRICTION at checkout. They’ve also put together a list of everything we recommended on this show, here: https://pagesofhackney.co.uk/litfriction/
Top picks from 2020:
Carrie:
The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett
The Lying Life of Adults by Elena Ferrante, translated by Ann Goldstein
Lost Cat by Mary Gaitskill
The Years by Annie Ernaux, translated by Alison L. Strayer
Euphoria by Lily King
Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo
In The Woods by Tana French
Octavia:
Weather by Jenny Offill
In The Dream House by Carmen Maria Machado
Blueberries by Ellena Savage
This Brutal House by Niven Govinden
Things I Don’t Want To Know by Deborah Levy
Exciting Times by Naoise Dolan
A Man’s Place by Annie Ernaux, trans. Tanya Leslie
Unknown Language by Hildegard of Bingen and Huw Lemmey
Looking forward to next year:
Carrie:
Open Water by Caleb Azuman Nelson
Fake Accounts by Lauren Oyler
Having and Being Had by Eula Biss
Octavia:
Tomorrow Sex Will Be Good Again by Katherine Angel
Interior Chinatown by Charles Yu
This One Sky Day by Leone Ross
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