So says Member 004. When casually queried about what they’d read in 2020, Member 004 promptly produced for inspection a list of 41 titles. That’s 3.4 books per month. Or one per day of Lent plus an extra. Only 17% are Harry Potter.

The List is provided in its full glory below, but first, a brief description of the stand outs. They are (in order): ‘The Mirror and The Light’ by Hilary Mantel, ‘Conflict Is Not Abuse’ by Sarah Schulman and Elizabeth Strout’s ‘Olive Kitteridge.’ Descriptions follow should one be in the market for a new read (in addition to Party Monster, obviously).

‘The Mirror and the Light’ is the final instalment of a historical fiction trilogy that chronicles the life and ultimate demise of Thomas Cromwell. The series received rave reviews (except from the New Yorker, but whatcha gonna do). Asked about the books, 004 tells us: “I think they are extraordinary. I inhaled Wolf Hall. I didn’t know any of the history. Cromwell was just a guy you really wanted to watch at work.”

Sarah Schulman’s ‘Conflict is Not Abuse’ is a challenging and controversial critique of scapegoating and contemporary constructions of victimhood from a lifelong queer activist and organizer. Schulman explores the sources of confusion and intense feelings that lead to self-misidentification as a “victim”, and the source of defensiveness that drives inflated accusations of harm and thwarts accountability. In a profile for New York Magazine (here) Molly Fisher summarizes the core of the book thus:

The book’s central insight is that people experiencing the inevitable discomfort of human misunderstanding often overstate the harm that has been done to them — they describe themselves as victims rather than as participants in a shared situation. And overstating harm itself can cause harm, whether it leads to social shunning or physical violence.

Schulman argues that people rush to see themselves as victims for a variety of reasons: because they’re accustomed to being unopposed, because they’re accustomed to being oppressed, because it’s a quick escape from discomfort — from criticism, disagreement, confusion, and conflict.

Neither conflict nor abuse are easy waters to navigate. 004 selected the book as a top 3 pick because it a pragmatic and conceptually clean case for an ethics anchored in relationships. Shulman’s analysis is incisive and unflinching. She simultaneously takes the need to address abuse deeply seriously, while assessing the damage that blurring the boundaries between regular conflict and abuse can do. It’s a prescient, necessary and useful set of ideas from someone whose commitment is to tangible solutions, rather than theory or abstraction.

‘Olive Kitteridge’ by Elizabeth Strout is a series of 13 short stories set in Crosby, Maine. It is a Pulitzer Prize winning work of fiction and has been dramatized as a 4-part HBO miniseries. It is on the list because it always makes the list. Every. Single. Year. At least 10 years running. Honestly, that’s good enough for me, I’ll just buy it. And then, I’ll buy the sequel, which was a delightful surprise release in 2019.

2020’s Year of Reading (Member 004)

Olive Kitteridge – Elizabeth Strout 

Johnny Appleseed – Joshua Whitehead

The Magdalen Girls – V.S. Alexander

The Burgess Boys – Elizabeth Strout

Kudos – Rachel Cusk

Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone – J.K. Rowling

Where the Crawdads Sing – Delia Owens

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets – J.K. Rowling

My Sister, the Serial Killer – Oyinkan Braithwaite

A Taste for Death – P.D. James

Amsterdam – Ian McEwan

Harry Potter and the Prisoner Of Azkaban  – J.K. Rowling

From the Ashes – Jesse Thistle

Crazy Rich Asians – Kevin Kwan

Little Fires Everywhere – Celeste Ng

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire – J.K. Rowling

The Great Gatsby – F. Scott Fitzgerald

Crazy Rich Girlfriend – Kevin Kwan

Rest: Why You Get More Done When You Work Less – Alex Soojung-Kim Pang

Turn This World Inside Out: The Emergence of Nurturance Culture – Nora Samaran

Harry Potter and Half-Blood Prince– J.K. Rowling

The Sign of Four – Arthur Conan Doyle

A Study in Scarlet – Arthur Conan Doyle

Fierce Femmes and Notorious Liars – Kai Cheng Thom

Rich People Problems – Kevin Kwan

Go Tell It on The Mountain –James Baldwin 

Harry Potter and the Order Of The Phoenix – J.K. Rowling

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes – Arthur Conan Doyle

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows– J.K. Rowling

The Willpower Instinct – Kelly Mcgonigal

Essentialism – Greg Mckeown

The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes – Arthur Conan Doyle

Conflict Is Not Abuse – Sarah Schulman 

The Hound of The Baskervilles – Arthur Conan Doyle

Bleak House – Charles Dickens

The Mirror and The Light – Hilary Mantel

The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat  – Oliver Sacks

How to Pronounce Knife – Souvankham Thammavongsa

Mortal Causes – Ian Rankin

How to Do Nothing – Jenny Odell

The Return of Sherlock Holmes – Arthur Conan Doyle