Books of the Year - 2020 Edition
Book Shambles
In our first episode of 2021, Robin and Josie look back on the best things they read in 2020. Most are books that came out last year, but a few aren’t, don’t hold it against us. From poetry to science to horror, there’s something in this long list of recommendations for everyone!
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Reading List
Shambles recommendations:
We Need New Stories by Nesrine Malik
The Darker the Night, the Brighter the Stars by Paul Broks
Stories We Tell Ourselves by Richard Holloway
A Portable Paradise by Roger Robinson
Kindred by Rebecca Wragg-Sykes
The End of Everything by Katie Mack
Brown Baby by Nikesh Shukla
The Panic Years by Nell Frizzell
Acts of Desperation by Megan Nolan
Everything’s Fine by Socrates Adams
A Modern Family by Socrates Adams
The Foghorn’s Lament: The Disappearing Music of the Coast by Jennifer Lucy Allan
Thin Places by Kerri ni Dochartaigh
Educated by Tara Westover
Paintings by Georgia O’Keefe
The soul of the ape by Eugène Marais
50 Things About Us: What We Really Need to Know About Britain by Mark Thomas
Beneath the Night by Stuart Clark
The Human Cosmos: A Secret History of the Stars by Jo Marchant
For Small Creatures Such as We by Sasha Sagan
How To Tell Depression to Piss Off by James Withey
Girl Woman Other by Bernadine Evaristo
My Darling From the Lions by Rachel Long
Supporting Cast by Kit De Waal
Men Who Hate Women by Laura Bates
Explaining Humans by Camilla Pang
House of Psychotic Women by Kier-La Janisse
Until the End of Time by Brian Greene
The Poetry and Music of Science Comparing Creativity in Science and Art by Tom McLeish
Of Mud and Flame edited by Matthew Harle and James Machin
Ithell Colquhoun by Amy Hale
The Great Pretender by Susannah Cahalan
The English Heretic Collection: Ritual Histories, Magickal Geography by Andy Sharp
Julián Is a Mermaid by Jessica Love
The You Choose series by Pippa Goodhart
A Place to Scream by Jean Ure
Coffinmakers Blues: Collected Writings on Terror edited Stephen Volk
We are the Martians: The Legacy of Nigel Kneale edited by Neil Snowdon
The Weird and the Eerie by Mark Fisher
What is Life? by Paul Nurse
A Tall History of Sugar by Curdella Forbes
The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett
The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy
Walking With the Wind by John Lewis
Coming Undone by Terri White
Queenie by Candice Carty-Williams
Listener recommendations:
Goldilocks by Laura Lam
Dead Famous by Greg Jenner
Amateur by Thomas Page McBee
I’m a Joke and So Are You by Robin Ince
In the Dream House by Carmen Maria Machado
House of Stone by Novuyo Tshuma
My Name is Why by Lemn Sissay
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