#5OnMyTBR is a bookish meme hosted by E. @ Local Bee Hunter’s Nook and you can learn more about it here or in the post announcing it. It occurs every Monday when we post about 5 books on our TBR. Thank you E. for the awesome graphic for these posts as well!

Hi everyone,

I hope everyone had a good weekend. I ate some donuts and that was pretty much the highlight given we’re still in hard lockdown in Melbourne. But this week’s #5OnMyTBR is a really good theme, 2020 releases! I’m really going to struggle to actually narrow this down to just 5 books, because I have so many 2020 books on my TBR! So I decided to *cough* double the number of books on this list and do my top 10 2020 books on my TBR! This year I’ve really expanded the genres I read (I mean, I’m still definitely a SFF reader first and foremost) but I’m trying to read a bit more widely too so I think this week’s list really reflects that!

Seven Devils by Laura Lam and Elizabeth May

Okay yes I’m starting with a scifi but the rest of the list has more variety I swear. This adult scifi has a whopping seven different POVs, each one of seven resistance fighters who are trying to free the galaxy from a ruthless empire.

The Death of Vivek Oji by Akwaeke Emezi

Akwaeke Emezi is fast becoming one of my favourite authors so of course I’m super excited to read their newest release, The Death of Vivek Oji. It’s a story of family and friendship and , as you can probably guess, the death of Vivek Oji.

Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart

I usually try to read a few of the books longlisted for the Man Booker, and as I’m Scottish, I of course had to read this one! Set in Glasgow during the Thatcher years, Shuggie Bain follows a young boy growing up in public housing. It’s also written with Glasgow dialect so will I get homesick reading this? Probably. It’s a very dark read too I believe, check out the content warnings in some of the Goodreads reviews before reading!

Burnt Sugar by Avni Doshi

This is another of my picks from the Man Booker shortlist, this one about a complicated mother-daughter relationship, as a daughter who felt neglected in her childhood now has to care for her mother at the onset of dementia.

Boyfriend Material by Alexis Hall

Onto a slightly more fun one, this is a fake dating romance and so many people are seeming to love it so I can’t wait to jump in!

The Mermaid, the Witch and the Sea by Maggie Tokuda-Hall

Genderfluid pirates anyone? This was one of my most anticipated books of the year and I can’t believe I still haven’t read it yet! It’s about a pirate and a noblewoman prisoner who fall in love and also there are mermaids and pirates and bears oh my! (Okay probably not the bears…)

The Empire of Gold by S.A Chakraborty

Yes I still haven’t read the final book in the Daevabad trilogy because I’m a WIMP and I am SCARED.

And the Stars Were Burning Brightly by Danielle Jawando

This UKYA contemporary books looks like it’ll be so so powerful but I am waiting until I’m in the right headspace to read it as it deals with some very difficult topics. It’s about a teen boy trying to find out why his brother committed suicide.

The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett

One of the biggest books of the year? Definitely. The Vanishing Half is an adult fiction novel about two sisters who live completely different lives: one lives with her daughter in the Southern town they grew up in, and the other passes for white and lives with a husband who knows nothing of her past.

All Boys Aren’t Blue by George M Johnson

And finally, All Boys Aren’t Blue is next on my list of nonfiction/memoir reads. It’s an essay collection by LGBTQIA+ activist George M Johnson, and covers topics from toxic masculinity to Black joy.

That’s it for this week! Sorry for the doubley long post, I just couldn’t resist talking about all the amazing 2020 releases on my TBR!