Sunday Synopsis - A Year in Review

 Thanks for stopping by! Today's synopsis is actually my reflection on the books I've read this year.

I exceeded my reading goal by one book.  I read 31 books during 2020.  If all of them moved as quickly as the ones I enjoyed most, I certainly could have read more, but not every book is a winner!

One such disappointing read was John Berendt's Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, which was supposed to be about a true crime, and was about that crime for a small percentage of pages but was mostly concerning the history of Savannah.  Reading this was like reading The National Enquirer (is that even a thing anymore?).

Another book that was not as expected was Madonna and Corpse by Jefferson Bass.  It was supposedly part of the Body Farm series, yet it had none of the series' characters, nor the same location, nor an ending, which is very frustrating.

I read my first Agatha Christie novel, And Then There Were None, and I was really quite unimpressed. I found it to be too predictable and formulaic.

Two books top my 2020 list.  The first is A Time for Mercy by John Grisham. I loved catching up with Jake Briggance and his family.  And although I didn't love how open-ended it ended, I can say I was satisfied with it.

I believe my number one favorite book was The Taming of the Queen by Phillipa Gregory.  She easily takes the reader back in time with authentic details and dialogue and a quickly moving plot.  She has an uncanny ability to create a character the reader will root for regardless of how sympathetic the person was in real life.

So those were my most and least favorite reads this year.  I'm starting 2021 off with a goal of 30 books again, and my first read is Truman Capote's In Cold Blood.

Happy New Year!