I’m not sure what it is, but since 2020 time has become awfully wiggly. Things that happened in 2020 feel like yesterday, unless it happened two weeks ago and I’ve completely forgotten about it. I’m wondering if life was so different in 2020 that my brain made some serious synapse connections. Either way, I was thinking about the sheer number of novels I remember in detail that I read about six years ago (2020) compared to books I’ve read recently that I couldn’t tell you anything about.

pandemic reads: feels like yesterday

1. Some Sing, Some Cry by Ifa Bayeza and Ntozake Shange — read December 2020 with my mom and our newly-founded book club
2. The Silence by Susan Allott — read November 2020 after looking for more Australian fiction
3. The Vampire Gideon’s Suicide Hotline and Halfway House for Orphaned Girls by Andrew Katz — read October 2020 aloud to my spouse in our kitchen
4. Paradise Cove by Jenny Holiday — read August 2020 after a Filipino blogger named Gil recommended it
5. East Pittsburgh Downlow by Dave Newman — read August 2020 aloud to my spouse
6. Have You Found Her? by Janice Erlbaum — read July 2020, a totally harrowing follow-up memoir about a lying foster daughter
7. The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden — read June 2020, a magical, immersive Russian-set novel that proved an engrossing trilogy, read with the local library Zoom book club
8. Motherhood So White: A Memoir of Race, Gender, and Parenting in America by Nefertiti Austin — read June 2020, a look at how motherhood how-to books do not address adoption and foster care for Black women
9. The Bird Way: A New Look at How Birds Talk, Work, Play, Parent, and Think by Jennifer Ackerman — read June 2020, helped me get over my fear of birds and calmed my amygdala down
10. The Egg and I by Betty MacDonald — read May 2020, recommended by Bill, totally hilarious
11. Love Literary Style by Karin Gillespie — read May 2020, recommended by Bill, a lovely look at “literary” vs. “popular” authors
12. Private Demons: The Life of Shirley Jackson by Judy Oppenheimer — read January 2020, a dark emotional story of a woman who was a victim of her time but a genius at her craft
13. My Cousin Rachel by Daphne du Maurier — read January 2020, a frustratingly good read that gives us zero answers about who Rachel is

What was it that made these works memorable? Was it because I read many with other people? A deep focus afforded me by choosing books to avoid the pandemic reality? Either way, these works continue to crop up in my mind often.

you’re who now? books i read in the last year that are utter strangers

1. Night Side of the River by Jeanette Winterson — read December 2025
2. The Unmothers by Leslie J. Anderson — read October 2025
3. Just Desserts by G.A. McKevett — read September 2025
4. Bastard Out of Carolina by Dorothy Allison — read August 2025
5. The God of the Woods by Liz Moore — read May 2025
6. Motherthing by Ainslie Hogarth — read May 2025
7. Silver Nitrate by Silvia Moreno-Garcia — read February 2025
8. Fatland by Frannie Zellman — read February 2025
9. Portrait of a Feminist: A Memoir in Essays by Marianna Marlowe — read January 2025

How can a book I read less that twelve months ago be so foreign to me? In some cases, the plots didn’t stick, the characters weren’t treasured, or it’s possible my environment affected how I read. I noticed that the books I read during my internship, a time of great stress, stuck with me more than later months. Is there something to reading under duress that makes the experience memorable? I’d be interested to know what your thoughts are or if you know of any connection between traumatic times and memory.