2020 Library Journal Best Books (Awarded by Library Journal)

Awards List

Crime Fiction

Unspeakable Things
(*)
Jess Lourey

Djinn Patrol on the Purple Line
(*)
Deepa Anappara

Hide Away
(*)
Jason Pinter

The Mountains Wild
(*)
Sarah Stewart Taylor

Blacktop Wasteland
(*)
S.A. Cosby

Winter Counts
(*)
David Heska; Wanbli Weiden

All the Devils Are Here
(*)
Louise Penny

The Thursday Murder Club
(*)
Richard Osman

The Searcher
(*)
Tana French

Graphic Novels

Sports Is Hell
(*)
Ben Passmore

Inappropriate
(*)
Gabrielle Bell

Kent State: Four Dead in Ohio
(*)
Derf Backderf

Dancing After TEN
(*)
Vivian Chong

Jack Kirby: The Epic Life of the King of Comics
(*)
Tom Scioli

The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Cartoonist
(*)
Adrian Tomine

Pulp
(*)
Ed Brubaker

Slaughterhouse-Five
(*)
Ryan North

Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen: Who Killed Jimmy Olsen?
(*)
Matt Fraction

Billionaire Island
(*)
Mark Russell

Horror

The Boatman's Daughter
(*)
Andy Davidson

The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires
(*)
Grady Hendrix

Mexican Gothic
(*)
Silvia Moreno-Garcia

The Only Good Indians
(*)
Stephen Graham Jones

Crossroads
(*)
Laurel Hightower

The Living Dead
(*)
George A. Romero

Plain Bad Heroines
(*)
Emily M. Danforth

Ring Shout
(*)
P. Djeli Clark

Boneset & Feathers
(*)
Gwendolyn Kiste

Literary Fiction

Apeirogon
(*)
Colum McCann

The Index of Self-Destructive Acts
(*)
Christopher R. Beha

Little Family
(*)
Ishmael Beah

A Burning
(*)
Megha Majumdar

Hamnet
(*)
Maggie O'Farrell

Migrations
(*)
Charlotte McConaghy

The New American
(*)
Micheline Aharonian Marcom

Transcendent Kingdom
(*)
Yaa Gyasi

Leave the World Behind
(*)
Rumaan Alam

Pop Fiction

Such a Fun Age
(*)
Kiley Reid

The Authenticity Project
(*)
Clare Pooley

Big Girl, Small Town
(*)
Michelle Gallen

The Girl with the Louding Voice
(*)
Abi Dare

Mercy House
(*)
Alena Dillon

The Other Bennet Sister
(*)
Janice Hadlow

Saving Ruby King
(*)
Catherine Adel West

Self Care
(*)
Leigh Stein

His Only Wife
(*)
Peace Adzo Medie

The Talented Miss Farwell
(*)
Emily Gray Tedrowe

Romance

Chasing Cassandra
(*)
Lisa Kleypas

Starbreaker
(*)
Amanda Bouchet

Conventionally Yours
(*)
Annabeth Albert

Daring and the Duke
(*)
Sarah MacLean

Fair as a Star
(*)
Mimi Matthews

Here to Stay
(*)
Adriana Herrera

Kiss My Cupcake
(*)
Helena Hunting

Ties That Tether
(*)
Jane Igharo

If the Boot Fits
(*)
Rebekah Weatherspoon

The Truth About Dukes
(*)
Grace Burrowes

SF/Fantasy

The Empress of Salt and Fortune
(*)
Nghi Vo

A Pale Light in the Black
(*)
K.B. Wagers

Goldilocks
(*)
Laura Lam

Driftwood
(*)
Marie Brennan

The Memory of Souls
(*)
Jenn Lyons

The Space Between Worlds
(*)
Micaiah Johnson

Hench
(*)
Natalie Zina Walschots

Black Sun
(*)
Rebecca Roanhorse

The Burning God
(*)
R.F. Kuang

Short Stories

A Registry of My Passage upon the Earth: Stories
(*)
Daniel Mason

Inheritors
(*)
Asako Serizawa

I Hold a Wolf by the Ears: Stories
(*)
Laura Van Den Berg

If I Had Two Wings
(*)
Randall Kenan

The Office of Historical Corrections
(*)
Danielle Evans

To Be a Man
(*)
Nicole Krauss

World Literature

The Enlightenment of the Greengage Tree
(*)
Shokoofeh Azar

The Belle Creole
(*)
Maryse Conde

Our Riches
(*)
Kaouther Adimi

Tropic of Violence
(*)
Nathacha Appanah

Echo on the Bay
(*)
Masatsugu Ono

Tokyo Ueno Station
(*)
Yu Miri

Difficult Light
(*)
Tomas Gonzalez

At Night All Blood Is Black
(*)
David Diop

Award Categories

Crime Fiction

Graphic Novels

Horror

Literary Fiction

Pop Fiction

Romance

SF/Fantasy

Short Stories

World Literature

Award Years

2023

2022

2021

2020

2019

2018