Topping this year’s list of Best Reads is Yaa Gyasi’s sophomore novel, Transcendent Kingdom. It’s a book about race, the South, the immigrant experience, science, family, and faith. It captures a lot of the interests of this web site and it’s flat great writing. You can read the full review by clicking the link but here’s an excerpt:
Transcendent Kingdom is full of rolling insights. It moves easily in time between different periods of Gifty’s life. Gyasi has a deft hand as a quick sketch artist, bringing places and people alive with compassion and depth in remarkably concise passages. She is equally at home with the crenelated relationships between family members and lovers as she is with grand themes of race and migration. And her philosophical musings hover in the background awaiting the right moment to appear.
–review originally published by The Englewood Review of Books, republished with permission
- Transcendent Kingdom by Yaa Gyasi
- Survival is a Style by Christian Wiman
- Men We Reaped by Jesmyn Ward
- One Long River of Song by Brian Doyle
- As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner
- A Prayer for Orion: A Son’s Addiction and a Mother’s Love by Katherine James
- One of Ours by Willa Cather
- North Toward Home by Willie Morris
- The Yellow House by Sarah Broom
- Nothing Happened & Then It Did by Jake Silverstein
Other recommended reads:
When in Romans: An Invitation to Linger with Gospel According to Paul by Beverly Gaventa — A brief book that upends stodgy orthodoxy with a fresh, apocalyptic reading of Paul.
Caste by Isabel Wilkerson — A readable, convicting survey of the invisible system that supports racial attitudes in the United States.
Dopesick by Beth Macy — Roanoke-based journalist uncovers the horrific toll of opioid addiction in her backyard along with the companies and government agencies that enable it.
The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner — If this were 1929 this might make the Top Ten. Difficult but affecting. Glad I persevered on my third try.
Lists from previous years can be found here:
Heartlands 
One response to “#1 and a Recap: The Heartlands Best Reads of 2020”
[…] The end of the year is approaching quickly so it must be time for the Heartlands Best Reads list. It’s been a good year for reading, even with a move and shift in environment. This is the fifth year for this list. […]
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