One of the very few perks to life in lockdown (and boy, do you really need to look for the silver linings) has been that we've all had a lot more free time to dedicate to that stack of unread books on the nightstand. And as 2020 is officially the year of the staycation, we thought we'd bring you our faves from this year's releases, from gritty thrillers to far-flung fantasy to big idea non-fiction.

1The City We Became: A Novel (The Great Cities Trilogy Book 1)

This innovative modern fantasy epic by the author of The Fifth Season takes place in a version of New York City very much like the one we know except its alive. In Jemisons world, cities have souls, and The City We Became is the story of the human incarnations of the Big Apple as they fight to defend the metropolis they love from an otherworldly, Lovecraftian horror.

2Here for It: Or, How to Save Your Soul in America; Essays

Playwright and columnist R. Eric Thomas debut collection of personal essays explore big themes of race, sexuality and religion that authors have been grappling with for years and manages to make them funny. With the trademark wit and insight that made his Ellecolumn Eric Reads the News so popular, Thomas recounts some of the most formative, hilarious experiences of his childhood and young adulthood, before turning his wry-yet-hopeful eye to the future.

3The Glass Hotel: A novel

Mandels previous novel, Station Eleven, followed a disparate group of characters through the outbreak of a global plague, then caught up with the remnants of human society decades later. Her latest book may feature fewer apocalypses but is no less sprawling in scope, beginning with one fateful evening at the Hotel Caiette in British Columbia, and tracing the echoes that reverberate through several characters lives over the decades that follow.

4Antkind: A Novel

One of the greatest screenwriting minds of all time takes his shot at the literary with the sprawling, funny, mind-warpingAntkind.Much like he did withBeing John MalkovichandAdaptation,Charlie Kaufman gets very meta in this novel that also invokes the films of Judd Apatow and the surreal, speculative workof Philip K. Dick. With just about every single one ofAntkinds 720 pages, youll be testing your own mind, and getting another rare and exclusive glimpse into Kaufmans (and laughing all along the way).

5The Answer Is . . .: Reflections on My Life

Game show host Alex Trebek has been a beloved part of the American cultural canon for more than 30 years, and when he revealed in 2019 that he had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, the public responded with unanimous messages of love and support. Trebek says this memoir was written as a kind of thank you to those unwavering fans; each chapter takes its title from a Jeopardy!-style question, and includes never-before-shared stories from Trebeks life and his time on the show.

6Blacktop Wasteland: A Novel

Billed as Oceans Eleven meets Drive, this gritty modern noir follows Bug, a former getaway driver who earned a reputation as the best wheelman on the East coast. Hes trying hard to go legit, but as a Black man living on the brink of poverty in the rural South with a family depending on him, the promise of one last job is all too alluring, and so he agrees to take part in a heist which could change his life for good or be his undoing.

7The Vanishing Half: A Novel

The Vignes sisters are identical twins, and were once inseparable. But when they ran away from home at the age of sixteen, their lives diverged. Ten years later, one of the sisters passes for white, with a husband who has no knowledge of where she comes from, and the other sister lives in the same community they once tried to escape. And then their daughters paths cross. The Vanishing Half weaves together elements of family saga and social commentary to ask the question: what makes us who we are?

8Mexican Gothic

Noemi, a society girl living in Mexico City in the 1950s, receives an alarming letter from her cousin, Catalina, claiming her husband is trying to poison her. What follows is a richly imagined take on the Gothic fiction genre, complete with a baroque remote mansion, a complicated and brooding male lead, and a mystery in dire need of solving.

9Smoke & Mirrors: How Hype Obscures the Future and How to See Past It

Were living in a time of technological marvels, but all too often, the lofty claims and bombastic headlines surrounding new advances tend to obfuscate or oversimplify. How many times over the last few years have we heard that robots are coming to take our jobs?Through chapters on everything from healthcare to energy to artificial intelligence, science writer Gemma Milne makes the argument that hype is a dangerous tool when it comes to shaping human progress, and that we all need to be able to think critically.

10Such a Fun Age

A young woman of color is accused of kidnapping a white child in a supermarket at the outset of this Booker-longlisted novel. Things only get worse for Emira, the babysitter, when the childs mother Alix tries to make things right by taking to the internet, igniting a series of events that feel both gripping and inevitable.

11If It Bleeds

In addition to churning out one doorstopper of a novel per year, preternaturally prolific horror writer Stephen King is also a master of short-form suspense. His latest collection comprises four characteristically original, unnerving novellas, including the titular If It Bleeds, which functions as a standalone sequel to Kings 2018 thriller The Outsider, which wasrecently adapted into a chilling miniseries by HBO.

12The Paper Girl of Paris

The YA debut of Mens Healths own deputy editor Jordyn Taylor, The Paper Girl of Paris unfolds over two timelines. In the present day, 16-year-old Alice inherits an apartment in Montmartre that has been locked ever since the Second World War. And in the 1940s, a young socialite named Adalyn experiences the first spark of resistance during the Occupation. Part mystery, part love story, The Paper Girl of Paris is a timely novel about coming of age and doing the right thing.

13Utopia Avenue: A Novel

This kaleidoscopic tale of sex, drugs and rocknroll focuses on the fictional band Utopia Avenue and their stratospheric rise in the late 1960s. There are very few genuinely greatbooks about music, and it takes a novelist of David Mitchells talents to satisfactorily capture the ineffable thrill of a live gig. Utopia Avenue is a love letter to a specific time, and a specific kind of band and for Mitchell fans, its also full of Easter eggs that place it firmly in the wider, deeply strange shared universe of his other notable works likeCloud Atlas andThe Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet.

14A Traveler at the Gates of Wisdom: A Novel

Ambitious doesnt even begin to describe this novel, which starts out as the story of a family in Biblical times before taking the reader on an epic journey across continents and through centuries, ending in the year 2080. With the introduction of each new character and setting, Boynes thesis becomes increasingly clear: everything (and everyone) is connected, and history will be doomed to repeat itself unless people start to figure shit out.

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The 14 Best New Books of 2020 - Men's Health