FLC Staff Picks Blog

Taylor's Picks: Books to Escape 2020

Let's be honest: 2020 has been an incredibly stressful year. We've been living through a global pandemic for the last eight months due to which we are isolated from one another and experiencing interruption in our working lives. We've been going through a tumultuous time for Civil Rights, with police brutality against Black and brown bodies coming to light due to the ease with which we can film such events today. We've been enduring one of the most polarizing elections in American history. It's been stressful.

When going through times of high stress, I often turn to reading as an escape. If ever there was a time to escape, this is it. The books that I've selected for this display are all personal favorites. I selected titles that I feel are well-written and have an engaging plot or information that draws you in. They're all intended to help you escape life in 2020, whether it be to:

• a different time (Lincoln in the Bardo, The Water Dancer, A Prayer for Owen Meany),
• a different world where magic or interstellar travel exists (Children of Blood and Bone, Slaughterhouse-Five, The Martian, The Invisible Man),
• a different life entirely (Educated, H is for Hawk, Persepolis),
• or a different scientific field than you generally study (The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, Astrophysics for People in a Hurry, The Triumph of Seeds).

Have some good books that you'd like to recommend as an escape? Let us know what they are in the comments at the end of this post!

note: Follow the title links to get a full description or to the "place a hold". We'll pull it for you!

Escape to a Different Time (Historical Fiction)

The Water Dancer by Ta-Nehisi Coates

Call Number: PS 3603 .O17 W38

ISBN: 9780399590597

Publication Date: 2019

Young Hiram Walker was born into bondage. When his mother was sold away, Hiram was robbed of all memory of her--but was gifted with a mysterious power. Years later, when Hiram almost drowns in a river, that same power saves his life. This brush with death births an urgency in Hiram and a daring scheme: to escape from the only home he's ever known.
 

A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving

Call Number: PS 3559 .R8 P73 2012

ISBN: 9780062204097

Publication Date: 1989

In the summer of 1953, two eleven-year-old boys—best friends—are playing in a Little League baseball game in Gravesend, New Hampshire. One of the boys hits a foul ball that kills the other boy's mother. The boy who hits the ball doesn't believe in accidents; Owen Meany believes he is God's instrument. What happens to Owen after that 1953 foul ball is extraordinary.

Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders

Call Number: PS 3569 .A7897 L56 2017

ISBN: 9780812995343

Publication Date: 2017

A moving and original father-son story featuring none other than Abraham Lincoln, as well as an unforgettable cast of supporting characters, living and dead, historical and invented. It's February 1862, and the Civil War is less than one year old. The fighting has begun in earnest, and the nation has begun to realize it is in for a long, bloody struggle. Meanwhile, President Lincoln's beloved eleven-year-old son, Willie, lies upstairs in the White House, gravely ill.

 

Escape to a Different World (Science Fiction)

Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi

Call Number: Juv. Fic. A233c 2018

ISBN: 9781250170972

Publication Date: 2018

Zélie Adebola remembers when the soil of Orïsha hummed with magic. Burners ignited flames, Tiders beckoned waves, and Zélie's Reaper mother summoned forth souls. But everything changed the night magic disappeared. Under the orders of a ruthless king, maji were killed, leaving Zélie without a mother and her people without hope. Now Zélie has one chance to bring back magic and strike against the monarchy.
 

The Martian by Andy Weir

Call Number: PS 3623 .E432 M37 2014

ISBN: 9780804139021

Publication Date: 2011

Six days ago, astronaut Mark Watney became one of the first people to walk on Mars. Now, he's sure he'll be the first person to die there. After a dust storm nearly kills him and forces his crew to evacuate while thinking him dead, Mark finds himself stranded and completely alone with no way to even signal Earth that he's alive—and even if he could get word out, his supplies would be gone long before a rescue could arrive.
 

The Invisible Man by H. G. Wells; W. Warren Wagar (Introduction by); Scott Westerfeld (Afterword by)

Call Number: 823.912 W454in, 2010

ISBN: 9780451531674

Publication Date: 1897

A stranger emerges out of a freezing February day with a request for lodging in a cozy provincial inn. Who is this out-of-season traveler? More confounding is the thick mask of bandages obscuring his face. Why is he disguised in such a manner? What keeps him hidden in his room? The villagers, aroused by trepidation and curiosity, bring it upon themselves to find the answers. What they discover is not only a man trapped in the terror of his own creation, but a chilling reflection of the unsolvable mysteries of their own souls.

 

Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut

Call Number: PS 3572 .O5 S6 2009

ISBN: 9780385333849

Publication Date: 1969

Centering on the infamous World War II firebombing of Dresden, the novel is the result of what Kurt Vonnegut described as a twenty-three-year struggle to write a book about what he had witnessed as an American prisoner of war. It combines historical fiction, science fiction, autobiography, and satire in an account of the life of Billy Pilgrim, a barber's son turned draftee turned optometrist turned alien abductee. As Vonnegut had, Billy experiences the destruction of Dresden as a POW. Unlike Vonnegut, he experiences time travel, or coming "unstuck in time."

 

Escape to Someone Else's Life (Biography/Memoir)

H Is for Hawk by Helen Macdonald

Call Number: QL 696 .F32 M33 2014

ISBN: 9780802124739

Publication Date: 2014

Helen Macdonald's story of adopting and raising one of nature's most vicious predators has soared into the hearts of millions of readers worldwide. Fierce and feral, her goshawk Mabel's temperament mirrors Helen's own state of grief after her father's death, and together raptor and human "discover the pain and beauty of being alive" (People). H Is for Hawk is a genre-defying debut from one of our most unique and transcendent voices.

 

The Complete Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi

Call Number: 741.5 S253c, 2007

ISBN: 9780375714832

Publication Date: 2007

Persepolis is the story of Marjane Satrapi's unforgettable childhood and coming of age within a large and loving family in Tehran during the Islamic Revolution; of the contradictions between private life and public life in a country plagued by political upheaval; of her high school years in Vienna facing the trials of adolescence far from her family; of her homecoming--both sweet and terrible; and, finally, of her self-imposed exile from her beloved homeland. 

 

Educated by Tara Westover

Call Number: CT 3262 .I2 W47 2018

ISBN: 9780399590504

Publication Date: 2018

Born to survivalists in the mountains of Idaho, Tara Westover was seventeen the first time she set foot in a classroom. Her family was so isolated from mainstream society that there was no one to ensure the children received an education, and no one to intervene when one of Tara's older brothers became violent. When another brother got himself into college, Tara decided to try a new kind of life. Her quest for knowledge transformed her, taking her over oceans and across continents, to Harvard and to Cambridge University. Only then would she wonder if she'd traveled too far, if there was still a way home.

 

Escape to the World of Science (Nonfiction Pop Science) 

The Triumph of Seeds by Thor Hanson

Call Number: QK 661 .H36 S44 2016

ISBN: 9780465097401

Publication Date: 2015

We live in a world of seeds. From our morning toast to the cotton in our clothes, they are quite literally the stuff and staff of life: supporting diets, economies, and civilizations around the globe. Just as the search for nutmeg and pepper drove the Age of Discovery, coffee beans fueled the Enlightenment and cottonseed sparked the Industrial Revolution. Seeds are fundamental objects of beauty, evolutionary wonders, and simple fascinations. Yet, despite their importance, seeds are often seen as commonplace, their extraordinary natural and human histories overlooked.

 

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot

Call Number: 616.02774 S628i, 2011

ISBN: 9781400052189

Publication Date: 2010

Her name was Henrietta Lacks, but scientists know her as HeLa. She was a poor Southern tobacco farmer who worked the same land as her slave ancestors, yet her cells--taken without her knowledge--became one of the most important tools in medicine: The first "immortal" human cells grown in culture, which are still alive today, though she has been dead for more than sixty years. HeLa cells were vital for developing the polio vaccine; uncovered secrets of cancer, viruses, and the atom bomb's effects; helped lead to important advances like in vitro fertilization, cloning, and gene mapping; and have been bought and sold by the billions. Yet Henrietta Lacks remains virtually unknown, buried in an unmarked grave.

 

Astrophysics for People in a Hurry by Neil deGrasse Tyson

Call Number: QB 461 .T97 A88 2017

ISBN: 9780393609394

Publication Date: 2017

The essential universe, from our most celebrated and beloved astrophysicist. What is the nature of space and time? How do we fit within the universe? How does the universe fit within us? There's no better guide through these mind-expanding questions than acclaimed astrophysicist and best-selling author Neil deGrasse Tyson.