Celebrating 20 Years of Sonderbooks: Top 20 Fiction Books

20 years ago in August 2001, I began writing Sonderbooks!

I’ve been celebrating by posting highlights from each year of my website, but now I want to celebrate one more way. Since I’ve been looking over and remembering favorites, I decided to make a list of my 20 favorite books I read for the first time over the last 20 years.

This was possible only if I split it up between Fiction and Nonfiction, so expect a Top 20 Nonfiction Books post next. I also did my best to let first books represent their whole series.

You’ll see that I’m a big fan of fantasy. These are all books that still warm my heart when I think of them. Almost all of them I’ve read more than once or plan to read more than once, because they’re that good.

I couldn’t bring myself to rank them, though, so I will list them in alphabetical order by author. Click on the titles to read my reviews.

20 Novels I love which I met in my last 20 years of reading:

The War That Saved My Life, by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley

The Sand-Reckoner, by Gillian Bradshaw

Enchantment, by Orson Scott Card

The Truth As Told By Mason Buttle, by Leslie Connor

The Hollow Kingdom, by Clare Dunkle

Enchantress from the Stars, by Sylvia Engdahl

Book of a Thousand Days, by Shannon Hale

The Goose Girl, by Shannon Hale

Midnight in Austenland, by Shannon Hale

Grave Mercy, by Robin LaFevers

Daughter of the Forest, by Juliet Marillier

The Flight of Swans, by Sarah McGuire

For Darkness Shows the Stars, by Diana Peterfreund

The Name of the Wind, by Patrick Rothfuss

Crown Duel, by Sherwood Smith

Beyond the Limit: The Dream of Sofya Kovalevskaya, by Joan Spicci

The Scorpio Races, by Maggie Stiefvater

The Screaming Staircase, by Jonathan Stroud

The Thief, by Megan Whalen Turner

Code Name Verity, by Elizabeth Wein

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