The Best Books We Read in 2020

Plus: the biggest challenge facing Joe Biden’s economic team, the fatal flaw of “The Queen’s Gambit,” and the 30 most disappointing under 30. View in browser | Update your preferences 2020 in Review The Best Books We Read in 2020 The fiction and nonfiction, old and new, that kept us going. By The New Yorker Letter from Los Angeles Using the Homeless to Guard Empty Houses As the pandemic makes an already terrible housing crisis worse, a new version of house-sitting signals a broken real-estate market. By Francesca Mari Our Columnists The Biggest Challenge Facing Joe Biden’s New Economic Team The President-elect’s advisers are keenly aware that many of the Administration’s policy proposals will likely have to go through, or around, Mitch McConnell. By John Cassidy PAID POST A Message of Hope from Pope Francis In his most personal writing yet, Pope Francis explains how we can emerge from the COVID crisis stronger and more unified than ever. He also provides a blueprint for a better, fairer world. Available now where books are sold. From the Archive Daily Shouts A Selection of the 30 Most Disappointing Under 30 Oksana Iyovitch: purchased a kitten after seeing a picture on the Twitter feed Cute Emergency. Tried to return it when it “got too big.” By Bess Kalb Culture and More Culture Desk The Fatal Flaw of “The Queen’s Gambit” The Netflix series copies virtually everything from Walter Tevis’s novel, apart from its central tension. By Sarah Miller A Critic at Large What Henry Adams Understood About History’s Breaking Points He devoted a lifetime to studying America’s foundation, witnessed its near-dissolution, and uncannily anticipated its evolution. By Dan Chiasson Books Why New York’s Mob Mythology Endures We hang on to legends of the Mafia’s inner workings as parables for the wider world. By Adam Gopnik The Firm Tobias Menzies Crashed on Helena Bonham Carter’s Couch Before Lockdown Prior to playing Prince Philip on “The Crown,” the British actor took on Wallace Shawn’s “The Fever,” Brutus, and a cursed bridegroom in “Game of Thrones.” By Sarah Larson Humor from The New Yorker Daily Shouts I’ll Have Kids When My Life Is Finally Perfect After I’ve been a blacksmith’s apprentice in Ulaanbaatar and hunted wolves in the Gobi Desert, I’ll get serious about having kids. By Alex Baia Daily Cartoon Tuesday, December 1st By Brooke Bourgeois This e-mail was sent to you by The New Yorker. To insure delivery, we recommend adding newyorker@newsletters.newyorker.com, to your contacts, while noting that it is a no-reply address. Please send all newsletter feedback to tnyinbox@newyorker.com. For more from The New Yorker, sign up for our newsletters, shop the store, and sign in to newyorker.com, where subscribers always have unlimited access. Contact us with questions. View our Privacy Policy Unsubscribe Copyright © Condé Nast 2020. One World Trade Center, New York, NY 10007. All rights reserved.