--- description: Find out why Notes on a Silencing by Lacy Crawford is on TIME's list of the must-read books from this year. title: 'Notes on a Silencing' Is One of the 100 Must-Read Books of 2020 image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt49d1a4b357ef6a78/698a140a8fd2ee95f3361f2c/best-books-2020-Notes-on-a-Silencing.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 --- Nov 09, 2020 # Notes on a Silencing by Lacy Crawford by [TIME Staff](/author/time-staff/) ## TIME Staff Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close  Lacy Crawford’s [memoir](https://time.com/5839429/best-books-summer-2020/ "undefined") about the assault she experienced during her time as a student at St. Paul’s School, an elite boarding school in Concord, N.H., is a particularly devastating entry in the #MeToo genre. Crawford, who contracted herpes from one of the fellow students who assaulted her and suffered debilitating pain as it went undiagnosed, tried to report the assault in 1991, the year after it occurred. But she was told that she would be expelled from the school if a criminal investigation were to launch and that she would find it difficult to enroll at any other school of similar stature on the East Coast. Crawford dropped her early attempts at justice, and those associated with the school managed to conceal the truth even as other students were victimized. She has found some vindication. In 2017, St. Paul published a [report](https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/22/us/st-pauls-school-acknowledges-decades-of-sexual-misconduct.html "undefined") that substantiated abuse claims going back to the 1940s, and the current head of the school, Kathy Giles, [does not dispute](https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/27/books/lacy-crawford-notes-on-a-silencing.html "undefined") Crawford’s account. But the reckoning has come late for a woman who has suffered since her teens. This is not a story of justice served but rather a case study in the ways storied and moneyed institutions protect their reputations by grinding down the will of the survivors who challenge them. **Buy Now:** _Notes on a Silencing_ on [Bookshop](https://bookshop.org/a/4973/9780316491556 "undefined") | [Amazon](https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0316491551/ref=as%5Fli%5Fqf%5Fasin%5Fil%5Ftl?ie=UTF8&tag=time-books-20&creative=9325&linkCode=as2&creativeASIN=0316491551&linkId=518f77eb6378cb23a67fbe7f0146cd65 "undefined") These are independent reviews of the products mentioned, but TIME receives a commission when purchases are made through affiliate links at no additional cost to the purchaser. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"Article","@id":"https://time.com/collections/must-read-books-2020/5904293/notes-on-a-silencing/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/collections/must-read-books-2020/5904293/notes-on-a-silencing/"},"headline":"'Notes on a Silencing' Is One of the 100 Must-Read Books of 2020","datePublished":"2020-11-09T20:11:03.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-02T23:44:44.751Z","description":"","url":"https://time.com/collections/must-read-books-2020/5904293/notes-on-a-silencing/","keywords":["E-Commerce","Books","list"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt49d1a4b357ef6a78/698a140a8fd2ee95f3361f2c/best-books-2020-Notes-on-a-Silencing.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME Staff","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/time-staff/"}],"creator":"TIME Staff","articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt49d1a4b357ef6a78/698a140a8fd2ee95f3361f2c/best-books-2020-Notes-on-a-Silencing.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/collections/must-read-books-2020/5904293/notes-on-a-silencing/","name":"'Notes on a Silencing' Is One of the 100 Must-Read Books of 2020"}}]}] ```