Your Favorite Books of 2014
Decatur Metro | December 4, 2014 | 9:05 am
Well, it’s finally December and people are beginning to clamor for this series of posts, so let’s get started!
First up: books!
Of the books you read this year, which were your favorite? Note, the book needn’t be published in 2014, just that you read it this past year. So feel free to mention any Homer, Chaucer or Balzac that you found lying around the house and couldn’t end up putting down. But certainly don’t hold back on slightly more current reads as well. 🙂
And if you’re looking for a bit of future inspiration, the New York Times has just released its list of 100 Notable Books of 2014 and the 10 Best Books of 2014.
Photo courtesy of Patrick Gage via Flickr
Favorite Adult Fiction Book of 2014 (of which I did not read much): All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr
Favorite Adult Nonfiction Book of 2014 (of which I did not read much): Little Failure by Gary Shteyngart
Favorite Kids Book of 2014 (of which I read and read and read): Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson
All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr is probably the best literature I read this year. But the book that tickled me the most is Big, Little Lies. It’s about parents at an elementary school in Australia and is pretty hysterical as long as you can laugh at yourself. It covers all the intense, competitive, cliquish, self-important, entitled, exclusionary, anxious, backscratching, activist, wacky, bizarre, and even destructive behaviors of modern parents who think they want the best for their children, but also the warm, wonderful, forgiving, and kind things that can occur in such a community. It reminded me so much of the whole Clairemont vs. Westchester shenanigans, secret yahoo groups, gossip, backbiting, which all backfired when both schools lost–if not their building, their principal and type of Expeditionary Learning. While it’s a satire, it also covers the serious topic of physical abuse. I think I need to go reread it….
Big Little Lies is available for Kindle for $3.99. Your description was so intriguing and the price was so good, I had to grab it.. Thanks for the recommendation.
Your book report is due a week from tomorrow. Electronic format okay but please spell-check.
No, no. It’s a shoebox diorama this time. And do your own work. We know your parents can glue stuff.
And don’t forget to write a one paragraph reflection on your experience with making the diorama (this is IB, after all). And the diorama will receive an achievement level of 1 to 8 for each of 4 MYP Assessment Criteria; however the final grade will be on a scale of 1 to 7. But for the purposes of the Georgia GPA and Hope Scholarship, all final grades will be converted to a traditional 4.0 scale (except if you take IP or high IB level courses in which the scale goes up to 4.5).
That should have been AP, not IP. Can’t keep my alphabet soup straight.
Loved the book All Beautiful Things by Nikki Salcedo (fiction)
Nonfiction: The Last Call: The Rise and Fall of Prohibition by Daniel Okrent
+1 re: Last Call.
Speaking of alcohol, DEM. Are you going to the Pappy Dinner at The Pinewood in January?
Your post was the first I had heard of it. Had no plans to go, but now I’m thinking about it!
I will be there on the Sunday…
The Goldfinch, by Donna Tartt.
Nonfiction — “American Nations” by Colin Woodard. Lots of history I should have learned in high school and a framework to explain the origins of Southern and Appalachian anti-government conservatism.
Fiction — “Fourth of July Creek” by Smith Henderson. A social worker in Montana deals with a chaotic personal life while trying to protect abused and neglected children, including those of a reclusive, disturbed mountain family.
As a high school English teacher, I try to keep up with YA lit., and here are some titles my students and I both enjoyed:
I’ll Give You the Sun by Jandy Nelson
We Were Liars by E. Lockhart
The Coldest Girl in Coldtown by Holly Black
Noggin by John Corey Whaley
She is Not Invisible by Marcus Sedgwick
In the world of grown-up books, it was all about John Darnielle’s Wolf in White Van for me.
Also, this seems like a good place to thank Little Shop of Stories for their very generous donation of a huge bag of advance reader edition novels to my classroom library at Cross Keys High School. And as a final note, let me share the good news that teens are still reading when given the time and book suggestions!! Right now I have a waiting list of students who want to read Unbroken and Wild before the films come out, students who can’ t wait to discuss the shock ending of We Were Liars, and worn copies of 13 Reasons Why exchanging hands weekly. Buy your kids some books for the Holidays! Probably preaching to the converted on this forum.
For a book published this year, my standout book is “Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage” by Haruki Murakami.
I recommend any of Murakami’s books, though there is a wide range of tones from book to book. “The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle,” my favorite of his novels, is mostly almost serene, with a jarringly intense passage that’s like getting kicked in the gut during yoga. For Science Fiction Fans, “Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World,” is a must-read.
Another of my favorite authors is Jonathan Lethem. “Fortress of Solitude” is perhaps his best, but “Motherless Brooklyn” is an easier and more enjoyable read, and perhaps the best introduction to his work.
“Fortress of Solitude” is one of my favorite books of the last 20 years or so.
Yay! Jonathan is an old friend, back from my high school days; we attended Quaker youth retreats together, and I lived in his family’s Brooklyn co-op. He’s good people. Some of our mutual friends are characters in the book.
Nonfiction: “Baptized in PCBs: Race, Pollution, and Justice in an All American Town” by Ellen Griffith Spears (my husband & I got to meet her at the Book Festival–she’s awesome). Simultaneously riveting, enraging, heartbreaking, and triumphal.
Fiction: “The Giver” trilogy, by Lois Lawry. I know they’re intended for children, but I loved them–they kept me engaged so much that I had to read all of them straight through, one after the other! Looking forward to seeing if the movie will do the 1st book justice…
Life After Life by Kate Atkinson
+1
Forgot about this book. It’s really good literature too.
I am a Murakami fan from way back and loved 1Q84, which I read in small doses over the past few months; Colorless Tsukuru is on the nightstand, next up.. I thought Walter Kirn’s Blood Will Out, the story of his relationship with a phony Rockefeller, was a compelling read. I have been a fan of Scandinavian crime novels thanks to the Dragon Tattoo books, and the most recent one I’ve checked out is the Erlandur series by Arnaldur Indridason set in Reykjavik.
Milked by Lisa Doyle.
Still looking for something really good…liked but didn’t love The Children Act by Ian McEwan and My Real Children by Jo Walton (coincidental that they both have the word children in the title). Just started The Dog by Joseph O’Neill. Hoping it breaks this year’s run of mostly disappointing fiction reading.
For non-fiction, You Are Now Less Dumb by David McRaney is an entertaining take on irrationality.
My local pick, by far, is the guidebook Hiking Atlanta’s Hidden Forests by Jonah McDonald. Literally has changed my life to a small but rewarding degree.
The Comfort of Our Kind – Tom Stoner
Broken Harbor – Tana French
Burning Bright – Tracy Chevalier
continuing the Inspector Rutledge series
Jane Austen mysteries – Stephanie Barron
Finally finished Gone Girl. Took three starts (over a year or two) to get going with it, then couldn’t put it down, then was ready for it to be over, then felt gypped at the end.
I am sure I am late to the party, but ‘Wonder’ by Palacio is a book written for kids, but is fantastic for adults too! Should be required reading for all.
Tigerman – Nick Harkaway
Among Others – Jo Walton
Annihilation – Jeff VanderMeer
Can’t We Talk About Something More Pleasant – Roz Chast
The Storied Life of A. J Fikry by Gabrielle Zevin.
Roadside Geology of Georgia by Pamela Gore and William Witherspoon. I had to get two copies so I could keep one in the car for weekend jaunts. Lots of gorgeous photos of mountains, parks, waterfalls, beaches, etc. with interesting tidbits about the history and geology. I have picked out a bunch of neat places to visit that I had never heard of. And so cool to finally see an explanation of places I have been and things I have seen.
It’s from 2013 but I loved A Constellation of Vital Phenomena. Also loved All the Light We Cannot See.
Buddhist Catnaps and Broken-Down Hymns by our own Decaturite Tommy Housworth is a great collection of short stories. Loved it!
A little late to the party, but:
Non-fiction:
Zealot by Reza Aslan
The Sixth Extinction by Elizabeth Kolbert
Fiction:
The Blazing World by Siri Hustvedt
I have to include Night Film and Station Eleven. I enjoyed those two this year.
In light of national current events, I highly recommend Kazuo Ishiguro’s “Never Let Me Go.” It may be the greatest allegory of racism written for white people ever.
Very good movie too. “Remains of the Day”, though, is my favorite Ishiguru novel (much better than the movie, imo).