Of the 215 books I read in 2014, here is a selection of my favourites in both nonfiction and fiction. I hope you’ll find a new-to-you title that intrigues you. All of these were published in 2014.
Nonfiction
UPDIKE by Adam Begley
A masterful literary biography that has me pledging to read as much of Updike’s oeuvre as I can. Each time I finished a book, I penned a hand-written missive to Adam Begley. So far, I’ve enjoyed Seek My Face, Always Looking: Essays on Art, and Self-Consciousness the most.
CARELESS PEOPLE by Sarah Churchwell
This book is perfect for a lit nerd like me. I underlined and scribbled in the margins to my heart’s content. It’s a fascinating, meticulously-researched account of 1922 and what was happening around him as Fitzgerald began to write what became his most famous novel.
BLOOD WILL OUT by Walter Kirn
This is a gobsmacking tale of a sociopath whom Kirn befriends in 1998 when he delivers a crippled dog to him by request. I could not put it down. You won’t be able to either. If you’re already a fan of Capote’s In Cold Blood, Kirn’s memoir is for you.
THE TRIP TO ECHO SPRING: ON WRITERS AND DRINKING by Olivia Laing
A beautiful bold narrative about legendary alcoholics Berryman, Carver, Cheever, Fitzgerald, Hemingway, and Williams via a journey through the places they inhabited.
THE REPUBLIC OF IMAGINATION by Azar Nafisi
Loved, loved, love this book, dog-earing pages, scribbling in the margins. Something Nafisi admits about Raymond Chandler made me realize we could be immediate friends.
Fiction
ALL THE LIGHT WE CANNOT SEE by Anthony Doerr
One of the year’s best novels. Each sentence is its own reward in this unconventional narrative about WWII, featuring a young French girl and a young German boy. Beautiful and painful. I will be haunted by it for some time to come.
BE SAFE, I LOVE YOU by Cara Hoffman
Hoffman writes with such compassion about frangible characters. Lauren Clay has difficulty adjusting to life stateside after serving in Iraq. PTSD is explored with sensitivity. Music offers redemption.
WAKE by Anna Hope
London, November 1920. The tomb of the unknown soldier from the Great War is prepared at Westminister Abbey. Lives of several women, mothers, wives, lovers, daughters are linked in grief. Haunting debut stylistically reminiscent of Virginia Woolf.
STATION ELEVEN by Emily Mandel
This dystopic novel surprised me in its tenderness and its ability to make me feel wistful about my own time. Mandel is in top form here. The through line of playing King Lear is also very appealing to me.
THUNDERSTRUCK by Elizabeth McCracken
Each story is full of light, but also gutting. This is a remarkable collection, shortlisted for the 2014 National Book Award for fiction. The best collection of stories I’ve read in a long, long time.
EVERYTHING I NEVER TOLD YOU by Celeste Ng
All of the characters are complicit in this compelling first thriller from Ng, that begins with the accidental death of a teenaged girl.
REUNION by Hannah Pittard
Three adult siblings return to Atlanta to deal with the fallout from their oft-philandering father’s sudden death. Enthralling narrative voice. I’ll read anything Hannah Pittard writes.
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