Best Books of 2014!!
This has been such a good book year for me! The first year as an adult that I've read 75 books! I'm definitely shooting for 100 books for 2015.
Because I read so many books this year, I found some great ones along with some complete duds. I really want to sum up my favorite 12 books that I read this year (not necessarily published in 2014, but that I read in 2014).
Also, you should be my friend on GoodReads, because I love getting book recommendations from seeing what my friends are reading!
In no particular order, my favorite books of 2014:
1. Parable of the Sower - Octavia E. Butler
I am so, so disappointed in myself that I only recently discovered Octavia E. Butler. So far I have loved everything of hers that I've read. I listened to the audiobook of Parable of the Sower on my long road trip from Arizona to Ohio, and it really stuck with me. It's a perfectly plausible dystopia that actually got me to look up recipes for acorn bread. It's terrifying and amazing at the same time. I also read the sequel, which is even MORE terrifying because it involves the Christian Right taking over America and enslaving "heathens." I'm so sad that she passed away before the third book could be finished.
What I love best about Octavia Butler is all of her heroines are Black, strong, intelligent, and not afraid to be their own heroes.
2. Kindred - Octavia E. Butler
Speaking of Octavia Butler....I just finished this story this month, and with all of the protests that have been going on around the country and the world in these last few months, it just really hit me hard. It's a time travel story, but the "present" is 1976, which is a little bit of a headshaker. Dana and her husband have just moved into their first home together, when suddenly Dana feels dizzy and comes to....in 1819. MARYLAND 1819. Slave state. After her first trips back and forth, she discovers she's there to keep her great-great-great grandfather, who is white, alive until he can father her great-great grandmother (by raping a slave). Dana is stuck in the past for months at a time, and while she's welcomed as a house-slave and has the perspective of modern day, she has to watch all the people around her who live this as their life, full time, with no chance of ever escaping. I've studied history, I knew slavery was pretty much the worst thing we've ever done, but reading it through the eyes of a modern Black woman was terrifying and stomach-turning.
SO MUCH of what this book was about has direct links to what is going on in this country RIGHT NOW. HISTORY PEOPLE. So yes, please read this book.
3. The Diviners - Libba Bray
Libba Bray is kind of hit or miss for me. I'm almost done with her first book, A Great and Terrible Beauty, and it's probably the weakest of her books that I've read. But The Diviners is a definite hit!! First of all, you have to listen to the audiobook. The narrator nails the '20s slang and diction. I wanted to start talking to my coworkers in '20s slang because of how awesome the narrator made it sound. Plus the book is kind of terrifying. I've gotten into horror a lot more in the last few years, and I will say that the supernatural baddy of the book actually really scared me.
The only thing that I didn't like was the little love triangle -- SO OVER THEM. But I'm eagerly awaiting the sequel!
4. Wild - Cheryl Strayed
Another one I listened to on audiobook. I didn't really know much about it, but I needed something to listen to. It ended up being a great personal story about the author's fight to find herself after losing her mother, her husband, and falling into a heroin addiction. Her story about hiking alone on the Pacific Crest Trail with absolutely no backpacking experience as a way to break free of her past really hit home with me and started my own obsession with hiking the Appalachian Trail. I'd never thought I'd want to thru-hike the AT until I read this book! Cheryl is honest with her past; I appreciate that she doesn't sugarcoat the bad things she did.
I saw the movie last week, and while I think it did a great job of turning a book about a solo thru-hike in the wilderness into a movie, you REALLY have to read the book to make sense of what's going on. They fill things in with flashbacks, but it's hard to tell who's who if you haven't read the book. Reese Witherspoon was great, though!
5. Americanah - Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Another audiobook, another one that you must listen to on audiobook because the narrator does such a great job with the variety of accents. Not my normal type of reading, but I picked it up because it was on so many "best of" lists that I thought I'd give it a try. I'm glad I did! It's a long love story of two Nigerians and how life takes them away from each other and they grow apart and rediscover each other. Ifemelu goes to America, and Obinze to England. A lot of the story is about Ifemelu's discovery of herself and her identity -- at first she wants nothing more than to fit in in America, but eventually she finds that she is proud to be a Nigerian and wants to return home and stop trying to force herself into the wrong mold. The author writes so beautifully and honestly about Nigeria, about being an African in America where you clash cultures with both white Americans and African-Americans and then returning home and not quite fitting in in your home country because your experience abroad has changed you just enough that you don't really fit in anywhere.
6. The Emperor's Soul - Brandon Sanderson
It's a novella? A long short story? It's only 175 pages. Which is why it's SO FREAKING AMAZING the world building that Brandon Sanderson created in such a short amount of time! All the magickal rules and history of the realm just fit in so nicely as part of the story, instead of having to slog through chapters of backstory. This was the first book by Sanderson that I've read, and it really impressed me. I have many more of his books on my "to-read" list :-)
7. Catch-22 - Joseph Heller
Audiobook! Which I'm not sure if it helped or hindered me getting into the book at the beginning. It took me a while to understand the rhythm of the story, which is everything. If you try to read it without understanding the cadence, it's a terrible book. Which is why I hated it at first. But I kept pushing on -- I'm trying to read a few classics every year, I also read 1984 and did NOT like it -- and was rewarded with a pretty funny book. I laughed out loud at some parts. And it's good to see where the phrase "catch-22" originated and why it's so completely nonsensical. The main character is an ass, but you don't have to like him. The story is more about absurdity than loyalty to a character.
8. Zeus Grants Stupid Wishes - Cory O'Brien
This is NOT a literary examination of mythology. Imagine if Tumblr and SnapChat wrote a book about mythology. That's what this is. It's HILARIOUS. Laugh out loud hilarious.
A snippet from the first story:
"So everybody knows Zeus is the king of the gods, right?
WRONG.
I mean, he is the king of the gods
but first of all, not everybody knows that and second of all he wasn't always the king of the gods.
Because, see, for a while there was this guy Uranus
who was a total asshole
(haha, Uranus)
anyway he was the king of the gods, born out of the sky
or maybe it was the aether?
but either way he was definitely married to Gaia
who some sources say also gave birth to him
so...awkward."
That's pretty much how each story goes. I loved it as a quick read that could make me laugh.
9. Ocean at the End of the Lane - Neil Gaiman
Another audiobook, read by the author, another one that I recommend listening to the audiobook because Neil Gaiman does the different accents so well (well, they're his characters!). It started out a little slow, but once it got into the heart of the story, I was totally hooked. There were times when I was driving, listening to it, and thinking, "HOW HE DOES WORDS SO GOOD?" The writing is just magical. Whether you're a fan of Gaiman or not, this story is definitely worth a try.
10. Hark! A Vagrant - Kate Beaton
You can read Kate's webcomics at her site, but I loved this first published collection of her historical comics (with a few never before seen comics added in!). Really, the whole book is worth is just for this one:
ALSO, it is worth following her on Tumblr and/or Twitter because she posts a lot of funny family sketches and last year she posted a great series about the time she worked at a mining site.
11. A Tale for the Time Being - Ruth Ozeki
Again, audiobook. Again, read by the author. Again, accents. Also, I should note that Ruth Ozeki is pretty much my favorite author, so I was really going to like this even if it stank. Which it did not.
The main character is very similar to the author, named Ruth, a writer with writer's block living on a small Canadian island in the Pacific, who finds the journal of a Japanese girl named Nao wash up on the beach a few years after the tsunami in Japan. Nao uses the journal to tell the life of her great-grandmother, but also to describe why she is planning to kill herself and why life in Japan is not as idyllic as American anime fans seem to think. Ruth gets sucked into the journal as life on her small island continues around her, and eventually tracks Nao down through the internet to see if she's still alive. It's beautiful, heartbreaking, shocking, disgusting, and tranquil all at once.
12. Cheap - Ellen Ruppel Shell
I promise, not every book I read on audiobook was great. But this one was an audiobook. And it was great. Not required to be an audiobook, though, no accents or amazing narration. I just process non-fiction better on audiobook.
So this book, it is great. I have always known that the time we're in now is a product of our history, but this book and Kindred really opened my eyes and made me want to read more history books and even had me looking into a Master's in American History. Because this book tells about how awful our quest for the cheapest STUFF really is. You'll never be able to shop Ikea again. I'm also reading this book at a time when I'm trying to downsize my life, so that definitely made it more likeable for me. But I think everyone should give it a try to see where your desire for "the best bargains" really comes from.
Those were my favorite books of 2014!! What were yours? What are you planning to read in 2015?!
Because I read so many books this year, I found some great ones along with some complete duds. I really want to sum up my favorite 12 books that I read this year (not necessarily published in 2014, but that I read in 2014).
Also, you should be my friend on GoodReads, because I love getting book recommendations from seeing what my friends are reading!
In no particular order, my favorite books of 2014:
1. Parable of the Sower - Octavia E. Butler
I am so, so disappointed in myself that I only recently discovered Octavia E. Butler. So far I have loved everything of hers that I've read. I listened to the audiobook of Parable of the Sower on my long road trip from Arizona to Ohio, and it really stuck with me. It's a perfectly plausible dystopia that actually got me to look up recipes for acorn bread. It's terrifying and amazing at the same time. I also read the sequel, which is even MORE terrifying because it involves the Christian Right taking over America and enslaving "heathens." I'm so sad that she passed away before the third book could be finished.
What I love best about Octavia Butler is all of her heroines are Black, strong, intelligent, and not afraid to be their own heroes.
2. Kindred - Octavia E. Butler
Speaking of Octavia Butler....I just finished this story this month, and with all of the protests that have been going on around the country and the world in these last few months, it just really hit me hard. It's a time travel story, but the "present" is 1976, which is a little bit of a headshaker. Dana and her husband have just moved into their first home together, when suddenly Dana feels dizzy and comes to....in 1819. MARYLAND 1819. Slave state. After her first trips back and forth, she discovers she's there to keep her great-great-great grandfather, who is white, alive until he can father her great-great grandmother (by raping a slave). Dana is stuck in the past for months at a time, and while she's welcomed as a house-slave and has the perspective of modern day, she has to watch all the people around her who live this as their life, full time, with no chance of ever escaping. I've studied history, I knew slavery was pretty much the worst thing we've ever done, but reading it through the eyes of a modern Black woman was terrifying and stomach-turning.
SO MUCH of what this book was about has direct links to what is going on in this country RIGHT NOW. HISTORY PEOPLE. So yes, please read this book.
3. The Diviners - Libba Bray
Libba Bray is kind of hit or miss for me. I'm almost done with her first book, A Great and Terrible Beauty, and it's probably the weakest of her books that I've read. But The Diviners is a definite hit!! First of all, you have to listen to the audiobook. The narrator nails the '20s slang and diction. I wanted to start talking to my coworkers in '20s slang because of how awesome the narrator made it sound. Plus the book is kind of terrifying. I've gotten into horror a lot more in the last few years, and I will say that the supernatural baddy of the book actually really scared me.
The only thing that I didn't like was the little love triangle -- SO OVER THEM. But I'm eagerly awaiting the sequel!
4. Wild - Cheryl Strayed
Another one I listened to on audiobook. I didn't really know much about it, but I needed something to listen to. It ended up being a great personal story about the author's fight to find herself after losing her mother, her husband, and falling into a heroin addiction. Her story about hiking alone on the Pacific Crest Trail with absolutely no backpacking experience as a way to break free of her past really hit home with me and started my own obsession with hiking the Appalachian Trail. I'd never thought I'd want to thru-hike the AT until I read this book! Cheryl is honest with her past; I appreciate that she doesn't sugarcoat the bad things she did.
I saw the movie last week, and while I think it did a great job of turning a book about a solo thru-hike in the wilderness into a movie, you REALLY have to read the book to make sense of what's going on. They fill things in with flashbacks, but it's hard to tell who's who if you haven't read the book. Reese Witherspoon was great, though!
5. Americanah - Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Another audiobook, another one that you must listen to on audiobook because the narrator does such a great job with the variety of accents. Not my normal type of reading, but I picked it up because it was on so many "best of" lists that I thought I'd give it a try. I'm glad I did! It's a long love story of two Nigerians and how life takes them away from each other and they grow apart and rediscover each other. Ifemelu goes to America, and Obinze to England. A lot of the story is about Ifemelu's discovery of herself and her identity -- at first she wants nothing more than to fit in in America, but eventually she finds that she is proud to be a Nigerian and wants to return home and stop trying to force herself into the wrong mold. The author writes so beautifully and honestly about Nigeria, about being an African in America where you clash cultures with both white Americans and African-Americans and then returning home and not quite fitting in in your home country because your experience abroad has changed you just enough that you don't really fit in anywhere.
6. The Emperor's Soul - Brandon Sanderson
It's a novella? A long short story? It's only 175 pages. Which is why it's SO FREAKING AMAZING the world building that Brandon Sanderson created in such a short amount of time! All the magickal rules and history of the realm just fit in so nicely as part of the story, instead of having to slog through chapters of backstory. This was the first book by Sanderson that I've read, and it really impressed me. I have many more of his books on my "to-read" list :-)
7. Catch-22 - Joseph Heller
Audiobook! Which I'm not sure if it helped or hindered me getting into the book at the beginning. It took me a while to understand the rhythm of the story, which is everything. If you try to read it without understanding the cadence, it's a terrible book. Which is why I hated it at first. But I kept pushing on -- I'm trying to read a few classics every year, I also read 1984 and did NOT like it -- and was rewarded with a pretty funny book. I laughed out loud at some parts. And it's good to see where the phrase "catch-22" originated and why it's so completely nonsensical. The main character is an ass, but you don't have to like him. The story is more about absurdity than loyalty to a character.
8. Zeus Grants Stupid Wishes - Cory O'Brien
This is NOT a literary examination of mythology. Imagine if Tumblr and SnapChat wrote a book about mythology. That's what this is. It's HILARIOUS. Laugh out loud hilarious.
A snippet from the first story:
"So everybody knows Zeus is the king of the gods, right?
WRONG.
I mean, he is the king of the gods
but first of all, not everybody knows that and second of all he wasn't always the king of the gods.
Because, see, for a while there was this guy Uranus
who was a total asshole
(haha, Uranus)
anyway he was the king of the gods, born out of the sky
or maybe it was the aether?
but either way he was definitely married to Gaia
who some sources say also gave birth to him
so...awkward."
That's pretty much how each story goes. I loved it as a quick read that could make me laugh.
9. Ocean at the End of the Lane - Neil Gaiman
Another audiobook, read by the author, another one that I recommend listening to the audiobook because Neil Gaiman does the different accents so well (well, they're his characters!). It started out a little slow, but once it got into the heart of the story, I was totally hooked. There were times when I was driving, listening to it, and thinking, "HOW HE DOES WORDS SO GOOD?" The writing is just magical. Whether you're a fan of Gaiman or not, this story is definitely worth a try.
10. Hark! A Vagrant - Kate Beaton
You can read Kate's webcomics at her site, but I loved this first published collection of her historical comics (with a few never before seen comics added in!). Really, the whole book is worth is just for this one:
ALSO, it is worth following her on Tumblr and/or Twitter because she posts a lot of funny family sketches and last year she posted a great series about the time she worked at a mining site.
11. A Tale for the Time Being - Ruth Ozeki
Again, audiobook. Again, read by the author. Again, accents. Also, I should note that Ruth Ozeki is pretty much my favorite author, so I was really going to like this even if it stank. Which it did not.
The main character is very similar to the author, named Ruth, a writer with writer's block living on a small Canadian island in the Pacific, who finds the journal of a Japanese girl named Nao wash up on the beach a few years after the tsunami in Japan. Nao uses the journal to tell the life of her great-grandmother, but also to describe why she is planning to kill herself and why life in Japan is not as idyllic as American anime fans seem to think. Ruth gets sucked into the journal as life on her small island continues around her, and eventually tracks Nao down through the internet to see if she's still alive. It's beautiful, heartbreaking, shocking, disgusting, and tranquil all at once.
12. Cheap - Ellen Ruppel Shell
I promise, not every book I read on audiobook was great. But this one was an audiobook. And it was great. Not required to be an audiobook, though, no accents or amazing narration. I just process non-fiction better on audiobook.
So this book, it is great. I have always known that the time we're in now is a product of our history, but this book and Kindred really opened my eyes and made me want to read more history books and even had me looking into a Master's in American History. Because this book tells about how awful our quest for the cheapest STUFF really is. You'll never be able to shop Ikea again. I'm also reading this book at a time when I'm trying to downsize my life, so that definitely made it more likeable for me. But I think everyone should give it a try to see where your desire for "the best bargains" really comes from.
Those were my favorite books of 2014!! What were yours? What are you planning to read in 2015?!