Books of 2014

[pen_grunt]

Once again, I did not make the 50 book goal. This year I blame it on spending free nights scanning photos. You can't read books and scan photos. I have watched a lot of ST:TNG, though. Riker is totally lecherous in the 3rd season. It kinda creeped me out as a kid.

I've starred particular favorites (**). Disappointments are indicated by pound sign (##). I read a lot of heavyish, long fantasy this year.

The Blade Itself (First Law Trilogy book #1) -- Joe Abercrombie
Before They Are Hanged (First Law Trilogy book #2) -- Joe Abercrombie
Last Argument of Kings (First Law Trilogy book #3) -- Joe Abercrombie
The Happy Prince and Other Stories -- Oscar Wilde
The Giver (Giver Quartet #1, re-read) -- Lois Lowry

Gathering Blue (Giver Quartet #2) -- Lois Lowry
The Messenger (Giver Quartet #3) -- Lois Lowry
Son (Giver Quartet #4) -- Lois Lowry
Hyperbole and a Half — Allie Brosh
Treasure Island — Robert Louis Stevenson

The Gunslinger (Dark Tower #1) — Stephen King
**The Golem and the Jinni — Helen Wecker
Uncle Vanya — Anton Chekov
Fantastic Mr. Fox — Roald Dahl
**Things Fall Apart — Chinua Achebe

The Old Man and the Sea — Ernest Hemingway
Night — Elie Wiesel
##Andrew’s Brain — E.L. Doctorow
The Savage Detectives — Roberto Bolano
Typhoid Mary — Anthony Bourdain

Love in the Time of Cholera — Gabriel Garcia Marquez
**Kafka on the Shore — Haruki Murakami
The Sixth Extinction — Elizabeth Kolbert
**Chicken With Plums — Marjane Satrapi
Garlic and Sapphires — Ruth Reichel

##The Lies of Locke Lamora (Gentleman Bastard #1) — Scott Lynch
Me Talk Pretty One Day — David Sedaris
Tales of the City — Armistead Maupin
##Ravish: The Awakening of Sleeping Beauty — Cathy Yardley
The Elegance of the Hedgehog — Muriel Barbery

The Book Thief — Markus Zusak
Red Seas Under Red Skies (Gentleman Bastard #2) — Scott Lynch
The Red Badge of Courage — Stephen Crane
Catching Fire: How Cooking Made Us Human — Richard Wrangham
##Orphan Train — Christina Baker Kline

Riders — Jilly Cooper
Redshirts — John Scalzi

Of course, some things were entertainingly not-good (see Riders by Jilly Cooper). I'm in the middle of A Fire Upon the Deep right now and I'm enjoying it. It'll go on my list for next year, though, when I'm sure I'll have a bit less time to read (for some reason...hmmm...).

Feel free to pick my brain on anything. Or make supplemental suggestions. Or book-fight me about what I liked and didn't like. ;)

Comments

[fontosaurus.livejournal.com]

I love Scalzi, but man, I despised Redshirts...

[pen-grunt.livejournal.com]

Reading it right after Riders--which was truly truly awful--made Redshirts seem refreshing and better than it probably was to me. I liked Old Man's War better, though.

[fontosaurus.livejournal.com]

Yeah, Old Man's War is definitely his high water mark. The whole series thus far has been really great (and gawd, there's a scene in Zoe's Tale that leaves me in tears every time I read it), but the only one of his books outside the series that has been a rock-solid re-read frequently for me is The Android's Dream, which is hilarious.