As I've done for the last few years, I'm presenting a list of all the books I read this year,
arranged alphabetically by title, with brief synopses/reviews and ratings out
of 5 stars. (If you're interested in my previous lists, you can find them here at these links: 2013, 2012, 2011, and 2010.)
The opinions
expressed here are mine alone; no one has paid me to say something nice
about his or her book (I wish!). My
apologies if I disliked books you liked and liked books you disliked.
The prevalence of 4-
and 5-star books on my list means it was a great reading year, and I
mostly managed to steer clear of duds. (I did
start one dud and quit part-way through:
I couldn't make it past about p. 50 of Wally Lamb's We Are Water, although I love
his other books.)
Last year I created
separate categories for Nonfiction and Biography & Memoir, but I found that
many of the books I read didn't fit neatly into one box or the other. So I've gone back to just Fiction and Nonfiction
groupings. Somewhat surprisingly, I
read more than twice as much nonfiction as fiction this year.
FICTION:
Bel Canto (Ann Patchett) -
This was the first book I read in 2014, and one of the best. While an opera singer is performing at a
party hosted by the Vice President of a South American country, terrorists
enter and take the guests hostage.
Friendships and love affairs develop among captives and captors in the
most surprising and lovely ways. (Just
in case the subject matter concerns you, be assured that the book is not
violent or graphic.) * * * * *
Crossing to Safety (Wallace
Stegner) is about a friendship between two couples, lasting from the 1930's to
the 1970's. Stegner is wonderful at
depicting the seemingly small events that shape the couples' relationship over
the years. There was one odd thing,
though: the couples would be going on
some trip or outing and I'd think, "Uh, did the author forget that these
people have small children? Or did the parents themselves forget?" The kids were invisible! But that inconsistency aside, this was a good book. (Stegner won a
Pulitzer Prize for Angle of Repose, but I haven't read that one yet.) * * *
I Capture the Castle (Dodie
Smith) - Seventeen-year-old Cassandra writes in her journal about her eccentric
and penniless family's life in a crumbling old castle. When two wealthy brothers move onto a nearby
farm, and one shows an interest in Cassandra's beautiful older sister, the
family's fortunes seem about to change.
This book, which was published in the 1940's, is just delightful, mainly
because of its endearing, wise-beyond-her-years narrator who learns some
important lessons about love and maturity.
* * * *
Lila (Marilynne Robinson) -
This novel follows Robinson's books Gilead (in
which dying Rev. John Ames tells his life story to his little son) and Home (about
Ames' friend Rev. Robert Boughton, his daughter Glory, and his prodigal son
Jack). Lila is told from the point of view of Ames' young wife, an orphan who has
lived a life of loneliness and destitution before wandering into Ames' church
and hearing him preach. She marries him, but learning to trust him -- and
his God -- is a slow process. This is a beautiful novel that reflects on
themes of God's grace and the eternal destiny of those we love. * * * * *
Road Ends (Mary Lawson) -
This novel alternates between the perspectives of
three members of the Cartwright family in small-town Ontario: father
Edward, trying to deal with both his past and his present; son Tom, grieving a friend's death; and daughter Megan, escaping the duties of home by moving to England. This book was OK, but it didn't come close to Lawson's first book, Crow Lake. I wish she had focused on one character rather than weaving three plots; the three weren't equally interesting and never came together as one. And the timeline was confusing: if you're going to have subplots that are less than a year apart, it might be better just to make them simultaneous. (The Invention of Wings handled multiple narrators much more successfully.) And I found the ending a flop. * *
The Distant Hours (Kate
Morton) - A young woman named Edie goes to Milderhurst Castle to meet the
reclusive, elderly Blythe sisters and find out more about her mother's
experience boarding there as a girl during World War II. As Edie makes her discoveries, her
relationship with her mother changes, and we see just how much more there is to
the Blythes' story than even Edie realizes.
I absolutely loved this huge novel;
it was my companion through numerous sleepless nights and plane and
train rides. It has everything: mystery, suspense, romance, and total
"unputdownability." * * * * *
The Fault in Our Stars (John
Green) - Hazel, who has terminal lung cancer, and Augustus, who lost a leg to
cancer, meet at a teens' cancer support group
and fall in love. This is a
touching and funny young-adult novel about love, death, and the kind of legacy
we leave to the world. (The movie
version, which came out this summer, was very good as well. This is the kind of
book that has "movie" written all over it.)
* * *
The House at Riverton (Kate Morton) - This is the first novel by the author of The Distant Hours, and I really enjoyed it. Morton has such a talent for taking us into her characters' minds and allowing us to discover events along with them. In this book, a girl named Grace goes to work as a housemaid for the Hartfords at Riverton estate (as her mother did before her) and becomes involved in the lives of the young Hartford sisters, Hannah and Emmeline. Fans of Downton Abbey will enjoy this book because it is set in the same time period and has a strong upstairs-downstairs element. * * * *
The Invention of Wings (Sue
Monk Kidd) is based on the real-life story of Sarah Grimke, a wealthy girl in
Charleston, South Carolina in the early 1800's (who later became an
abolitionist), and her maid/slave Handful.
The story alternates between the two girls' perspectives; Kidd conveys
their voices so convincingly that she makes us care about both of them even
though their social situations and experiences are so different. I love Kidd's writing, and here it's at its
best. * * * * *
The Rosie Project (Graeme
Simsion) - Oddball Don Tillman (who is probably on the autism spectrum) is looking for a
life partner, so he develops a detailed questionnaire that he hopes will lead him to the perfect match. But then free-spirited Rosie shows up and disrupts his orderly life. A funny novel about an likeable guy who just
wants to belong in a world that often makes no sense to him. * * * *
NONFICTION:
A Beautiful Disaster: Finding Hope in the Midst of Brokenness
(Marlena Graves) - Graves, who grew up in an unstable home with poverty and
alcoholism, discusses how God uses the desert times of our lives to shape us
and draw us closer to Him. She speaks
with a combination of gentleness and authority that is very appealing. * * * *
A Grace Disguised: How the Soul Grows Through Loss (Jerry
Sittser) - I found this powerful little book in our church library. In 1991, a car accident caused the deaths of Sittser's wife, mother,
and four-year-old daughter. This is an
honest, wise, cliché-free exploration of how suffering can be processed
and ultimately lead to growth. (I'm
also interested in checking out Sittser's new book, A Grace Revealed: How God
Redeems the Story of Your Life.)
* * * * *
A Hidden Wholeness: The Journey Toward an Undivided Life (Parker Palmer) discusses how "circles of
trust" -- intentional communities or relationships that focus on creating safe
spaces for the soul -- can help us listen to our "inner teacher" and
gain wisdom and wholeness. The circle-of-trust model itself didn't resonate with me that much, but I found his broader reflections on the divided self, community, silence, etc. helpful. Palmer, author of the insightful book Let Your Life Speak, is always worth reading.
* * *
A Year of Biblical Womanhood
(Rachel Held Evans) recounts Evans' one-year project to explore the concept of
"biblical womanhood." She
tried a wide variety of experiments, from sleeping in a tent during her period,
to calling her husband Master, to holding a vigil in honour of forgotten
Biblical women, to staying silent in church, and many more. She describes her project, and the lessons
she learned from it, with hilarity and humility. * * * *
Call the Midwife (Jennifer
Worth) - Memoir about Worth's time as a nurse-midwife working with
Anglican nuns in East London in the 1950's. She describes, in fascinating and often heartbreaking detail, the realities of
childbirth, prostitution, poverty, and religious life in that period. I've been enjoying the BBC TV series of the same name, and the book fills out the real-life backgrounds of
many of the people and events depicted in the show. Apparently Worth wrote three volumes of
memoir; I look forward to reading the other two. * * *
Carry On, Warrior (Glennon
Melton) - Melton's blog/website, Momastery,
is devoted to her desire to live life in an authentic and "unarmed" way and to encourage other
women. She has described her central
message as "Rest: life is brutal. Wake up:
life is beautiful. Be brave: you're a child of God. Be kind: so is everyone else." This
book is a collection of essays and blog posts about her addictive (or as she
puts it, "festive") past and her struggles with parenting, marriage,
and faith. Kind of manic, but funny and endearing, with a lot of wisdom beneath the
craziness. * * * *
Creative You (David B.
Goldstein and Otto Kroeger) explores creativity in relation to the Myers-Briggs
Temperament Indicator. This (sometimes
overly) detailed book encourages each of us to see ourselves as creative and
discusses the many different ways creativity can be expressed depending on our
MBTI type. * * *
Daring Greatly and The Gifts of Imperfection
(Brene Brown) - Brown is a scholar who researches shame; in both of
these books she discusses the things that keep us from living wholeheartedly,
such as feelings of shame, fear, scarcity, and unworthiness. Daring Greatly, the more recent book, focuses
particularly on how practicing vulnerability can help us live more courageous,
authentic lives. Although Brown's books are not from an overtly
Christian perspective, they have a strong spiritual element. Encouraging and practical. * * * *
Evolving in Monkey Town: How a Girl Who Knew All the Answers Learned
to Ask the Questions (Rachel Held Evans) - Memoir of Evans' upbringing
in conservative Dayton, Tennessee. When
doubts threatened her airtight Christian worldview, she realized her faith had
to change and grow. (This book has been
re-released under a new title, Faith Unraveled.)
* * * *
Five Days at Memorial (Sheri Fink) - This book details how a New Orleans hospital coped during Hurricane Katrina; it focuses particularly on the controversy surrounding patients who died under questionable circumstances. Besides being a great narrative about the disaster, the book is also a very interesting discussion of important issues like disaster response, health care rationing, euthanasia, and societal values in general. * * * *
* * * *
Five Days at Memorial (Sheri Fink) - This book details how a New Orleans hospital coped during Hurricane Katrina; it focuses particularly on the controversy surrounding patients who died under questionable circumstances. Besides being a great narrative about the disaster, the book is also a very interesting discussion of important issues like disaster response, health care rationing, euthanasia, and societal values in general. * * * *
Found: A Story of Questions, Grace, and Everyday
Prayer (Micha Boyett). I've
followed Boyett's blog for some time, so I was eager to read her book, which
came out this year. In it she reveals
her struggles over whether she is doing/being enough for God as a mother, and
how, through her exploration of Benedictine spirituality, she discovers joy -- hers
and God's -- in her ordinary life. The book is structured according to
the divine hours, which helps emphasize that faith is not a once-and-for-all
achievement but a daily practice. Boyett's writing is so vulnerable and real. This is a great book for
anyone who's ever wondered if their small life matters. * * * *
Home: A Memoir of My Early Years (Julie
Andrews) tells of the actress's challenging childhood, her introduction to
music and theatre, and her first marriage.
I enjoyed this book, but I hope there will be another installment; it
seemed strange to end so abruptly and so early in her life (before even getting
to The Sound of Music!). * * *
If Only: Letting Go of Regret (Michelle Van
Loon) is a wise and helpful discussion of the regrets we all have in our
lives. She shows that regret, rather
than being something either to ignore or to become trapped by, can be a sign of
our need for God's healing and redemption -- and by His grace God provides far
more than just a do-over. Questions at
the end of each chapter make this a great book for personal reflection or group
study. * * * *
Parting Gifts: Notes on Life, Love, and Loss (Ann Hines) -
Canadian writer/humorist Hines reflects on many of her life experiences -- divorce, depression, aging, having a transgender child -- and how these events, while characterized by loss, also have hidden gifts. * * * *
Pastrix: The Cranky, Beautiful Faith of a Sinner and
Saint (Nadia Bolz-Weber) - In her youth, Bolz-Weber rejected her
fundamentalist faith, becoming an alcoholic and stand-up comedian; then God
interrupted her life. When a fellow AA
member died, her status as the only religious person in the group made her the
default choice to conduct the funeral -- and she soon felt called to be "a
pastor to her people." She now
leads a church called House for All Sinners and Saints in Denver, Colorado. I was very moved by this memoir. I expected it to be snarky and edgy (and it is somewhat, as well as having a fair amount of foul language, so be
warned), but it's mostly just a down-to-earth account of a woman's faith journey,
her humbling struggles in community, and the way God continues to surprise her with love
and grace. * * * * *
Tattoos on the Heart: The Power of Boundless Compassion (Fr.
Gregory Boyle) - Boyle shares stories of the L.A. gang members he has worked
and lived with for over 20 years, weaving those stories with reflections on the need to love and be loved, to receive God's compassion, and to realize that
every life matters. This is one of the
best books about faith (about anything, in fact) that
I've ever read. "I laughed, I
cried" may be a cliché, but it truly applies to the experience of reading
this beautiful book.
* * * * * +
* * * * * +
The Book of Forgiving: The Fourfold Path for Healing Ourselves and
Our World (Desmond Tutu and Mpho Tutu) explores what the Tutus call the
Fourfold Path of Forgiveness: telling
the story, naming the hurt, granting forgiveness, and renewing or releasing the
relationship. This small book is simply
written yet profound, with examples from South Africa's Truth and
Reconciliation Commission and elsewhere.
Questions and exercises for personal work appear at the end of each
chapter. * * *
The Spark: A Mother's Story of Nurturing Genius
(Kristine Barnett) - When Barnett's son Jake was diagnosed with autism, she was
told to put away his letter flashcards because he would never read. Barnett took Jake out of school and began her
own program based on "muchness":
letting him pursue what he loved and ensuring he had a normal
childhood. Today Jake is a happy
teenager who also happens to be a genius mathematician, physicist, and
astronomer. Amazing story of an amazing
boy and mom. (And don't worry: Barnett is not a loon like Jenny McCarthy,
just an energetic, passionate mother committed to helping her child reach his
potential.) * * * *
The Thorny Grace of It (Brian
Doyle) - I've read many of Doyle's short pieces in journals like The Sun and Ruminate. The essays in this book touch on his Catholic
upbringing, fellow parishioners and family members, and other subjects. Doyle is great at infusing ordinary people,
moments, and events with significance and doing so in a warm and funny
way. Loved this book.
* * * * *
* * * * *
This is the Story of a Happy
Marriage (Ann Patchett) - This book consists of essays about Patchett's
upbringing as a child of divorce; her Catholic schooling; her life as a writer;
and her relationships with her grandmother, husband, dog, etc. Patchett has led a fascinating and unusual
life, yet she comes across as a very ordinary person. * * * *
To Know as We Are Known: A Spirituality of Education (Parker
Palmer) focuses on how education has become impersonal and objectified and on
the need for the classroom to be a safe place to explore truth in
community. Too abstract and (ironically)
impersonal for my taste at times, but thought-provoking; a good book for discussion. * *
What Matters in Jane Austen? Twenty Crucial Puzzles Solved (John
Mullan) - The title's a little misleading; these aren't really puzzles but
short essays on interesting themes in Jane Austen's books, such as "Which
Important Characters Never Speak in the Novels?" This book can be read for sheer enjoyment or
for a deeper exploration of Austen's writing techniques.
* * * *
* * * *
Why We Write (Meredith Maran,
ed.) - Interviews with 20 successful writers (including Ann Patchett, Jodi
Picoult, and Mary Karr) about their writing techniques, habits, failures, and
triumphs. Informative and inspiring. * * *
I'd love to hear if you've read any of these books and what you thought of them -- or if you've read other good ones in 2014 that you'd recommend!
(I'm also linking up this post with Modern Mrs. Darcy's "My Favourite Books of 2014" post.)
