1. Juliet's Nurse, by Lois Leveen. Loved, loved, loved how Leveen brought Shakespeare's Nurse to life. I'm currently reading Romeo and Juliet with my students and watching them meet the Nurse for the first time in Shakespeare's play makes me appreciate Leveen's attention to detail all the more.
2. Cloud Atlas, by David Mitchell. Two things about this book - its length and its complexity. I do love a big book, but this one was also a challenge. With multiple, crossing narratives covering a whole timeline of dates and places, Mitchell has created a masterpiece here with a great theme to boot.
3. The Storyteller, by Jodi Picoult. Because...Picoult and Holocaust. If neither of those makes you understand, I can't help you. You need to help yourself by reading this book.
4. The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August, by Claire North. I think I liked this one so much because it was time travel, which I enjoy as a plot. I've read it in other books, such as The Time Traveller's Wife and Life After Life, not to mention my favorite movies of all time, the "Back to the Future" trilogy. North's book impressed me because of its detail an definite direction.
5. Divergent, by Veronica Roth. Dystopian fiction, I love it. I liked the factions split by personality and felt it had the right mix of action and romance.
6. The Truest Thing About You, by David Lomas. A good book about the right place to put your identity. It affirmed things I learned the hard way...wish I'd have had the book sooner.
7. Crime and Punishment, by Fyodor Dostoevsky. This story was good, but it makes the list as much for the reason that it intimidated the crap out of me and I read through just fine!
8. The Best Yes, by Lysa TerKeurst. A good study on why and when it's good to say no, as well as how. I was happy to read this with friends, those who have this trouble like me and those who don't. All were a big help.
9. The Greatest Gift, by Ann Voskamp. I love Voskamp's writing on her blog and on her books. This book was a daily reading devotional for Advent. It really made me slow down and pay attention to the importance of the Christmas season this year.
10. Memoirs of a Geisha, by Arthur Golden. Among the last books I read in 2014, it is also one of the books that taught me the most. Enthralled by the culture and the characters, I found myself at the end more attached to them than I had realized.
So that's it. The top ten books I read this year. Have you read any of them? Any of them sound good to you?
Glad to see you ended up loving Cloud Atlas so much. It's one I still want to go back and read again, since it was so enjoyable the first time, but I feel like it would be rewarding a second time through.
ReplyDeleteDefinitely. I think you'd catch all kinds of connections the second time, knowing the overall story already.
DeleteI thought The Storyteller would make this list of yours. You can never go wrong with Jodi Picoult, in my opinion. I'm actually starting my new year reading with one of her books - Lone Wolf.
ReplyDeleteI hope you have another great year of books!
:-)
Bits & Bobs
I agree! I'll hopefully be hitting up Leaving Time - I have a friend who's going to lend it to me when she's done. Thanks!
DeleteYou were so right about Juliet's Nurse! I love that you get to watch kids get introduced to those characters and that you get to revisit the source material! I'm learning that I LOVE time travel in books so The First Fifteen Lives...is definitely on my list. Hopefully I get around to reading it one of these days! Happy New Year Jennine!
ReplyDeleteI'm so glad you loved Juliet's Nurse too! And yes, time travel books are awesome. Just read another that is somewhat time travel - Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children. Happy New Year to you too!
Delete2015 will be my year of David Mitchell. Not sure if I'll start with The Bone Clocks or Cloud Atlas, but it's gonna happen.
ReplyDeleteI'll be interested to see which of his you read first. But you could totally handle Cloud Atlas.
DeleteHooray for Crime & Punishment! I remember being terribly intimidated by that one too. The only thing that would trip me up were the NAMES. Omg, the Russian names, lol.
ReplyDeleteYes! They have a name and five nicknames each! And their names sound alike. And males and females, even though related, have variations of their last names. It's maddening.
DeleteThe only one on this list that I’ve read was Memoirs of a Geisha (which I loved) so it looks like I have a few new ones on my TBR….
ReplyDeleteIf I were to pick one out to top the list, it may well be The Storyteller. I recommended it to a couple friends and they placed it on their top five of all time book list!
DeleteI loved Cloud Atlas and it has been a long time since I read it, so it is going on my TBR list for 2015. I also have read The Storyteller...very good. Thanks for the list!
ReplyDeleteI honestly may reread it this year too. There's so much to it, I know I missed something! Thanks for reading!
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