What I read in 2014

Looking back at my book lists for the past few years, I see that I tend to read about a hundred books a year - this year, I'm sure it's a bit less, as I know I haven't been averaging 8 books a month, especially the latter half of the year. Still, it's worth checking. This is the list in reverse order, and includes books I didn't finish, which I will have to subtract from the total. The important thing, though, is not how many, but which ones I thought were best. In the manner of previous years, I have highlighted those I thought my absolute favourites (not counting re-reads) and underlined the ones I thought very good but not quite among the best...

It's unusual this year in that a non-fiction book made my list of favourites - I have a strong preference for fiction and don't really read much non-fiction, but I'd been meaning to get around to Barbara Kingsolver's book about her family's experiment in living locally (foodwise) for a while, and was not disappointed - it was highly readable and very thought-provoking without being preachy. Of course, I really enjoy her fiction, so I knew the writing would be good.

Turns out, there are 91 books in the list. Of these, one I haven't yet finished (it's on the Kindle, which isn't mine, so I don't like to take it out of the house and sometimes it's being used when I'm inside. I counted it, though, as I will finish it). Of the others listed, there seem to be only 5 I didn't like enough to finish. Amazing - usually there are at least twice that many. Which means that I've read 86 books this year, which is just over 7 per month, which is not as bad as I thought it would be!

• Northanger Abbey, Val McDermid
• The Christmas Mystery, Jostein Gaardner
• The Accidental, Ali Smith
• The Bone Clocks, David Mitchell
• The Dovekeepers, Alice Hoffman (Dec 2014)
• Dead in the Family, Charlaine Harris
• One Moment, One Morning, Sarah Rayner
• Lost Dogs, Kenton Kilgore
• How the Light Gets In, Louise Penny
• The Anteroom, Kate O'Brien (Nov 2014)
• Allegiant, Veronica Roth (YA)
• Insurgent, Veronica Roth (YA)
• Divergent, Veronica Roth (YA)
• The Virgin Blue, Tracy Chevalier
• Dead and Gone, Charlaine Harris
• The Beautiful Mystery, Louise Penny
• Bones to Ashes, Kathy Reichs (Oct 2014)
• The Secret Scripture, Sebastian Barry
• Bury Your Dead, Louise Penny
• The Unfortunates, Laurie Graham
• The Luminaries, Eleanor Catton
• Under the Tuscan Sun, Frances Mayes (Sept 2014) (mostly)
• The Glassblower of Murano, Marina Fiorato
• Angelmonster, Veronica Bennett
• The Elusive Language of Ducks, Judith White
• The Brutal Telling, Louise Penny
• Where Three Roads Meet, Sally Vickers
• No Book but the World, Leah Hager Cohen
• The Girl who Saved the King of Sweden, Jonas Jonasson
• The Ocean at the End of the Lane, Neil Gaiman
• Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, Barbara Kingsolver (August 2014)
• The House of Silk, Anthony Horowitz
• Unexploded, Alison McLeod
• Perfect, Rachel Joyce
• My Life as a Fake, Peter Carey
• Rule Against Murder, Louise Penny (July 2014)
• Tinkers, Paul Harding
• Americanah, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
• There but for the the..., Ali Smith
• 1000 Days in Venice, Marina de Brasi
• Sisterland, Curtis Sittenfield
• In the Time of Butterflies, Julia Alvarez
• Black Narcissus, Rumer Godden
• The Last September, Elizabeth Bowen
• From Dead to Worse, Charlaine Harris
• All Together Dead, Charlaine Harris
• Life After Life, Kate Atkinson
• That Summer at Hill Farm, Miranda France
• Looking for Salvation at the Dairy Queen, Susan Grigg Gilmore (May 2014)
• Washington Square, Henry James
• The Glass Books of the Dream Eaters, G W Dalquist (50pp)
• Garment of Shadows, Laurie R King
• Sex and Stravinsky, Barbara Trapido
• The Road, Cormac McCarthy (re-read)
• I Know this Much is True, Wally Lamb
• The Enchanted April, Elizabeth von Ardin (re-read)
• The Silver Metal Lover, Tanith Lee (re-read)
• The Goldfinch, Donna Tartt
• Margarettown, Gabrielle Zevon (April 2014)
• The Witch's Daughter, Paula Brackston
• The Brief History of the Dead, Kevin Brockmeier
• Lunch in Paris, Elizabeth Bard
• Number 9 Dream, David Mitchell
• The Mysterious Affair at Styles, Agatha Christie (reread)
• An Icy Cold Grave, Charlaine Harris
• Death on the Nile, Agatha Christie (reread)
• Definitely Dead, Charlaine Harris
• Dead as a Doornail, Charlaine Harris
• A Caribbean Mystery, Agatha Christie (reread)
• The Moving Finger, Agatha Christie (March 2014)
• The Cruellest Month, Louise Penny
• The Girl Who Fell Beneath Fairyland and Led the Revels There, Catheryne Valente
• Stardust, Neil Gaiman
• Murder on the Orient Express, Agatha Christie (reread)
• Black is the Colour of my True Love's Heart, Ellis Peters (reread)
• Dead Cold, Louise Penny
• Acceptable Loss, Anne Perry
• The Piper on the Mountain, Ellis Peters (reread)
• The Monster in the Box, Ruth Rendell
• Never Pick up Hitchhikers, Ellis Peters (reread)
• Break no Bones, Kathy Reichs
• Brooklyn Bones, Triss Stein (50pp) (Feb 2014)
• Grave Secrets, Charlaine Harris
• Grave Sight, Charlaine Harris
• The Return of the Soldier, Rebecca West (half)
• Embers, Sandor Marai
• The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, Rachel Joyce
• Olive Kitteridge, Eilzabeth Strout
• Food of Love Cookery School, Nicky Pellegrino
• The Almost Moon, Alice Sebold (50pp)
• Bitterblue, Kristen Cashore (Jan 2014)

I can't really choose a favourite, but I have to say that The Bone Clocks, The Goldfinch and Life After Life were all particularly good - though I expected to like them all as I've like at least some of the other books these authors have written. Olive Kitteridge was by an author I didn't know, but I thought it was fantastic. And surprisingly for me, a non-fiction book made the top part of the list - I'm not a big reader of non-fiction. But Barbara Kingsolver's Animal, Vegetable, Miracle was highly readable and very interesting, about her family's attempt to live for a year sourcing almost all their food locally and ethically. Thought provoking, but not, I thought, in a preachy way.