Magical book

Magical book

Tuesday, January 6, 2015

Favorite Fiction Reads of 2014



My fiction reading is all over the place, from a sampling of YA to hard, dark, bloody thrillers. What surprises me every year, when I look at my list of books I’ve read or listened to on audio, is how few of them made a strong impression on me. Those that linger in my mind are worthy of places on my year’s-best-reads list. Not all these titles were published in 2014, but that’s when I read them.  Because I can't always say I enjoyed one book more than another, I've divided most into categories, but those labeled unforgettable are exactly that.

UNFORGETTABLE 

The Paying Guests by Sara Waters
Ordinary Grace by William Kent Krueger
Florence Gordon by Brian Morton
The Woman Upstairs by Claire Messud

PSYCHOLOGICAL SUSPENSE

The Cry by Helen Fitzgerald
The Lie of You by Jane Lythell
Don’t Stand So Close by Luana Lewis
Until You’re Mine by Samantha Hayes
In the Blood by Lisa Unger

LATEST FROM FAVORITE WRITERS

Die Again by Tess Gerritsen
The Tilted World by Tom Franklin and Beth A. Fennelly
The Secret Place by Tana French
Designated Daughters by Margaret Maron
To Dwell in Darkness by Deborah Crombie

FICTION WITH CRIME IN IT

Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty
Frog Music by Emma Donoghue
The Light Between Oceans by M.L. Stedman
After I’m Gone by Laura Lippman

MYSTERY/SUSPENSE/THRILLER

The Wicked Girls by Alex Marwood
Someone Else’s Skin by Sarah Hilary
The Farm by Tom Rob Smith
Assault with a Deadly Lie by Lev Raphael

VARIOUS FICTION

 The Good Children by Kate Wilhelm
Everything I Never Told You by Christine Ng
Our Lady of the Forest by David Guterson
Rooms by Lauren Oliver
Mercy Snow by Tiffany Baker
We Were Liars by E. Lockhart
Where’d You Go, Bernadette by Maria Semple
The Stone Diaries by Margaret Atwood

3 comments:

  1. We like a lot of the same writers, Sandra, and I'm glad to see some names I do not know yet. Thanks for posting the list. Happy New Year!

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  2. We Were Liars is on my list-in-progress (although I put it in the crime fiction category) and I'm delighted to see someone else recognize it---a powerful story ;-)

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  3. Sigh. Just what I needed. . . more tempting books. Thanks, Sandy!

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