2014 End of the Year Book Survey

I can't believe it's almost 2015! Of course that means it's the perfect time to take a bookish survey. I love these because they make me think about all the books I've read over the past 12 months. It makes me really consider which ones I loved and why. I love remembering favorites from the beginning of the year that I may have forgotten. Any books I re-read this year are not eligible for this list. I also don’t limit myself to one book per answer if there’s two or three that really fit perfectly.   

Number of books read in 2014: 151 

1. Best Book You Read In 2014? (by genre)  
Classics — The Painted Veil, An American Tragedy, and Doctor Thorne 
Historical Fiction — Doc 
Mystery — Big Little Lies, The Talented Mr. Ripley, and Strong Poison 
Literary Fiction — The Lotus Eaters, The Story of Edgar Sawtelle, The Dinner, and The Interestings 
Nonfiction — At Home, By the Book, and This is the Story of a Happy Marriage 
Fantasy — Tooth and Claw 
Science Fiction — William Shakespeare's Star Wars 
YA — Emily of New Moon and The Witch of Blackbird Pond
Graphic Novel — Blankets and Wonderstruck 

2. Book You Were Excited About & Thought You Were Going To Love More But Didn’t?  
Life After  Life by Kate Atkinson, I loved her novel Case Histories and there was a lot of hype around this one, but it just didn’t work for me. 

3. Most surprising (in a good way!) book of 2014? 
The Husband's Secret, I thought it was going to be chick lit fluff but it was fantastic!  

4. Book you read in 2014 that you recommended to people most in 2014? 
Big Little Lies and This is the Story of a Happy Marriage 

5. Best series you discovered in 2014? 
Fables by Bill Willingham, a brilliant graphic novel series! 

6. Favorite new author you discovered in 2014?  
Liane Moriarty 

7. Best book that was out of your comfort zone or was a new genre for you? 
Lean In, it falls in the self-help category in my mind, which is a genre I don’t read, but I got a lot out of it.  

8. Most thrilling, unputdownable book in 2014? 
The Husband’s Secret 

9. Book You Read In 2014 That You Are Most Likely To Re-Read? 
This is the Story of a Happy Marriage, as soon as I finished my library copy I knew it was one I would need to own. There were so many essays I know I’ll reference in the future. 

10. Favorite cover of a book you read in 2014? (Left)

11. Most memorable character in 2014? 
Don Quixote 

12. Most beautifully written book read in 2014? 
Doc and The Lotus Eaters were both gorgeous! 

13. Book that had the greatest impact on you in 2014? 
American Tragedy, such a haunting story about the double-edged sword of the American Dream. 

14. Book you can’t believe you waited UNTIL 2014 to finally read? It, King's epic coming-of-age story is just as scary as everyone told me it would be.

15. Favorite Passage/Quote From A Book You Read In 2014? 

“Don’t you think this is why education in the arts is so powerful? Rhythm and harmony find their way to the inner part of the soul and establish themselves there, bringing grace to the well-educated.” - Plato’s Republic 

“These people who can see right through you never quite do you justice, because they never give you credit for the effort you're making to be better than you actually are, which is difficult and well meant and deserving of some little notice.” – Gilead 

“Home," he said softly. "If there is a more beautiful word in any language, I do not know it.” – Doc 

“Sometimes love does not have the most honorable beginnings, and the endings, the endings will break you in half. It’s everything in between we live for." – This is the Story of a Happy Marriage 

“The possibility of time going on, her memories growing dim, the photographs of the battles turning from life into history, terrified her.” – The Lotus Eaters 

“America has been erased like a blackboard, only to be rebuilt and then erased again." – Shoeless Joe 

16.Shortest and Longest Book You Read In 2014? 
The Last Chronicle of Barset: 1,003 pages (or really the whole Chronicles of Barsetshire: 3,875 pages!)
Six Characters in Search of an Author (a play): 64 pages 

17. Book That Had A Scene In It That Had You Reeling And Dying To Talk To Somebody About It?   
Big Little Lies, that ending!!! 

18. Favorite Relationship From A Book You Read In 2014 (be it romantic, friendship, etc). 
Frank and Mary’s romance from Doctor Thorne in the romance category and Edgar and his dog Almondine had one of the sweetest friendships I’ve ever read in The Story of Edgar Sawtelle.

19. Favorite Book You Read in 2014 From An Author You’ve Read Previously?
The Dead in Their Vaulted Arches by Alan Bradley, the sixth book in the Flavia de Luce series. 

20. Best Book You Read In 2014 That You Read Based SOLELY on a Recommendation From Somebody Else: 
Dune, my Dad has been recommending it for years and I finally read it. It wasn't my favorite new book, but I felt like I got to know his interests better through reading it.

21. Genre You Read The Most From in 2014? 
Classics and Literary Fiction 

22. Newest fictional crush from a book you read in 2014? 
It was a re-read but Henry Tilney from Northanger Abbey 

23. Best debut book you read? 
The Invisible Bridge, the author had published short story collections but this was her first novel. 

24. Most vivid world/imagery in a book you read in 2014? 
Tooth and Claw, Victorian era dragons, I loved it! 

25. Book That Was the Most Fun To Read in 2014? 
William Shakespeare’s Star Wars and The Empire Striketh Back 

26. Book That Made You Cry Or Nearly Cry in 2014?
The Story of Edgar Sawtelle, geez that one had me reeling. Also the final scene in 11/22/63 had me a bit teared up.

27. Book You Read in 2014 That You Think Got Overlooked This Year Or When It Came Out? 
A Week in Winter, it’s nothing earth shattering, but it was the very last book published by Maeve Binchy (posthumously) and it was lovely. 

28. Did you complete any reading challenges or goals that you had set for yourself at the beginning of this year? 
I finished the TBR Pile Challenge, the Back to the Classics Challenge also put a big dent in my Classics Club list! 

29. Bookish Events on your blog in 2014? 
I co-hosted a massive readalong of all six books in the Chronicles of Barsetshire by Anthony Trollope. I started the Shakespeare Project where I keep track of the Shakespeare books I read, plays I see, and movies I watch. I updated all of my Reading the States posts with new books. I also continue to be one of the moderators of the Classics Club blog and update their site weekly. 

30. One Book You Didn’t Get To In 2014 But Will Be Your Number 1 Priority in 2014?
Germinal by Zola (*hangs head in shame*) 

31. Book You Are Most Anticipating For 2014 (non-debut)?  
I can’t wait to read Neil Gaiman’s The Sleeper and The Spindle and Erik Larson’s new one, Dead Wake. 

32. One Thing You Hope To Accomplish Or Do In Your Reading/Blogging In 2014? 
This year I FINALLY created an alphabetized review index, perhaps the most monstrous undertaking thus far for this blog. I really want to finish adding in all of those book reviews and I have a couple years worth to go still. 

2014 TBR Pile Challenge Complete!

I only took on two reading challenges this year. One is the Back to the Classics Challenge and the other is the TBR Pile Challenge. I've finally completed my TBR list for the year! I read both books on my alternates list and only missed one from my original list. Thanks again to Adam at Roof Beam Reader for continuing to host this all year!

My favorite from the list were The Lotus Eaters, Doc, Blankets, and Tooth and Claw. I struggled with a couple of them, but as always, I love this challenge because it gets me reading books that I've been meaning to read for years!   

Here’s my list for 2014:

1) Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel (finished January 2014)

2) The Lotus Eaters by Tatjana Soli (finished May 2014)

3) The Story of Edgar Sawtelle by David Wroblewski (finished March 2014)

4) One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez (finished Feb. 2014)

5) Dune by Frank Herbert (finished May 2014)

6) Positively Fifth Street by James McManus

7) The Invisible Bridge by Julie Orringer (finished May 2014)

8) Blankets by Craig Thompson (finished April 2014)

9) Kiwi Tracks by Andrew Stevenson (finished August 2014)

10) Doc by Mary Doria Russell (finished May 2014)

11) Tooth and Claw by Jo Walton (finished January 2014)

12) The Americanization of Benjamin Franklin by Gordon S. Wood (finished Jan. 2014)

 

ALTERNATES:

1) In Dubious Battle by John Steinbeck (finished August 2014)

2) Emily of New Moon by L.M. Montgomery (finished March 2014)

Photo by moi and from Adam's blog.

Pairing Books with Movies: The Lotus Eaters

The Lotus Eaters
by Tatjana Soli
★★★★★

My goodness I love this book so much. It’s a historical fiction novel about a female photographer in Vietnam during the war. As much as I’ve read about World War I and II I know very little about that war. Soli paints an intense picture of the horror of battle and the beauty of the country. The novel is full of beautifully drawn characters trying to come to terms with the contradiction of reporting what’s happening and the inevitability of becoming part of the story of the war.

At first you think the book is a love story, but the story that unfolds is not the one you’re expecting. We begin at the end and then trace our way back to the beginning to better understand the characters of Helen and Linh. Structuring the novel in this way makes the whole thing more powerful. Seeing the long journey that our main characters take to get to each other is just enthralling.

Yes it's a love story, but it's also story of loss and grief and coping with the trauma of war and the return to the banality of civilian life. It’s about the complicated nature of war and the adrenalin rush that comes from being in danger. It’s about the inevitable impact an invading nation has on the society it’s attempting to “save” Helen’s conflicting feelings about getting the perfect shot and exploiting the people felt so real and relatable. It’s something that all journalists in extreme situations must come to tussle with. She struggles with the potent mix of fear and excitement as she becomes entrenched in the world of Vietnam.

**SPOILER**The book has two very complex love stories. Usually when that happens it’s difficult to make the reader connect with both without making one feel unimportant. I felt like the author did a wonderful job with that. She included a crucial time period when Helen is back in the states with neither man. When she returns to Vietnam and reconnects with Lihn while he is helping her recover from her wounds their relationship feels very natural.

There is also a stark difference between her relationship with Darrow and the relationship with Linh. Darrow doesn’t coddle her, he challenges her. Linh tries to protect her, not because he sees her as incapable or weak, but because he’s already lost the woman he loved and he doesn’t want it to happen again.
**SPOILERS OVER**

BOTTOM LINE: This novel, the writing, the characters, the story, was all just gorgeous. I was completely enraptured by the way it evoked the scenes of a foreign war zone and the people affected by it so vividly. The end did feel a bit rushed, like it deviated from the feel of the rest of the book, but it didn’t bother me too much and it certainly didn’t take away from my enjoyment of the book overall.

“The possibility of time going on, her memories growing dim, the photographs of the battles turning from life into history, terrified her.”

“She thought of the rolls of film in the car, the images cradled in emulsion, areas of darkness and light like the beginnings of the universe.”

Pairing Books with Movies: The Year of Living Dangerously and Empire of the Sun, the first is another great look at journalists in the midst of war. The second gives us a picture of the conditions of an occupied country and the people caught in the midst of the chaos.

Top Ten Books on My Spring 2014 TBR List

This week's Top Ten from The Broke and the Bookish asks for the Top Ten Books on My Spring 2014 TBR List. I’ve got an interesting collection of books that I need to read for my book club, challenges, trip planning and a few just because books.

 

1) The Warden and Barchester Towers for my Chronicles of Barsetshire Read-Along

2) The Lotus Eaters by Tatjana Soli

3) Positively Fifth Street by James McManus

4) Twenty Years by Alexandre Dumas

5) The Invisible Bridge by Julie Orringer

6) Blankets by Craig Thompson

7) The Origin of Species by Charles Darwin

8) This is the Story of a Happy Marriage by Ann Patchett

9) Dune by Frank Herbert

10) New Zealand and Australia travel guides!

 

Have you read any of these? Which one should I start with?