Joanna and Paul have done their best books of 2014 articles, and I thought I should do one as well. This year I used Goodreads to track all of my reading, which made it easy to compile my list. I just sorted my 2014 list by 5 stars, something I give infrequently. Out of 220 books read in 2014, I gave 20 of them 5 stars.
Selecting from that list, which included several older books and re-reads, here’s my best, in no particular order.
[easyazon-link asin=”0553418025″ locale=”us”]The Martian[/easyazon-link] by Andy Weir
This was selected as the Goodreads Best Science Fiction of 2014, so obviously I wasn’t alone in thinking this was a great book. The tone was one of my favorite elements. It managed to convey true peril with a lightheartedness that kept the book readable until the end. The author could have written it as a tragedy, which would have made it a hard slog.
[easyazon-link asin=”0765326361″ locale=”us”]Words of Radiance[/easyazon-link] by Brandon Sanderson
I love epic fantasy, and Sanderson is a brilliant author. While this is the second book in a proposed series of seven and doesn’t stand alone, I gave the first book, [easyazon-link asin=”0765365278″ locale=”us”]The Way of Kings[/easyazon-link] 5 stars as well. Sanderson avoids many of the epic fantasy mistakes (too many ill-drawn characters, locations and names which you can’t remember, killing off the only likable characters in the series, cliff-hanger endings). While the books don’t stand alone, so far each book has ended satisfactorily and wrapped up at least one major plot point while leaving me hungry for the next book. If I had to pick my absolute best of 2014, this would probably be it.
[easyazon-link asin=”0062110845″ locale=”us”]The Golem and the Jinni[/easyazon-link] by Helene Wecker
I’m going to have to agree with Joanna on this one. It’s a great book. I listened to the audio version, and the narrator was first rate.
[easyazon-link asin=”0451464397″ locale=”us”]Skin Game[/easyazon-link] by Jim Butcher
I’m a huge fan of the Dresden Files, and while I enjoyed all of them, the quality of the books does vary. I thoroughly enjoyed this one. Think Harry Dresden meets Oceans Eleven, and you’ve got the basic idea. A fun romp!
[easyazon-link asin=”1477849807″ locale=”us”]The Seventh Child[/easyazon-link] by Erick Valeur
A lot of people on Goodreads didn’t like this one because of the pacing. I find Scandinavian thrillers to be more leisurely than American thrillers, and that doesn’t bother me. I got this one through the Kindle First program, and I didn’t expect much from it. I was surprised by how much I enjoyed it. I was so caught up in the story that I barely noticed how long it was.
[easyazon-link asin=”0451200810″ locale=”us”]North and South[/easyazon-link] by John Jakes
I’ve been meaning to read this one for years, and when it showed up in Scribd, I was delighted. I hadn’t realized that this, the first book in a trilogy, actually took place before the start of the Civil War. I appreciated how well Jakes showed the divisions in the country. While Gone With the Wind (which I also re-read this year), remains my quintessential Civil War novel, North and South takes a different approach and is excellent. Looking forward to reading the next two in the series.
There’s my list. Enjoy!
I post reviews like these on various Yahoogroups reading lists including Paranormalromance, WorldsofFantasy, and ParanormalMystery. All are welcome to join to share conversations about these books as long as you don’t promo dump your own book. Here’s my list by order of when I read it. I prefer young adult fantasy audiobooks for my walks to keep me distracted but not too distracted. Hence, the number of YA books.
THE GHOUL NEXT DOOR, Victoria Laurie. “A Ghost Hunter Mystery.” Paranormal mystery. Medium MJ Holliday and her boyfriend Heath are back in Boston, but evil spirits aren’t taking a break. Her ex-boyfriend brings her a case. His girlfriend’s younger brother is being harassed and possibly possessed by an evil entity. Before they can say “boo,” college kid Luke is covered in blood after a sleepwalking incident, and a young woman has been found with multiple stab wounds. Is Luke guilty or is the spirit? Despite the silly “Ghoul” titles, this series keeps getting darker and better with impeccable plotting, and this one has a truly scary ghost who isn’t bound to one place or an individual possession.
THE DEAD IN THEIR VAULTED ARCHES, Alan Bradley. Historical mystery. 1951 Britain. Eleven-year-old sleuth Flavia de Luce’s mother’s body has been found in a glacier after ten years, and Flavia must deal with the funeral and the changes this will bring to her life. A man is shoved off a train platform during the body’s arrival, but Flavia leaves this to the police, for a nice change, and tries to unravel the mystery of her mother’s death and her mother’s life. With a full military color guard and former Prime Minister Winston Churchill as escort for the body, it is obvious that Flavia’s mom was far more than just an adventurous aviator and mountain climber. Who was she really and could she have been murdered? Flavia continues to break my heart with her dysfunctional family, her naive belief in the magic of science making everything better, and events that would try an adult. This novel is less a mystery and more about the human heart. A wonderful series.
THE EMERALD ATLAS, John Stephens. Young adult/juvenile fantasy. Book 1 of 3. Five-year-old Kate is told by her parents to take care of her younger siblings, then the children are left at an orphanage for their own safety. They move from orphanage to orphanage as ten years pass, and her mother’s word have shaped Kate’s life as she protects and mothers Michael and Emma. Their final orphanage is really the home of the wizard who started their journey, and they are thrust into a world of magic with an enchanted book as their doorway into the past and a terrible sorceress. Stephens uses the standard Narnia and “chosen ones” tropes to good advantage as the children have their action-filled adventures. He does a first-rate job of creating the siblings, and the story is nuanced enough to be one of the best young adult/older juvenile books I’ve read. An easy comparison also to the Harry Potter series with the worldbuilding and brave and resourceful orphans.
THE FIRST PROPHET, Kay Hooper. “A Bishop Files Novel.” Paranormal suspense. Same universe as the Bishop FBI novels but with other psychic characters who aren’t in the FBI or Haven. Paranormal suspense. Sarah Gallagher has developed psychic abilities since a head injury, and now someone may be trying to kill or kidnap her because of this new talent. Suspense novelist Tucker Mackenzie is determined that no one hurt Sarah, and he puts the skills he’s learned in his novel research to real use to protect her from an enormous and powerful group who take, control, or kill psychics for unknown purposes. A claustrophobic novel with the bad guys everywhere against two people without any help. Scary. Hooper’s use of unnamed viewpoint characters is both annoying and effective as she ratchets up the tension until the end.
A SKELETON IN THE FAMILY, Leigh Perry. (Pseudonym for Toni LP Kelner.) Paranormal mystery. First in a series. Adjunct English professor Georgia Thackery has a literal skeleton in her closet, his name is Sid, and he haunts his own bones. When Sid recognizes someone from the life he can no longer remember, he and Georgia start the search to find who he was and who murdered him. After they find that person from the past murdered, they know someone is out there who will stop at nothing to keep the past hidden. A really excellent mystery with great characters including wise-cracking, kind Sid with his bone jokes and Georgia, a woman trapped in the dead end world of freshman composition courses and no respect.
SKIN GAME, Jim Butcher. Book 15 of “The Dresden Files.” Urban fantasy. Mab loans Harry to his enemy Nicodemus to steal something from Hades’ vault. Harry must obey Mab in this, but her order has lots of wiggle room for some serious Harry plotting and wisecracks. A number of old friends, frenemies, and bad guys make appearances. Michael Carpenter and Butters are particular favorites. The plot is more standalone than usual with little reference to the ongoing major story arcs about the Outsiders, etc., but it’s fun and more character oriented than recent novels.
REVENANT, Kat Richardson. The final book in “The Greywalker” series. Urban fantasy. Harper Blaine comes to Portugal to help her boyfriend Quinton rescue his niece who was kidnapped by his evil father Purlis and given to dark Bone Mages. Her friend Carlos the necromancer vampire comes along to face his own nemesis, a Bone Mage, who is determined to destroy civilization. A dramatic and powerful ending to one of the best urban fantasies ever.
GHOST LAYER, Robin D. Owens. “A Ghost Seer novel.” Paranormal mystery with strong romance. Medium Clare Cermak and her sweetie PI Zach Slade stay at a millionaire’s home to lay to rest the spirit of J. Dawson Hidgepath, a miner from the Old West, who leaves his bones in the beds of women at the mansion. J. Dawson insists he was murdered so Zach tries to solve the crime while Clare avoids being killed by someone who wants J. Dawson’s death to remain unsolved. A nice series with great characters, particularly Enzo, the ghostly Lab, who is her helper. The mystery was well-done, as well.
A TASTE FUR MURDER, Dixie Lyle. Book 1 of series. Paranormal mystery. As executive assistant to eccentric billionaire Zelda Zoransky, Foxtrot Lancaster is used to dealing with unusual situations, but having her beloved childhood kitty Tango show up reincarnated and talking to her telepathically and then a shapeshifting telepathic ghost dog named Tiny arriving proves more than a little weird. They tell her that someone wants to kill her employer and destroy the estate’s pet cemetery which is a nexus between human Heaven and animal Heaven which allows pets to rejoin their beloved humans. She has been chosen as the new guardian of the cemetery. Before long, they are trying to solve the murder of one of Zelda’s maids and trying to prevent Zelda’s murder. A well-written mystery with the added humor and interest of different animal characters, alive and death. The subtext about the relationship between humans and their beloved animals is quite touching, as well. In many ways, this reminds me of Mary Stanton’s “Beaufort & Company” series.
FAR, FAR AWAY, Tom McNeal. Young adult contemporary fantasy. “A dark contemporary fairy tale in the tradition of Neil Gaiman.” Ghost Jacob Grimm, former linguist and collector of fairy tales, has wandered the earth for over a hundred years in search of his brother, but finds a young boy obsessed with fairy tales who can hear his voice. Determined to protect this boy from a rumored dark evil, Jacob watches over him but cannot stop Jeremy Johnson from facing the dangers of young love, a small town’s cruelty, and a killer’s determination to make Jeremy his next victim. A well-written strange tale with an elderly narrator, darkness, and a boy’s growth.
THE BLOOD OF OLYMPUS, Rick Riordan. “Heroes of Olympus” final book in series. Young adult contemporary fantasy. The young heroes from the Greek and Roman demigod camps join together to stop the Earth Mother, Gaea, from rising, carry the lost statue of Athena across the Atlantic to bring the Romans and Greeks back together, and try to find happy endings for themselves. A rousing finale that holds the attention, and the obvious growth of these characters from young kids to young adults through the series allows more emotional resonance than is usually found in young adult fiction.
@Marilynn, thanks! Sorry your comment got caught in the Spam filter. I’ve been meaning to read more of the Bishop Files series, so thanks for the reminder. I’d wondered if you liked Skin Game. I remember you also think that series varies wildly in quality.
@Juli, irony of ironies, your reply was in MY spam folder.
All the Bishop novels are ebooks, and my library has a copy of each so I’ve been a happy reader although they are considerably darker than I normally read. Not a fan of up-close-and-personal serial killers. I usually read several light paranormal mysteries after each to cheer myself up.
Have you started the Kevin Hearne “Iron Druid” series again? I’m still enjoying it.
@Marilynn, I guess we know what our respective systems think of each other. 😉 My library only has a few of the Bishops, so I might have to spring to purchase a few. No, I haven’t been in the mood for Hearne lately, but I’m sure I will get back to him. I follow him on Twitter, and he’s fun.