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[Maklershed]

Welcome to the 2nd Annual 'What are you reading?' thread BOTY edition!

Guidelines
1. This is for books you've read in 2014 - not books published in 2014
2. If you've read an entire series you can count that as one book
3. It would be greatly appreciated if you could give a brief explanation why you liked the books or what the books are about. Or if you could link with the Goodreads.com 'share on website' link feature.


Archive:
2013 Edition

 

[Ratrat]

Favorite book I read this year is Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke.
A refreshing turn from all the serious and generally awful fantasy of recent years.

Honourable mention:
The Cypher by Kathe Koja
The Stars my Destination by Alfred Bester.

 

[Ashes]

Blindness is probably my single favourite book of the year.
The Mazy Trilogy is my underrated book series of the year.
From Hell is just phenomenal. A very worthy classic graphic novel.

 

[Maklershed]

1. The Stormlight Archive - Only two books in and this has possibly already eclipsed Game of Thrones as my favorite fantasy series of all time (I'm afraid to commit and say it is however). Great characters and even better action. Can't wait for book 3.


The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson


2. Dreams from Bunker Hill - Fantatstic book that introduced me to the brilliance of John Fante (progenitor to the style of Bukowski and Hunter S Thompson). Funny, raw book that doesn't hold back with an anti-hero in the style of Flashman. You don't want to like Arturo Bandini but you can't help it. (Note: This is book 4 of a 4 book series but each book doesn't really have anything to do with the other so you can jump right in at book 4 and not miss anything)


Dreams from Bunker Hill by John Fante


3. The Chronicles of the Black Company - A 10 book fantasy series following a band of soldiers that face impossible odds to save their world. Dark, gritty, entertaining as hell. (Note: This series gets better and better with each book and really opens up at book 4)


The Black Company by Glen Cook


4. One Summer: America 1927 - Fun, entertaining, meticulously researched book about the events of 1927. I highly recommend the audiobook, read by Bill Bryson himself.


One Summer: America, 1927 by Bill Bryson


5. Swan Song - I can't have a favorite books list without having something from the post-apocalypse genre. This book out-Stands The Stand. Good and evil factions go to war in an American wasteland.


Swan Song by Robert McCammon

 

[Currygan]

Robert Galbraith (aka JK Rowling) 's Silkworm is excellent
Lorrie Moore's Bark is a gem
Bonita Avenue by Peter Buwalda is another gem
Desert God by Wilbur Smith is trash escapism, but incredibly entertaining

 

[Celegus]

It also came out this year, but I don't think I read anything better than Words of Radiance.

 

[Verdre]

Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer - It's like the Strugatsky's wrote a sequel to Roadside Picnic.

Russian Magic Tales from Pushkin to Platonov by Robert Chandler - Just a good collection of russian fairy tales and stories inspired by and about them.

I See By My Outfit by Peter S. Beagle - The story of Beagle and his friend Phil's roadtrip from New York to California via motor scooter. Lovely seeing the world through the eyes of his prose.

 

[hardcastlemccormick]

My favorite book I read this year, without a doubt, was The Brothers Karamazov by Fyoder Dostoyevsky (translated by Pevear and Volokhonsky).

Other favorites include Inside Scientology by Janet Reitman, Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer, and The Peripheral by William Gibson.

 

[Empty]

what we talk about when we talk about love by raymond carver - collection of powerful, deeply sad and bleak minimalist stories about working class life, alcoholism, troubled relationship. he was so influential he kind of made me approach him with weariness as his parade of imitators have made the sparse style seem too much of an affectation, yet carver (with lish's edits) writing is so strong that you are totally absorbed and stunned. there's no catharsis here but lots of honesty.

levels of the game by john mcphee - a narrative account of a single tennis match between arthur ashe and clarke graebner, woven in with mini-biographies and profiles of the two players that have a lot to say about class and race and community in mid twentieth century america. the writing is like that of a great sports player, it makes the immense skill involved look so effortless, so graceful, so simple. yet to so artfully balance the elements is just masterful.

haroun and the sea of stories by salman rushdie - rushdie's children's fantasy book is the most fun i've had with a book all year. it's relentlessly inventive, deeply charming and funny, rapid paced yet with attention to character, and delivers its messages about the role of storytelling clearly yet also cleverly. it's interesting to place this in the context of rushdie's political history, but to emphasize this is to detract from his mastery of combining super well crafted pulply storytelling with a literary novelist's attention to the power of good prose. crying out for an animated film adaptation to display its bonkers world and bring it to a new audience but it's a book that anyone can read and enjoy.

others that i loved but don't have the energy to write about here: cakes and ale and the razor's edge by w. somerset maugham, about love by chekhov, bartelby the scrivenger by melville, dubliners by joyce, blindness by saramogo, the old man and the sea by hemmingway, runaway by alice munro and the wes anderson collection by zoller seitz

 

[Herne]

1. Jim Henson - The Biography

I grew up with Henson's creations before me - Sesame Street, The Muppets, Fraggle Rock, Labyrinth... and I never lost my appreciation for everything he did. The book goes into quite a lot of detail into Jim's life and his work, showing us the thought and energy he put into everything. Take Fraggle Rock, for instance - at face value it's a show with colourful muppets that teach children about morals, but Jim's design goes much further than that. It's actually about harmonization between races.

These three races - the Fraggles, the Doozers and the Gorgs - live side by side but don't usually get along. The Doozers get irritated that the Fraggles eat their constructions, the Fraggles are terrified of the Gorgs who view them as pests, and so on. What they don't all realise is that they need each other to survive - the Doozers' society breaks apart if the Fraggles stop eating their constructions, as they build too high and can't build any further. The Fraggles also subsist on the radishes the Gorgs grow, and the Doozer's building materials turn out to be ground-up radishes that the Fraggles have taken, which in turn makes it edible to the Fraggles. The Gorgs also eat radishes to stop turning invisible, so all three races are dependent on this one food source. All this conceptual work into a show that most dismiss as a twenty minute diversion for kids on tv.

This was a fascinating read and I highly recommend it.

2. Commodore - A Company On The Edge

Amazing look at the birth of Commodore and the people and decisions behind famous machines like the PET, Vic-20 and of course, the Commodore 64. I eagerly await the Amiga follow-up, but it's still delayed as far as I know... This was well written and we got to see much further into early Commodore than I ever thought we would. It's a shame that Jack Tramiel died before Bagnall could get an interview for the revised edition, but it's still very much a complete book.

3. Console Wars - Sega vs. Nintendo and the Battle that Defined a Generation

I was disappointed at first that this focuses mostly on Sega of America's story, but as we already had Game Over to show us Nintendo's side, I wasn't too fussed. This was well researched and the interviews are great - the story of Sega's American division fighting against Nintendo and even it's own Japanese parent makes for great reading.

 

[Piecake]

Favorite fiction: Stoner by John WIlliams

Favorite Non-fiction: The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander

Favorite History: Titan: The Life of John D. Rockefelller

I also really liked, Quiet: The power of Introverts, Words of Radiance, Lawrence in Arabia, and The Warmth of Other Suns.

There are a few more, but I think thats enough since I want to narrow it down a little bit

 

[Who]

Favorite books I've read: 12 years a slave, Black Elk Speaks, and a Miracle in the Andes (in reverse order lol)

 

[Tragicomedy]

I don't always give out five star reviews to a book, but when I do it's for these three:

- Guards! Guards! by Terry Pratchett (1989) - ★★★★★ - Too good. Hilarious, self-aware send up of all the fantasy novel tropes in existence. I can't believe this book was written so long ago. Total classic.

- Words of Radiance by Brandon Sanderson (2014) - ★★★★★ - Dude did it again. I haven't touched his Mistborn stuff (and may never), but the Stormlight Archives are on their way to becoming my favorite fantasy series. Book three is my most anticipated right now.

- The Urth of the New Sun by Gene Wolfe (1987) - ★★★★★ - A mind-blowing conclusion to the Book of the New Sun tetralogy. Wolfe works in a scope that I've never really seen before in a fantasy series, where time and space aren't true constraints to his story.

 

[AngmarsKing701]

1. The Golem and the Jinni by Helene Wecker
Great debut that charmed me with its setting, pace, characters and story. Read it early in the year and it retained the top spot as my favorite in 2014.

2. The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making by Catherine Valente
With echoes of Alice in Wonderland, this tale took charming to another level. Not sure I've ever read anything that left an actual perma-grin on my face for so long. The writing is of the type of quality where, as a writer myself, I was actually intimidated: couldn't imagine writing as well as Valente.

3. The Broken Sword by Poul Anderson
Epic high fantasy that tells a Nordic tale of love, betrayal and tragedy. Simply put: books aren't written like this any more. Thanks to the GAF reading thread for all the recommendations on this one.

Honorable mentions: Brilliance by Markus Sakey, Wool by Hugh Howey and The Burning Land by Bernard Cornwell

 

[jtb]

2014 book:
Leaving the Sea by Ben Marcus

a short story collection. it's got all of Marcus' usual weird, challenging stuff (though the final story, "The Moors" isn't particularly difficult and is, in my opinion, the best thing Marcus has ever written) but he starts out with four excellent traditional short stories. very funny, very weird, surreal, etc.

not 2014 books:
Jesus' Son by Denis Johnson
The Unconsoled by Kazuo Ishiguro

 

[Mr.Swag]

Night Film Marissa Persi . Might be butchering her name. Book was long and suspensful, I loved that it was deep into the world of film.

The Road Cormac Mccarthy. I tried reading this one a couple years back and I couldn't, I tried this year and I finished it in one night. Magnificent atmosphere and feeling of dread throughout.

The Stand Stephen King. Took me three weeks to get through the 1200 pages but it was worth it. If you want to see how society gets started in a post apocalyptic world give this a try.

Annihilation Jeff Vandermeer. The book so good it made me upgrade twice. I downloaded the sample and then had to purchase it just so I can finish it. Then when I did finish it I had to order the rest of the trilogy. If you like LOST and words read this.

Sirens of Titan Kurt Vonnegut. Did Douglas Adam rip his Hitchhikers story off of this? Vonnegut does satire in space so much better though.

The Sun Also Rises Ernest Hemingway. Best book I read all year. Transported me to early century west Europe and I felt myself there walking talking and drinking with his characters. I now see the hype is real about Hemingway.

Honorary mentions a.k.a I dont want to write out reasons for these:
Dark Places, Sharp Objects: Gillian Flynn
A Farewell to Arms: Ernest Hemingway
The Martian: Andy Weir
Wonder Boys, Mysteries of Pittsburgh: Michael Chabon. Reading The Yiddish Policemans Union right now which might end up on the top lost depending on how the last 100 pages.
Rest of the Southern Reach books: Jeff Vandermeer
On Writing: Stephen king

I'm a cut the list there because I read a lot this year and I could keep going.

 

[Erico]

Favorite Book of 2014 : Tenth of December by George Saunders.

Short story collection with a mix of surreal, dark stories and more grounded, realistic ones.
The author has an amazing way of writing characters' inner monologues that expresses life's little sadnesses, tragedies, and misguided motivations in an very relatable manner.

 

[obin_gam]

Sci-fi: A stand off between Andy Weir's The Martian and Kim Stanley Robinson's Red Mars.
Suspence: Stephen King's Mr. Mercedes

 

[Atrophis]

1. The Southern Reach trilogy by Jeff VanderMeer - Easily the best thing I've read this year. Annihilation is one of the best pieces of Lovecraftian fiction I've ever read. Authority is a beautiful piece of paranoid spy drama.

2. Dune by Frank Herbert - Late to the party with this but as a huge fan of the Lynch film I thought I really ought to read the books. Read the first five Herbert novels, this being the best although I also love the second and fourth books.

 

[RepairmanJack]

Didn't read too much this year because of just getting back into reading. Planning on doing a lot more this up coming year. With that said, I think my favorite thing I read all year was the first few books in the Dresden Files series. I devoured the first four books in about a week and it's really what kickstarted me getting back into reading. I just liked that it was a quick paced simple adventure. I had to stop at four for a while because I could have seen the formula getting stale, but I look forward to jumping back into the books.

I would probably say a close second would be The Martian, with an honorable mention for A Wild Sheep Chase.

 

[Nezumi]

1.) The Habitation of the Blessed - Catherynne M. Valente

I have to agree with what AngmarsKing stated in his post above. Reading Valente's books makes me feel absolute inapt as a writer. This woman creates worlds and stories that are almost painfully beautiful and at the same time manage to convey a deeper philosophically meaning that just seems so effortless. I could easily fill this list only with books by her, but I'll just pick this one because it has been my favorite.

2.) Salman Rushdie - The Satanic Verses

Beautiful book. Not really sure why it created the outrage it did at the time it came out, but overly religious people will probably always be an enigma for me.

3.) Words of Radiance - Brandon Sanderson

Nothing more I can say that has not been said a hundred times already. Highly entertaining fantasy literature. Nothing more and nothing less.