Well the critics have chimed in and another year of many books I haven’t read, and though I’m reading fewer each year this will still help with my Christmas list for next year. Last year’s list added a couple to my shelf. And of course stay tuned for what I did read this last year.

• The Japanese Lover by Isabel Allende – PW
• In the Country by Mia Alvar – HP, PW
• A God in Ruins by Kate Atkinson – Ti
• Trashed by Derf Backderf – EW
• A Cure for Suicide by Jesse Ball – HP
• The State We’re In by Ann Beattie – PW
• The Sellout by Paul Beatty – HP, NYT, PW
• A Manual for Cleaning Women by Lucia Berlin – FW, NYT, PW, EW
• The Dust that Falls from Dreams by Louis de Bernieres – Ti
• Did You Ever Have a Family by Bill Clegg – Am
• Memory Theater by Simon Critchley – PW
• Outline by Rachel Cusk – FW, NYT
• The Meursault by Kamel Daoud – PW, Ti
• Undermajordomo Minor by Patrick Dewitt – Ti
• The Green Road by Anne Enright – PW
• Hausfrau by Jill Alexander Essbaum – HP
• The Story of the Lost Child by Elena Ferrante – FW, Am, HP, NYT, PW, Ti
• The Turner House by Angela Flournoy – PW, EW
• Purity by Jonathan Franzen – Am
• Binary Star by Sarah Gerard – FW
• Fates and Furies by Lauren Groff – Am, HP, Ti
• City on Fire by Garth Risk Hallberg – Am
• The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah – Am
• The Buried Giant by Kazuo Ishiguro – HP
• Welcome to Braggsville by T. Geronimo Johnson – HP, Ti
• Counternarratives by John Keene – FW
• Get in Trouble by Kelly Link – Ti
• You Too Can Have A Body Like Mine by Alexandra Kleeman – HP
• Imperium: A Fiction of the South Seas by Christian Kracht – HP
• The Death and Life of Zebulon Finch by Daniel Kraus – EW
• Beauty Is a Wound/Man Tiger by Eka Kurniawan – FW
• Get In Trouble by Kelly Link – FW
• The Story of My Teeth by Valeria Luiselli – HP
• The Tsar of Love and Techno by Anthony Marra – HP
• Thirteen Ways of Looking by Colum McCann – Am
• Circling the Sun by Paula McLain – Am
• Against the Country by Ben Metcalf – FW
• The Mark and the Void by Paul Murray – Ti
• The Life and Death of Sophie Stark by Anna North – FW
• Bull Mountain by Brian Panowich – Am
• Among the Ten Thousand Things by Julia Pierpont – HP
• The Door by Magda Szabo – NYT
• The Book of Aron by Jim Shepard – HP
• Seveneves by Neal Stephenson – Ti
• Kitchens of the Great Midwest by J. Ryan Stradal – Am
• The Kind Worth Killing by Peter Swanson – EW
• A Spool of Blue Thread by Anne Tyler – Am
• Dietland by Sarai Walker – EW
• Gold Fame Citrus by Claire Vaye Watkins – HP
• The Visiting Privilege by Joy Williams – HP
• A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara – Am, HP
• The Small Backs of Children by Lidia Yuknavitch – HP
• Mislaid by Nell Zink – FW

Am – Amazon, FW – Jonathon Sturgeon and Sarah Seltzer for Flavorwire, HP – Huffington Post, NYT – New York Times, Ti – Time Magazine, WP – Washington Post

Some years I guess I don’t get around to ten books to select from and I’m lucky if I read one good book. Fortunately a couple of gems in my stack, in alphabetical order.

• Manhood for Amateurs by Michael Chabon – I always like to hear Michael Chabon speak, he’s intelligent and yet approachable and in this book, a collection of his essays, it’s like hearing him tell a bunch of sort of amusing personal anecdotes.
• A Hologram for the King by Dave Eggers – I haven’t read any Eggers since Heartbreaking… but this was a quick engaging tale of sales in Saudi Arabia showing a little insight into the odd world and the main character’s slightly off struggles.
• Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn – By now everyone has seen the film, and what I will say is that while the spirit is captured well the book of course does a much better job at drawing out the characters and drama transition, though I have an issue with likability.
• Shutter Island by Dennis Lehane – I didn’t love this standalone, U.S. Marshall checking out the criminally insane, as much as the Kenzie Gennaro detective series.
• As She Climbed Across the Table by Jonathan Lethem – Having very much enjoyed the later Lethem I’ve been getting to his backlog and leave it to him for one to be more random than the next, particle physicist having problems with her boyfriend when a new discovery arises.
• The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger – This book has been on my shelf for ages and underestimated it based on some sort of populous doubt, but found the time traveling romance very well crafted with interesting character development forward and back in time.
• That Old Cape Magic by Richard Russo – Russo is another author I try to keep up with, though I enjoyed it this tale of marriage gone awry left me feeling more down that uplifted.
• NW by Zadie Smith – On Beauty is still one of my faves but I felt a little disconnected from some of these multiple POV takes on some Londoners.
• The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt – I wasn’t disappointed by this well reviewed book from an author I knew I could enjoy, following our 13 year old protagonist through tragedy the peculiar path and characters that follow.

Next step fix the reading light on my nightstand to read more in 2015.

The list of possible books is endless but I can never resist seeing what the recommendations are each year, anything irresistible? And for those who just can’t get enough lists I’ll refer you to the biggest list of lists I’ve found at LargeHearted Boy.

• Panic in a Suitcase by Yelena Akhtiorskaya – FW
• The Zone of Interest by Martin Amis – Ti
• Lucky Us by Amy Bloom – Am
• The Corpse Exhibition by Hassan Blasim – PW
• Painted Horses by Malcolm Brooks – Am
• The Unspeakable by Meghan Daum – HP
• Wonderland by Stacey D’Erasmo – Ti
• All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr – Am, NYT
• Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay by Elena Ferrante – PW, FW
• The Narrow Road to the Deep North by Richard Flanagan – WP
• The Secret Place by Tana French – Ti
• The Painter by Peter Heller – Am
• Fourth of July Creek by Smith Henderson – WP
• The Book of Unknown Americans by Christina Henriquez – Am
• A Brief History of Seven Killings by Marlon James – Am, Ti, PW, WP, FW, HP
• The Laughing Monsters by Denis Johnson – Am, Ti
• The Invention of Wings by Sue Monk Kidd – Am
• Euphoria by Lily King – Am, Ti, NYT
• Redeployment by Phil Klay – Am, Ti, NYT
• My Struggle, Book 3: Boyhood by Karl Ove Knausgaard – FW
• Nobody is Ever Missing by Catherine Lacey – HP
• 10:04 by Ben Lerner – FW, HP
• Preparation for the Next Life  by Atticus Lish – FW
• Faces in the Crowd by Valeria Luiselli – FW
• Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel – Am, Ti, WP, HP
• In Paradise by Peter Matthiessen – Am
• A Girl Is a Half-Formed Thing by Eimear McBride – FW
• My Life in Middlemarch by Rebecca Mead – HP
• The Bone Clocks by David Mitchell – Am, Ti
• Bark by Lorrie Moore – PW
• Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty – Am
• Our Lady of the Nile by Scholastique Mukasonga – FW
• Self-Portrait in Green by Marie Ndiaye – FW
• Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng – Am, HP
• Dept. of Speculation by Jenny Offill – NYT, FW
• The Dog by Joseph O’Neill – PW
• Leaving Time by Jodi Picoult – Am
• Fives and Twenty-Fives by Michael Pitre – Am
• Lila by Marilynne Robinson – FW, HP
• Whiskey Tango Foxtrot  by David Shafer – Ti
• Family Life by Akhi Sharma – NYT
• I’ll Be Right There by Kyung-Sook Shin – FW, HP
• The Story of Land and Sea by Katy Simpson Smith – HP
• We Are Not Ourselves by Matthew Thomas – Am
• Nora Webster by Colm Toibin – Am
• The Southern Reach by Jeff VanderMeer – HP
• The Paying Guests by Sarah Waters – Am, WP
• Leavetaking by Peter Weiss – FW
• The Wallcreeper by Nell Zink – FW

AM – Amazon, FW – Flavorwire, HP – Huffington Post, NYT – New York Times, PW – Publishers Weekly, Ti – Time, WP – Washington Post

With my continued lesser readings I am not doing a lot of culling when making a list. So here’s a bit about what I read last year.

• Turn of Mind by Alice LaPlante – An unreliable narrator, as her memory fails, reveals details of her life plus a mystery and darned if it isn’t totally compelling, I was won over by the form, the language, the characters, and the storyline.
• The Family Fang by Kevin Wilson – I dig a little quirk and this artsy family drama where the kids are forced to return home to deal with their unusual parents’ art/life projects hit the spot.
• The Art of Fielding by Chad Harbach – College and baseball and love and other dramas collide as we take a closer look at lives that intersect through America’s favorite pastime, I enjoyed spending time with these characters.
• The Road by Cormac McCarthy – Dark and depressing, the walk of a man and his son in a post-apocalyptic, is it hopeful?
• The Second Coming of Mavala Shikongo by Peter Orner – The author’s usual lovely language looks at a volunteer teacher in Namibia, telling about his love for the titled Shikongo but also shares through story snippets to portray a greater picture.
• In the Woods by Tana French – A detective gets a case that brings him back to his own childhood and we watch the investigation through the lens of what is happening and what has happened, this felt like a slight step up from my typical mystery literarily but still engaging tale.
• The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest byStieg Larsson – Yeah I wrapped these up, and happy to spend a little more time with our protagonists in these slightly oddly structured crime dramas.
• The Trail of the Spellmans by Lisa Lutz – Back again to visit my favorite SF detective family, who fortunately have enough odd family drama to keep them occupied whether they have cases or not.
• Sacred/Gone Baby Gone by Dennis Lehane – I’ve still been enjoying a little walk through the backlog of detective team Kenzie and Gennaro, quick and likable page turners.

So my vow to read more may not have gone over all that well but I did stop reading at least one book I couldn’t get into, turns out a Pulitzer does not for me an enjoyable book make, no go for Tinkers by Paul Harding. And I should note I know both LaPlante and Orner from my days in grad school, kudos to SF writers.

What were some of your favorite reads this year?

My book backlog keeps growing and here is some fodder to think of for future purchases. My surveying tends toward the fictional and I’m clearly not all encompassing, for someone who is feel free to refer to this crazy list by large hearted boy.

• Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie – NYT, FW
• At Night We Walk in Circles by Daniel Alarcon – FW
• Life After Life by Kate Atkinson – Am, JM, LG/RJ, EW, NYT, Ti
• Lexicon by Max Barry – LG/RJ, Ti
• The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton – FW, Am
• Never Go Back by Lee Child – JM
• Duplex by Kathryn Davis – FW
• The Circle by Dave Eggers – Am
• The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman – LG/RJ, Ti
• & Sons by David Gilbert – FW
• The Signature of All Things by Elizabeth Gilbert – LG/RJ, Am, JM, Ti
• The Encyclopedia of Early Earth by Isabel Greenberg – LG/RJ, Ti
• NOS4A2 by Joe Hill – LG/RJ, JM, Ti
• Sea of Hooks by Lindsay Hill – PW
• And the Mountains Echoed by Khaled Hosseini – EW, Am
• Burial Rites by Hannah Kent – Am
• Seiobo There Below by László Krasznahorkai – FW
• The Flamethrowers by Rachel Kushner – LG/RJ, NYT, FW, Ti, SFG
• The Lowland by Jhumpa Lahiri – LG/RJ, Am, Ti
• Dissident Gardens by Jonathan Lethem – FW
• A Constellation of Vital Phenomena by Anthony Marra – PW, WP, SFG
• The Good Lord Bird by James McBride – FW, Am, PW, WP, SFG
• Someone by Alice McDermott – JM
• The Woman Upstairs by Claire Messud – FW, Am, WP
• The Son by Philipp Meyer – EW, Am, WP
• The Husband’s Secret by Liane Moriarty – EW, Am
• Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie  – EW
• A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki – Am
• How the Light Gets In by Louise Penny – WP
• Bleeding Edge by Thomas Pynchon – EW
• The Unknowns by Gabriel Roth – JM
• All That Is by James Salter – Am
• Tenth of December by George Saunders – LG/RJ, EW, NYT Am, MK, Ti, SFG
• Half the Kingdon by Lore Segal – FW
• The Woman Who Lost Her Soul by Bob Shacochis – EW, Am
• The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion – Am
• Silence and the Roar by Nihad Sirees – PW
• American Dream Machine by Matthew Spektor – FW
• The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt – NYT, FW, Am, MK, SFG
• The Illusion of Separateness by Simon Van Booy – FW
• The Sound of Things Falling by Juan Gabriel Vasques – Am
• The Golem and the Jinni by Helene Wecker – EW
• The Interestings by Meg Wolitzer – LG/RJ, EW, FW, Am, Ti
• The Maid’s Version by Daniel Woodrell – Am
• The People in the Trees by Hanya Yanagihara – PW

AM – Amazon, EW – Entertainment Weekly, FW – Flavorwire, JM – Janet Maslin, LG/RJ – Lev Grossman and Radhika Jones for Time, MK – Michiko Kakutani, NYT – New York Times, PW – Publishers Weekly, SFG – SFGate, Ti – Time, WP – Washington Post

Well my reading seems to have dwindled this past year, not that I have anything else to show for it. And while I think I was less diligent about noting what I read this last year, even worse I can barely remember some of the books. But nonetheless it’s the end of the year(ish) and time to make some notations:

• The Imperfectionists by Tom Rachman – I really enjoy a multiple POV work and this look from various folks at and English language based paper in Rome does a great job of telling each story and the overarching tale, I thought it was a very good read.
• Divisidaro by Michael Ondaatje – Another multi part piece, these three parts almost form a novel and I liked two of the three enough to enjoy the story of a broken family, though being in SF I was a little bummed for a less strong tie to Divisidaro street (don’t call it NOPA).
• Skippy Dies by Paul Murray – We know he dies in the first handful of pages, which makes the tragedy of this prep-schooler’s tragic death more palatable as we go back to tell the story leading up to things with the challenges all around the students, families, and faculty.
• You Don’t Love Me Yet by Jonathan Lethem – I can always count a good deal of random with Lethem and in this odd little riff centering on a gal touching on experimental installation art and music I was entertained enough on the ‘complaint line’ becoming hit tunes and the random relationships.
• What Should I Do With My Life by Po Bronson – I think I told a friend I wanted this to be more of a self-help book, but Bronson gathers a good range of people’s stories and finding their ‘purpose’ while imparting a bit of his own story and narrative to wrap it all up that I found it intriguing.
• The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo/The Girl Who Played with Fire/The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest by Stieg Larrson – I put these off for some time, for no real reason, but kicked in prior to catching the first US flick and I was surprised by how slightly off the formula these various tales of uncovering corruption and murders and various crimes focused from the investigative journalist’s perspective, the character of ‘the girl’ is always compelling even when she’s actually less present.
• A Drink Before the War/Darkness Take My Hand by Dennis Lehane – I picked up the start of this old series and was engaged by the Boston detective and his gal pal PI as they get far too involved in far too violent crimes, they hold up to time though I laugh at the use of old technology.

And a few less than stellar notations:

• The Marriage Plot by Jeffrey Eugenides – I really dug both The Virgin Suicides and Middlesex but never quite got into this love triangle of post collegiate overly intellectualizing. 
• Freedom by Jonathan Franzen – There is a way to make an unappealing character interesting to me and then there are just well described super annoying people, I know enough annoying people in real life.
• Riven Rock by T.C. Boyle – My mom had a bunch of TC Boyle in her stacks of books and as my first try… I actually finally gave up on this densely written book about a turn of the century sexually psychotic dude under care.

This year I vow to read more, and I also vow to stop reading books that I don’t dig. What are you reading?

As most folks know, I don’t get around to books right away. Even the paperbacks that I purchase on initial release mostly sit stacked in the corner of my apartment, so clearly I haven’t gotten around to any of these. I will probably refer to this list for purchases next year and in years to come, and about now am referencing last year’s list. Stay tuned for the best of what I read this year.

• The Middlesteins by Jami Attenberg – Am
• Telegraph Avenue by Michael Chabon – MK
• This Is How You Lose Her by Junot Diaz – Ti
• Hologram for the King by Dave Eggers – Am, MK, NYT, SFG
• The Round House by Louise Erdrich – Am, PW, SFG
• Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn – Am, JM
• Canada by Richard Ford – WP
• Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk by Ben Fountain – Am, JM, SFG, Ti, WP
• Broken Harbor by Tana French – WP
• The Fault in Our Stars by John Green – Am, Ti
• Arcadia by Laren Groff – JM, WP
• The Orphan Master’s Son by Adam Johnson – Am
• The Devil in Silver by Victor LaValle – PW
• Truth Like the Sun by Jim Lynch – JM
• Watergate by Thomas Mallon – JM
• Bring Up the Bodies by Hilary Mantel – Am, JM, NYT, PW, Ti, WP
• The Twelve Tribes of Hattie by Ayana Mathis – MK
• Sweet Tooth by Ian McEwan – Am
• Dear Life by Alice Munro – SFG
• Happiness Is a Chemical in the Brain by Lucia Perillo – PW
• The Yellow Birds by Kevin Powers – Am, MK, NYT
• The Casual Vacancy by J.K. Rowling – Ti
• Where’d You Go, Bernadette? by Maria Semple – JM, Ti
• NW by Zadie Smith – NYT, Ti
• At Last by Edward St. Aubyn – Ti
• The Girl Who Fell Beneath Fairyland and Led the Revels There by Catherynne Valente  – Ti
• Building Stories by Chris Ware – NYT, PW, Ti, WP

I feel like my suppliers for top ten book lists has shrunken, anyone have any other good lists?

Am – Amazon, JM – Janet Maslin, MK – Michiko Kakutani, NYT – New York Times, PW – Publisher’s Weekly, SFG – SFGate, Ti – Time, WP – Washington Post

We’ve heard from the critics but what have I got? This year I sadly did less reading than last, though that didn’t stop me from purchasing books… So while I try to up my ratio here’s a look at some of the books I enjoyed. And I’m going with alphabetical order by author.

• Men & Dogs by Katie Crouch – The main character Hannah is a product of her father’s mysterious disappearance and she’s an unlikable mess that we can’t help but like, as well as the rest of her southern family she’s forced to revisit along with her past, I should mention Katie is a friend of mine.
• A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan – Parts of this book are great, introducing intriguing characters with interconnected lives, the stylistic explorations of form sometimes work but toward the end push too far in what felt like the sake of pushing it and sort of lost me.
• Star Island by Carl Hiaasen – I always enjoy an eco political campy pop star romp through Florida though I think these capers have gotten even more convoluted, if they weren’t so quick I don’t know that I’d keep up.
• Heart Shaped Box by Joe Hill – I stopped reading Stephen King some time ago, though I hate to make the comparison to his father, but I haven’t had a good ghost story in a long time, even if I apparently have reached an age where I prefer to read less suspenseful text before bed.
• Nina Here Nor There by Nick Krieger – A wonderful memoir that explores the lines of gender, opening up a window to a new world for many while remaining incredibly relatable and funny and touching to all, Nick is also a friend of mine.
• Chronic City by Jonathan Lethem – His writings are always a touch irregular and this latest follows suit, we’re never quite sure what’s going on with our former child star and his new friends as they look into culture, politics, mysticism and their fair share of getting high, maybe not as compelling a tome as Fortress of Solitude but an engaging ride.
• One Day by David Nicholls – We check in with Dexter and Emma each year to see how their doing individually and together, although obviously somewhat contrived the character’s growth and change over the years makes an interesting tale, I did skip the Anne Hathaway flick version.
• Mr Peanut by Adam Ross – I really liked a lot of this book, its dark look at relationships with the reveal of the story of a murder suspect whose wife may have choked on a peanut, as well as the parallels with the lives of the two detectives relationships, but it was a bit too convoluted to be completely satisfying.
• Man Gone Down by Michael Thomas – This book quickly brought me in with its poetic look at a man on the brink, looking at his past and his present, his surroundings New York and Boston, his struggles with class and race, and his relationships, though the poetry of the language didn’t keep me as engaged throughout.

I think by now we all know that I don’t get to new releases right away, but here’s what some of the critics are talking about out of this year’s crop. And of course I mostly stick to fiction so that’s what’s covered here. Check the links out below for full reviews and lists, and check back for the best (though maybe not ten) of what I did read this year.

• The Wandering Falcon by Jamil Ahmad – PW
• Started Early, Took My Dog by Kate Atkinson – Ti
• Lost Memory of Skin by Russell Banks – Am, JM
• The Sense of Ending by Julian Barnes – SFG
• Hark! A Vagrant by Kate Beaton – Ti
• The Illumination by Kevin Brockmeier – MC
• The Hottest Dishes of the Tartar Cuisine by Alina Bronsky – PW
• The Death Ray by Daniel Clowes – Ti
• Open City by Teju Cole – Ti, MC
• Daughters of the Revolution by Carloyn Cooke – SFG
• The Angel Esmeralda: Nine Stories by Don DeLillo – MK
• The Sisters Brothers by Patrick DeWitt – Am, PW
• The Marriage Plot by Jeffrey Eugenides – Am, PW, MC
• You Know When the Men Are Gone by Siobhan Fallon – JM, SFG
• Say Her Name by Francisco Goldman – PW
• The Art of Fielding by Chad Harbach – Am, NYT, MK, SFG, MC
• Volt by Alan Heathcock – PW
• Ten Thousand Saints by Eleanor Henderson – NYT
• The Stranger’s Child by Alan Hollinghurst – PW
• Train Dreams by Denis Johnson – PW, MC
• The Hypnotist by Lars Kepler – Ti
• Chango’s Beads and Two-Tone Shoes by William Kennedy – PW
• 11/22/63 by Stephen King – NYT
• The Lover’s Dictionary by David Levithan – Am
• Leche by R. Zamora Linmark – PW
• A Dance with Dragons by George R. R. Martin – Ti
• The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern – PW
• 1Q84 by Haruki Murakami – Am
• The Call by Yannick Murphy – PW
• The Tiger’s Wife by Tea Obreht – Am, NYT, MK, PW
• The Cat’s Table by Michael Ondaatje – Am
• State of Wonder by Ann Patchett – LG, PW, MC
• The Leftovers by Tom Perrotta – MC
• The Devil All the Time by Donald Ray Pollock – PW
• Swamplandia! by Karen Russell – NYT, JM, SFG, MC
• Cain by Jose Saramago – PW
• Luminarium by Alex Shakar – PW
• Please Look After Mom by Kyung-Sook Shin – Am
• There but for the by Ali Smith – PW
• Maine by J. Courtney Sullivan – Ti
• Someday This Will Be Funny by Lynne Tillman – PW
• I Married You for Happiness by Lily Tuck – PW
• The Submission by Amy Waldman – MC
• The Pale King by David Foster Wallace – MK, Ti, MC
• The Family Fang by Kevin Wilson – Ti

AM – Amazon, MC – Maureen Corrigan for NPR, MK – Michiko Kakutanis, JM – Janet Maslins, NYT – New York Times, PW – Publishers Weekly, SFG – SFGate, Ti – Time