Some years ago, I started keeping a list of most of the books I read each year just for myself with some occasional comments. I received a slew of new books for Christmas and near the end of the year purchased a few so I have an even higher stack than usual awaiting me. You would think that being retired, I would be doing more reading, but so far, travel and getting settled in have intervened. One of my 2015 goals is to set aside more time each day to read and to work my way through some of these literary riches. At this stage of life, I’ve both given myself permission and forgiven myself for not finishing every book I start. There are just too many good books–and more being published– to spend time on one that doesn’t engage me. I will give most works 50-75 pages before bailing out.
Back to my 2014 list. Here are my top favorites for the year. I purposely left off any books I have already blogged about. In no particular order, they are as follows:
NONFICTION
Being Mortal by Atul Gawande. Surgeon Gawande is one of my favorite writers and I always read his pieces in the New Yorker where he is a staff writer. Since we all have or have had parents and aspire to old age ourselves, this book is a must-read. Using case histories and even his own family as examples, Gawande delineates how we often do not act in an individual’s best interests at the end of life.
Soldier Girls by Helen Thorpe. Three young women, socio-economically disadvantaged, joined the National Guard partly as a way to increase their income and assuming their tour of duty would all take place stateside. Instead they were assigned to Afghanistan and one also served in Iraq. Gripping, painful and informative about the horrors and the boredom of life in a war zone.
House in the Sky by Amanda Lindhouts. I heard Ms. Lindhouts speak at the Aspen Ideas Festival last summer and then got her book. It is a chilling story of her kidnapping and imprisonment in Somalia, but even more it speaks to her incredible force of spirit and tenacity to endure and ultimately survive such brutal treatment.
FICTION
Quiet Dell by Jayne Anne Phillips. Based on an actual murder, this novel includes the crime, but focuses more on the press and the surrounding story. Beautifully written and more accessible than her earlier, also very good novel, Lark and Termite.
Nora Webster by Colm Toibin. I’m a big fan of Toibin’s work and loved Brooklyn. This novel traces a young Irish widow’s trajectory of grief and its impact on her children who seem oddly neglected.
Life After Life by Kate Atkinson. A tour de force of creativity. Events occur and then are re-wound to different endings and then re-wound again in this novel set in the early 20th century. How might our lives been different or this one life?
The Impossible Lives of Greta Wells by Andrew Sean Greer. More straightfoward time travel from 1981 to 1918 and 1941 exploring the role of women in times of crisis–or at least the experience of one woman, Greta. She is an engaging character. A fitting successor to Greer’s The Story of a Marriage which has its own twists.
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Here’s to happy reading in 2015!
