popping out all over! More best books of 2014 -- part six

Just in time for Black Friday (sorry, but I'm a cynical person), more best of 2014 lists have appeared.

Let's start with "The Ten Best Books of 2014" from The Washington Post.
 (in order of appearance)

1. A Brief History of Seven Killings, by Marlon James

2. Fourth of July Creek, by Smith Henderson 

3. The Narrow Road to the Deep North, by Richard Flanagan 

(...that's good to know, since I'm going to read it here shortly)

4. The Paying Guests, by Sarah Waters 

(I'll definitely agree)

5. Station Eleven, by Emily St. John Mandel

6. Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End, by Atul Gawande

7. Berlin: Portrait of a City Through the Centuries, by Rory MacLean

8. Empire of Sin: A Story of Sex, Jazz, Murder and the Battle for Modern New Orleans, by Gary Krist

9. The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History, by Elizabeth Kolbert

10. Tennessee Williams: Mad Pilgrimage of the Flesh, by John Lahr

As an added bonus, you can also find the Washington Post's selection of the best fifty fiction books of 2014 in the same issue. 

Moving right along, Tim Martin of the Telegraph in the UK says, "forget Amis, McEwan, and the Booker winner" -- he has his own standouts for the year (or at least up through Christmas...same thing).  After sweating through Kirkus' top 100, I'll just leave you the link to Martin's choices. They are legion. 

Flavorwire has its own take on the top books -- "2014's Best Indie Fiction and Poetry Books of 2014." There are fifty books in this list, so again, I won't reproduce them, but  I will say that while I don't often read Flavorwhile, kudos to them for focusing on the smaller publishing houses.  You can see them for yourself in the article, but I'll mention a few here:

Two Dollar Radio

Europa

Graywolf

Dalkey

New Directions

Melville House

Dorothy

OR Books

Verso

Dzanc 

and many, many more.  It's about time these little presses were publicly acknowledged in a wider reading venue -- and good on you, Flavorwire for doing so. 

That's it for now -- I'm sure that the cheap TVs, toys,  DVD players, gaming systems and other such things people stand in line for over a period of hours will be the hot ticket items again this year, but  all of those things will become obsolete next year, and books never go out of style. 

best of 2014, part five: Publisher's Weekly

Somehow, I overlooked Publisher's Weekly last week, but they've also jumped on the pre-Thanksgiving  best of 2014 books list bandwagon early this year. Less in the mainstream than any other list I've noted here, PW's top ten is a varied mix of nonfiction and fiction, with two books coming from Graywolf Press and one from Europa.   Here's what PW has to say:

"Each November, our reviews editors look back at the nearly 9,000 titles we reviewed over the course of the year and pick favorites in several categories: fiction, poetry, mystery/thriller, SF/fantasy/horror, romance/erotica, comics, picture books, middle grade, and young adult. From those longlists, the editors choose an overall top 10, including five each of the year’s best fiction and nonfiction titles."

 Here's their top ten (offered in the order as they are listed on the website):

On Immunity: An Education, by Eula Bliss  (nonfiction)

Thirteen Days in September: Carter, Begin and Sadat at Camp David, by Lawrence Wright (nonfiction)

The Corpse Exhibition and Other Stories of Iraq, by Hassan Blasim

Limonov, by Emmanuel Carrère (nonfiction)

Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay, by Elena Ferrante

A Brief History of Seven Killings, by Marlon James

The Empathy Exams, by Leslie  Jamison (nonfiction)

Bark, by Lorrie Moore

The Dog, by Joseph O'Neill

Deep Down Dark: The Untold Stories of 33 Men Buried in a Chilean Mine, and the Miracle that Set Them Free, by Héctor Tobar

Kirkus hath spoken: the best fiction books of 2014 -- Part 3 in this year's "best of books" lists

Kirkus has gone all out with its version of the best of the year, offering its readers 100 books it has deemed "best fiction books of 2014."  Here's the full list, in alphabetical order.  Note: Euphoria, by Lily King, won the Kirkus Prize this year. Evidently, I'm reading all of the wrong books.

1. The Fever, by Megan Abbott

2. An Unnecessary Woman, by Rabih Alameddine

3. Song of the Shank, by Jeffery Renard Allen

4. Steles of the Sky, by Elizabeth Bear

5. Broken Monsters, by Lauren Beukes

6. The Bones Beneath, by Mark Billingham

7. Do or Die, by Suzanne Brockman

8. Night Heron, by Adam Brooks

9. The Miniaturist, by Jessie Burton

10. One Kick, by Chelsea Cain

11. A Brave Man Seven Storeys Tall, by Will Chancellor

12. The Author and Me, by Eric Chevillard

13.  Monday,Monday, by Elizabeth Crook

14. Romancing the Duke, by Tessa Dare

15. Wolf in White Van, by John Darnielle

16. All the Light We Cannot See, by Anthony Doerr

17. The Wilds, by Julia Elliott

18. Hiding in Plain Sight, by Nurudin Farrah

19.Kill My Mother, by Jules Feiffer

20. Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay, by Elena Farrante

21.  All I  Love and Know, by Judith Frank

22. The Secret Place, by Tana French

23.  The Silkworm, by Robert Galbraith

24.  American Innovations: Stories, by Rivka Galchen

25.  The Stories of Jane Gardam, by Jane Gardam

26.  An Untamed State, by Roxane Gay

27.  The Word Exchange, by Alena Graedon

28.  Afterparty, by Daryl Gregory

29. The Magician's Land, by Lev Grossman

30. Tigerman, by Nick Harkaway

31.  In Your Dreams, by Kristan Higgans

32.  The Hour of Lead, by Bruce Holbert

33.  The Blazing World, by Siri Hustvedt

34. The Hunting Gun, by Yasushi Inoue

35. The Sleepwalker's Guide to Dancing, by Mira Jacob

36. Three Weeks With Lady X, by Eloisa James

37. The Woman Who Borrowed Memories: Selected Stories of Tove Jansson, by Tove Jansson

38. A Map of Betrayal, by Ha Jin

39. Broadchurch, by Erin Kelly

40.  The Last Illusion, by Porochista Khakpour

41.  Euphoria, by Lily King

42. Mr. Mercedes, by Stephen King

43.  Redeployment, by Phil Klay

44. My Struggle: Book Three: Boyhood, by Karl Ove Knaussgard

45. Those Who Wish Me Dead, by Michael Kortya

46. Valour and Vanity, by Mary Robinette Kowal

47. The Moor's Account, by Laila Lalami

48. Never Judge a Lady by Her Cover, by Sarah MacLean

49.  Bird Box, by Josh Malerman

50.  Station Eleven, by Emily St. John Mandel

borrowed from http://jackiedana.com/2014/04/15/the-halfway-point/

51.  The Invention of Exile, by Vanessa Manko 

52. The Assassination of Margaret Thacher, by Hilary Mantel

53. The Other Language, by Francesca Marciano

54. The Killer Next Door, by Alex Marwood

55. A Girl is a Half-Formed Thing, by Eimear McBride

56.   Thunderstruck and Other Stories, by Elizabeth McCracken

57.  The Children Act, by Ian McEwan

58. Defenders, by Will McIntosh

59. All Our Names, by Dinaw Mengestu

60.  Accidents of Marriage, by Randy Susan Meyers

61. Mermaids in Paradise, by Lydia Millett

62. The Red Road, by Denise Mina

63. The Bone Clocks, by David Mitchell

64.  Crown of Renewal, by Elizabeth Moon

65. Arcanum, by Simon Morden

66. The Secret Life of William Shakespeare, by Jude Morgan

67. Big Little Lies, by Liane Moriarty

68.  Florence Gordon, by Brian Morton

69. Family Furnishings: Selected Stories, by Alice Munro

70. Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage, by Haruki Murakami

71.   The Son, by Jo Nesbo

72. Waiting for the Electricty, by Christina Nichol
73. Boy, Snow, Bird, by Helen Oyemi

74. Alphabet, by Kathy Page

75.  The Long Way Home, by Louise Penny 

76. Heroes are my Weakness, by Susan Elizabeth Phillips

77. Lovers at the Chameleon Club, by Francine Prose

78. The Rise and Fall of Great Powers, by Tom Rachman

79. In the Light of What We Know, by Zia Haider Rahman

80.  Lila, by Marilynne Robinson

81. Children of the Revolution, by Peter Robinson

82. The Remedy for Love, by Bill Roorbach
83. Reckless Disregard, by Robert Rotstein
84. Dominion, by CJ Sansom
85. Lock In, by John Scalzi
86. Whiskey Tango Foxtrot, by David Shafer
87. Family Life, by Akhil Sharma
88. Shield of Winter, by Nalini Singh
89. How to Be Both, by Ali Smith

90. The Rhesus Chart, by Charles Stross

91. Mr. Bones: Twenty Stories, by Paul Theroux
92. All My Puny Sorrows, by Miriam Toews
93.  Nora Webster, by Colm Toibin
94. Barracuda, by Christos Tsiolkas
95.  The Cold Song, by Linn Ullmann
96.  The Tao of Humiliation, by Lee Upton
97.   Annihilation, by Jeff VanderMeer
98.  The Paying Guests, by Sarah Waters
99. The Martian, by Andy Weir

and whew!

100. Eyrie, by Tim Winton

part two in this year's "best of books" lists -- Amazon.com

Just over an hour ago, CBS news published Amazon.com's list of top 10 books of 2014.  There is always an ongoing "best books of the year so far" kind of thing at Amazon, but according to the news article, the editorial team at Amazon chose the top 100 out of 480, and decided that these books were top-ten worthy. Here's the list:

Everything I Never Told You, by Celeste Ng

All the Light We Cannot See, by Anthony Doerr

In the Kingdom of Ice: The Grand and Terrible Polar Voyage of the USS Jeanette, by Hampton Sides*

The Short and Tragic Life of Robert Peace: A Brilliant Young Man Who Left Newark for the Ivy League, by Jeff Hobbs

Redeployment, by Phil Klay

Revival, by Stephen King

Savage Harvest: A Tale of Cannibals, Colonialism and Michael Rockefeller's Tragic Quest for Primitive Art, by Carl Hoffman

The Book of Unknown Americans, by Cristina Henríquez

Big Little Lies, by Liane Moriarty

Station Eleven, by Emily St. John Mandel

There's only one book that repeats from the Hudson Booksellers' list, and that is All the Light We Cannot See, by Anthony Doerr. 

I would love to join the editorial team at Amazon -- getting paid to read? What a great concept! Can I telecommute? 

stay tuned...I'm sure there will be many more "best of 2014" lists to come.

*Take that, Amy Poehler!   Hampton Sides' book is absolutely stunning and deserves a spot on every "best of"  list that comes out this year. 

... and so they begin - the "best of" book lists of 2014 -- Part One: Hudson Booksellers

Amazing how these "best of"  lists start in November, you know, right in time to buy that someone special something on the list before the holidays.  What -- no books are being released in November?? 

In my morning-coffee internet session today, Shelf Awareness supplied me with Hudson Booksellers' best of 2014 list, "selected through a nominated shortlist and voting process by a panel of Hudson's booksellers across the country. Books were selected for "achievements ranging from literary style and innovation, entertainment value and readability, to timeliness and treatment of subjects and themes." 

I'm sure there will be plenty more, but let's just call this part one of an ongoing exploration into what various  people think were the best books of 2014. In this case (Hudson),  I'm not including a couple of categories, Best Young Readers and Best Business Interests.

Hudson's best book of the year? All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr. Here's the list, direct from today's edition of Shelf Awareness Pro.  

Best Fiction:

Stone Mattress by Margaret Atwood

All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr

Under the Wide and Starry Sky by Nancy Horan

Wolf in White Van by John Darnielle

Bird Box by Josh Malerman

The Bone Clocks by David Mitchell

The Crane Wife by Patrick Ness

Still Life with Bread Crumbs by Anna Quindlen

The Paying Guests by Sarah Waters

The Martian by Andy Weir

Best Nonfiction:

The Human Age by Diane Ackerman

New Life, No Instructions by Gail Caldwell

Empires Crossroads by Carrie Gibson

The Short and Tragic Life of Robert Peace by Jeff Hobbs

Internal Medicine by Terrence Holt

The Empathy Exams by Leslie Jamison

What We See When We Read by Peter Mendelsund

Yes Please by Amy Poehler

Little Failure by Gary Shteyngart

Deep Down Dark by Héctor Tobar

Hmmm. All I will say here is this: Amy Poehler? Seriously? 

from Australia: the 2014 Prime Minister's Literary Awards shortlists

I found an article during my morning coffee-drinking, slow wake-up time today that pointed me to the website of the Prime Minister of Australia . It reveals the shortlists for the Prime Minister's Literary Awards, which "recognise the role Australian writers play in enlightening and entertaining us, reflecting on our history and taking our stories to the world." Winners will be selected by the end of the year.

I'll just post a couple of lists that drew my interest:

Fiction
A World of Other People, by Steven Carroll
The Narrow Road to the Deep North, by Richard Flanagan  -- note:  moving quickly to the top of  tbr pile
The Night Guest, by Fiona McFarlane  -- note: if you haven't read this book yet, it is most excellent
Coal Creek, by Alex Miller 
Belomor, by Nicolas Rothwell 

Non-Fiction
Moving Among Strangers, by Gabrielle Carey  -- note: a little gem of a book, actually
 The Lucky Culture, by Nick Cater
Citizen Emperor, by Philip Dwyer
Rendezvous with Destiny, by Michael Fullilove
Madeleine: A Life of Madeleine St John, by Helen Trinca

Prize for Australian History
Broken Nation: Australians in the Great War, by Joan Beaumont 
First Victory 1914, by Mike Carlton 
Australia’s Secret War: How unionists sabotaged our troops in World War II, by Hal G.P. Colebatch Arthur Phillip: Sailor, Mercenary, Governor, Spy, by Michael Pembroke
 The Forgotten Rebels of Eureka, by Clare Wright  -- note: a huge book, but I can't wait to read it!

The Millions: Most Anticipated Books -- The Great Second-Half 2014 Book Preview

 Just posting this out of interest and so I'll have a record to go back to later.  The full story is at The Millions' website - I'm just listing here.  Will I read any of these? If they have a star * by them, then let's just say I'm very interested and will probably be investigating further.   Sheesh - there are a LOT here I want to look at!

July:

California by Edan Lepucki: -- ordered. But not because of the hype or Colbert's campaign, which I applaud. 

  *Motor City Burning by Bill Morris
 The Land of Love and Drowning by Tiphanie Yanique:
 Friendship by Emily Gould
 * Last Stories and Other Stories by William T. Vollmann *
 High as the Horses’ Bridles by Scott Cheshire
 The Hundred-Year House by Rebecca Makkai

*  Tigerman by Nick Harkaway

Panic in a Suitcase by : Yelena Akhtiorskaya
 * The Great Glass Sea by Josh Weil -- actually, this is Powell's upcoming Indiespensable pick and I'm sooo excited!

August:

* Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage by Haruki Murakami


* We Are Not Ourselves by Matthew Thomas:  I already have an ARC of this one, courtesy of Indiespensable.
 Bad Feminist by Roxane Gay
 The Kills by Richard House: I attempted this one last year. Loved the first book, started the second one and then stuff was going on so I put it aside. I'll give it another go this year.
  Before, During, After by Richard Bausch
 * Your Face In Mine by Jess Row
 Flings by Justin Taylor
 * Augustus by John Williams
Alfred Ollivant’s Bob, Son of Battle by Lydia Davis - I will definitely be buying this for a little boy I know.

September:

Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel
The Secret Place by Tana French
*The Bone Clocks by David Mitchell
 Not That Kind of Girl by Lena Dunham
The Paying Guests by Sarah Waters - Preordered eons ago!
* The Children Act by Ian McEwan
10:04 by Ben Lerner
* Stone Mattress: Nine Tales by Margaret Atwood
The Assassination of Margaret Thatcher: Stories by Hilary Mantel
* The Dog by Joseph O’Neill
Barbarian Days by William Finnegan
Wittgenstein, Jr. by Lars Iyer

The Emerald Light in the Air by Donald Antrim
* Hold the Dark by William Giraldi
Barracuda by Christos Tsiolkas -- already have a copy
Prelude to Bruise by Saeed Jones
Faithful and Virtuous Night by Louise Glück
Gangsterland by Tod Goldberg
Happiness: Ten Years of n+1,  by Editors of n+1
Neverhome by Laird Hunt
* My Life as a Foreign Country by Brian Turner
Wallflowers: Stories by Eliza Robertson
* On Bittersweet Place by Ronna Wineberg.
 * The Betrayers by David Bezmozgis
 How to Build a Girl by Caitlin Moran
On Immunity: An Innoculation by Eula Biss

October:

Yes, Please by Amy Poehler
* The Peripheral by William Gibson
Lila by Marilynne Robinson
Dan by Joanna Ruocco
* A Brief History of Seven Killings by Marlon James
Citizen by Claudia Rankine -
Some Luck by Jane Smiley
Reunion by Hannah Pittard
A Different Bed Every Time by Jac Jemc
  * 300,000,000 by Blake Butler
Sister Golden Hair by Darcey Steinke
 Quick Kills by Lynn Lurie
* Limonov by Emmanuel Carrère
The Heart Is Strange by John Berryman
* The Book of Strange New Things by Michel Faber
 Hiding in Plain Sight by Nuruddin Farah -- A maybe, only because I haven't cracked open the trilogy by Farah that I already own!

November:

* The Laughing Monsters by Denis Johnson
Let Me Be Frank With You by Richard Ford:
 Mermaids in Paradise by Lydia Millet
 Ugly Girls by Lindsay Hunter
* Twilight of the Eastern Gods by Ismail Kadare
 * A Map of Betrayal by Ha Jin

All My Puny Sorrows by Miriam Toews
 Family Furnishings: Selected Stories, 1995-2014 by Alice Munro
Loitering: New and Collected Essays by Charles d’Ambrosio
Why Religion is Immoral: And Other Interventions by Christopher Hitchens -- another preordered eons ago
* The End of Days by Jenny Erpenbeck
Above the Waterfall by Ron Rash
The Unspeakable: And Other Subjects of Discussion by Mehgan Daum

December:

* The Big Green Tent by Ludmila Ulitskaya
* Skylight by José Saramago

The rest of the article goes on into 2015, but I'll be stopping here.