My Favorite Books from 2014

2014 was a really good year for reading! I've collected some of my favorite books from different genres to share:

Adult Fiction

    

The House We Grew Up In by Lisa Jewell

Leaving Time by Jodi Picoult

All The Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr

Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng

Non-Fiction

    

Can't We Talk About Something More Pleasant? by Roz Chas

The Bohemians by Ben Tarnoff

#GIRLBOSS by Sophia Amoruso

People I Want to Punch in the Throat by Jen Mann

Young Adult

    

To All They Boys I've Loved Before by Jenny 

Letters to the Dead by Ava Dellaira

We Were Liars by E. Lockhart

100 Sideways Miles by Andrew Smith

Middle Grade

(This was a tough one! So many great books this year)

   

Oliver and the Seawigs by Philip Reeve

The Riverman by Aaron Starmer

West of the Moon by Margi Preus

Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson

Children's Books (This was also a tough one!)

    

The Pigeon Needs a Bath by Mo Willems

The Book With No Pictures by B.J. Novak

Before After by Matthias Arégui

Have You Heard The Nesting Bird? by Rita Gray illus. Kenard Pak

Graphic Novels

   

The Graveyard Book, Vol 2 by Neil Gaiman

Through the Woods by Emily Carroll

Soppy: A Love Story by Philippa Rice

Manga Classics: Pride and Prejudice by Stacy King

Poetry

   

Lullabies by Lang Leav

Faithful and Virtuous Night by Louis Glück

Jessica's Journal by Kathryn Perez

No Matter the Wreckage by Sarah Kay

Christian Fiction

   

The Sea House by Elisabeth Gifford

The Butterfly and the Violin by Kristy Cambron

Seagrass Pier by Colleen Coble

A Promise Kept by Robin Lee Hatcher

Christian Non-Fiction

   

I've Never Been to Vegas, but My Luggage Has by Mandy Hale

The Total Money Makeover by Dave Ramsey

Unstoppable by Christine Caine

The Storm Inside by Sheila Walsh

What were your favorite books this year? Did you get to read any of these?

Review: Lucky Us by Amy Bloom

Title: Lucky Us

Author: Amy Bloom

Publication Date: July 29th, 2014

Publisher: Random House

Genre: Literary Fiction, Historical Fiction

Pages: 256

ISBN: 1400067243

Source: ARC from Publisher

Rating: 

Synopsis (from Goodreads):

"My father's wife died. My mother said we should drive down to his place and see what might be in it for us."

Brilliantly written, deeply moving, fantastically funny, Lucky Us introduces us to Eva and Iris. Disappointed by their families, Iris, the hopeful star, and Eva, the sidekick, journey across 1940s America in search of fame and fortune. Iris's ambitions take them from small-town Ohio to an unexpected and sensuous Hollywood, across the America of Reinvention in a stolen station wagon, to the jazz clubs and golden mansions of Long Island.

With their friends in high and low places, Iris and Eva stumble and shine through a landscape of big dreams, scandals, betrayals, and war. Filled with gorgeous writing, memorable characters, and surprising events, Lucky Us is a thrilling and resonant novel about success and failure, good luck and bad, the creation of a family, and the pleasures and inevitable perils of family life. From Brooklyn's beauty parlors to London's West End, a group of unforgettable people love, lie, cheat, and survive in this story of our fragile, absurd, heroic species. 

  

Amy Bloom is the author of "Come to Me," a National Book Award finalist; "A Blind Man Can See How Much I Love You," nominated for the National Book Critics Circle Award; "Love Invents Us"; and "Normal." 

Her stories have appeared in Best American Short Stories, O. Henry Prize Short Stories, The Scribner Anthology of Contemporary Short Fiction, and many other anthologies here and abroad. 

She has written for The New Yorker, The New York Times Magazine, The Atlantic Monthly, Vogue, Slate, and Salon, among other publications, and has won a National Magazine Award. Bloom teaches creative writing at Yale University.

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After receiving this book for review, I had heard good things about it on NPR. The reviews for Lucky Us are all over the place, so you may just have to read it yourself to decide what you think about it. It's definitely a unique work, and if you like a lot of dynamic and don't mind some explicit storytelling, then you will enjoy it. One reviewer didn't seem too impressed, and especially did not find the connection between the cover art and the pages that lie behind it. Related or not, the absurdity of a lion and a zebra stacked and balanced on a tight rope was appealing to me, but then again, my phone case looks like this:

Lucky Us is a story of two girls, Eva and Iris, who blindly feel their way through life after emerging from their dysfunctional and abandoned family unit. We are then catapulted into a series of quasi-unrelated events that somehow lead these girls from one experience to the next (and the reader isn't entirely sure how they got there).

Iris is an emerging starlet who carries the potential to be America's next sweetheart. In the hype of Hollywood's glamour, she begins experimenting with her sexuality and the reader suddenly finds themselves in the center of several scandalous sexcapades. Needless to say, this is not a family-friendly book. Iris is betrayed by her fellow starlet and femme-fatale lover and is banished from the limelight forever.

Eva, on the other hand, is the conventional one who lives in Iris' shadow, but she is also the storyteller and gives us a glimpse into the quiet-but-fierce persona of her own. She may not be another pretty face, but she definitely has a strong stomach, and so the reader learns to admire her through her narrative.

This book possesses an exceptional level of realism and artistry that will leave you dazed and charmed all at once. Truly, it's a ripple effect of serial events that keeps the reader's attention because of its unpredictability. It's impossible to guess the ending or what is going to come next, so be prepared to adapt quickly and spend moments wounded and thrilled simultaneously. Because of this, you can't help but feel dynamic attachments to the characters. It's almost comedic how bizarre and jarring it all is.

There are times when the plot seems to be in utter chaos, traveling around in strings weaving out and in between, but in the end they enter twine together to become a masterful design. If you enjoy a story that hybrids historical and modern society, and names its chapters after vintage song titles, then you'll love this book. Not to mention the mystery cover that leaves you both intrigued and scratching your head!

Follow Iris and Eva

Jazz Chapter Titles

Review: The House We Grew Up In by Lisa Jewell

Title: The House We Grew Up In

Author: Lisa Jewell

Publication Date: August 12th, 2014

Publisher: Atria Books

Genre: Literary Fiction

Pages: 400

ISBN13: 978-1476702995

Source: ARC from Publisher

Rating: 

Synopsis (from Goodreads):

Meet the Bird family. They live in a honey-colored house in a picture-perfect Cotswolds village, with rambling, unkempt gardens stretching beyond. Pragmatic Meg, dreamy Beth, and tow-headed twins Rory and Rhys all attend the village school and eat home-cooked meals together every night. Their father is a sweet gangly man named Colin, who still looks like a teenager with floppy hair and owlish, round-framed glasses. Their mother is a beautiful hippy named Lorelei, who exists entirely in the moment. And she makes every moment sparkle in her children's lives.

Then one Easter weekend, tragedy comes to call. The event is so devastating that, almost imperceptibly, it begins to tear the family apart. Years pass as the children become adults, find new relationships, and develop their own separate lives. Soon it seems as though they've never been a family at all. But then something happens that calls them back to the house they grew up in -- and to what really happened that Easter weekend so many years ago.

Told in gorgeous, insightful prose that delves deeply into the hearts and minds of its characters, The House We Grew Up In is the captivating story of one family's desire to restore long-forgotten peace and to unearth the many secrets hidden within the nooks and crannies of home.

  

Lisa Jewell (born 19th July 1968, Middlesex, London) is a popular British author of chick lit fiction. Her books include Ralph's Party, Thirtynothing and most recently 31 Dream Street. She lives in Swiss Cottage, London with her husband Jascha and daughters Amelie Mae (born 2003) and Evie Scarlett (born 2007).

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      There is something to be said about an author who can take a story reflecting the simplicities of every day tradition and the dysfunction of varying family dynamics and materialize it into a novel that captures your attention. The Bird family could easily be any family. Throughout the book, I found myself associating the characters with either myself or people that I know. Lisa Jewell is one of those gifted writers that can take the reality of life's messiness and turn it into a masterpiece. This is my first impression of Jewell, and I was not disappointed.

In The House We Grew Up In, we follow the Bird family, past and present, through their struggles and interactions as a family unit. Jewell does well to cover all four corners of the family dynamic with the cynicism of Megan, the traditional (and slightly insane) Lorelei, the lovely Bethan, and the troubled Rhys. We spend several Easters with the family, watching tradition dwindle as everyone grows older and separates into their own. One fateful year, everything changes when tragedy strikes the household. We journey with the family as they overcome shock, bitterness, confusion, and regret. 

This is such a good story I just couldn't put it down. It's one of those books that really makes you feel and connect to it. It is a masterful work of fiction, and I would recommend it to anyone in search for a heart-tugging journey that will leave a lasting impression on your soul.