Top Ten Tuesday: Best Reads of 2014

With school finally done, I can actually get back to my link-ups. Today at The Broke and the Bookish, we're talking about the best books we've read this year. So.... 2014 sucked. There's no way around it. This year just sucked.  However, the bright light of this awful year is that I read a lot of great books while whittling away the hours in doctor's waiting rooms and attempting to escape reality. I haven't read quite as many books as last year, but I have read quite a few, and these ones were my favourites.

Fiction

All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr: I can't remember where I heard about this, but it might be from a Facebook book club. Anyway, it's a very interesting look at a French girl and a young German man whose lives are somehow intertwined before and during World War II. I loved it.

The Chosen by Chaim Potok: A really fascinating look at the Jewish communities in Brooklyn in the 1940s told by the unlikely friendship of two boys.

 

David Copperfield by Charles Dickens: I just love Dickens so much (well, except for Great Expectations for some reason, but I digress). David Copperfield is simply marvelous, with so many memorable and entertaining characters.

Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie: There were aspects of this book that I found tedious, but I really appreciate it's perspective. It is the story of a young woman from Nigeria and tells about her schooling in Nigeria, move to America and experiences there, and the connection with her first love.

 

Kindred by Octavia E. Butler: A time travel novel involving a modern African American woman who is accidentally brought back into the days of slavery. Fascinating and gripping.

 

The Giver by Lois Lowry: Not sure how it took me so long to read this book, but it's just fabulous and I appreciate a dystopian story that doesn't get bogged down into yet another teenage love affair. (Sorry, did I say that out loud...)

Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell: I didn't expect to enjoy this as much as I did, but I got pulled into the story of Cath, her roommate Reagan, the stilted relationship with Cath's twin sister, and their loving but absent-minded father. I fell in love.

The Book of Negroes by Lawrence Hill: A fascinating look at a life during times of slavery that sweeps from western Africa to the American South to Canada and back to Africa.

Non-fiction

Peter the Great by Robert K. Massie

Team of Rivals. The Political Genius of AbrahamLincoln by Doris Kearns Goodwin