If you hadn’t guessed it by the amount of book reviews I do on my blog — I love to read. I have since I was little. My mom potty trained me with books, she had to punish me by taking them away, I always had a book in my hand, and I was consistently reading above grade level. And I’m a physical book lover. While yes, I have a Kindle, and it’s nice for trips, I don’t use it often. The same goes for audio books. Oh, I have a beef with audio books. Listening to books is absolutely NOT the same as reading them. But that is a rant for another day. (And in the spirit of full disclosure — #21 on my list was an audio book. And 4 were read on the Kindle, but the rest were very much read by turning real, physical pages.)
Anyway. I always enjoy reading other peoples reviews and read lists, and I wanted to join in the fun and share with you the books I read in 2014. And I read 47! Not too shabby, I should say. The books that are bolded are ones that I absolutely recommend, but really I would recommend any of my 3 star and up books. They are all ones I enjoyed for one reason or another and if a certain one is on your to-read list, give it a try! Most of my books are 3 stars — I read a lot of books, and enjoy most of them, so that’s why most get a 3 star. Only if a book blows me away does it get a 4 or 5 star review — 5’s are very rare. If a book has a link, it’s linked to my review, but if it doesn’t have a link, and you’d like my opinion, just comment or email me and I’d love to discuss it with you further! I love talking about books 🙂 I feel like I did a really good job stretching across different genres this year, and am proud of that! There’s a little something for everybody in my list this year, and that feels good.
1. Walks with Men, Ann Beattie, 2 stars
2. The Secret Lives of Dresses, Erin McKean, 3 stars
3. My Story, Elizabeth Smart, 3 stars
4. This Is Where We Live, Janelle Brown, 1 star
5. When Joy Came to Stay, Karen Kingsbury, 3 stars
6. One Tuesday Morning, Karen Kingsbury, 3 stars
7. Beyond Tuesday Morning, Karen Kingsbury, 3 stars
8. Every Now and Then, Karen Kingsbury, 3 stars
9. The Book Thief, Markus Zusak, 4 stars
10. The Ninth Wife, Amy Stolls, 3 stars
11. The Kitchen House, Kathleen Grissom, 4 stars
12. Unbroken, Laura Hillenbrand, 4 stars
13. The Interestings, Meg Wolizter, 3 stars
14 -20. Harry Potter Series, JK Rowling, 5 stars
21. What The Dead Know, Laura Lippman, 2 stars
22. Tell The Wolves I’m Home, Carol Rifka Brunt, 2 stars
23. The Memory Child, Steena Holmes, 3 stars
24. The Winter Sea, Susanna Kearsley, 4 stars
25. Eleanor and Park, Rainbow Rowell, 2 stars
26. The Art Forger, BA Shapiro, 2 stars
27. City of Stairs, Robert Jackson Bennett, 4 stars
28. The Turning, Richard and Linda Eyre, 4 stars
29. The Fault in Our Stars, John Green, 4 stars
30. City of Women, David R Gillham, 2 stars
31. Gone Girl, Gillian Flynn, 3 stars
32. The Reason, Lacey Sturm, 5 stars
33. Crossing Tinker’s Knob, Inglath Cooper, 3 stars
34. Invisible, Hugues de Montalembert , 2 stars
35. Bittersweet, Miranda Beverly-Whittemore, 4 stars
36. Blood of Others, Rick Mofina, 3 stars
37. A Clockwork Orange, Anthony Burgess, 2 stars
38. Hit, Laurie Ann Grover, 2 stars
39. Awakening, Jeremy Laszlo, 3 stars
40. Across the Creek, Jeremy Asher, 2 stars
41. Every Bitter Thing is Sweet, Sara Hagerty, 3 stars
42. Wildwood Creek, Lisa Wingate, 3 stars
43. The Book of Strange New Things, Michael Faber, 4 stars
44. Divergent, Veronica Roth, 3 stars
45. Body and Soul, Bethany Hamilton, 3 stars
46. Thou Shall, Jamie Snyder, 4 stars
47. The Book of Mormon, 5 stars.
