Best Books of 2014

I compiled 10 “Best Books of 2014” lists into one meta-list.  Here are all the books on two or more lists.  If I’ve read the book, I’ve included the rating I gave it on Goodreads (1-5 stars).

On 8 Lists
ALL THE LIGHT WE CANNOT SEE. By Anthony Doerr.

On 6 lists
LILA. By Marilynne Robinson.
THE EMPATHY EXAMS: Essays. By Leslie Jamison.

On 5 lists
REDEPLOYMENT. By Phil Klay.
A BRIEF HISTORY OF SEVEN KILLINGS. By Marlon James.
THE PAYING GUESTS. By Sarah Waters.
CAN’T AND WON’T. By Lydia Davis.
THOSE WHO LEAVE AND THOSE WHO STAY: Book 3, The Neapolitan Novels: “Middle Time.” By Elena Ferrante. Translated by Ann Goldstein. (5)
BEING MORTAL: Medicine and What Matters in the End. By Atul Gawande. (4) 

On 4 lists
10:04. By Ben Lerner.
ALL OUR NAMES. By Dinaw Mengestu.
EVERYTHING I NEVER TOLD YOU. By Celeste Ng.
FOURTH OF JULY CREEK. By Smith Henderson.
THE NARROW ROAD TO THE DEEP NORTH. By Richard Flanagan.
COLORLESS TSUKURU TAZAKI AND HIS YEARS OF PILGRIMAGE. By Haruki Murakami. Translated by Philip Gabriel.
MY STRUGGLE. Book 3: Boyhood. By Karl Ove Knausgaard. Translated by Don Bartlett.
THE BOOK OF STRANGE NEW THINGS. By Michel Faber.
BOY, SNOW, BIRD. By Helen Oyeyemi.
IN THE LIGHT OF WHAT WE KNOW. By Zia Haider Rahman.
STATION ELEVEN. By Emily St. John Mandel. (4)
THIRTEEN DAYS IN SEPTEMBER: Carter, Begin, and Sadat at Camp David. By Lawrence Wright.
THE SIXTH EXTINCTION: An Unnatural History. By Elizabeth Kolbert.

On 3 lists
WOLF IN WHITE VAN. By John Darnielle.
DEPT. OF SPECULATION. By Jenny Offill.
THE BONE CLOCKS. By David Mitchell.
HOW TO BUILD A GIRL. By Caitlin Moran.
FAMILY LIFE. By Akhil Sharma.
AN UNNECESSARY WOMAN. By Rabih Alameddine.
EUPHORIA. By Lily King.
THE BALLAD OF A SMALL PLAYER. By Lawrence Osborne.
A GIRL IS A HALF-FORMED THING. By Eimear McBride.
THE TRUE AMERICAN: Murder and Mercy in Texas. By Anand Giridharadas.
ON IMMUNITY: An Inoculation. By Eula Biss.
THE SHORT AND TRAGIC LIFE OF ROBERT PEACE: A Brilliant Young Man Who Left Newark for the Ivy League. By Jeff Hobbs.
CAN’T WE TALK ABOUT SOMETHING MORE PLEASANT? A Memoir. Written and illustrated by Roz Chast. (4)
THREE MINUTES IN POLAND: Discovering a Lost World in a 1938 Family Film. By Glenn Kurtz. 

On 2 lists
DEAR COMMITTEE MEMBERS. By Julie Schumacher.
THE SOUTHERN REACH TRILOGY. By Jeff VanderMeer.
THE UNSPEAKABLE. By Meghan Daum.
WE ARE NOT OURSELVES. By Matthew Thomas.
NORA WEBSTER. By Colm Toibin.
THE MAGICIAN’S LAND. By Lev Grossman.
REVIVAL. By Stephen King.
THE BLAZING WORLD. By Siri Hustvedt.
NOBODY IS EVER MISSING. By Catherine Lacey.
THE ZONE OF INTEREST. By Martin Amis.
THE EMERALD LIGHT IN THE AIR. By Donald Antrim.
THROWN. By Kerry Howley.
WHAT IF? Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions. By Randall Munroe.
BLOOD WILL OUT: The True Story of a Murder, A Mystery and a Masquerade. By Walter Kirn.
WOMEN IN CLOTHES. By Sheila Heti & Heidi Julavits.
DO NOT SELL AT ANY PRICE: The Wild, Obsessive Hunt For The World’s Rarest 78 rpm Records. By Amanda Petrusich.
TENNESSEE WILLIAMS: Mad Pilgrimage of the Flesh. By John Lahr.
PHILIP LARKIN: Life, Art and Love. By James Booth.
FACTORY MAN: How One Furniture Maker Battled Offshoring, Stayed Local — and Helped Save an American Town. By Beth Macy.
THE INVISIBLE BRIDGE: The Fall of Nixon and the Rise of Reagan. By Rick Perlstein.
LINCOLN AND THE POWER OF THE PRESS: The War for Public Opinion. By Harold Holzer.
THE SECRET HISTORY OF WONDER WOMAN. By Jill Lepore.
THE GOOD SPY: The Life and Death of Robert Ames. By Kai Bird.
BEETHOVEN: Anguish and Triumph.   By Jan Swofford.
THE REPUBLIC OF IMAGINATION: America in Three Books. By Azar Nafisi.
CITIZEN: AN AMERICAN LYRIC. By Claudia Rankine.
LITTLE FAILURE: A Memoir. By Gary Shteyngart.
THE MOST DANGEROUS BOOK: The Battle for James Joyce’s Ulysses. By Kevin Birmingham.
CAPITAL IN THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY. By Thomas Piketty.
COLLECTED POEMS. By Mark Strand.

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