For the rest of the year, I'm going to release in groups of ten my Top 50 releases of 2014 that I read. It was tough to reduce 165 reads down to 50 (a great many of these books have been featured on several prominent Best of Year lists), but these works should be of interest to most, if not all, readers.
50. Hilda Hilst, With My Dog Eyes (translated from Portuguese by Adam Morris)
One of the wilder Modernist pieces I've read in any language.
49. Emily St. John Mandel, Station Eleven
This National Book Award-nominated book was one of the better post-apocalyptic novels released this year.
48. William T. Vollmann, Last Stories & Other Stories
Some wonderfully chilling "ghost" stories in this collection of lives lost and destroyed.
47. Dinaw Mengestu, All Our Names
A moving tale of identities stripped and rebuilt during the turbulent 1970s and 1980s in East Africa.
46. Chang-rae Lee, On Such a Full Sea
A take on post-apocalyptic America that does not feature whites for a change.
45. Richard Powers, Orfeo
Longlisted for both the 2014 Man Booker Prize and the National Book Award. Beautiful tale that utilizes music theory to great effect.
44. Brian Francis Slattery, The Family Hightower
Good combination of family history with thriller elements as a journalist suddenly finds himself on the run from Mafia hit men due to something related to his family history.
43. Jenny Erpenbeck, The End of Days (translated from German by Susan Bernofsky)
Five linked novellas that explore a chilling "what if" when it comes to a woman's life.
42. Carlos Labbé, Navidad & Matanza (translated from Spanish by Will Vanderhyden)
Clever, labyrinthine tale that may or may not involve people caught up in a narrative game that may or may not involve the disappearance of two children.
41. Marcel Theroux, Strange Bodies
A story of identity, of someone somehow becoming a dead person's identity to the point where it is impossible to tell where the false diverges from the true.
50. Hilda Hilst, With My Dog Eyes (translated from Portuguese by Adam Morris)
One of the wilder Modernist pieces I've read in any language.
49. Emily St. John Mandel, Station Eleven
This National Book Award-nominated book was one of the better post-apocalyptic novels released this year.
48. William T. Vollmann, Last Stories & Other Stories
Some wonderfully chilling "ghost" stories in this collection of lives lost and destroyed.
47. Dinaw Mengestu, All Our Names
A moving tale of identities stripped and rebuilt during the turbulent 1970s and 1980s in East Africa.
46. Chang-rae Lee, On Such a Full Sea
A take on post-apocalyptic America that does not feature whites for a change.
45. Richard Powers, Orfeo
Longlisted for both the 2014 Man Booker Prize and the National Book Award. Beautiful tale that utilizes music theory to great effect.
44. Brian Francis Slattery, The Family Hightower
Good combination of family history with thriller elements as a journalist suddenly finds himself on the run from Mafia hit men due to something related to his family history.
43. Jenny Erpenbeck, The End of Days (translated from German by Susan Bernofsky)
Five linked novellas that explore a chilling "what if" when it comes to a woman's life.
42. Carlos Labbé, Navidad & Matanza (translated from Spanish by Will Vanderhyden)
Clever, labyrinthine tale that may or may not involve people caught up in a narrative game that may or may not involve the disappearance of two children.
41. Marcel Theroux, Strange Bodies
A story of identity, of someone somehow becoming a dead person's identity to the point where it is impossible to tell where the false diverges from the true.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment