Best Reads 2014Like this list

13 items

• The Goldfinch

  Tartt, Donna, 1963-

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  This was my best read of the year. I love art, sprawling American novels and characters who, though flawed, shine with goodness. This book had it all. Books like this are why I read!

• We Need New Names

  Bulawayo, NoViolet, 1981-

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  This writing is so alive: full of character and colour and sassiness and pathos. Even where it was so raw that it hurt, I felt I was in the presence of greatness.

• The Collected Works of A.J. Fikry

  Zevin, Gabrielle, 1977-

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  This is a book about books, readers and an idiosyncratic little book store. The characters are quirky and soulful. People fall in love, change and develop in this novel. As a light holiday read I highly recommend it.

• A Trick I Learned From Dead Men

  Aldridge, Kitty, 1962-

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  Lee Hart is my favourite character of this year's reads. It is a little gem of a book in which death and optimism manage to walk hand-in-hand. A first novel, may there be many more.

• The Other Hand

  Cleave, Chris, 1973-

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  This novel rockets along at a pace that sucks you in quickly and twists and turns its way through many contemporary themes. The plight of asylum seekers in Britain is dealt with at a domestic level and is at times very funny. Little Bee, Sarah and…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Burial Rites

  Kent, Hannah, 1985-

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  Another cold Icelandic read. Based on the true story of Agnes Magnusdotti, accused of the brutal murder of two men, she is the last person to be executed (by beheading) in Iceland in 1829. Life was so hard in those days and really dreadful for poor…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Reach

  Fearnley, Laurence, 1963-

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  Laurence Fearnley is my favourite NZ author, and at WORD, Christchurch Writers' festival 2014, I bought the first Reach book ever to be sold. Art, who we are and how we overcome our struggles set on the East coast of New Zealand. Brilliant.

• The Lower River

  Theroux, Paul, 1941-

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  I must admit that my heart sank when this was the Christmas read of my BDS book group. I knew that it would really push my buttons - stories in which people return to Africa and awful things happen have that effect on me. And believe me, awful…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• The Most of Nora Ephron

  Ephron, Nora, 1941-2012

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  Nora Ephron died in 2013 and it was a great loss. This book brings together a collection of her writings. The sorts of things you just wish you had said first. "I'll have what she's having!" If only I could.

• Lots of Candles, Plenty of Cake

  Quindlen, Anna, 1953-

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  This is one of those "My Life on a Plate" books. You will recognise yourself here, but far better portrayed than ever you could have done (unless I am very much mistaken). If I'm wrong, write a book, I beg of you!

• Dinner

  Koch, Herman

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  Monstrously good and deeply disturbing. How far would you go to protect your children from their own errant behaviour? Cleverly structured around the courses of an expensive restaurant meal, this highly topical novel will make you ask questions of…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Engleby

  Faulks, Sebastian, 1953-

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  I came to this book 7 years after it was published. Engleby was the character my book club ladies most loved to hate (in the main). Brilliantly intelligent, unprepossessing looking, a mess socially and with a tendency to forget what he doesn't want…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• The Guest Cat

  Hiraide, Takashi, 1950-

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  I read this book before the library acquired it and then requested that it be added to the collection. Written by a Japanese poet and translated, it is a small but deep book. Set in the suburbs of a large city, an academic couple is visited by a…Read moreRead more of this annotation