stewaroby's best books of 2014Like this list

9 items

• Can't We Talk About Something More Pleasant?

  Chast, Roz

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  An unflinching look at what happens when your parents become your dependents. Very funny, very honest, very true.

• Harvest

  Crace, Jim, 1946-

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  So intense I found myself wanting to look away but so skilled I just had to keep reading.

• Middlemarch

  Eliot, George, pseud., 1819-1880

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  What can I say? An ambition fulfilled, a lot of very enjoyable time spent and things to think about for years to come.

• The Lowland

  a Novel

  Lahiri, Jhumpa, 1967-

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  A Book Club duty book, not one I would have chosen for myself but here it is on my Best of 2014 list. The story and the style are utterly compelling.

• Penelope Fitzgerald

  a Life

  Lee, Hermione, 1948-

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  A model of literary biography -this it how it should be done. Readable, engrossing, informative and it made you want to read Fitzgerald's books.

• The Children Act

  McEwan, Ian, 1948-

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  I didn't want to put it down but often I had to in order to have a little think about what I had just read. Which is a good thing in a novel.

• Love, Nina

  Despatches From Family Life

  Stibbe, Nina

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  I laughed out loud while reading this. Not once but many times.

• The Wedding Dress

  the 50 Designs That Changed the Course of Bridal Fashion

  Thompson, Eleanor

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  Such a lovely book - a great combination of beautiful pictures and intelligent words.

• Nora Webster

  Tóibín, Colm, 1955-

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  Colm Tóibín's stated aim with this novel was "that the reader shouldn't be aware of the style at all, let alone be dazzled by it". Well I couldn't say how he made every single word the right word or how he managed to make a complete world and…Read moreRead more of this annotation