Books Read in 2014

I read 37 books in 2014. That’s hardly surprising, since I was either unemployed or retired, depending on how you view it, for eight of those 12 months. With plenty of time on my hands, I also set a personal record for number of blog posts written in a year. 

Once again, I'm surprised by how much of my reading falls into the crime and thriller categories. Apparently my tastes aren't as sophisticated as I thought they were. Be that as it may, here are all the books I read in 2014, in alphabetical order by author, with my favorites highlighted in boldface. 

FICTION

1. Atkinson, Kate: Behind the Scenes at the Museum - Set in a pet shop in York. Quite different from her later Jackson Brodie  stories. Winner of the 1995 Whitbread Prize.
2. Banks, Russell: Rule of the Bone            
3. Bingham, Harry: Love Story, With Murders - Honestly, I can't remember anything about this book. But I suppose the title must be self-explanatory.     
4. Collins, Suzanne: Catching Fire
5. Collins, Suzanne:  Mockingjay - I have assigned this "favorite" status simply because the exquisite Natalie Dormer (A Game of Thrones) has a role in the film version.  

   

   The exquisite Natalie Dormer

6. Cronin, Justin:  The Passage - A military genetic experiment gone wrong and the dystopian world it creates. A page-turner, and the first of a trilogy. 
7. Cronin, Justin: The Twelve - This sequel to The Passage does not disappoint. It thoughtfully includes a handy cast of characters in an appendix, sort of like George R. R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire. Book 3 is due in 2015. 
8. Fowler, Christopher: The Invisible Code             
9. French, Tana: The Secret Place - Murder at a  girls' boarding school in Dublin. See separate entry in this blog. I'll read her other novels. 
10. Gailey, Samuel: Deep Winter - I bought this for the rural Pennsylvania setting. The author captures it pretty well. 
11. Gregory, Phillippa: The Constant Princess - The princess in question is Katherine of Aragon. I loved it.
12. Highsmith, Patricia: Deep Water - Well written and very dark. 
13. Joyce, Graham : Some Kind of Fairy Tale - Made a big impression on me. See separate entry in this blog. Sadly, the author died in September. A link to his obituary: Graham Joyce, Fantasy Author, Dies Aged 59.
14. King, Stephen:  Doctor Sleep - His best in quite a while. Sequel to The Shining.
15. Le Carre, John: The Russia House - The master of espionage lives up to his reputation. With recent events in Russia and Ukraine, he may be able to return to the topic he does so well. 
16. Martin, George R.R.: A Dance with Dragons
17. Mina, Denise: Slip of the Knife - One of my favorite Scottish crime writers.  A Paddy Meehan novel.
18. Oates, Joyce Carol:  The Accursed -   Gothic, satirical, excellent, this was a helluva read. Imagine a "taken by the fairies" tale incorporating Woodrow Wilson, Grover Cleveland, Theodore Roosevelt, Jack London, Upton Sinclair...  and that's only part of the story. Read the New York Times review by Stephen King here. 
19. Patterson, James with Pearson, Mark: Private London - Disappointing. It is hard to imagine why I'd read another Patterson novel, unless under desperate circumstances such as being stuck in an airport during a snowstorm.
20. Pym, Barbara: An Unsuitable Attachment - Motivated me to join Pym’s Facebook fan group. People complain that nothing much happens in Pym’s books, but I can remember more of this one that most books I read this year. 
21. Rankin, Ian:  Saints of the Shadow Bible - Another good Scottish crime writer. An Inspector Rebus novel.
22. Rendell, Ruth: No Man's Nightingale - Very good. I resolved to read more of Baroness Rendell's crime fiction, as you can see below. 
23. Rendell, Ruth: The St. Vita Society - See separate entry in this blog.
24. Robotham, Michael: The Night Ferry - Formulaic, disappointing. Sorry, but I'll read nae more Robotham.
25. Sedgwick, Marcus: White Crow - Well-written young adult novel. Not as good as Midwinterblood.
26. Shakespeare, William: A  Midsummer Night's Dream -  When I left my job in May, I resolved to read a lot of Shakespeare. It’s the kind of thing people do in such circumstances.
27. Shakespeare, William: Hamlet, Prince of Denmark - This is as far as I progressed with my Shakespearean reading resolution. What exactly is rotten in the state of Denmark? And why? I was relieved to learn I'm not the only person who is puzzled by this. 
28. St. Aubyn, Edward: Mother's Milk - Not sure I want to read any more St. Aubyn. Not sure I’d want to meet him, either. Strange mixture of clever and dark.
29. Woodrell, Daniel:  Under the Bright Lights, Muscle for the Wing, The Ones You Do – Three early novels by the author of Winter's Bone. These aren't as good. I’ll try his later work.

NON-FICTION

1. Applebaum, Anne: Iron Curtain - The Crushing of Eastern Europe, 1944-1956. Worthwhile look at a time that doesn't seem to get much attention from historians. 
2. Hendel, Ronald: The Book of Genesis: A Biography - More about the history of Bible study than Genesis itself, this was written by an academic who manages to make his topic interesting to the layman. I wish I'd taken his classes in college. 
3. Moran, Caitlin: Moranthology – She's clever. I want to read her novel in 2015, along with Donna Tartt’s latest.
4. The Book of Enoch the Prophet – True esoterica. I first became aware of this when it was mentioned in Danielle Trussoni's novel Angelology. Then I discovered that this is a real book of Hebrew apocalyptic writing centered around the shadowy prophet Enoch. See separate entry in this blog. 
5. Roman, James:  Chronicles of Old Las Vegas
6. Vermes, Geza: Jesus The Jew; A Historian's Reading of the Gospels  -  Having read this book and Constantine's Sword by James Carroll, I now know a lot more about the intersection of Christianity and Judaism. It's a fascinating topic, even though I'm not a person with faith in either religion. I'd never heard of Geza Vermes until I read his obituary (read it  here).  A Hungarian  Jew, ex-priest and translator of the Dead Sea Scrolls, Vermes died in 2013. He must have been the inspiration for a character in Herman Wouk's novel War and Remembrance, in which a Jewish scholar writes a book called "A Jew's Jesus."  I read this book because I wanted an objective (not faith-based) treatment of the historical Jesus.  From the preface: "...What [the Gospels] are believed to signify is the business of the theologian; the historian's task is to discover the original meaning of their message." That sounded sensible to me. Vermes also explains New Testament terms such as prophet, Lord, Messiah, Son of God and son of man. In doing so he references The Book of Enoch, a nice coincidence because I also read that book last year (see separate entry in this blog). Equipped with all this knowledge, I almost feel like a scholar myself.