Missed this one by a year - must have been busy reading almost a book a week! Quick belated month-by-month recap (by my favorites)...
January
Ghost Soldiers, Hampton Sides
The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, Haruki Murakami
A Visit from the Goon Squad, Jennifer Egan
Blood Meridian, Cormac McCarthy
The true story was the best; wasn't sure what to make of some of the more fantastical or stylized fiction. Count: 4 (4 total)
February
White Teeth, Zadie Smith
My Name Is Red, Orhan Pamuk
Fist Stick Knife Gun, Geoffrey Canada
White Noise, Don DeLillo
Ironically, two "white" titles in a month heavy with minority authors. Count: 4 (8 total)
March
Born to Run, Christopher MacDougall
Undaunted Courage, Stephen Ambrose
Oryx and Crake, The Year of the Flood, and MaddAddam, Margaret Atwood
Flowers for Algernon, Daniel Keyes
Strong month in both quantity and quality. Again, nonfiction was the big winner - should I be reading more? Pretty good speculative fiction too... Count: 6 (14 total)*
* I always feel a little sheepish counting three books of a closely-related series separately, but that seems to just be me...
April
Around the World in 80 Days, Jules Verne
Fevre Dream, George R.R. Martin
The Maltese Falcon, Dashiell Hammett
A Walk in the Woods, Bill Bryson
Close competition between some very different books this month: classic, fantasy, noir, humorous memoir. Nothing that stood out as much as the best of last month, but good reads all. Count: 4 (18 total)
May
Cutting for Stone, Abraham Verghese
The Dispossessed, Ursula LeGuin
Killshot, Elmore Leonard
Cutting for Stone was totally worth interrupting my pace. Just an incredibly powerful story from an unknown part of the world. The others were good too; not my favorite Elmore Leonard, though. Count: 3 (21 total)
June
Wolf Hall, Hilary Mantel
Close Range, Annie Proulx
Gospel of the Living Dead, Kim Paffenroth
Another slower month - the subways must have been running quite efficiently. Led to some multimedia experiences, revisiting The Tudors and Living Dead series (although not Brokeback Mountain). Count at the halfway point: 3 (24 total)
July
Pagan Babies, Elmore Leonard
The Emperor's Soul, Brandon Sanderson
The Pillars of the Earth, Ken Follett
True at First Light, Ernest Hemingway
The Call of the Wild, Jack London
Travel/road trips afford some quality reading time. Another strong all-around month. I had reservations about most of these books except Pagan Babies (right up there with Tishomingo Blues): e.g., overly-involved pseudo-scientific explanations, unfitting writing ("hot body," really?). It was the most I think I've enjoyed Hemingway, but maybe didn't give Call of the Wild the time and attention it deserved. Count: 5 (29 total)*
* Emperor's Soul was a bit more of a novella, but we'll count it anyway...
August
Smoke and Mirrors, Neil Gaiman
The Last Season, Eric Blehm
Deliverance, James Dickey
The Windup Girl, Paolo Bacigalupi
Out of the Silent Planet, C.S. Lewis
Summer travel and avid reading continue. Some good stuff from all of these, but not as much I loved as other months. Count: 5 (34 total)
September
Another Great Day at Sea, Geoff Dyer
Animal, Vegetable, Mineral, Barbara Kingsolver
The Girl in the Blue Beret, Bobbie Ann Mason
To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee
The Revenge of Geography, Robert Kaplan
More strong nonfiction/memoirs. I can see why some reviewers didn't like Dyer, but I warmed up to his wry British wit. Much more earnestness and less wit from Kingsolver, but I still enjoyed it. A couple decent novels, then some blah nonfiction for a change. Count: 5 (39 total)
October
The Sisters Brothers, Patrick deWitt
All Quiet on the Western Front, Erich Maria Remarque
Memoirs, William Tecumseh Sherman
Arctic Rising, Tobias Buckell
Mixed bag this month. Even the good reads didn't really make me happy... Count: 4 (43 total)
November
Team of Rivals, Doris Kearns Goodwin
The Last Shot, Darcy Frey
The Hot Zone, Richard Preston
Gone Girl, Gillian Flynn
That settles it, read more nonfiction. It's totally fine to break it up with trendy page-turners. Count: 4 (47 total)
December
The Dog Stars, Peter Heller
The War Below, James Scott
Death Comes to Pemberley, P.D. James
Here Be Dragons, Sharon Kay Penman
Bittersweet end to the year, particularly Dog Stars (poor dog (can't track down the name), aww Bangley bromance). Worthwhile reads, but didn't love most of the others for various reasons. Count: 4 (51 total)
So there you have it, 51 books on the year. On to 2015...
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