Bloggers Recommend - January 2014

8/13/2019 Bloggers Recommend - January 2014

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2013s Fiction Winners: What We LearnedbyGayle Weiswasser

In December,Bloggers Recommendcurated Best-Fiction-of-

2013 lists from many sources, fromThe New York TimesandThe New YorkertoStylecasterandDaily Candy.There was alot more consistency among the lists than we expected: a few

titles were featured on many, many lists. This concentration

may have made for few surprises, but the similarity among the

lists allowed us to draw some conclusions about what readersand critics liked in 2013.

It was a good year for veterans. New releases from a group ofwell-established authors were very well-received, with many

critics calling their 2013 efforts their best. Among the authors

who had a very good 2013: Donna Tartt, Meg Wolitzer, Khaled

Hosseini, Kate Atkinson, Elizabeth Gilbert, Jhumpa Lahiri,Dave Eggers, and Neil Gaiman.

The Goldfinchwas unstoppable. As soon as Donna Tarttslatest novel was released in October, it dominated the bestseller

lists, the best-of lists, and the book blogosphere.

Readers arent afraid of long books. Say what you want aboutour Twitter-size attention spans, readers apparently have no

problem committing to doorstop-size books. Heres a pagecount for some of 2013s winners: The Goldfinch(784 pages),The Son(576 pages),The Interestings(480 pages),The

Signature of All Things(512 pages),Life After Life(560 pages),

The Woman Who Lost Her Soul(640 pages).

Nor were they afraid of weighty topics. 2013s top fiction

did not shy away from tough topics: Chechnyan war (A

Constellation of Vital Phenomena),race relations(Americanah), revolutionary politics (The

Flamethrowers)and Zimbabwean refugees (We Need

New Names).

Short stories are alive and well. Particularly those written

byGeorge Saunders.

Word of mouth is still doing its magic. The mainstreampublicity machine may have been instrumental in driving

the success of books like The GoldfinchandLife AfterLife, but word-of-mouth was an equally powerful driverof buzz. Notably, three books in particular ruled the 2013

book blogosphere, thanks to consistent word-of-mouth

and passionate reviews:Me Before You,The Silent Wife,

andThe Husbands Secret.

All in all, 2013 was an excellent year for fiction.

Ok, time to close the page on 2013 and move on to 2014.

Are there doorstops and serious topics and veteran

bestsellers in our future? FollowBloggers Recommendto

find out!

First Reads: The Books Youre Already Reading in 2014

byNicole Bona

Our readers are nothing if not dedicated. A quick survey of ourFacebook and Twitter yielded a wealth of exciting reading

possibilities. Here are a few of the first books youre reading

this year.

The Secret Life of CeeCee Wilkesby DianeChamberlain

Fer-de-Lanceby Rex Stout Paris In Loveby Eloisa James Saga, Volume 2by Michael K. Vaughn The Martianby Andy Weir Monster in a Boxby Spalding Gray
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131869-saga-volume-2?from_search=truehttps://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17131869-saga-volume-2?from_search=truehttps://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18007564-the-martian?ac=1https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18007564-the-martian?ac=1https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/38306.Monster_in_a_Box?ac=1https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/38306.Monster_in_a_Box?ac=1https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/38306.Monster_in_a_Box?ac=1https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18007564-the-martian?ac=1https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17131869-saga-volume-2?from_search=truehttps://www.goodreads.com/book/show/12958655-paris-in-love?from_search=truehttps://www.goodreads.com/book/show/77604.Fer_de_Lance?ac=1https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2485785.The_Secret_Life_of_CeeCee_Wilkes?ac=1http://www.linussblanket.com/http://www.facebook.com/BloggersRecommendhttps://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17465450-the-husband-s-secret?from_search=truehttps://www.goodreads.com/book/show/16171291-the-silent-wife?from_search=truehttps://www.goodreads.com/book/show/15507958-me-before-you?from_search=truehttps://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13641208-tenth-of-december?from_search=truehttps://www.goodreads.com/book/show/15852479-we-need-new-names?from_search=truehttps://www.goodreads.com/book/show/15852479-we-need-new-names?from_search=truehttps://www.goodreads.com/book/show/15803141-the-flamethrowers?from_search=truehttps://www.goodreads.com/book/show/15803141-the-flamethrowers?from_search=truehttps://www.goodreads.com/book/show/15796700-americanah?from_search=truehttps://www.goodreads.com/book/show/15797715-a-constellation-of-vital-phenomena?ac=1https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/15797715-a-constellation-of-vital-phenomena?ac=1https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17465749-the-woman-who-lost-her-soul?from_search=truehttps://www.goodreads.com/book/show/15790842-life-after-life?from_search=truehttps://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17465453-the-signature-of-all-things?from_search=truehttps://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17465453-the-signature-of-all-things?from_search=truehttps://www.goodreads.com/book/show/15815333-the-interestingshttps://www.goodreads.com/book/show/16240761-the-son?from_search=truehttps://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17333223-the-goldfinch?from_search=truehttp://www.dailycandy.com/everywhere/flipbook/163220/Best-Books-of-2013http://stylecaster.com/best-books-2013/http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/books/2013/12/best-books-of-2013-part-one.htmlhttp://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/15/books/review/the-10-best-books-of-2013.htmlhttp://www.facebook.com/BloggersRecommendhttp://everydayiwritethebookblog.com/


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Bloggers Recommend

January 2014

Belle Cora by Phillip Margulies(January 7, Doubleday)Belle Corais

ambitious in scope and excellent inexecution. Arabella Godwins

transformation to the madam Belle

Cora creates a story that forces the

reader to constantly evaluate previous

assumptions and belief systems. Withits vibrant descriptions of the Gold

Rush and San Franciscos astounding

metamorphosis and with itsunforgettable characters,Belle Corais

a book for the ages.MichelleShannon

Out of the Woods: A Memoir of

Wayfindingby Lynn Darling(January 7, Harper) Alone and

directionless after her only child began

college, Darling left the city for a

ramshackle house in the Vermont

woods to create the map of her second

half of life. Often dark but always

honest, Darling's memoir is a profoundstatement on independence, being open

to possibilities, and the healing power

of nature. Candace B. Levy

Priscilla: The Hidden Life of anEnglishwoman in Wartime France by

Nicholas Shakespeare (January 7,Harper)After discovering his late aunt

Priscillas personal scrapbook,

Shakespeare turned detective and set

out to uncover what happened to thisglamorous, mysterious woman during

World War II. Although Priscillais

more speculative than a historian mightbe comfortable with, Shakespeare's

search for the truth of Priscillas life is

an illuminating look at how women

fared in Nazi-occupied France. Kim Ukura

The Impossible Knife of Memory by

Laurie Halse Anderson(January 7,

Viking Juvenile) Hayley is a teenagegirl whose dad suffers from

debilitating PTSD after a tour of duty

in Iraq. He's getting worse, and itsHayleys job to keep others from

realizing it. Andersons portrayal of

the return to civilian life is so

realistically heartbreaking as to makethis her best book yet. Kelly Hager

The Invention of Wings by Sue Monk

Kidd(January 7, Viking) Fact and

fiction seamlessly collide to make this

a compelling novel about one womanwho makes waves during the early-

1800s abolitionist and womensmovements. Told from the viewpoints

of Sarah Grimk and her handmaid,Handful, this is a moving story of an

unlikely friendship. Julie Caldwell

Unremarried Widowby Artis

Henderson(January 7, Simon &

Schuster) At age 26, Hendersonbecame a widow when her Marine

husband was killed in a helicopter

crash in Iraq. Henderson and her

mother share the painful experience ofyoung widowhood because

Henderson's father died in a plane

crash when she was 5. Beautifully

written, this memoir explores themeaning to be found in an apparently

senseless death. Ann Walters

A Star for Mrs. Blake by April Smith

(January 14, Knopf) Smith has penned

a tour de force about five Gold Star

mothers who journey to France to visitthe graves of their sons.A Star for Mrs.

Blakeis a melodically beautiful,

meticulously researched novel about an

unknown piece of American history. Itwill resonate with mothers and those

with family in the armed forces. Jennifer Smeth

Perfect by Rachel Joyce(January 14,Random House) This haunting novel

about friendships and the devastating

consequences of one unassuming event

accentuates Joyces exquisitestorytelling. She brings new life to the

dual time period/narrator technique by

using each shift to subtly peel back the

layers of this deceptively modest butevocative story. Perfectconfirms

Joyce's ability to tell an understated

story with a powerful emotional punch.Michelle Shannon

The Visionist by Rachel Urquhart(January 14, Little, Brown)

Sent to live in City of Hope, a Shaker community, Polly yearnsto put the past behind her and embrace a new life. The Visionist

is a haunting and authentic tale of redemption that will leave

readers thinking about the characters long after the last page isread. Natasha Vasillis
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Editors Pick

The Wife, the Maid, and the Mistressby Ariel Lawhon(January 28, Doubleday) Historical fiction page-

turner meets true-crime grit in Lawhons vivid dramatization of the disappearance of real-life Justice JosephCrater. The dark tale in The Wife, the Maid, and the Mistressis recounted by the women who knew Crater

best and includes a colorful, though brutal, rendering of 1930s New York, replete with gangsters, showgirls,and corrupt politicians. Nicole Bona
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This Dark Road to Mercyby Wiley Cash (January 28,

William Morrow) In this suspenseful tale about the redemptive

power of family love, two young sisters are stolen from theirfoster home by their estranged father. As the trio takes to the

road, the girls are inadvertently involved in their father's past

crimes, which threaten to overtake them. With his second

novel, Cash proves himself a master of Southern fiction.Jennifer Lawrence

Perfect by Rachel Joyce(January 14,

Random House) This haunting novelabout friendships and the devastating

consequences of one unassuming

event accentuates Joyces exquisitestorytelling. She brings new life to the

dual time period/narrator technique by

using each shift to subtly peel back thelayers of this deceptively modest butevocative story. Perfectconfirms

Joyce's ability to tell an understated

story with a powerful emotional

punch. Michelle Shannon

Saints of the Shadow Bibleby Ian Rankin(January 14, Little, Brown) Fans of DI Rebus

have much to celebrate since hes leftretirement, but even readers new to the lone-

wolf detective will appreciate his quest to

clear his old buddies names of a suspected

cover-up decades ago while simultaneouslyworking on a current case, which is a little

too full of coincidences. Jenn Ravey

The Secret of Magicby Deborah Johnson(January 21, Amy

Einhorn Books) The Secret of Magictransports the reader to

postWorld War II Mississippi and the murder of a youngblack war veteran returning home. Johnson's prose evokes a

lush Southern atmosphere while never shying away from the

horrors that occurred during the precivil rights era. Race

relations and responsibility take center stage in this beautifullywritten novel. Swapna Krishna

The Last Days of Californiaby Mary

Miller(January 20, Liveright) In

anticipation of the Rapture, 14-year-

old Jess's evangelical father packs upthe family and heads west toward

California. Along the way, Jess

discovers her rebellious sister is

secretly pregnant and begins toreevaluate herself, her family, and her

religion. The Last Days of California

is a smart-witted and brilliantlyobservant peek at both familydynamics and coming of age. Shannon Nemer

Lost Lakeby Sarah Addison Allen(January 21, St. Martins Press) Allen's

captivating tale about how what we loseis as much a part of us as what we find

comes alive through her vivid imagery

and beautiful writing.Lost Lakehums

with hope and satisfies in that deep downgood way. Amy Riley
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Under the Wide and Starry Skyby

Nancy Horan(January 21,Ballantine) Horan follows her best-

sellingLoving Frankwith another

extraordinary novel about afascinating woman and the famous

love of her life. Strong and

independent before her time, Franny

Van de Grift Osborne Stevensonfollowed a journey of heartbreak and

passion. Her story rewards readerswith an unforgettable portrait of

Robert Louis Stevenson. AllisonSkap

The Art of Falling by Kathryn Craft(January 28, Sourcebooks Landmark)

When Penny survives a 14-story fall, she

must honestly confront her life and herbody outside of Philadelphias dance

community. One need not be graceful or

understand dance to be drawn into

Pennys life and to experience the beauty

of her self-expression. Craft's fluid styleshines in this story of denial, friendship,

and redemption. Jennifer Conner

The Ghost of Mary Celeste by Valerie

Martin(January 28, Nan A. Talese) Thecombination of a ships vanished crew, the

height of Spiritualism, and a young unknown

Arthur Conan Doyle make for an irresistiblenovel in the capable hands of Martin. The

Ghost of Mary Celeste, which begins and ends

mysteriously with the sea, is told through

several voices and is sure to catch the reader

up in its swell. Jennifer Conner

I Shall Be Near to You by Erin Lindsay

McCabe(January 28, Crown) This

touching debut novel is written in the

unforgettable voice of Rosetta Wakefield,a young bride who disguises herself as a

boy in order to join the Union Army to be

with her soldier husband. Graphic,

gripping, and heartbreaking, McCabesstory will appeal to those who enjoy

historical fiction with a strong female

protagonist. Beth Nolan Conners
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Bloggers Recommend - January 2014

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