Saturday, January 10, 2015

Books Read in 2014



This is the list of the 104 books I read in 2014, in the order that I read them. I started the Dumas Law Group in 2014, my own law firm, so I didn't review many books. It was all I could do to read them!

I rate books 1 to 5, but only give five stars to a very few all-time favorites. Four stars go to books I think are really good and would recommend to anyone. I rate a book a 3 if I liked it personally, but wouldn't think of recommending it. Most books get 3.5, which means that I liked it and would recommend it to people who like that genre or type of book. See this post for details.

One of Ours by Willa Cather (3.5/4; Pulitzer)

The Bridal Wreath: Kristin Lavransdatter, Vol.1, by Sigrid Unset (4/4; Nobel)

The Sharper Your Knife, the Less You Cry by Kathleen Flinn (3/4)

The Society Ball Murders by Jack Albin Anderson (3/4)

Candida by George Bernard Shaw (3/4; Nobel)

William Tell Told Again by P. G. Wodehouse (3/4)

The Gold Bat by P. G. Wodehouse (3/4)

Kate Remembered by A. Scott Berg (4/5)

Coastliners by Joanne Harris (3/5)

The Happiness Project: Or, Why I Spent a Year Trying to Sing in the Morning, Clean My Closets, Fight Right, Read Aristotle, and Generally Have More Fun by Gretchen Rubin (3.5/5)

Nights of Rain and Stars by Maeve Binchy (3/5; reviewed here)

The Wife: Kristin Lavransdatter, Vol. II, by Sigrid Unset (4/4; Nobel)

A Wanted Man by Lee Child (3.5/4)

A Shooting Star by Wallace Stegner (3.5/5)

C. S. Lewis - A Life: Eccentric Genius, Reluctant Prophet by Alister McGrath (4/5)

The Cross: Kristin Lavransdatter, Vol. III, by Sigrid Unset (4/4; Nobel)

The Mystery of the Blue Train by Agatha Christie (3.5/5)

Deception by Philip Roth (3.5/5)

The Difficult Sister by Judy Nedry (3.5/5)

What Mrs. McGillicuddy Saw (aka 4:50 from Paddington) by Agatha Christie (3.5/5)

Death in the Air (aka Death in the Clouds) by Agatha Christie (3.5/5)

Remembering Laughter by Wallace Stegner (3.5/5)

Economic Facts and Fallacies, 2nd edition by Thomas Sowell (4/5)

In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto by Michael Pollan (3.5/5)

The Life of the Party by Irvin S. Cobb (3/5)

Olivia Joules and the Overactive Imagination by Helen Fielding (3.5/5)

1939: The Last Season by Anne De Courcy (3.5/5)

The Alice Behind Wonderland by Simon Winchester (3.5/5)

The Rich Are Different by Susan Howatch (3.5/5)

The Financial Lives of the Poets by Jess Walter (4/5)

Grace (Eventually): Thoughts on Faith by Anne Lamott (3/5)

I'm a Stranger Here Myself: Notes on Returning to America After 20 Years Away by Bill Bryson (3/5)

A Pillar of Iron by Taylor Caldwell (4/5; reviewed here)

Snobs by Julian Fellows (4/5; reviewed here)

The Head of Kay’s by P. G. Wodehouse (3/5)

A Few Green Leaves by Barbara Pym (3.5/5)

Night In Shanghai by Nicole Mones (4/5)

A Gate at the Stairs by Lorrie Moore (3/5)

The Glassblowers by Daphne du Maurier (3/5)

In the Last Analysis by Amanda Cross (3.5/5)

The Impossible Dead by Ian Rankin (3.5/5)

The Golden Notebook by Doris Lessing (3.5/5; Nobel, All-TIME Top 100)

Sinful Folk by Ned Hayes (4/5)

The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame (5/5; reviewed here)

Still Life by Louise Penny (3.5/5)

You Take It From Here by Pamela Ribon (2.5/5)

The View from Penthouse B by Elinor Lipman (3/5)

20,000 Days and Counting: The Crash Course for Mastering Your Life Right Now by Robert D. Smith (2.5/5)

A Man Lay Dead by Ngaio Marsh (3.5/5)

Sister Age by M.F.K. Fisher (3.5/5)

Stoner by John Williams (3.5/5)

Nickel Mountain by John Gardner (3.5/5; BOMC Well-Stocked Bookcase)

The Principles of Uncertainty by Maria Kalman (3.5/5)

Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn (4/5)

Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead by Sheryl Sandberg (3/5)

Bonjour, Happiness! by Jamie Cat Callan (3.5/5)

Bridget Jones's Guide to Life by Helen Fielding (3/5)

The End of the Affair by Graham Greene (4/5)

The Gem Collector by P. G. Wodehouse (3/5)

Memento Mori by Muriel Spark (3.5/5)

Skinny Dip by Carl Hiaasen (3/5)

The Small House at Allington by Anthony Trollope (4/5)

Risk by Dick Francis (3.5/5)

Nomad: From Islam to America: A Personal Journey Through the Clash of Civilizations by Ayaan Hirsi Ali (3.5/5)

French Women for All Seasons by Mirabelle Guiliano (3/5)

The Book of Laughter and Forgetting by Milan Kundera (3/5)

A Northern Christmas by Rockwell Kent (3/5)

Dodsworth by Sinclair Lewis (4.5/5)

Private Life by Jane Smiley (3/5)

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald (5/5)

Daughters-in-Law by Joanna Trollope (3.5/5)

The Truth About Lorin Jones by Alison Lurie (4/5)

California’s Over by Louis B. Jones (3.5/5)

A Great Deliverance by Elizabeth George (3.5/5)

She Stoops to Conquer by Oliver Goldsmith (3.5/5)

A Fatal Grace by Louise Penny (3.5/5)

Prague by Arthur Phillips (4/5)

Deadly Decisions by Kathy Reichs (3/5)

C'est La Vie: An American Woman Begins a New Life in Paris and--Voila!--Becomes Almost French by Suzy Gershman (2.5/5)

The Pearl Diver by Sujata Massey (3/5)

Bad Boy Brawly Brown by Walter Mosley (3/5)

Stanley Park by Timothy Taylor (4/5)

The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath (3.5/5; College Board Top 101, Erica Jong Top 100, BMOC Well-Stocked Bookcase)

44 Scotland Street by Alexander McCall Smith (3/5)

Arthur & George by Julian Barnes (3.5/5)

Summer Lightning by P. G. Wodehouse (4/5)

Me before You by Jojo Moyes (1/5)

Style by Kate Spade (3.5/5)

The Daughter of Time by Josephine Tey (4/5)

Delicious by Mark Haskell Smith (3.5/5)

Losing Mum and Pup: A Memoir by Christopher Buckley (3.5/5)

A Man of Parts by David Lodge (3.5/5)

Enter a Murderer by Ngaio Marsh (3.5/5)

An Artist of the Floating World by Kazuo Ishiguro (3.5/5; Costa BOTY)

If a Pirate I Must Be…: The True Story of "Black Bart," King of the Caribbean Pirates by Richard Sanders (3/5)

The Victim by Saul Bellow (3.5/5)

On the Map: A Mind-Expanding Exploration of the Way the World Looks by Simon Garfield (3.5/5)

The City of Falling Angels by John Berendt (4/5)

Smokescreen by Dick Francis (3.5/5)

Prospero's Cell: A Guide to the Landscape and Manners of The Island of Corfu by Lawrence Durrell (3.5/5)

The Kitchen God’s Wife by Amy Tan (3.5/5)

The Lathe of Heaven by Ursula le Guin (3.5/5)

Captain Nicholas by Hugh Walpole (3.5/5)

The Spa Decameron by Fay Weldon (4/5)

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