Best of 2014

New Zealand is enjoying a wonderful summer and we've had 6 weeks of school holidays to enjoy it. I can look back on the lovely long days we have had reading at the beach, long evenings at the table sharing food and wine with friends, walks and time on the boat. Today is the first day back at school and the year is off with a hiss and a roar.

Last year I managed an all time high reading record, 98 books! This year it would be nice to crack 100.

I catalogue what I read and give each book a rating ranging from boring to excellent. Here is the list of the 34 excellent (by my reckoning) books I read in 2014. I have reviewed the majority, just click on the blue underlined titles to go to their reviews on my main blog. Wherever you are I hope you can also enjoy these books.

Most of them were read 10 minutes at a time as I wait outside school, beside sports fields and inside basketball gyms waiting for my kids. I hope you are able to read at least one more book this year than last. Enjoy.


Can it, bottle it, smoke it by Karen Solomon

Wake by Elizabeth Knox

Lost , Stolen or Shredded by Rick Gerkosky
The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton
The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt
The Hired Man by Aminatta Forna
 A Fort of Nine Towers by Qais Akbar Omar
The Poisoner's Handbook by Deborah Blum
Burial Rights by Hannah Kent
The Son by Philipp Meyer
The Valley of Amazement by Amy Tan
Old Filth by Jane Gardam
Perfect by Rachel Joyce
The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion
Traces of Red by Paddy Richardson
Cathedral of the Wild by Boyd Varty
The Town that Drowned by Riel Nason
The Boy who Harnessed the Wind by William Kamkwamba
The End of the Alphabet by CS Richardson
Ariel's Crossing by Bradford Morrow
The Most Beautiful Walk in the world:Paris by John Baxter
You're still Hot to Me by Jean Kittson
Carthage by Joyce Carol Oates
The Claimant by Janette Turner Hospital
The Rise and Fall of Great Powers by Tom Rachman
We are completely beside ourselves by Karen Joy Fowler
Hollow City by Ransom Riggs
Taking Pictures by Ransom Riggs
Orpheus Lost by  Janette Turner Hospital
All Saints' Rising by Madison Smartt Bell
The Narrow Road to the Deeper North by Richard Flanagan
Due Preparation for the Plague by  Janette Turner Hospital
The strange & beautiful sorrows of Ava Lavender by Leslye Walton
Off the Map by Fergus Fleming