The Best of 2014 (According to Me)

TTT

Top Ten Tuesday is a feature hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. This week’s theme is: Top Ten Books I Read In 2014 (Overall, By A Particular Genre, 2014 Releases)

Why, The Broke and the Bookish? Why you be so mean? Listen, I am going to narrow this the best that I can, but I am not making any promises. I am not going to count ARCs releasing in 2015, because I have enough problems. I am also not counting older releases that I read this year, because I have to draw the line somewhere. So, the 2014 releases that I loved the most, in no particular order except how they popped into my head:

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Rites of Passage by Joy N. HensleyPicMonkey Collage2

Don’t Touch by Rachel M. Wilson

Only Ever Yours by Louise O’Neill

To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before by Jenny Han

Forbidden by Kimberley Griffiths Little

The Cure For Dreaming by Cat Winters

In a Handful of Dust by Mindy McGinnis

Ruin & Rising by Leigh Bardugo

Ignite Me by Tahereh Mafi

How We Fall by Kate Brauning

One Past Midnight by Jessica Shirvington

Undivided by Neal Shusterman

The Book of Ivy by Amy Engel

The Jewel by Amy Ewing

I’ll Give You the Sun by Jandy Nelson

Glory O’Brien’s History of the Future by A.S. King

 So, which books were your favorites of the year? Were you better able to narrow it to ten than I was? (Sixteen is clearly a fail. If it helps, I had fifteen, then added the sixteenth for the sake of symmetry. No?)

Posted December 16, 2014 by Shannon @ It Starts at Midnight in Top Ten Tuesday / 39 Comments

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39 responses to “The Best of 2014 (According to Me)

  1. I’m planning on reading The Cure for Dreaming over the next month while I’m on break, so I’m glad to see it on your list. Lots of other books I need to check out too- Forbidden and Glory O’Brein, oh and I’ll Give You the Sun.
    Great List!

  2. I’ll Give You The Sun, yes! That, of course, made my list too, it was just so so so good!

    Also, obviously you had to add a 16th, it would have driven everyone crazy if you hadn’t! I was actually surprised that I was able to narrow it down fairly easily, I think it helps that I haven’t read a ton of new releases this year…I also mostly read contemporary…I’m really not sure how that happened…

    Anyway, great list! =)

  3. NO I WAS NOT ABLE TO NARROW IT TO ONLY TEN. Though now that I think about it I did read a couple of really bad eARCs, but in the end I had a lot of 4 and 5 star books. ALSO I HAVEN’T READ ANYTHING ON YOUR LIST what is wrong with me?

    • I mean, 10 was the joke number right? Had to be 😉

      I agree too, this was a really good reading year. LOTS of 4 and 5 stars (and I had a couple of ARC DNFs too) and only a few 2 stars. Really a quality reading year. I am worried that 2015 won’t be able to live up!

  4. I finished reading To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before two nights ago and I adored it! It was quite cute, though a little bit infuriating. I still need to read I’ll Give You the Sun. It sounds really promising! I must get on top of my TBR ASAP

  5. Argh, amazing list Shannon. I now want to read a lot of the books on your list that were on my radar but I’m yet to read them…like In A Handful of Dust, Only Ever Yours, I’ll Give You The Sun and Rites of Passage.

    • The Jewel was a bit of a “guilty pleasure” addition for me. I LOVED it, but there were some flaws. Like, in the beginning, there are some obvious Hunger Games comparisons and some insta-love. But I still couldn’t put it down!

  6. It’s really hard, yes. Only Ever Yours is the only book I read that’s included in your list (and the only one that got published this year!). I really want to read Rites of Passage but a: I can’t afford it in hardcover; b: I want most of my books in paperback.

    • Oh, boo, The Book Depository doesn’t have it in paperback, does it? Grr. Well, hopefully the paperback will come out! Or maybe you will win a giveaway 😉 I will find it as a new release SOMEWHERE to make it count, I promise!

  7. Man, I have read so many good books that it is hard to narrow down! Sea of Tranquility definitely makes the list. Also, I just read An Untamed State and it was AMAZING!!!

    • Well, I am certainly impressed! I probably could have done top 5 to be honest, but when I tried to spread it out to ten, it was too hard! I think there were too many “almost favorites” in the bunch!

  8. I haven’t actually read most of these, but Ignite Me and To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before were some of my favorites as well! I’m really excited to read Don’t Touch and I’ll Give You the Sun – I have both on my shelf and I’m thinking of reading them during Christmas break!

    And don’t worry – I could barely reduce mine to 13, and that was after my original list of 19 😛

  9. I had to do 2014 releases only too. We don’t have any in common for once, weird. I really want to read Unwind and Shatter me though. Oh and Book of Ivy, the Jewel, One Past Midnight and Cure for Dreaming. What can I say, you made them all sound so good. I almost put Ruin and Rising on my list, but I don’t remember liking it as much as I did when I wrote my review. I couldn’t stand it if it wasn’t symmetrical either.

  10. Um, I uh, haven’t read ANY of these! Fail, so much fail. I pretty much want to read all of them too, and at least finish the two series above that you have. The Shatter Me and Shadow and Bone ones. Clearly, I gotta find the time for all of these books. SOMEONE INVENT SOMETHING THAT GIVES US MORE TIME IN A DAY PLEASE.

    I think it’s interesting that you only chose 2014 releases. I count everything; older, upcoming ARCs, ones that published in the same year. Because I don’t read enough books that actually publish in the year I’m in, and also because I want to include ALL books when it comes to the top ten lists. 🙂

    • Hahah I need that “more time” thing too. Desperately. I honestly would not have been able to narrow if I didn’t do just 2014 releases 😉 And for some reason this year, I read mostly 2014 releases anyway so it kind of worked out.

  11. Ooh, glad to see you enjoyed a lot of these books that are on my TBR! 😀 I need to read so many of these…especially To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before, The Cure for Dreaming, I’ll Give You the Sun and Glory O’Brien’s History of the Future…I WANT THOSE BOOKS SO BADLY. I always hear good things about Rites of Passage and The Book of Ivy…I’ve never read any reviews for either book, because I jut have this feeling that both of them aren’t for me…that’s totally unfair on the books, I know, but I just can’t help it. I’ll have to check them out now, since they’re on this list…I didn’t participate in this weeks TTT, but you can see my favourite books that I read this year here, if you’re interested. 🙂 Thanks for sharing, Shannon!!

    • Your 2014 favorites include a lot of books I NEED to read. Like, I started listing them but stopped because there were so many! I have probably half of them, and must get to them ASAP!

      Rites of Passage was one of those books that I was SURE I was going to hate. I said the same, that it absolutely was not for me, and it ended up being my favorite book of the year! As for The Book of Ivy, it is a dystopian, which I was kind of “over”, but then it threw in a lovely new take on it. Just something to consider of course 😉

  12. I have my post Best of 2014 coming up tomorrow, and I really wanted to narrow it to just 10. You have no idea how hard it was! But my list also features Rites of Passage and Forbidden. The Book of Ivy came close 11th place, but it sadly didn’t make the list. However, I’ll have to save your list somewhere and read the rest of those books!

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