Best Books from 2014

Book Summary

In 1803, when middle daughter Sarah was eleven, she received a gift that is hard to comprehend today. Hetty ‘Handful’ Grimké was taken from the slave quarters she shared with her mother, wrapped in lavender ribbons, and presented to Sarah.

While Sarah knows her next move will create trouble, she also knows she cannot accept this gift. In alternating voices between Hetty and Sarah, we see the next thirty-five years of their lives and painfully experience the realities of slavery and how it contrasts with the lives of plantation owners and their children.

Book Summary

Britt-Marie is a socially awkward 63-year-old perfectionist who comes across as constantly critical of others despite her best intentions. But inside, she has big dreams and a warm heart.

After leaving her cheating husband, Britt-Marie begins a new season of life as the caretaker of a rec center and inherits a variety of odd regular visitors, including kids desperate for a football (soccer) coach. Can she get past her fussy nature and turn the town into a place where she finally feels she belongs?

Book Summary

As a young attorney in Montgomery, Alabama, Bryan Stevenson founded the Equal Justice Initiative, a nonprofit law office dedicated to helping poor, incarcerated, and wrongly condemned defendants.

One of EJI’s first clients was Walter McMillian, a young Black man who was wrongly convicted of the murder of a young white woman. He was sentenced to death despite the consistent declaration of his innocence.

Book Summary

Madeline is funny, biting, and passionate; she remembers everything and forgives no one. Celeste is beautiful, but the illusion of perfection comes at a price. Single mom Jane is new to town and has a mysterious past. She’s so young that other moms mistake her for a nanny.

The three women at the heart of this story are very different, but they all wind up involved in the same shocking situation.

Book Summary

Lydia Lee was growing up in 1970’s small-town Ohio as the favorite daughter in a Chinese American family. Her parents have high expectations that she will fulfill all the dreams they were unable to pursue. 

The Lee family is torn apart when Lydia’s body is found in the local lake. This historical fiction mystery examines the distinctly different impact of Lydia’s death on each family member and deals with race and gender identity issues.

Book Summary

Joe is a college student who needs to interview a stranger and write a biography for his English class. With the deadline approaching, he visits a local nursing home to find a willing participant. But he doesn’t know this decision will change his life forever.

Nursing home resident Carl is a dying Vietnam veteran–and a convicted murderer. He was in prison until he was medically paroled to spend his last dying months at the home. As Joe writes about Carl’s time in Vietnam, he can’t reconcile the heroism during the war with the heinous crime Carl was convicted of. Along with his neighbor Lila, Joe tries to dig deeper into the crime and conviction to settle the truth of what really happened.

Book Summary

Jess is in a terrible phase of life. Her husband disappeared, leaving not only her, but also his son Nicky behind. Plus, she’s short on cash, and her math whiz daughter has a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to compete in the Math Olympiad in Scotland. The math contest comes with a cash prize, and it’s just what Jess needs to cover the 10% of her daughter’s tuition that isn’t covered by a scholarship.

When she gets an offer from a knight in shining armor to drive the family to the Math Olympiad, it’s the last person she expects. Geeky Ed is a tech millionaire. Jess only knows him because she cleans his house. While the last thing he needs is to be on a road trip with his house cleaner, her two quirky kids, and their flatulent dog Norman, Ed gets sucked into their story, and they all set off to Scotland.

Book Summary

Far from the neon lights of the Vegas strip, locals are going about their lives and raising families. In this novel, four lives will collide in ways that will change them all.

Avis thought her marriage was just in a rut, but with one middle-of-the-night confession, everything unraveled.

Roberta is a social worker and a court-appointed child advocate.

Luis is a soldier trying to make the grandmother who raised him proud. He wakes up at Walter Reed Hospital with only sketchy memories of how he got there. Now, he’ll have to find a new way to lead a life of honor.

Bashkim is a third grader who loves the quiet order of school and the kindness of his teacher. His family came to the US, fleeing political persecution, and settled in Vegas. Their ice cream truck business barely pays the bills. Bashkim opens his heart to a pen pal – a US Soldier.

Book Summary

As desperate men and women line up to enter a job fair, a car emerges from the fog and runs them over. But this is no accident, the car then backs up and hits them again. Eight are killed and fifteen more injured, but the killer isn’t caught.

When an ex-cop named Bill Hodges remains haunted by the crime months later, he considers taking his own life. But then he receives an anonymous letter from someone claiming responsibility for the massacre. The killer is eager to feel the rush again, and only Bill can stop him.

Book Summary

Loosely based on the experiences of real-life anthropologists Margaret Mead (Nell), Reo Fortune (Fen), and Gregory Bateson (Backson), Euphoria is a work of historical fiction set in Papua New Guinea. In this novel, the three fictional anthropologists are conducting controversial research to study the South Pacific tribes who call the island home. 

Within months of their arrival, the trio is producing great work, but jealousy becomes a distraction as an impossible and steamy love triangle forms between the anthropologists.

Book Summary

Alice disappeared in the wake of an accident, and ten years later, her daughter, Jenna, still refuses to believe that her mother abandoned her. Jenna still regularly searches for clues, both online and within Alice’s journals.

Alice was a scientist who studied grief among elephants in Botswana. While the journal entries are mostly about the elephants, Jenna hopes that she’ll find a clue within the writing. As part of her investigation, she also works with a psychic and detective, and we’ll see the story from their points of view as well.

Book Summary

Six days after becoming the first astronaut to walk on Mars, Mark now thinks he’ll be the first to die there. A surprise dust storm caused his crew to evacuate after he was presumed dead. Although he is left alone with no way to communicate and short supplies, it’s time for his engineering skills to shine.

With extreme dedication and ingenuity, he conquers obstacle after obstacle. But will it be enough to survive until someone discovers he is still alive and can return to pick him up?

Book Summary

Cadence has debilitating migraines and memory loss after an accident on her family’s island compound during what she calls “Summer Fifteen.”

After being kept away from her cousins for the summer after the accident, the bulk of the book takes place as she finally returns to the island at age 17 and tries to piece together what happened to her.

Book Summary

It was not easy to be a female scientist in 1914. Violet Schuyler Grant endures her much older, philandering husband because he makes her role as a physicist in prewar Germany possible. When Lionel, a captain in the British Army, meets Violet, he encourages her to escape her husband’s hold. However, with WW1 on the horizon, Lionel’s motives are suspect.

Fifty years later, Vivian Schuyler is a recent Bryn Mawr graduate in New York City but is not content to be a socialite. Instead, she’s trying to break into the glamorous world of magazine publishing. She uses her investigative skills when she receives a package of information about a mysterious aunt she never knew.

Book Summary

After suffering a head injury in her home country of Mexico, Maribel’s family must move to Delaware so she can attend a special school, which will give her the best chance of recovery. The neighbors within their new apartment building are from other Central & South American countries, creating a bond as they try to adapt to their new home.

It’s a great look at the challenges of the immigrant experience and the lengths parents will go to for their children. You’ll also see an unlikely love story between Maribel and one of the boys from the apartment complex.

Book Summary

Eby first saw Lost Lake on a postcard, and she knew it would be her future. But now, half a lifetime has passed. Her husband and extended family are gone, and Eby is left with a once-charming collection of lakeside cabins. Each year, the same faithful misfits return to the cabins. Developers have cash in hand to buy the property, but Eby wants one more summer with the regular visitors.

Kate spent her childhood summers at the cabins, and now she’s hoping her daughter, Devin, can enjoy a summer spent at Lost Lake. One after another, visitors like Kate are drawn to the lake, looking for something they weren’t even sure they needed. From mysteries solved to heartaches mended, will everyone find what they need before it’s too late?

Book Summary

September 1911. On Ellis Island in New York Harbor, nurse Clara Wood cannot face returning to Manhattan, where the man she loved fell to his death in the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire. Then, while caring for a fevered immigrant whose own loss mirrors hers, she becomes intrigued by a name embroidered onto the scarf he carries…and finds herself caught in a dilemma that compels her to confront the truth about the assumptions she’s made.

September 2011. On Manhattan’s Upper West Side, widow Taryn Michaels has convinced herself that she is living fully, working in a charming specialty fabric store and raising her daughter alone. Then, a long-lost photograph appears in a national magazine, and she is forced to relive the terrible day her husband died in the collapse of the World Trade Center Towers, which was the same day a stranger reached out and saved her. But a chance reconnection and a century-old scarf may open Taryn’s eyes to the larger forces at work in her life.

Book Summary

Lauren and Ryan were college sweethearts. They’ve been together for 11 years and married for six, but now, in their early 30s, they’ve grown apart. Their marriage is at a breaking point, but they aren’t ready to call it quits. Instead, they’ve come up with a plan – they’ll take one year apart in hopes that at the end of the year, they’ll find a way to fall in love again. There is just one rule – during their year off, they cannot contact each other. Other than that, anything goes.

Told from Lauren’s perspective, you’ll join her for her year of self-discovery. Her friends and family all have their own ideas about the meaning of marriage. As the year goes on, she questions everything she thought she knew about love and lust, loyalty and commitment.

Book Summary

In the summer of 1964, Ibby’s father died unexpectedly, and her mother dropped Ibby off with her eccentric grandmother, Fannie. While Fannie tends to get committed to the local asylum, Fannie’s Black cook, Queenie, and her smart-mouthed daughter, Dollbaby, keep an eye on Ibby and educate her on the ways of the South.

Fannie’s family history is filled with tragedy and hidden in the closed rooms of her ornate mansion. When Ibby arrives, it may be time to unlock the mysteries. Along the way, Queenie and Dollbaby’s caring and wisdom show Ibby that family can be found in unexpected places.

Book Summary

Mia stops at a bar one night to meet up with her on-again, off-again boyfriend. But when he doesn’t show up, she leaves with a charmingly mysterious stranger named Colin, which is the worst mistake of her life.

Colin is supposed to deliver Mia to his “employers,” but instead, he hides her away in a secluded cabin in rural Minnesota. Her mother and a local detective are determined to find them at any cost.

Book Summary

Addie Baum was born to a Jewish family at the turn of the 20th century. Her immigrant parents were very concerned about America’s effect on their three daughters. Growing up in Boston’s North End, Addie is introduced to a progressive world of short skirts, movies, and celebrity culture. She also sees a new world of opportunities for young women and dreams of college and a career.

At 85 years old, Addie Baum’s 22-year-old granddaughter asks her how she became the woman she is. Her story begins in 1915 when teenage Addie lived in a one-room tenement apartment that she shared with her family.

Book Summary

For years, Lara Jean has been writing letters to each of her secret crushes. After pouring her emotions onto the page, she sealed each letter and hid them away in a special box under her bed. They were never meant to be sent, but they somehow found their way into the mail. Now, she must face all of her past crushes who have read her innermost thoughts.

From her first kiss and a cute summer camp boy to her sister’s ex-boyfriend… can anything good come of this embarrassing mix-up?

Book Summary

Station Eleven is set in a dystopian future during the collapse of civilization. It all begins one night when a famous Hollywood star dies onstage during a performance of King Lear. Soon, the world as we know it begins to dissolve. A nomadic group of actors, known as the Traveling Symphony, begin roaming between scattered outposts in the wasteland that remains of the Great Lakes Region.

The story moves back and forth between the early days of the Hollywood star to fifteen years in the future as the Traveling Symphony risks everything for art and humanity.

The publisher describes this book as follows: “This suspenseful, elegiac, spellbinding novel charts the strange twists of fate that connect five people: the actor, the man who tried to save him, the actor’s first wife, his oldest friend, and a young actress with the Traveling Symphony, caught in the crosshairs of a dangerous self-proclaimed prophet.”

Book Summary

Sixteen-year-old Marcia Garcia lives in a seaside village on the north side of the island of Trinidad. A gifted seamstress and smart-mouthed teen, Marcia raises two small boys while protecting a family secret. Her life is turned upside down when she meets Farouk, an ambitious young policeman.

Set against the historical events of the 1940s through the 60s, this novel follows Marcia and Farouk from courtship through raising children. Marcia’s secret will be threatened, entangling all of them in a scandal that puts their future on the line.

Book Summary

This is the story of a young Afghan girl named Rahima, and the parallel story, a century earlier, of her great, great-grandmother Shekiba. Side by side, their two stories illustrate how little had improved for women in Afghanistan for a century, but the story is not without hope.

In the 21st century, Rahima lives in Kabul with a drug-addicted father and no brothers. Her only hope for her future lies in the ancient custom of bacha posh, which allows her to dress and be treated as a boy until she is of marriageable age. As a boy, she can attend school and go to the market. A century earlier, her great, great-grandmother also adopted this custom to save herself after she was orphaned by an epidemic.

Book Summary

In their early teens, twins Jude and Noah were inseparable despite their differences. Jude loved red lipstick and cliff diving, and she was perfectly happy to do the talking for both of them. Her brother spent his time drawing and crushing on the boy next door. But years later, at sixteen, the two barely speak.

Noah tells the story of their early years, while Jude narrates the later years. But alone, each only has half of the story. If they can find their way back to each other, they might be able to set their world right.

Book Summary

Dabney has always had a gift for matchmaking. Some call it mystical, while others (like her husband and her daughter, who is clearly engaged to the wrong man) simply consider it meddlesome. But her results don’t lie. She’s successfully matched 42 happy couples – all of them still together.

She’s never been wrong about romance, except in the case of Clendenin Hughes. He was the boy who stole her heart many years ago and then moved away to pursue his journalism career. Twenty-seven years later, Clen is back, and Dabney is feeling very confused.

When tragedy threatens Dabney’s future, she is determined to use her remaining time to line up the perfect matches for everyone she loves. She’s also forced to confront painful secrets and answer for her choices in this heartbreaking story of losing and finding love.

Book Summary

We first meet the Eapen family in 1979 when Thomas visits his mother’s home in India. She tries to convince him to stay in India with his young family, but Thomas, a surgeon, has already built a new life for himself in New Mexico. His wife, Kamala, however, would love to stay in India.

In 1998, Thomas’ now grown daughter is a photographer living in Seattle. She learns from her mother that her dad is sitting on the porch talking to dead relatives, but she assumes her mom is exaggerating. When she returns home, the situation is much more complicated than her mother lets on. To help her father, they’ll all have to come to terms with the family’s painful past.