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)
