Books of 2014 Part 1: Fiction

In going through the books I read in 2014, I realized that I didn't read a lot of fiction (at least not compared to non-fiction). I think there were more books, but they were re-reads, and I only count those if it's been many years between readings. And a lot of the re-reading was kid's stuff that I read to relax.

Still, based on my records, here are my favourites for the year:

1. Brandon Sanderson: Elantris, The Rithmatist, and the last 2 books of the Mistborn Trilogy: The Well of Ascension and The Hero of the Ages. I really, really enjoy Brandon Sanderson's writing. He's one of my favourite fantasy writers. I enjoyed the different story lines in Elantris, and how they all overlapped in the book and eventually merged. The Rithmatist is a young adult book (I meant to bring it to my nephew at Christmas but forgot) with a good premise (and the promise of sequels, yay). I was pleased with the ending of the Mistborn Trilogy. The last book brought everything together nicely without dragging things out forever. If you like fantasy, go read Brandon Sanderson.

2. Chris Colfer: The Land of Stories books 1 and 2: The Wishing Spell and The Enchantress Returns. My nephew introduced me to these, and I admit I was a bit hesitant because the author is best known for his role on Glee, and actors don't always write as well as they think they do. I'm glad I gave them a chance, though, because I liked them. They're a nice read when you want a good story and they give a new perspective on some of the fairy tales and the villains and their motivations (and some of what happened after: for example, Little Red Riding Hood has been elected queen of one of the fairy tale kingdoms, but is rather full of herself and not a great ruler). The overarching story is about 2 children who discover that their grandmother is the Fairy Godmother and who learn how to travel to the Land of Stories.

3. Dee Henderson: Undetected.  This is my sole foray into romance, and I read Dee Henderson because her books are more adventure and intrigue than romance and they tend to deal with a world that I don't know (usually military life, but also various forms of law enforcement). In Undetected, Mark is the commander of a ballistic missile submarine, so I learned about submarines, how the men train, and how the commander deals with the real possibility that he might have to launch a nuclear missile. The more I read, the greater my appreciation for the people who defend us.

4. Lois Lowry: Son. I picked this up in the library because I like Lois Lowry. I missed the part about it being the sequel to The Giver, which I have always loved (actually there are 4 books; Gathering Blue and The Messenger come in between, but Son is the most directly connected to The Giver). I figured it out, though, in the first chapter. It was a good book and a good ending to the story. Also, years ago a friend and I had an argument about what the end of The Giver meant, and I was proven right! I definitely recommend it, but it's best if you read all 4 books in order (Son won't make as much sense without the others).

As a side note: The Giver has been made into a movie and I watched it on the plane on the way home from Thunder Bay. It's not bad so far as movies go, and it keeps most of the ideas of the book intact. There are some unnecessary changes (at least that's my opinion). The main one is that they add some romance between Jonas and Fiona (which is not quite as bad as it would be if they had left them as 12 year olds, but they also make them 16).

That's really the best of what I read. I know it doesn't look like much, but there are actually 8 books (although only 4 authors). It really wasn't a great year for fiction; I read more, but a lot of it was just okay.

As a bonus, I'll give you one more list of books that were okay (sort of the "honorable mention" list). These are the other children's books that I read and am willing to recommend:
Diango Wexler: The Forbidden Library
Polly Shuman: The Grimm Legacy
Gordon Korman: Ungifted
Jean Little: His Banner Over Me

Tomorrow I'll give you my favourite non-fiction books. There were a lot more of them.