From the Top 10 Archives- Jen's 10 Favorite Books of 2014

Ever since I started this blog, I've been occasionally (and chronologically) looking back at my old top 10 favorite book lists, starting with 1999 when I first started compiling my lists and working my way up towards the present.   If you don't remember the details, these are lists I made contemporaneously at the end of the respective years, made up of books I read in that particular year, not necessarily books published that year.  I started out sharing these lists with just a small group of people, and over the years started sharing with more and more people, and through more and more different means, including this blog!

Here's my list from 2014, in alphabetical order by author's last name:

The Smart One - Jennifer Close
The Secret Place - Tana French
Big Little Lies - Liane Moriarty
The Rise and Fall of Great Powers - Tom Rachman
Fangirl - Rainbow Rowell
Counting by 7s - Holly Goldberg Sloan
The Goldfinch - Donna Tartt
The Martian - Andy Weir
The Interestings - Meg Wolitzer
The Storied Life of AJ Fikry - Gabrielle Zevin


For more random details about these books, keep reading!

Q&A with Karen Dukess, author of "The Last Book Party"

Yesterday was the publication day for "The Last Book Party," one of my favorite reads of the year so far since I was lucky enough to get an advanced copy.  Plus, is that a gorgeous cover for a summer book or what?

If you missed my review of this book in my post on anticipated books of July and August, I'll repeat it for you here.  The protagonist of this novel is a young woman named Eve who works in publishing and then becomes the assistant to a semi-famous writer, and it's set during one summer in 1987 in Manhattan and Cape Cod. The characters all felt like such real people, and there is a strong sense of time and place while at the same time the book feels very timeless, like the story could happen today too. There's also a lot of discussion of writing, reading, and books, which gives the book a pleasantly intellectual feel without being pretentious or heavy. So it's light enough to be a perfect summer book, while still just so smart. If you're a fan of smart insightful authors like Curtis Sittenfeld and Meg Wolitzer, I think you would like this too. 

And don't just take my word for it - it's also an Amazon Best Book of July, an Indie Next Pick and on O Magazine's Best Beach Read list for 2019, among others. 

And, I'm super-excited to bring you a Q&A with the author - no spoilers, so you can safely read this interview even if you haven't read the book yet.