Bildungsroman

Total number of books and scripts read in 2014: 275

This year, I wrote nearly as much as I read. Things I wrote were published, produced, and performed. Things I read made me laugh, made me grateful, and made me take pause. I feel honored every time I book a film or a TV show or a play or a musical and cherished every opportunity to explore new worlds and tell stories in words and movement and song. I was delighted when I was hired to narrate an audiobook (which I subsequently remastered and edited!)

Here is my list of the best books of 2014, containing titles released and read in that calendar year. Please note that a title's placement within a category is not an indication of rank of any sort; titles are typically listed in the order I read them. Click on a title to read my review.

Juvenile Fiction
The Meaning of Maggie by Megan Jean Sovern
Half a Chance by Cynthia Lord
The Summer I Saved the World...in 65 Days by Micby Michele Weber Hurwitz

Young Adult Fiction
The Good Lie by Robin Brande
Hung Up by Kristen Tracy
The Last Forever by Deb Caletti
Everything Leads to You by Nina LaCour
We Are the Goldens by Dana Reinhardt
Girl Defective by Simmone Howell

Adult Fiction
Snowblind by Christopher Golden

Non-Fiction
Life in Motion: An Unlikely Ballerina by Misty Copeland
Wild Things! The True, Untold Stories Behind the Most Beloved Children's Books and Their Creators by Julie Danielson, Elizabeth Bird, and Peter D. Sieruta
Normally, This Would be Cause for Concern: Tales of Calamity and Unrelenting Awkwardness by Danielle Fishel

Graphic Novels
Sisters by Raina Telgemeier
Cemetery Girl, Book One: The Pretenders by Charlaine Harris and Christopher Golden

Backlist and Re-Reads
Hyperbole and a Half: Unfortunate Situations, Flawed Coping Mechanisms, Mayhem, and Other Things That Happened by Allie Brosh
The Children's Hour by Lillian Hellman
The Bad Seed play adaptation by Maxwell Anderson, based on the novel by William March