Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng has been named the Best Book of 2014 by the editors at Amazon.com. The editorial team read 480 books in order to come up with this year’s list of the Top 100 books as well as to choose which books would be named to the top 20 lists in more specific categories.
Among the interesting bits of trivia regarding this year’s selections include the fact that two first-time authors made the Top 10 list and overall 17 new authors made the Top 100 list. 31 authors who made the cut this year for the Top 100 list have also made the list in previous years.
“The top pick, Everything I Never Told You, is kind of a ‘sleeper’ in that it got less attention initially than other novels, but Ng’s debut is a sad and moving story that we all fell in love with from the first line,” stated Sara Nelson, Editorial Director of Books and Kindle at Amazon.com. “Deeply felt and searingly emotional, Everything I Never Told You is the kind of novel that people say doesn’t get published any more. We’re so happy it did.”
The Pigeon Needs a Bath! is the top pick in the Children’s Picture Books categories while The Fourteenth Goldfish was named the best of the books aimed at Middle Grade – ages 9-12. We Were Liars was selected as this year’s best Teen and Young Adult book.
Top 10 Editors’ Picks of 2014, Along with Reasons Behind Their Selections:
1. Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng: Quiet and beautiful, this novel about an unknowable teenage girl in a mixed-race family in the 1970s Midwest will make you cry.
2. All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr: A beautiful, atmospheric story about two young people, one French, one German, growing up on the eve of World War II.
3. In the Kingdom of Ice: The Grand and Terrible Polar Voyage of the USS Jeannette by Hampton Sides: The ultimate adventure story, but with a touch of romance and intrigue. A historical The Perfect Storm.
4. The Short and Tragic Life of Robert Peace: A Brilliant Young Man Who Left Newark for the Ivy League by Jeff Hobbs: At once extremely personal and culturally wise, this reported memoir will change the way you think about race, class and the meaning of friendship.
5. Redeployment by Phil Klay: Strong, brilliant stories about survival of something almost as dangerous as war itself—its aftermath.
6. Revival by Stephen King: The best kind of King book: a little horror, but mostly pitch-perfect details about youth and faith and family.
7. Savage Harvest: A Tale of Cannibals, Colonialism, and Michael Rockefeller’s Tragic Quest for Primitive Art by Carl Hoffman: The Rockefeller clan might not have wanted to believe it, but author Hoffman is convincing about what led to the scion’s death. It’s not pretty…but it IS fascinating.
8. The Book of Unknown Americans by Cristina Henríquez: Told in the many voices of the Latin American tenants of one apartment complex in Delaware, this novel illuminates several different kinds of immigrant experience.
9. Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty: Moriarty dazzles with another novel about “ordinary” Australian families and the secrets they keep.
10. Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel: Set in the not-so-distant future, this apocalyptic novel is surprisingly hopeful in its depiction of a culture that both mocks and mourns its disappeared past.
To check out the full list of the top 100 along with the rest of the Best of 2014 lists, visit www.amazon.com/bestbooks2014.
-By Rebecca Murray
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