ICPL Staff Top Picks for 2014: Best of the Best

Here they are; the Iowa City Public Library’s Best of the Best Books for 2014. The books that made this list received nominations from more than one staff person.

• All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr (fiction)
• Lila by Marilynne Robinson (fiction)
• The Book with No Pictures by B.J. Novak (children’s)
• Sisters by Raina Telgemeier (children’s)
• Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson (children’s)
• The Misadventures of the Family Fletcher by Dana Levy (children’s)
• The Pigeon Needs a Bath by Mo Willems (children’s)
• Lock in by John Scalzi (mystery/science fiction)
• The Magician’s Land by Lev Grossman (mystery/science fiction)
• Can’t We Talk About Something More Pleasant? By Roz Chast (non-fiction)
• What If?: Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions by Randall Munroe (non-fiction)

Children’s books had a strong showing on this year’s list, but in the end, two fiction books share the honor of being ICPL’s Most Recommended Book of 2014 — All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr and Lila by Marilynne Robinson.

Doerr’s All the Light We Cannot See tells the story of two people struggling to survive while maintaining their morality during World War II. Marie-Laure is a blind girl who flees to the walled citadel of Saint-Malo after the Nazis invade Paris. Werner is a gadget-obsessed orphan whose skills admit him to a brutal branch of Hitler Youth. It isn’t until Werner is sent to Saint-Malo to track Resistance activity that Marie-Louise’s and Werner’s paths cross, but their alternating stories weave a tale that draws readers in long before their worlds collide.

Robinson’s Lila revisits the beloved characters and setting of her Pulitzer Prize–winning Gilead and Home. Homeless and alone after years of roaming the countryside, Lila steps inside a small-town Iowa church and ignites a romance and a debate that will reshape her life. She becomes the wife of a minister, John Ames, and begins a new existence while trying to make sense of the life that preceded her newfound security.

What was your favorite read of 2014?