What I Read in 2014

I read a lot of poetry this year. Possibly this makes me very crazy.

It's that time again: If I finish everything I'm reading right now, I will have read 60 books in 2014. I beat my number for 2013!

For six insane months in 2014, I had three part-time jobs. I still tried to carve out time for reading and writing... I did the best I could. Getting lost in a good graphic novel felt especially welcome this year.

I think I read more poetry than I ever have, most notably because I turned July 2014 into Poetry Month. I only read and wrote this genre. (The first bit of fiction I read after the month ended was Ayiti by Roxanne Gay. I was so happy to be reading anything other than poetry I nearly went into an ecstatic state.)

My list is a weird mix of everything I'm into: mod poets, Beat poets, comics, literary fiction, young adult series, and some nonfiction/diarist work. I'd do it all over again--although, somehow, I'd try to squeeze in more Mary Oliver.

My Top 10 of 2014

Blue Hole Back Home: A Novel – Joy Jordan-Lake

SAGA!!!

Ayiti – Roxanne Gay

Dream Work – Mary Oliver

Batman: The Long Halloween

Curves and Angles – Brad Leithauser

The Madonnas of Echo Park – Brando Skyhorse

Play It As It Lays: A Novel  – Joan Didion

Small Victories – Anne Lamott

Yes Please! – Amy Poehler

What I Read in 2014

1.  Now Is the Time to Open Your Heart – Alice Walker (fiction)

2.  Blue – Pat Grant (graphic novel)

3. Remedies – Kate Ledger (fiction)

4. The Eye of the Heron – Ursula K. le Guin (fantasy/fiction)

5. Blue Hole Back Home: A Novel – Joy Jordan-Lake (fiction)

6. The Patchwork Girl of Oz – L. Frank Baum (children’s fiction)

7. The Godfather – Mario Puzo (fiction)

8. The Lowland – Jumpha Lahiri (fiction)

9. The Rings of Saturn – W. G. Sebald (fiction)

10. The Collected Poems of Theodore Roethke (poetry)

11. A Dance with Dragons (A Song of Ice and Fire) – George R.R. Martin (smutty fantasy WHY DO I DO THIS TO MYSELF?!)

12. Woman Hollering Creek: And Other Stories – Sandra Cisneros (YA fiction/short story collection)

13. Gerard Manley Hopkins: The Major Works (poetry)

14. The Sociopath Next Door – Martha Stout, PhD. (nonfiction)

15. Catching Life by the Throat: How to Read Poetry and Why – Josephine Hart (nonfiction/lit theory)

16. The Yarn Whisperer: My Unexpected Life in Knitting – Clara Parks (nonfiction/essays)

17. Saga, Vol. 1 – Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples (graphic novel)

18. Sixty Odd – Ursula K Le Guin (poetry)

19. Pretty Dead – Francesca Lia Block (YA fiction)

20. Beat the Reaper: A Novel – Josh Bazell (fiction)

21. Kafka on the Shore – Haruki Murakami (fiction)

22. Indigo – Alice Hoffamn (YA fiction)

23. Dream Work – Mary Oliver (poetry)

24. Batman R.I.P. – Grant Morrison and Tony S. Daniel (graphic novel)

25. Are You My Mother?: A Comic Drama – Alison Bechdel (graphic novel)

26. The Eternal City: Poems – Kathleen Graber (poetry)

27. The Gift: Poems by Hafiz – Translated by Daniel Ladinsky (poetry)

28. Batman: The Dark Knight Returns – Frank Miller (graphic novel)

29. Batman: The Long Halloween – Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale (graphic novel)

30. Selected Poems of Langston Hughes (poetry)

31. The World Shared – Dariusz Sośniki (poetry)

32. Curves and Angles – Brad Leithauser (poetry)

33. A Thousand Mornings: Poems – Mary Oliver (poetry)

34. Horoscopes for the Dead: Poems – Billy Collins (poetry)

35. Ayiti– Roxanne Gay (fiction)

36. Scott Pilgrim, Vol. 1: Scott Pilgrim's Precious Little Life – Bryan Lee O’Malley (graphic novel)

37. Saga, Vol. 2 – Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples (graphic novel)

38. Batman: Hush – Jeph Loeb and Jim Lee (graphic novel)

39. The Madonnas of Echo Park: A Novel – Brando Skyhorse (fiction)

40. Clabbered Dirt, Sweet Grass – Gary Paulsen (nonfiction/essay/memoir)

41. Hustle – David Tomas Martinez (poetry)

42. Tik-Tok of Oz – L. Frank Baum (children’s fiction)

43. Bless Me, Ultima – Rudolfo Anaya (YA fiction)

44. Death Comes for the Archbishop – Willa Cather (fiction)

45. Written on the Body – Jeanette Winterson (fiction)

46. Phenomenal Woman: Four Poems Celebrating Women – Maya Angelou (poetry)

47. Play It As It Lays: A Novel – Joan Didion (fiction)

48. Not My Father's Son: A Memoir – Alan Cumming (memoir)

49. Saga, Vol. 3 – Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples (graphic novel)

50. Small Victories: Spotting Improbable Moments of Grace – Anne Lamott (nonfiction/essay)

51. Looking for Alaska – John Green (YA fiction)

52. Yes Please! – Amy Poehler (nonfiction/memoir)

53. A Little Lumpen Novelita – Roberto Bolaño (fiction)

54. Alistair Cooke: The Essential Letters from America: The 1940s & 1950s – Alistair Cooke (nonfiction/essay)

55. Catching Fire – Suzanne Collins (YA fantasy)

56. The Poem She Didn't Write and Other Poems – Olena Kalytiak Davis (poetry)

57. Learning To Love: Exploring Solitude and Freedom – Thomas Merton (nonfiction/journal)
58. Mockingjay -- Suzanne Collins (YA fantasy)
59. Hallelujah Blackout -- Alex Lemon (poetry)
60. Trickster's Queen -- Tamora Pierce (YA fantasy)