Deb­bie Ja­cob

As we head for the New Year, I am count­ing down the ten best books I read in 2014. This is al­ways a chal­lenge be­cause some books that could have made the list have to be left off.There are four books on this year's list that make my list of all-time favourite books. This year I al­so found the book for the very top of my list of all-time favourite books. Six of the ten books on my list this year are non­fic­tion.

Here is my top ten list for 2014:

10. Care­less Peo­ple: Mur­der May­hem and the In­ven­tion of the Great Gats­by by Sarah Church­well–Church­well sheds a whole new light on the mod­ern Amer­i­can clas­sic The Great Gats­by by F Scott Fitzger­ald. Any­one who has lin­ger­ing doubts about the re­al oc­cu­pa­tion of Gats­by needs to read this book. Us­ing news­pa­per sto­ries and oth­er records of the day, Church­well gives mod­ern read­ers the so­cial and cul­tur­al in­for­ma­tion that read­ers would have known in the 1920s.

9. Your Life Call­ing by Jane Pauley–Jour­nal­ist Jane Pauley presents a com­pelling case for re­think­ing life af­ter re­tire­ment. Ar­gu­ing that re­tirees of­ten have 20 to 25 good and pro­duc­tive years ahead of them, Pauley presents sto­ries of peo­ple who re-in­vent­ed their lives at 40, 50, 60 and be­yond. Some of the peo­ple in this book had a wake-up call from health is­sues that caused them to re-think what they re­al­ly want­ed to do in life. This is al­so an ex­cel­lent au­dio book nar­rat­ed by the au­thor her­self.

8. Wolf: The Lives of Jack Lon­don by James L Ha­ley–Lon­don is one of the most en­dear­ing and en­dur­ing Amer­i­can au­thors. His ad­ven­tures are un­be­liev­able. His re­al-life ad­ven­tures ri­val his nov­els.

7. Izzy and Lenore by Jon Katz–Known for his books about the an­i­mals on his Bed­ford Farm, Katz presents the sto­ry of two of his dogs that he turned in­to hos­pice ther­a­py dogs. This is an in­cred­i­bly up­lift­ing sto­ry that makes read­ers think about hav­ing a pur­pose in life and ap­pre­ci­at­ing every mo­ment we have on this earth.

6. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak–There is nev­er a short­age of World War II sto­ries, but this sto­ry of nine-year-old Liesel Meminger and her re­la­tion­ships with books, a fos­ter fam­i­ly and Jew­ish man hid­ing in her home is spe­cial. Book Thief is a beau­ti­ful trib­ute to the pow­er of love and the pow­er of books. Be pre­pared to cry.

5. The Hun­dred-Foot Jour­ney by Richard C Morais–On the sur­face, Morais's nov­el looks like it's about food, but food is mere­ly a metaphor for fol­low­ing your dreams as Has­san Ha­ji finds out in his quest to be a top chef. This is a book filled with tastes, smells and sights that evoke deep emo­tions in read­ers. It is one of those un­usu­al books that can be a fun, light read or a deep, philo­soph­i­cal jour­ney. Read­ers can fall in how­ev­er deep they want to go.

4. The Ele­phant Whis­per­er by An­tho­ny Lawrence–When South African con­ser­va­tion­ist An­tho­ny Lawrence takes in a herd of rogue ele­phants, he is not pre­pared for the chal­lenges or the feel­ings that come with the ter­ri­to­ry. The ele­phants teach Lawrence and read­ers about life on a whole new lev­el. This al­so is an un­be­liev­able au­dio book. I found my­self scream­ing "Don't do it!" in one part of the book. This is the one and on­ly time I ever yelled at an au­dio book.

3. The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out of a Win­dow and Dis­ap­peared by Jonas Jonas­son–By far the fun­ni­est book I ever read, Jonas­son's wit­ty po­lit­i­cal satire–which al­so dou­bles as a hi­lar­i­ous ad­ven­ture sto­ry–stars Alan Karis­son, who es­capes from an old peo­ple's home on his 100th birth­day. Laughed out loud for the en­tire book. The writ­ing is bril­liant.

2. En­durance: Shack­le­ton's In­cred­i­ble Voy­age by Al­fred Lans­ing–This book is pure ten­sion from the first line of the book when Shack­le­ton's crew must aban­don their ship caught in the Antarc­tic ice. The ten­sion nev­er lets up. Each stage of the jour­ney back to civil­i­sa­tion is more amaz­ing than the next. Shack­le­ton's lead­er­ship skills are awe­some.

1. The Boys in the Boat: Nine Amer­i­cans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympic by Daniel James Brown–There is no book that I have ever read that cel­e­brates, trust, per­se­ver­ance, sac­ri­fice, hu­mil­i­ty and com­pe­ti­tion bet­ter than this book. When Brown de­cid­ed to write the sto­ry of Joe Rantz, the dy­ing man told him, on­ly if he tells the sto­ry of the boat. This nov­el is in­cred­i­bly well writ­ten. There is much to learn and much to cel­e­brate in The Boys in the Boat.

It was an un­be­liev­able year for great books to read. Here's hop­ing next year will be even bet­ter.