Successful winter hibernation begins with a stack of good books. Luckily, the New York Times recently released their 100 Notable Books of 2014 list, just in time for gift-giving, gift-receiving and hibernation fodder. We picked 10 of the featured fiction and nonfiction books that are currently on our nightstands/Kindles, just waiting to be cracked open. Pick up one (or several) and read along with us, won’t you? No spoilers though.
1. The Bone Clocksby David Mitchell ($18): Cloud Atlas fans, listen up. The author of the mind-blowing book has just released another trippy book that you’re going to want to get your nose in stat. You’ll be transported to English pub life which all seems fine and dandy until the undead start to creep into your reality.
2.Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage by Haruki Murakami ($16): It’s Murakami — does anything else need to be said? The premise of this book is a traumatic coming of age story, where shadowy pasts come to haunt one man’s transition into adulthood.
3.Family Life by Akhil Sharma ($15): Travel with Anjay Mishra and his family from New Dehli to New York, and experience all the cultural curiosities and hardships that come along with it. Add in tragedy to the situation and what you have is an unnerving, yet moving story.
4. Redeployment by Phil Klay ($16): Written by a former Marine who served in Iraq, these 12 stories capture the array of real emotions, heartache and ethical dilemmas from 12 different points of view.
5. A Replacement Life by Boris Fishman ($17): In Fishman’s darkly funny and beautiful first novel, a Soviet-born New Yorker begins forging applications for Holocaust reparations.
NONFICTION
6. 100 Essays I Don’t Have Time to Write by Sarah Ruhl. ($17): The well-respected playwright delivers an entertaining backstage pass to theater life, motherhood and personhood.
7.Cubed: A Secret History of the Workplace by Nikil Saval ($17): Ever wonder who thought of the cubicle? The open-air office? This interesting tome follows the history of office design and technology from the era of the Civil War through today and explores how the way we work may continue to evolve in the future.
8. Forcing the Spring: Inside the Fight for Marriage Equality by Jo Becker ($19): A Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter shares the story of the 2013 Supreme Court case that led to the overturn of California’s ban on same-sex marriage.
9.Geek Sublime: The Beauty of Code, the Code of Beauty by Vikram Chandra ($16): Written by a novelist and programmer, Chandra explores the relationships between technology and art.
10. Factory Man by Beth Macy ($28): We love a good underdog. Critics have praised Macy’s storytelling ability when it comes to this multi-generational furniture company fighting the good fight — it’s so entertaining you’ll only realize you’ve learned something at the end.
What books are on your 2015 reading list? Let us know below in the comments or @BritandCo on Twitter.
