Best books of 2014

My best books of 2014

I had an amazing year when I look at the books I read. In total I read 148 books, but I must confess 13 of those were Agatha Christies and I can read those in an hour or so.

I read 15 books about Russia or by Russian authors, 16 books about Italy or by Italian authors. I read 33 non-fiction books and 21 of those were historical non-fiction, no surprise there!


And now for the good part, what were my best books of 2014?



First my top three in fiction:

• Twice born by Margaret Mazzantini here A beautiful love story of two people who really want a child, against the horrible events of the civil war in Bosnia
• The Mussolini canal by Antonio Pennacchi here An epic novel about an Italian family.
• The rise and fall of great powers by Tom Rachman here The beautifully written story of Tolly and the different important events in her life.

Other categories:
Non fiction: The best on fiction book was a book by a Dutch journalist about Anton Chekhov, and I love this book so much because it gave me Chekhov in my life. Without this book I would not have picked up his stories and I would not have fallen in love a little bit with Anton Chekhov.
But since there is no English translation of this book, I will give you my second best non-fiction book of 2014 and for me this was:

• The Bloomsbury cookbook by Jans Ondaatje Rolls, here. Part cookbook, artbook, biography and social history, this book has it all.

Best thriller:

• The root of all evil by Roberto Costantini here The second part in the trilogy about Inspector Michele Balistreri and his troubled past.

Best Fantasy (okay, I admit, this was the only fantasy I read this year, but still!)

• The fool's assassin by Robin Hobb here A new part in the series of Fitz and the Fool and I loved it.

Best cookbook

• Simply Italian by the Chiappa sisters, here

I hope 2015 will be an equally good reading year!