Books

2014's Most Overlooked Books (So Far)

2014's Most Overlooked Books (So Far)
Kirkus Reviews
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Originally posted on Kirkus:

Many books don’t receive the media attention or readership they deserve; we could’ve made this list of the year’s most unfairly neglected books at least twice as long. When a book becomes a hit, everyone wants to read it. That’s great news if you’re one of those lucky writers. But if you’d like to discover an excellent writer you may not have heard much about, check out this week’s list.

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2014's Most Overlooked Books
'A GARDEN OF MARVELS: THE DISCOVERY THAT FLOWERS HAVE SEX, LEAVES EAT AIR, AND OTHER SECRETS OF PLANTS' by Ruth Kassinger(01 of10)
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"A delightful book, fun to read and share—green thumb not required."From award-winning history and science writer Kassinger (Paradise Under Glass: An Amateur Creates a Conservatory Garden, 2010, etc.), an informal, entertaining account of how early researchers discovered how plants work and what scientists are still learning about plants today.Read full book review >
'THE THOUGHTS AND HAPPENINGS OF WILFRED PRICE PURVEYOR OF SUPERIOR FUNERALS' by Wendy Jones(02 of10)
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"From the vagaries of desire, through parental love and its absence, to small-town morality, the British author has put together a thematically rich book in a perfectly rendered time and place."A comedy of errors in rural Wales evolves into a dark tale of family secrets in this very accomplished debut.Read full book review >
'THE TRUE TALE OF THE MONSTER BILLY DEAN' by David Almond(03 of10)
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"Dark, unsettling and fluid as water, Almond's suspenseful tour de force considers the cycle of life, themes of war, God and godlessness, and, as ever, "How all things flow into each other." (Fiction. 14 & up)"Billy Dean is the forbidden child of a priest and a hairdresser, born in the English village of Blinkbonny on a day of terrible destruction and locked away for all his 13 years.Read full book review >
'FIELD NOTES FROM A HIDDEN CITY: AN URBAN NATURE DIARY' by Esther Woolfson(04 of10)
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"Woolfson is an elegant, precise writer, and this transcendent memoir conveys exquisitely the vibrant world she inhabits."Chilly Aberdeen, Scotland, may seem an unlikely place to investigate the natural world, but Woolfson (Corvus: A Life with Birds, 2009) offers a vivid portrait of birds, animals, insects and plants—and her place among them—in the city where she has lived for decades.Read full book review >
'THE MAN WHO WALKED AWAY' by Maud Casey(05 of10)
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"Lyrical in its style and fascinating in its psychology, Casey's narrative provokes a host of intriguing questions beyond those the Doctor raises, and Casey is wise enough as an author not to provide easy answers."Casey (Genealogy, 2006, etc.) fictionalizes a story based on the real-life figure of Albert Dadas, a man from the late 19th century whose strange pathology dictated to him that he walk continually, though he temporarily ends up in an asylum—and eventually walks away from that as well.Read full book review >
'BEYOND ADDICTION: HOW SCIENCE AND KINDNESS HELP PEOPLE CHANGE' by Jeffrey Foote, Carrie Wilkens, Nicole Kosanke, Stephanie Higgs(06 of10)
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"Essential outreach on embracing and effectively managing a loved one's addiction."A sensible, family-focused guide to substance abuse.Read full book review >
'THE PAT BOONE FAN CLUB: MY LIFE AS A WHITE ANGLO-SAXON JEW' by Sue William Silverman(07 of10)
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"A masterly stylist continues her uncompromising examination of the inner life."A series of riveting essays about growing up Jewish in a Gentile world by the accomplished memoirist Silverman.Read full book review >
'EVERYTHING IS WONDERFUL: MEMORIES OF A COLLECTIVE FARM IN ESTONIA' by Sigrid Rausing(08 of10)
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"A mellifluous portrait of a country slowly and painfully pulling itself into the European world."Swedish-born philanthropist and Granta publisher Rausing offers an intimate look at the devastations of communism in Estonia.Read full book review >
'THE VIGILANTE POETS OF SELWYN ACADEMY' by Kate Hattemer(09 of10)
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"A sparkling, timely tour of the complicated intersection where life meets art. (Fiction. 12 & up)"Blending Ezra Pound, rhetoric and reality TV, this hilarious, subversive debut about a cadre of friends at an arts high school is a treat from cover to cover.Read full book review >
'OFF COURSE' by Michelle Huneven(10 of10)
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"Sensitive, reflective and uncomfortably true to life, with a wonderfully rich cast of supporting characters."An extended, excruciating romance with a married man derails a California graduate student in Huneven's latest (Blame, 2009, etc.).Read full book review >

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