Happy New Year! One focus for 2015 is getting back to blogging, so even though this post may have been better timed as a year-end post, it's my first post of the new year. I read A LOT of books last year -- 96 total, probably an all-time high I'm not likely to come close to again -- and the best of those were really, really great. Here's Part 1 of my Top 10 books I read in 2014, in order (click on the title for my full Goodreads review):

Wool by Hugh Howey
The best book I read in 2014 was published in 2012, but it was so exceptional in pretty much every way. (I wish I could say the same for the second and third books in the series, but I can’t, and I won't.) So I’ll heap lots of deserved praise on this one, which has got it all: memorable and sympathetic characters, a unique setting, and a plot that unfolds masterfully.
Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel
Give in to the hype. You can almost feel yourself in this beautiful, futuristic setting, with these other survivors all around you, getting to know your tribe by hearing their stories. Post-apocalyptic without being even a little bit sci-fi.
Men Explain Things to Me by Rebecca Solnit
This is the only non-fiction, non-memoir in my top 10 this year, either because the fiction was just so stellar or because I have become an unabashed fiction lover, but this is the only book I read in 2014 that I recommend to everyone, everywhere. Yes. EVERYONE SHOULD READ THIS BOOK. And then read it again. And everyone should then talk about it, and decide what to do next. It’s that kind of book.
All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr
This has shown up on several top 10 lists I’ve seen this year, and I knew from the first few pages it would be on mine. This novel just glows, so brightly that not even 500 printed pages can obscure the glow. It made me warm from the inside out, and seemed to do so effortlessly. It was fun reading a recent interview with Mr. Doerr, in which he talked about how all those little details that came across so effortlessly had often perplexed him when he was sorting out how to put it all together.
Fourth of July Creek by Smith Henderson
The liquid prose and flawless plot momentum serve as perfect foils to the complete stagnation we experience alongside our resident social worker hero, Pete Snow. This is one of a couple books this year in which the story unfolded with the requisite tension of a good mystery. Hooked me.

The rest of my top 10, plus honorable mentions, are coming soon (tomorrow?) to a blog near you (this one).