100 Notable Books of 2014
I try to avoid listicles however this one involves good books…
THE LAUGHING MONSTERS. By Denis Johnson. (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, $25.) Johnson’s cheerfully nihilistic novel about two scammers and rogue spies in Africa derives much of its situation from several of his early journalistic pieces.
LENA FINKLE’S MAGIC BARREL. Written and illustrated by Anya Ulinich. (Penguin, paper, $17.) Ulinich’s graphic novel traces the marital and romantic adventures of her immigrant heroine.
LET ME BE FRANK WITH YOU: A Frank Bascombe Book. By Richard Ford. (Ecco/HarperCollins, $27.99.) In four linked stories, Ford’s aging Everyman surveys life after Hurricane Sandy batters New Jersey.
LILA. By Marilynne Robinson. (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, $26.) A young woman with a past of hardship and suffering makes a new start in Robinson’s fictional town of Gilead, Iowa.