Lemuria Book of The Year 2014 Long-list Part 1

A few weeks ago, I introduced the very first Lemuria Book of the Year Award to you. Over the past few weeks our staff has put together a list of what we think were the best books released during 2014. If you’re looking to fill your backlog with the best of the best fiction, non-fiction and young literature, here is the place to start.

Fiction:

25 books were submitted for contention in the fiction category! The standouts are: The Story of Land and Sea by Katy Simpson Smith, Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel, All The Light We Cannot Sea by Anthony Doerr, Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage by Murakami Haruki, and The Orenda by Joseph Boyden. Here is the complete list:

The Orenda by Joseph Boyden

The Martian by Andy Weir

In The Light of What We Know by Zia Haider Rahman

The Strange Library by Haruki Murakami

The Story of Land and Sea Katy Simpson Smith

Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel

Seconds by Bryan Lee O’Malley

This One Summer by Jillian Tamaki

Lila by Marilyn Robinson

All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr

Colorless Tsukuru and His Years of Pilgrimage by Haruki Murakami

One Kick by Cheksea Cain

The Book of Unknown Americans by Cristina Henriquez

Paper Lanterns by Stuart Dybek

Thirty Girls by Susan Minot

Wolf In White Van by John Darnielle

Something Rich and Strange by Ron Rash

Red Rising by Pierce Brown

The Future for Curious People by Greg Sherl

Fourth of July Creek by Smith Henderson

The Parallel Apartments by Bill Cotter

End of Days by Jenny Erpenbeck

The Painter by Peter Heller

Consumed by David Crorenberg

The Weirdness by Jeremy Bushnell

Non-Fiction:

22 books were submitted for contention in the non-fiction category. The standouts include Empire of Sin by Gary Krist, The Opposite of Loneliness by Marina Keegan, Can’t We Talk About Something More Pleasant by Roz Chast, and What If? by Randall Munroe.

A Few Seconds of Radiant Filmstrip by Kevin Brockmeier

What We See When We Read by Pete Mendelsund

Can’t We Talk About Something More Pleasant by Roz Chast

Notes To Boys by Pamela Ribbon

Smoke Gets In Your Eyes by Caitlin Doughty

Ed King’s Mississippi by Ed King

The Queer South by Douglas Ray

Strange Glory by Charles Marsh

The Opposite of Loneliness by Marina Keegan

The Romanov Sisters by Helen Rappaport

The Terrible and Wonderful Reasons Why I Run Long Distance by The Oatmeal

In The Kingdom of Ice by Hampton Sides