The ALA Notable Books - Fiction: 2014 are as follows:
Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
A young woman from Nigeria leaves behind her home and her first love to start a new life in America, only to find her dreams are not all she expected.
Life after Life by Kate Atkinson
Ursula Todd is born on a cold snowy night in 1910 -- twice. As she grows up during the first half of the twentieth century in Britain Ursula dies and is brought back to life again and again. With a seemingly infinite number of lives it appears as though Ursula has the ability to alter the history of the world, should she so choose.
Claire of the Sea Light by Edwidge Danticat
The interconnected secrets of a coastal Haitian town are revealed when one little girl, the daughter of a fisherman, goes missing.
Too Bright to Hear Too Loud to See by Juliann Garey
In a look at mental illness that weaves together three timelines, Greyson Todd leaves his successful Hollywood career and wife and young daughter to travel the world, giving free reign to the bipolar disorder he has been forced to keep hidden for almost twenty years.
Enon by Paul Harding
A devastating portrait of a father desperately trying to come to terms with the loss of his beloved thirteen-year-old daughter, killed in an accident.
The Unchangeable Spots of Leopards by Kristopher Jansma
Haunted by the successes of a long-time rival and unable to let go of his love for a woman who got away, an aspiring writer, determined to discover and tell the truth about the trio's falling out, struggles to untangle a complicated web of lies.
The Dinner by Herman Koch
Meeting at an Amsterdam restaurant for dinner, two couples move from small talk to the wrenching shared challenge of their teenage sons' act of violence that has triggered a police investigation and revealed the extent to which each family will go to protect those they love.
A Constellation of Vital Phenomena by Anthony Marra
This debut novel by Pushcart Prize-winning author Anthony Marra is set in rural Chechnya during the region's war with Russia. Though events shift in time, the main focus is a five-day period in 2004, when an eight-year-old girl witnesses her father's abduction by Russian soldiers. Swearing to protect the girl, local doctor Akhmed (whose true passion is portraiture), brings her to a crumbling hospital, run by a hardened but dedicated surgeon, for safety.
The Woman Upstairs by Claire Messud
Relegated to the status of schoolteacher and friendly neighbor after abandoning her dreams of becoming an artist, Nora advocates on behalf of a charismatic Lebanese student and is drawn into the child's family until his artist mother's careless ambition leads to a shattering betrayal.
A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth L. Ozeki
Nao Yasutani is a Japanese schoolgirl who plans to kill herself as a way of escaping her dreary life. First, though, she intends to write in her diary the life story of her great-grandmother Jiko, a Zen Buddhist nun. But Nao actually ends up writing her own life story, and the diary eventually washes up on the shore of Canada's Vancouver Island, where a novelist called Ruth lives. Ruth finds the diary in a freezer bag with some old letters in French and a vintage watch and begins to investigate how the bag traveled from Japan to her island, and why it contains what it does.
The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt
Taken in by a wealthy family friend after surviving an accident that killed his mother, thirteen-year-old Theo Decker tries to adjust to life on Park Avenue.
How many on this list do you need to catch up on?
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