Book Buzz: Amazon’s Top 25 Books Of 2014 List Includes Celeste Ng And Stephen King

Unsurprisingly,  “Everything I Never Told You,” the debut novel by author Celeste Ng, has been named Amazon’s best book of 2014, selected by editors at the online retailer.

All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr, came in a very close second, followed by In the Kingdom of Ice: The Grand and Terrible Polar Voyage of the USS Jeannette by Hampton Sides. Below is a selection of Amazon’s top 10 books of 2014.

Who would top your list?

Jeff Hobbs came in forth  on the list for his book he Short and Tragic Life of Robert Peace: A Brilliant Young Man Who Left Newark for the Ivy League, and Redeployment by Phil Klay, which was fifth.

Amazon’s editors selected the 100 from its list of monthly favorites and any other noteworthy books. The top ten list includes 2 debut books and 4 works by women.

In making its selection, the editorial team read 480 books, approximately 250,000 pages read collectively for the Top 10, and 17 debut authors in the top 100.

[Photo: Kevin Day Photography via celesteng dot com]

Here’s a look at the Top 10 editors’ picks for the year:

1. Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng

Amazon says: Quiet and beautiful, this novel about an unknowable teenage girl in a mixed-race family in the 1970s Midwest will make you cry.

2. All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr

Amazon says: A beautiful, atmospheric story about two young people, one French, one German, growing up on the eve of World War II.

3. In the Kingdom of Ice: The Grand and Terrible Polar Voyage of the USS Jeannette by Hampton Sides

Amazon says: The ultimate adventure story, but with a touch of romance and intrigue. A historical The Perfect Storm.

4. The Short and Tragic Life of Robert Peace: A Brilliant Young Man Who Left Newark for the Ivy League by Jeff Hobbs

Amazon says: At once extremely personal and culturally wise, this reported memoir will change the way you think about race, class and the meaning of friendship.

5. Redeployment by Phil Klay

Amazon says: Strong, brilliant stories about survival of something almost as dangerous as war itself—its aftermath.

6. Revival by Stephen King: The best kind of King book

Amazon says: A little horror, but mostly pitch-perfect details about youth and faith and family.

7. Savage Harvest: A Tale of Cannibals, Colonialism, and Michael Rockefeller’s Tragic Quest for Primitive Art by Carl Hoffman

Amazon says: The Rockefeller clan might not have wanted to believe it, but author Hoffman is convincing about what led to the scion’s death. It’s not pretty…but it IS fascinating.

8. The Book of Unknown Americans by Cristina Henríquez

Amazon says:  Told in the many voices of the Latin American tenants of one apartment complex in Delaware, this novel illuminates several different kinds of immigrant experience.

9. Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty

Amazon says:  Moriarty dazzles with another novel about “ordinary” Australian families and the secrets they keep.

10. Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel

Amazon says:  Set in the not-so-distant future, this apocalyptic novel is surprisingly hopeful in its depiction of a culture that both mocks and mourns its disappeared past.

11. Updike by Adam Begley

12. The Paying Guests by Sarah Waters

13. Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End by Atul Gawande

14. The Bone Clocks: A Novel by David Mitchell

15. The Laughing Monsters: A Novel by Denis Johnson

16. Euphoria by Lily King

17. The Painter: A novel by Peter Heller

18. What If?: Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions by Randall Munroe

19. We Were Liars by E. Lockhart

20. A Deadly Wandering: A Tale of Tragedy and Redemption in the Age of Attention  by Matt Richtel

21. The Invention of Wings: A Novel by Sue Monk Kidd

22. I’ll Drink to That: A Life in Style, with a Twist by Betty Halbreich

23. Bad Feminist: Essays by Roxane Gay

24. Painted Horses by Malcolm Brooks

25. War of the Whales: A True Story by J. Horwitz