My Favorite Books of 2014

It's that time of year again: my redoubtable best reads of the year. I didn't quite make my goal of 50 novels, but I also read a lot of research books for my own writing, so managing to read half of my goal is an accomplishment. I had many great reads, too, so deciding on 8 titles to highlight was tough. In the end, it came down to the books that stayed with me, whose stories and language lingered.

Without further ado, here they are, not listed in order of preference. Please also note that some of these titles were not published this year.

1. Russian Winter A masterful tale of loss and redemption, set in Stalinist Russia and interweaving two connected stories. Highly recommended for lovers of historical fiction and for those of us who are entranced by the rigors and ethereal beauty of ballet.

2. The Way I Found Her This wonderful, poignant coming-of-age story about a young English boy captivated by a romance novelist in Paris is both an ode to the nascent passions of an adolescent heart and the shifting sands of memory.

3.Plague Restoration England, often portrayed as a licentious romp, gets a decidedly darker, thrilling interpretation in this vivid story about a highwayman's quest for revenge. The author is at the top of his game here.

4.Hotel de Dream This deceptively slim novel re-imagines the last days of literary phenomenon Stephen Crane, who is wasting away from tuberculosis as he dictates his final work - an elegiac tale of a boy prostitute in 1890s New York and the married banker obsessed with him. A masterpiece by one of our finest living writers.

5. Sashenka A sweeping epic whose flaws are redeemed by its encompassing view of the blood-soaked Russian Revolution and terrors under Stalin, featuring a wealthy Jewish girl who forsakes her heritage only to discover that the egalitarian freedom she has fought for will exact a tragic price.

6. The Last Nude Razor-sharp and unsentimental, this gorgeous novel depicts 1920s Paris and the tumultuous love affair between Art Deco painter, Tamara Lempicka, and her American-born teenage muse. The prose is sexy, haunting, and unforgettable.

7.Mrs. Poe A sensitive, tragic, and often eerie depiction of a pivotal time in Edgar Allan Poe's life, when he found unwelcome fame with the publication of "The Raven." Told through the voice of the poet Frances Osgood, the gilded hypocrisies of New York are as much a character as its inhabitants, while the titular Mrs Poe offers a chilling portrayal of desperation.

8.The Mask Carver's Son With consummate elegance and deep understanding of artistic sacrifice, this novel depicts Japan and Paris in the late 1800s through the eyes of the titular son of a gifted, tormented mask carver, who finds himself trapped between his seemingly impossible dreams and the rigid traditions of the past.