Sadly, I spent so much time reading theology books for The Albatross that my “fun” reading this year was severely reduced.  I thus had to think hard, when deciding for this post which books I most enjoyed in 2014. The purpose, of course, is not to parade my reading, but to get readers to give their favorites in the comments so that we can all have things to add to our reading list. I’ll divide my favorites by category, but be aware that I’ve largely ignored most of the books that came out this year; these are simply my favorites among all the books I’ve read this year:

Favorite popular nonfiction:  The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics, by Daniel James Brown.  Normally I wouldn’t have considered reading this book, for after all it’s about college rowing, something that never interested me. But when I visited my editor at Viking/Penguin in October, she handed me a copy (she edited the book) and told me to read it. If you know Wendy Wolf, you know a). not to take her literary advice lightly, and b). that you should do what she tells you. I’m very glad I did, for the book is a fantastic yarn about the University of Washington rowing team in the 30s, and how, against all odds, they won the 8-man race in the infamous “Hitler Olympics.” The story is woven around Joe Rantz, one of author Brown’s neighbors, from whom Brown coaxed (or coxed) the tale. Overcoming disease, poverty, and a dysfunctional family, Rantz showed amazing persistence that eventually brought him Olympic gold. But it’s much more than a personal story, for you learn how sculls are built, how rowers train, and you meet a bunch of colorful characters whose lives intersected at the final moment of victory. Read it; you won’t regret it. It’s a page-turner, the writing is absolutely superb, and the last page brought me to tears.

I’m not alone in this judgement: here are the Amazon rankings (it’s still #24 among all books although it was published last May):

Favorite “academic” nonfiction: I waded through a lot of ethics and theology this year, but one philosophy book stood out for its ability to provoke thought: Judith Jarvis Thomson’s Rights, Restitutions, and Risk: Essays in Moral Theory (1986). Originally drawn to this book because of its discussion of the “trolley problem,” which Thomson popularized and which involves a Gedankenexperiment of the most profound sort, I was also absorbed by her essay defending abortion. Thomson is a master at inspiring thought by using concrete examples like the runaway trolley (her abortion examples are extremely clever), and it was largely because of this book that I realized that I was an ethical consequentialist. Regardless of how you feel about abortion, you’ll benefit from reading her chapter on that topic.

Favorite fiction:  My fiction reading was especially light this year, perhaps because as I get older I find myself more interested in books that are true. But one novel stood out—a book that I read after I saw its movie adaptation. The movie, “Never Let Me Go,” about a dystopian future in which some children are raised to provide organs for ailing adults (and thus the children die after several “donations’), got mixed—though largely positive—reviews. But it moved me immensely, still haunts me, and I’ve seen it three times. Because of that, I read the book on which it was based: Kazuo Ishigiro’s eponymous novel published in 2005. It was even better than the movie. People are divided on Ishiguro and the movies made from his books, but I loved the only other work I read of his: The Remains of the Day, which was also made into a splendid movie that starred Emma Thompson and Anthony Hopkins.

Best science book.  I didn’t find one that excited me this year.

Biggest disappointment. Thinking, Fast and Slow, by Daniel Kahneman, was praised so widely, and sold so well, that I felt that I had to read it. And when I did so, I felt let down. While the book contained a lot of interesting information about how humans make judgements, how our brain works when so doing, and how we are subject to various delusions and logical inconsistencies, Kahneman’s prose was leaden, like that in an academic textbook. Reading it was like walking through quicksand. I found my attention straying as I waded through this ponderous tome, and experienced a strong sense of relief when I finished the last page. A good book should be a pleasure, not a duty. I suspect the book was a best seller because business people thought it would help them in their work (have you ever seen what’s on offer in an airport bookstore?). To me, this book seemed like the businessman’s equivalent of A Brief History of Time: a famous but largely unread book. I’m not alone in my assessment, either: a survey of which 2014 bestsellers remained unread, based on passages highlighted by Kindle readers, showed Kahneman’s book near the bottom.

Worst books: I waded through many books on religion and theology over the past two years, but the worst one I read in 2014 (besides everything written by Alvin Plantinga) was Reza Aslan’s No god but God: The Origins, Evolution, and Future of Islam. It’s a whitewash of Islam, with every bug of the faith transformed by Aslan into a feature. It’s also tendentious and, I think, intellectually dishonest. It was, of course, a bestseller, but many of these “make-nice-with-religion” books turn out that way. I’m sure that if I’d read Karen Armstrong’s new book, Fields of Blood: Religion and the History of Violence, it would have been right down there with Aslan’s tome as a masterpiece of one-sided argument.

In the “worst science book” category, I’d put Nicholas Wade’s A Troublesome Inheritance: Genes, Race and Human History. Although Wade’s exposition on why races are “real” in a genetic sense was okay, the bulk of the book—an argument that the differences between modern human cultures rest largely on genetic differences instilled by natural selection—was tendentious and largely unsupported. It was an exercise in invidious speculation.

Your turn. You know what to do: list your own faves and disappointments in the comments. Remember, what you say will help others decide what to read at a time when there are so many books available that we must choose wisely.