Fifteen writers have been working as contributors for the “Bookends” column at The New York Times. All of them have revealed the titles that gave them “their favorite reading experience of 2014.” Below, we’ve collected free samples of most of the books on the list for your reading pleasure.
Rivka Galchen: The Interrogative Mood by Padgett Powell
Mohsin Hamid: Confessions of Zeno by Italo Svevo
Zoë Heller: Serious Men by Manu Joseph
Anna Holmes: Heartburn by Nora Ephron
Leslie Jamison: Loitering by Charles D’Ambrosio
Adam Kirsch: Accepting the Disaster: Poems by Joshua Mehigan
Thomas Mallon: Bringing the House Down: A Family Memoir by David Profumo
Ayana Mathis: The Collected Stories of Isaac Babel edited by Nathalie Babel
Daniel Mendelsohn: The Slaves of Solitude by Patrick Hamilton
Pankaj Mishra: The Ego And Its Own by Max Stirner
Benjamin Moser: Hawthorne: A Life by Brenda Wineapple
James Parker: A Voyage in Vain: Coleridge’s Journey to Malta in 1804 by Alethea Hayter
Francine Prose: The Cost of Living: Early and Uncollected Stories by Mavis Gallant
Dana Stevens: Moby-Dick by Herman Melville
Cheryl Strayed: The Unspeakable: And Other Subjects of Discussion by Meghan Daum