2014 in Literature

This was perhaps the year of nonfiction. That being said, a fair amount of good fiction did get published as well. John Green got more popular. Amazon and Hachette fought over E-book pricing that made many prominent people in the literary community take Hachette's side. English translations of the new Murakami finally made it to bookstores. J.K. Rowling wrote Harry Potter stuff for us — at length, it was a pretty fun year, literarily.  
Patrick Modiano won the Nobel Prize for Literature. Australian writer Richard Flanagan clinched the Man Booker Prize for his sixth novel, The Narrow Road to the Deep North. The Pulitzer Prize was given to Donna Tartt's mystery novel, The Goldfinch.
Now getting back to what I said about nonfiction, it is getting a lot of traction lately. There has been an outpouring of memoirs, autobiographical novels and the so-called “nonfiction novel” -- perhaps more so than one probably would want to read. Still, it's nice to see the genre getting a much deserved limelight.  
Essay collections from this year that I recommend: The Empathy Exams by Leslie Jamison and Bad Feminist by Roxane Gay.
Memoirs: if you have to read only one from 2014, then Gary Steyngart's Little Failure is the one for you. A deeply felt yet uproariously funny account of the author's life, it's a treat for literary
fanatics.
But if you're the type that wants to get into the nonfiction hype, yet still can't discard fiction completely, then Teju Cole's Every Day is for the Thief will be a good choice. Cole's novella is the product of his experiences in Nigeria. A photographer as well, he has juxtaposed the text in his book with beautiful pictures, creating a realistic and evocative portrayal of corruption in Nigeria. #MustRead.
In the YA universe, this new book called Girl Online by internet celeb Zoe Sugg broke first week record sales by any new author.
This brings me to say that this was also a year of fantastic debuts. A Girl is a Half Formed Thing is one of those debut books that although being conventional in style and content is totally worth your time.
The Wallcreeper by Nell Zink is another debut book you should read.
Redeployment by Phil Klay, a collection of short stories on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, is another debut that has been getting a lot of praise this year. Even Barrack Obama is reading it.
Other short story collections from 2014 that you should read: Tenth of December by George Saunders and Can't and Won't by Lydia Davis.
One book that really shook me this year was Boy, Snow, Bird by Helen Oyeyemi. The British novelist's fifth novel is an imaginative tale of aesthetic obsessions. It was strikingly original.  
Let's not forget the luminaries we lost in 2014.  Writers like Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Nadine Gordimer, Maya Angelou and Alistair MacLeod, among others, will be missed.
And what about upcoming titles? 2015 will see Kazuo Ishiguro (Author of Never let Me Go) publish his first novel in a decade, titled A Buried Giant. Jonathan Franzen is getting one out too. He'll be calling his book Purity. Who names their book “Purity”?