Booklist's Top 10 First Novels

Booklist magazine focused on "best first novels" in their October issue and then created a list of what they believe to be the ten best first novels that they reviewed between October 15, 2013 and October 1, 2014. Check them out below!

Bedrock Faith by Eric Charles

Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng

The Land of Steady Habits by Ted Thompson

The Last Days of California by Mary Miller

A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman

Marshlands by Matthew Olshan

Steal the North by Heather Brittain Bergstrom

Three Bargains by Tania Malik

The Transcriptionist by Amy Rowland

Your Face in Mine by Jess Row

Bedrock Faith by Eric Charles (Urban Fiction):
Returning home to live with his mother after fourteen years in prison, Gerald Reeves upsets the neighborhood who remember him as a frightening delinquent. (Publisher Summary)

Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng (Suspense/Mystery Fiction):
A story of the divisions between cultures and the rifts within a family explores the fallout of the drowning death of Lydia Lee, the favorite daughter of a Chinese-American family in 1970s Ohio. (Publisher Summary)

The Land of Steady Habits by Ted Thompson (Domestic Fiction):
Freshly retired, with his sons fully grown and graduated, Anders Hill leaves his wife of more than 40 years, buys a condo and seeks freedom, but discovers that the world he left behind may be what he was seeking all along. (Publisher Summary)

The Last Days of California by Mary Miller (Road Fiction):
Fourteen-year-old Jess' beliefs falter when her evangelical father packs up the family, including her secretly pregnant older sister and her long-suffering mother, to travel across the country and save souls ahead of the anticipated end of the world. (Publisher Summary)

A Man Called Ove by Frederik Backman (Fiction):
A curmudgeon hides a terrible personal loss beneath a cranky and short-tempered exterior while clashing with new neighbors, a boisterous family whose chattiness and habits lead to unexpected friendship. (Publisher Summary)

Marshlands by Matthew Olshan (Medical/Suspense Fiction): 
Written in reverse, describes the story of an aging prisoner who is released only to be rescued from an assault by a curator, who works at a museum exhibiting “the marshes,” a conflict-torn wilderness where the former prisoner committed his crime. (Publisher Summary)

Steal the North by Heather Brittain Bergstrom (Christian Fiction):
Sent by her fundamentalist mother to help an estranged sister participate in a faith healing ceremony, sheltered 16-year-old Emmy feels instant ties to her sister's eastern Washington home and falls in love with a Native American boy against the apprehensions of her family.
(Publisher Summary)

Three Bargains by Tania Malik (Fiction):
After his drunk, abusive father commits a horrible crime, a twelve-year-old boy in a factory town in India has his life altered forever when his quick mind and focused determination catches the attention of his father's wealthy employer. (Publisher Summary)

The Transcriptionist by Amy Rowland (Psychological Fiction): 
A transcriptionist for a Manhattan newspaper searches for the truth when she learns that a woman she met on the bus a few days prior supposedly committed suicide by jumping into a lion's den at the zoo. (Publisher Summary)

Your Face in Mine by Jess Row (Psychological Fiction):
Shocked by a childhood friend's decision to dramatically change his appearance after immersing himself for twenty years in black culture, widower Kelly Thorndike confronts morally ambiguous choices about race, identity, and belonging. (Publisher Summary)

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