What sold best at Amazon in 2014? Sue Monk Kidd's 'The Invention of Wings'
'Wings' was followed by John Grisham's 'Gray Mountain' and Anthony Doerr's 'All the Light We Cannot See.'
'The Invention of Wings' is by Sue Monk Kidd.
This year, a book narrated by both a well-to-do white South Carolina girl and an African-American slave living in the 19th century was Amazon鈥檚 top-selling new work of the year.
Sue Monk Kidd鈥檚 novel 鈥淭he Invention of Wings鈥� was the online bookselling giant鈥檚 biggest-selling work this year of all books published in 2014 (print and digital sales combined). Here at the Monitor, we touted the novel as one of the best books of January, 2014. Monitor critic Elizabeth Brown said that that Kidd's vision for the book "succeeded brilliantly.鈥�
The second-top-selling book was John Grisham鈥檚 鈥淕ray Mountain.鈥� Monitor critic Erik Spanberg wrote of this one, 鈥淕risham sets his players in motion, chapters breeze by, and, before you know it, a weekend has disappeared. With 鈥楪ray Mountain,鈥� John Grisham makes a powerful closing argument against Big Coal, but the message never obscures a satisfying, old fashioned, good guy-bad guy legal thriller.鈥澛�
Amazon鈥檚 third-top-selling book was yet another critical favorite, Anthony Doerr鈥檚 novel 鈥淎ll the Light We Cannot See.鈥� The Monitor named it as one of the 10 best fiction works of 2014, with Monitor fiction critic Yvonne Zipp writing of the plot, which involves a lost jewel, 鈥淸Protagonists] Marie-Laure, Werner, and their companions are so compelling, readers don鈥檛 need a shiny trinket to keep turning pages鈥�. [this] may be [Doerr's] best work to date.鈥澛�
Lee Child鈥檚 鈥淭wenty Seconds Ago,鈥� the 19th book in the Jack Reacher series, came in fourth on the list, while Liane Moriarty鈥檚 鈥淏ig Little Lies鈥� came in fifth. David Baldacci鈥檚 鈥淭he Target鈥� came in sixth, while the romance trilogy 鈥淭he Fixed Series鈥� by Laurelin Paige was seventh. Rick Riordan was the highest-selling children鈥檚 author with his book 鈥淭he Blood of Olympus,鈥� the fifth in his Heroes of Olympus series. The books 鈥淭op Secret Twenty-One鈥� by Janet Evanovich, the next in the Stephanie Plum series, and 鈥淜illing Patton鈥� by Bill O鈥橰eilly and Martin Dugard rounded out the list at ninth and tenth, respectively.
Check out the full list .