So by now you have probably endured as many best-books-of-2014 lists as you can handle. Or maybe not — these lists are hard to resist, even as they make us a little nuts. When our favorite titles are included, we're happy; when they aren't, we're frustrated. But nobody has read everything. Nobody's list can be definitive.

There are a lot of other, maybe better, ways to talk about the year in books. This year, for instance, saw three important trends:

In many ways, 2014 was the year of the debut. Eimear McBride's "A Girl Is a Half-Formed Thing" swept up a half-dozen major awards; Smith Henderson's "Fourth of July Creek" and Leslie Jamison's "The Empathy Exams" ended up on many best-of-the-year lists (including mine), and the National Book Award winners in fiction (Phil Klay's "Redeployment") and nonfiction (Evan Osnos' "Age of Ambition") were both first books.

And then there is the resurgence of the short story. This year saw collections by Lorrie Moore, Jean Thompson, Hilary Mantel, Margaret Atwood, Alice Munro, David Guterson, Lydia Davis and Elizabeth McCracken. Several debut collections — Kyle Minor's "Praying Drunk" and Kseniya Melnik's lovely "Snow in May" — ended up on those best-of-you-know-what lists.

And, finally, small presses continue not just to shine, but lead the way. Graywolf Press won a Pulitzer Prize for Vijay Seshadri's "3 Sections" and had two books shortlisted for a National Book Award. Coffee House Press published the much honored (and highly experimental) "A Girl Is a Half-Formed Thing." "Thrown" and "Praying Drunk," two of the most talked-about books of the past few months, were published by little Sarabande Press in Louisville, Ky.

Let's take a quick glance at what 2015 will bring. Watch for some of your favorite writers: Kazuo Ishiguro, Jonathan Franzen, Stewart O'Nan, Per Petterson, David Treuer. Anne Tyler's last novel (or so she says, let's hope she changes her mind) comes out in February, and Kate Atkinson has a sequel to her fabulous "Life After Life."

Charles Baxter has a new story collection coming. Rachel Joyce has written a companion novel to "The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry." Many of my critics have asked to review "Girl on a Train," the debut thriller that is being compared to "Gone Girl."

And for the third year in a row, the Star Tribune will publish a novel serially over the summer. We put out the call, sifted through more than 100 submissions and chose a historical novel set on the Iron Range during the miners' strike of 1916. It's by Megan Marsnik, a St. Paul writer, and it's fabulous. You'll see.

Oh — and it's her debut. We are nothing if not trendy.

Happy New Year!

Laurie Hertzel is the Star Tribune senior editor for books. On Twitter @StribBooks