Books I read this year: 2013
Did you know that this year marks 10 years of me blogging about the books that I’ve read? It’s true. I started in December of 2003. Â You can find all my book posts under the 100 books category off to the left.
This year I read 120 books. I know the last post said 121, but I realized that I miscounted. So it’s actually 120. That only includes books that I read myself, not books that I read aloud to the girls. I should do another post on those, but I don’t keep track of them as stringently. I should start. Anyway, here are the books I read this year, with my top 10 in bold. Â I decided my top 10 by looking over the list and bolding anything that the thought of made me sigh happily or think, “oh yes.” And there just happened to be ten of those. Re-reads have an (r) next to them.
If you want to read my reviews of any of them, you can enter the title into the search box on the left and it should bring up the post. And if you order any of them through the links I’ve provided to Amazon, I get a little kick-back, so that’s always nice of you. 🙂
Howl’s Moving Castle- Dianna Wynne Jones (r)
House of Many Ways- Dianne Wynne Jones
This I know: Notes on Unraveling the Heart- Susannah Conway
Zeb and the Great Ruckus- Josh Donellan
Stranger things Happen- Kelly Link
Magic For Beginners- Kelly Link
We the Animals- Justin Torres
How to Be an Explorer of the World- Keri Smith
Peter Nimble and His Fantastic Eyes- Jonathan Auxier
The Woodcutter- Kate Delany
Mercury- Hope Larson
This Is How You Lose Her- Junot Diaz
Speaking From Among the Bones- Alan Bradley
The Best American Travel Writing 2012
The Map of Time- Felix J. Palma
The Best American Essays 2012
Bebe Day By Day: 100 Keys to French Parenting- Pamela Druckerman
The Book Thief- Markus Zusak
The Best American Short Stories 2012
Etiquette and Espionage- Gail Carriger
Leaping Beauty- Gregory Maguire
The Best American Nonrequired Reading 2012
The Best American Mystery Stories 2012
The Case of The Missing Marquess: An Enola Holmes Mystery – Nancy Springer
The Night Circus- Erin Morgenstern  (r)
Child’s Mind: Mindfullness Practices to Help our Children be more Focused, Calm, and Relaxed- Christopher Willard
The Case of the Left Handed Lady- Nancy Springer
The case of the Bizarre Bouquets- Nancy Springer
French Twist- Catherine Crawford
The Most Beautiful Walk in the World- John Baxter
Goodbye to Berlin- Christopher Isherwood
The Candymakers- Wendy Mass
The Book of Story Beginnings- Kristin Kladstrup
The School for the Insanely Gifted- Dan Elish
The Angel’s Kiss: A Melody Malone Mystery- Justin Richards
Mr. Fox- Helen Oyeyemi
The Thirteenth Tale- Diane Setterfield
Beatrice and Virgil- Yann Martel
Making Space- Thich Nhat Hanh
Lost Lands and Forgotten Realms- Dr. Bob Curran
The Case of the Peculiar Pink Fan- Nancy Springer
Everyday Zen- Charlotte Joko Beck
Minimalist Parenting- Christine Koh, Asha Dornfest
The Transportation Accident- Ned Beauman
House of Havoc- Marni Jameson
The Ghost Writer- John Harwood
Five Little Pigs- Agatha Christie
Dare, Dream, Do- Whitney Johnson
Things Fall Apart- Chinua Achibe
Fool- Christopher Moore
The Chicken Chronicles- Alice Walker
A Life in Stitches- Rachael Herron
Summer Falls- Amelia Williams
Better than Fiction- many
The Thief- Fuminori Nakamura
I, Iago- Nicole Galland
The Case of the Cryptic Crinoline- Nancy Springer
The Case of the Gypsy Goodbye- Nancy Springer
The Dream of Perpetual Motion-Dexter Palmer
Elizabeth Taylor: From the Pages of Vanity Fair
Third Girl- Agatha Christie
We are all Completely Beside Ourselves- Karen Joy Fowler
True Love- Thich Nhat Hanh
The Secret Life of Pronouns- James Pennebaker
Modesty Blaise- Peter O’Donnell  (r)
The Ocean at the End of the Lane- Neil Gaiman
A Field Guide to Now- Christina Rosalie
The Gifts of Imperfection- Brene Brown
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes- Arthur Conan Doyle
This is how you Die- many
Oscar Wilde and the Murders at Reading Gaol- Gyles Bandreth
The Equivoque Principle- Darren Craske
The Eleventh Plague- Darren Craske
The Lazarus Curse- Darren Craske
The Romulous Equation- Darren Craske
A Tale for the Time Being- Ruth Ozeki
Unclean Jobs for Women and Girls- Alissa Nutting
The Bagman- Rachael Rippen
The Graveminder- Melissa Marr
Bride of the Rat God- Barbara Hambly
Lost Japan- Alex Kerr
A Farewell to Arms- Ernest Hemingway
Steal Like an Artist: 10 things Nobody Told You About Being Creative – Austin Kleon
How to be Interesting- Jessica Hagy
Living your Yoga- Judith Lassater
Nevermore- William Hjortsberg
Daily Rituals: How Artists Work-Â Mason Currey
The Reason I Jump- Naoki Higashida
Ajax Penumbra- Robin Sloane
Invisible Cities- Italo Calvino
The Affinity Bridge- George Mann
The Girl Who Soared Over Fairyland and Cut the Moon in Two- Cathrynne Valente
Van Gogh: The Life- Stephen Naifeh
Global Mom- Melissa Dalton-Bradford
Yurei Attack- Yoda and Alt
Yokai Attack- Yoda and Alt
Kwaidan- Lucadio Hearn
The Translator- Nina Schuyler
The Melancholy of Mechagirl- Catherynne ValenteÂ
Curtsies and Conspiracies – Gail Carriger
The Prize Winner of Defiance Ohio- Terry Ryan
S. – JJ Abrams and Doug Dorst
Ancient Japanese Ghost Stories- Toyo Hashi
Muffins and Miracles: Church Service in the Real World – Linda Hoffman Kimball
In the House Upon the Dirt Between the Lake and the Woods – Matt Bell
A Question of Death- Kerry Greenwood (r)
The Cats of Tanglewood Forest- Charles De Lint
Murder on a Midsummer Night- Kerry Greenwood (r)
Unnatural Habits- Kerry Greenwood
Six Gun Snow White- Catherynne M. Valente
Why We Broke Up- Daniel Handler
The Beautiful Thing that Awaits us All- Laird Barron
The Oriental Casebook of Sherlock Holmes- Ted Riccardi
Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency- Douglas Adams
Moonrise Kingdom- Wes Anderson
A Spirited Manor- Kate Delany
Spirit of Denial- Kate Delany
The God Who Weeps: How Mormonism makes Sense of Life – Terryl and Fiona Givens
A Natural History of Dragons: A Memoir by Lady Trent – Marie Brennan
Odd and the Frost Giants- Neil Gaiman
I should give honorable mentions to The Graveminder by Melissa Marr; I, Iago by Nicole Galland, This is How You Lose Her by Junot Diaz, and the Enola Holmes series by Nancy Springer.  And of course, The Night Circus is one of my favorite books of all time, but it was a re-read so I didn’t mark it.
There really are no books on this list that I disliked, I’ve pretty much gotten to the point that I stop reading something if I don’t like it. There were some that didn’t stick as long as others did, but on the whole it was a really good reading year.
I read 86 fiction titles (71% of total books) and 34 non-fiction (28%), with those percentages being right along my normal trajectory. (My percentages based on my totals for the last 10 years were 73% fiction, 27% for non-fiction. Crazy isn’t it?)
59 were by female authors, 55 by male authors, with 8 being anthologies. This isn’t something I really pay attention to while I’m picking books to read, so I thought it was interesting that it split pretty evenly.
I read a substantially higher percentage of non-fiction in May and September, which I find interesting, though it’s probably not to anyone else.
What was your favorite read this year?
I love seeing what you read 🙂 I would say, to buck trends apparently, that my favorite read this year was Alligient, the final book in the Divergent trilogy, and the one that made so many readers of YA lose their sh#! I found a lot of meaning in the ending others didn’t like, but if you ever read it, let me know your thoughts.
Happy New Year, and happy reading!