My Favorite Books, 2013

Okay, here's my Best of 2013 list -- all of the books that earned five stars from me on Goodreads this year.  I put an asterisk next to ones that were re-reads for me.

Fiction:
Watership Down by Richard Adams
The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman
The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver
Mariana by Monica Dickens
*A Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare
*Pride & Prejudice by Jane Austen
Unaccustomed Earth by Jhumpa Lahiri
Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk by Ben Fountain
*Excellent Women by Barbara Pym
Life After Life by Kate Atkinson
In the Time of the Butterflies by Julia Alverez
The Sisters Brothers by Patrick deWitt
Where’d You Go, Bernadette by Maria Semple
Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides
Emma by Jane Austen

Nonfiction/Memoir:
Night by Elie Wiesel
No Plot? No Problem! by Chris Baty
The Midwife by Jennifer Worth

Children’s/YA:
Fortunately, the Milk by Neil Gaiman
Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson
Okay for Now by Gary D. Schmidt
Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell
*A Tale Dark & Grimm by Adam Gidwitz
*From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E.L. Konigsberg
*Charlotte’s Web by E.B. White
*The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick
*The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle by Avi
Twelve Kinds of Ice by Ellen Bryan Obed
The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate
*The Book Thief by Marcus Zusak
Everybody Sees the Ants by A.S. King
Knight’s Castle by Edward Eager

Graphic Novels:
Hilda and the Troll by Luke Pearson
Jane, the Fox, and Me by Fanny Britt
Hilda and the Midnight Giant by Luke Pearson
Hilda and the Bird Parade by Luke Pearson
Relish: My Life in the Kitchen by Lucy Knisley
Building Stories by Chris Ware

My Reading Year, 2013

The only official goal I set this year was on Goodreads, where I challenged myself to read 100 books in 2013.  (This sounds like a lot, but I read so many kids/YA books, including graphic novels, that this is a reasonable goal for me.)  I made it!  I read 140 books in 2013.  Here's a break-down of those books:  47 grown-up books, 33 YA books, and 60 "kid lit" books.  Also, 13 of those 138 books were re-reads for me.

I always have a goal to read aloud with my kids, and I did pretty well with this.  I read 14 chapter books aloud to them this year, and we listened to 7 audiobooks this summer.

I read quite a few books this year that I've been meaning to read for awhile, and most of them ended up on my "favorites" list for the year (see my next post).  I am very happy to say I have finally read Kurt Vonnegut's The Sirens of Titan, a book my husband has been encouraging me to read since I met him; we visited the Vonnegut Library in Indianapolis this summer, so it was good timing.  I am especially proud to have completed No Plot? No Problem! along with writing a NaNoWriMo "novel" in November.  I've been meaning to try this forever!

However, I have many Persephone books, but I only read three of them this year.  I think I'll set a goal to double that number next year.

I just counted, and 26 of the books I read this year are ones I'd truly consider "shelf-sitters."  Not bad!

Book Stacks Unwrapped, 2013

Skye's book stack (age 14)

Felix's book stack (age 9)

Book Stacks 2013

Here they are.  One for Skye, and one for Felix.

Stay tuned to see the unwrapped versions.