What I read in 2013

Last year, at the end of the year, I did a roundup of my favourite books of the year (and some useless and probably not even very interesting statistics about the books I'd read) and whether or not any of my readers really cared, I personally found it an interesting resource for future reference, so I thought I'd do it again. it's a little easier this year, as I have been doing monthly or semi-monthly roundups of my reading anyway, so I don't have to rush off looking for cover photos to collage...

Anyway, in 2013, my list of books I at least tried to read contains 106 entries. One was a trilogy, so it counts as three books. Of these, there were only 8 I didn't finish - which either means I am more persistent, or perhaps just luckier with my choices this year. (And frankly, I read over half of My Name is Red, which is very long, so even half nearly counts as a whole book!) That means I read 100 books in 2013, which averages out to about 8 books a month, give or take, which is about what I read in 2012 as well. Shall I make a prediction for 2014?

Of these 100 books, 10 were re-reads, 15 were fantasy and 14 were crime. One was a teen fiction collection of three short novels which I read due to being stuck on an airplane circling Arizona in a duststorm and having finished my book - I swapped with my (then) 15YO who had also finished her book. It was surprisingly good. And 4 of the books I read were non-fiction [one a memoir of Communist China, one a travel/food book - also about China, one about the history of Hawaii (which I didn't quite finish, but I'm counting it as I read most of it) and one a book about pianos - I don't read a lot of non-fiction, but what I do read is very varied].

I've highlighted those which were my very favourites (not counting re-reads, which by their very nature are often favourites) and underlined those I thought very good but not the best of the best. I should say, of course, that any book I take the trouble to finish reading, is pretty good - there are so many books I want to read and so little time, that I don't stick with stuff I don't like...

I'm not usually able, over a long period of time, to pick out a single book as a top read or favourite, but I'd almost be willing to make an exception this year - the one book which really stood out was Jonas Jonasson's The 100 Year Old Man Who Climbed out a Window and Disappeared. I can see reading this again (even though it won't have quite the same element of surprise) - this was truly an amazing and original novel and absolutely great fun.

And a final note - the books are in reverse chronological order, as that's the way they go up in the sidebar on my other blog - it's easier to just nick the text from there than to type it all again!

Flowers Stained with Moonlight, Catherine Shaw
Still Life, Louise Penny
The White Tiger, Aravind Adiga
The Registrar's Manual for Detecting Forced Marriages, Sophie Hardach
A Trick of the Light, Louise Penny
A Discovery of Witches, Deborah Harkness (50pp)
The Time-Traveller's Wife, Audrey Neffenegger (re-read)
The Piano Shop on the Left Bank, T E Carhart
The Facts of Life, Patrick Gale (Dec 2013)
Dead to the World, Charlaine Harris
The Haven Home for Delinquent Girls, Louise Tondeur (50pp)
Broken Homes, Ben Aaronovitch
The Beginner's Goodbye, Anne Tyler
This is Not a Novel, Jennifer Johnston
The Dressmaker, Kate Alcott
84, Charing Cross Road, Helene Hanff (re-read)
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows
Skylight Confessions, Alice Hoffman
The Corrections, Jonathan Franzen (50pp)
The Lifeboat, Charlotte Rogan (Nov 2013)
Fire, Kristin Cashore
The Three Body Problem, Catherine Shaw
The Sunday Philosophy Club, Alexander McColl Smith
The Age of Miracles, Karen Thompson Walker
Club Dead, Charlaine Harris
Whispers Underground, Ben Aaronovitch
Graceling, Kristen Cashore
The Sea Change, Joanne Rossiter
Sacred Hearts, Sarah Dunant (Oct 2013)
Moon over Soho, Ben Aaronovitch
Memoirs of a Geisha, Arthur Golden
Arlington Park, Rachel Cusk
The Cleaner of Chartres, Sally Vickers
The Hour I First Believed, Wally Lamb (Sept 2013)
The Scent of Rain and Lightning, Nancy Pickard
Let it Snow, Maureen Johnson, John Green, Lauren Myracle
The Chaperone, Laura Moriarty
Drawing Conclusions, Donna Leon
Rivers of London, Ben Aaronovitch
Girl in Hyacinth Blue, Susan Vreeland (re-read)
Run, Ann Patchett (re-read)
Where the Heart Is, Billie Letts
The Quilter's Apprentice, Jennifer Chiaverini (re-read)
Dawn's Early Light, Elswyth Thane (re-read)
The Golden Egg, Donna Leon
Unfamiliar Fishes, Sarah Vowell (August 2013)
My Name is Red, Orhan Pamuk (more than half)
Pure, Andrew Miller
Tell the Wolves I'm Home, Carol Rifka Brunt
The End of Mr Y, Scarlett Thomas
Stonemouth, Iain Banks (July 2013)
American Gods, Neil Gaiman
Shark Fin and Sichuan Pepper, Fuschia Dunlop
The Peacock Emporium, JoJo Moyes
Seraphina, Rachel Hartman (June 2013)
Flight Behaviour, Barbara Kingsolver
The Blue Sword, Robin McKinley (re-read)
The Last Runaway, Tracy Chevalier
Gold, Chris Cleave
The Gargoyle, Andrew Davidson
The Fever Tree, Jennifer McVeigh
Living Dead in Dallas, Charlaine Harris
The Invisible Circus, Jennifer Egan
A Perfectly Good Man, Patrick Gale (May 2013)
The Panopticon, Jenny Fagan
Valeria's Last Stand, Marc Fitten
An Awfully Big Adventure, Beryl Bainbridge (part)
Instructions for a Heatwave, Maggie O'Farrell
The 100 Year Old Man Who Climbed Out a Window and Disappeared, Jonas Jonasson
The Year of Wonders, Geraldine Brooks.
The Other Side of You, Sally Vickers
Daydream Girl, Bella Pollen
The Girl Who Chased the Moon, Sarah Addison Allen
The Troubled Man, Henning Maskell (part)
The Windsinger Trilogy, William Nicholson (April 2013)
The Girl you Left Behind, Jojo Moyes
Finding Mr Flood, Ciara Geraghty
Spindle's End, Robin McKinley
The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox, Maggie O'Farrell
Dead Until Dark, Charlaine Harris (re-read)
Venetia, Georgette Heyer (re-read)
Mary Reilly, Valerie Martin
The Land of Decoration, Grace McCleen
The Peach Keeper, Sarah Addison Allen
The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of her own Making, Catherynne M Valente (March 2013)
The Distance Between Us, Maggie O'Farrell
Cross Bones, Kathy Reichs
Of Mice and Men, John Steinbeck (re-read)
The Pirate King, Laurie R King
Watership Down, Richard Adams (re-read)
The Snow Child, Eowyn Ivey
The Graveyard Book, Neil Gaiman
Guard your Daughters, Diana Tutton
The 19th Wife, David Eberhoff (Feb 2013)
Rosie Hopkins' Sweet Shop of Dreams, Jenny Colgan
Appointment with Death, Agatha Christie (re-read)
One, Two, Buckle My Shoe, Agatha Christie (re-read)
The Book of Summers, Emylia Hall
The Road Home, Rose Tremain
The Story Sisters, Alice Hoffman
Daughter of Smoke and Bone, Laini Taylor
The Third Child, Marge Piercy (half)
Crazy as Chocolate, Elizabeth Hyde
Homeland, Clare Francis
Major Pettigrew's Last Stand, Helen Simonson (half)
Daughter of China, Xu Meihong (January 2013)