I had a fabulous reading year in 2013. Much of my reading was devoted to Literary Fiction as part of my membership on the Maine Readers' Choice Award Committee. There are 20 people on the committee and we were divided into teams of four- each team was then assigned 25-27 books to read. From those we had to select two to move forward to the next round. We had 3 top ones, but were able to decide fairly easily about #2. There were several books though that I could easily have advanced to the next level.
You'll note in my stats that the numbers don't always add up. Often I read a book in more than one format - hard copy and audio being the usual, although I've been known to ebook and audio a couple.
My total for 2013 was quite a bit lower than previous years, but care-giving does not leave one much energy for reading or even listening.
Titles completed 115
Print 42
Audio 58
Ebook 18
Fiction 103
Nonfiction 12
Mysteries 51 (my favorite genre)
ARC 25
MRCA 22 (some of these were finalists from last year)
Abandoned 18 (several of these were MRCA books!!!)
From the library 54
It's impossible for me to pick any one book of the year as THE BEST, but since I LOVE mysteries, I will start by declaring
The Best Mystery of the Year: How the Light Gets in by Louise Penny.
Best Fiction Reads (in no particular order) and not necessarily published in 2013 - just when I read them.
The Golem and the Jinni by Helene Wecker
Benediction by Kent Haruf
Sparta by Roxana Robinson
The Signature of all Things by Elizabeth Gilbert
A Land More Kind than Home by Wiley Cash (winner of last year's MRCA)
The Dinner by Herman Koch
We Need New Names by NoViolet Bulawayo
The House Girl by Tara Conklin
Necessary Lies by Diane Chamberlain
The 100 Year old Man who climbed out the window and Disappeared by Jonas Jonasson
Best Non-fiction Reads
Sound of A Wild Snail Eating by Elizabeth Tova Bailey
Testament of Youth by Vera Brittain
American Nations by Colin Woodard (a re-read for my book discussion group - even better the 2nd time)
I'd be hard pressed if I had to choose one of these as my best choice...they are all worth your time. Enjoy your reading year, and please stop by often. I'll try to stay more caught up now that I'm back in snowy, stay at home for the winter land.
Tuesday, January 21, 2014
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Welcome, thanks for stopping by. Now that you've heard our two cents, perhaps you have a few pennies to throw into the discussion. Due to a bunch more anonymous spam getting through, I've had to disallow anonymous comments. I try to respond to all comments posing a question, but may not always get to you right away.