Here are my top ten reads for 2013, in no particular order, except I saved the best for last:
Above all things by Tanis Rideout. I think it would be hard to take an existing story with an ending that everyone already knows, and make a riveting novel of it. Rideout makes it look easy.
Trial of Fallen Angels by James Kimmel Jr.: a hopeful, affirming, forgiving view
of the future.
Hoosh by Jason Anthony: a stunning amount of good research on, of all things,
what to eat in Antarctica.
Odyssey: reading it while taking a Coursera course on Greek
mythology (taught by Peter Struck) made it an
absorbing experience.
Girl with the dragon tattoo by Stieg Larsson: everyone else loved it. Why not
me?
Unbearable lightness of scones by Alexander McCall Smith: I have to include at least
one Alexander McCall Smith book every year, right? His version of life is so forgiving—everyone
is irritating and has annoying tendencies, but somehow, we have to love one
another, because we are all we have.
Call me irresistible by Susan Elizabeth Phillips: OK, you know I read romances for fun,
though I don’t review them much here (SBTB has a lock on that). But my favorite
romance this year was this one, even though it’s not my favorite romance genre,
the Regency (swoon). Everyone loves the world’s most perfect man, except for
Meg, because she sees right through that perfection to the real person inside.
Hostage Three by Nick Lake: I have to keep beating the Nick Lake drum.
In Darkness was amazing and so is this follow up.
Swamplandia by Karen Russell: dismaying ending aside, I was caught up in the
tropics of muggy, pre-Disney Florida. Love me some good Florida fiction. (Review is coming)
Lexicon by Max Barry: Just finished this one within the past week, and it
became my favorite read of the year. I’ve lain in bed thinking about it every
night since. We know that words have power. What if they had even more power than we realize? Don’t miss this one.
Books read in 2013:
Non-fiction: 52
Fiction: 105
Total: 157
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