Happy new year! This year I read 76 books, more than I have ever read in a year since I started book blogging. It was by a good amount, too, with 26 books last year and 16 up from the previous ‘best’ year. Certainly not studying helped as I had a lot more time, but I think there is something to be said for reading what you want and a great deal to be said for reading more than one book at a time. Last year I decided that reviewing every book I read was a good idea for me, and I stand by that, but as it happened I couldn’t accomplish it. Of the 76 books I read, 9 were non-fiction. I’m happy with that statistic even if it was aided by ARCs and even if I know I should and want to work harder in that vein.

As I did last year I’m including a ‘best of the best’ list in which I have tried to be as objective as possible. The decisions this year were incredibly difficult, yet still I had every intention of keeping to five as I have previously. Once I was at the fifth choice, however, choosing which of the last two candidates to include proved impossible as both were exceptional and very different, so I’ve bucked the trend and gone for six. Lower down the page, after the rest of the books (that are also listed objectively) you’ll find my personal favourites. Both selections are limited to one book per author.

As always, books that have been reviewed have a line underneath them and the title links to the review. The personal favourites is just a paragraph of book covers, because those covers (plus review links) are of course in the objective lists too. Because I realise last year’s post was huge, and some of you may be more interested in which books I personally preferred (rather than my objective list) you can click here to zoom down to my personal favourites. There is of course some overlap between the lists.

The Best Of The Best (Objective list)

• Andrew Blackman: On The Holloway Road – A man discontent with his life embarks on a journey with a notorious local, aiming to find true freedom in a country full of restrictions. Excellent.
• Becky Aikman: Saturday Night Widows – Dumped from the widow support group she’d joined and wanting to create one based on trying to live again, Aikman created an original group and in this book she details their year of meetings. Brilliant – well written, insightful, and the woman are great to read about in themselves.
• Kate Forsyth: Bitter Greens – A fictional story of the woman who wrote the popular version of Rapunzel, and how she discovered the tale (it includes a retelling of its own). My blurb here ended with me saying it would make my ‘best of’ list, and, as you can see, it has.
• Lisa See: Shanghai Girls – Pearl and her sister, May, are forced to leave their lives as models behind and marry Americans when their father gets into trouble; with Japan invading China and Communism on the way, that may prove to have been for the best. Stunning, absolutely stunning.
• Melissa Marr and Tim Pratt (ed.): Rags & Bones – An anthology of retellings in short story form, featuring the likes of Neil Gaiman, Melissa Marr herself, Kami Garcia, and Saladin Ahmed. A stunning and at times exceptional collection that I would highly recommend to anyone who likes fantasy, paranormal, and horror.
• Taylor Stevens: The Doll – Whisked away under the pretence of an accident, Munroe finds herself at the mercy of criminals who want her to deliver a ‘package’ in return for the life of her loved ones. Excellent book.

5

• Beth Hoffman: Saving CeeCee Honeycutt
• Charles Dickens: A Christmas Carol
• Elizabeth Chadwick: The Summer Queen
• Elizabeth Fremantle: Queen’s Gambit
• Eloisa James: Desperate Duchesses
• John Elder Robison: Raising Cubby
• Kate Forsyth: The Wild Girl
• Margaret Mitchell: Gone With The Wind
• Martin Wagner: Deutschland
• Meike Ziervogel: Magda
• Michael Pollan: The Omnivore’s Dilemma
• Pavarti K Tyler: White Chalk
• Rainbow Rowell: Eleanor & Park
• Sadie Jones: The Uninvited Guests
• Shannon Stacey: All He Ever Needed
• Shannon Stacey: All He Ever Desired

4.5

• Andrew Blackman: A Virtual Love
• Bianca Zander: The Girl Below
• Debbie Dee: The Underground Witch
• F Scott Fitzgerald: The Great Gatsby
• Juliana Ross: Improper Arrangements
• Julie Kagawa: The Iron Queen
• Katie McGarry: Dare You To
• Kimberly Derting: Dead Silence
• Maryanne O’Hara: Cascade
• Paulo Coelho: Manuscript Found In Accra
• Sherry Thomas: Private Arrangements
• Susan Cain: Quiet

4

• Anya Von Bremzen: Mastering The Art Of Soviet Cooking
• Beatrice Colin: The Luminous Life Of Lilly Aphrodite
• Bee Ridgway: The River Of No Return
• Debbie Dee: Tiy And The Prince Of Egypt
• Eloisa James: An Affair Before Christmas
• Jane Austen: Persuasion
• Jeanne Ray: Julie And Romeo
• Jeannie Lin: The Sword Dancer
• Kate Atkinson: Life After Life
• Michael Palin: Around The World In 80 Days
• Nancy Bilyeau: The Chalice
• Richard C Morais: Buddhaland Brooklyn
• Tanya Byrne: Follow Me Down
• Tom Kizzia: Pilgrim’s Wilderness
• Vincent Lam: The Headmaster’s Wager

3.5

• Anna Belfrage: Like Chaff In The Wind
• Anne O’Brien: The Forbidden Queen
• Jill Myles: Wicked Games
• Julie Kagawa: The Iron Knight
• Kieran Shields: The Truth Of All Things
• Kristina Carlson: Mr Darwin’s Gardener
• Lucienne Boyce: To The Fair Land
• Manisha Jolie Amin: Dancing To The Flute
• Mary Stewart: Stormy Petrel
• Sarah Mayberry: Her Best Worst Mistake
• Shannon Stacey: All He Ever Dreamed
• Sheryl Sandberg: Lean In

3

• Anna Belfrage: A Rip In The Veil
• Jessa Russo: Ever
• Pam Jenoff: The Ambassador’s Daughter
• Shannon Stacey: Snowbound With The CEO
• Sherry Thomas: His At Night

2.5

• Anna Belfrage: The Prodigal Son
• Kimberly S Young: The Eighth Wonder
• Matthew D Lieberman: Social

2

• Jeanne Ray: Calling Invisible Women

1.5

• Natalie Whipple: Transparent

1

• Andrea Zuvich: His Last Mistress
• Ruth A Casie: The Guardian’s Witch

0.5

• B N Peacock: A Tainted Dawn

My Personal Favourites

This year was about reading as much as I could and trying to balance review copies and my own books. I managed to do both, though the latter was down to, in most cases, the need to comfort read. I didn’t sign up for any challenges, but I might as well have found a romance challenge as I read a lot in that genre. During the difficult times that plagued the year the idea of reading something predictable so that I could just relax was too appealing to ignore.

This year was also about reading books I should have read a long time ago. I did read a couple of older classics, but the book in my mind here is Gone With The Wind. Since August was consumed by Mitchell’s book I didn’t expect to have finished at the number of books I have. I must admit a minor defeat by Vanity Fair. I haven’t given up on it but I’ve now been reading it for two years… Right now if I could ask any author anything I’d be asking Thackeray not to refer to every character by their prefix and surname. I know other classical fiction writers do it as well but in their cases there are less characters to sort through in order to discover which is being refered to.

Quotation Report

If the majority are to be believed, Lord Vere of His At Night can’t distinguish between a secret and a hedgehog. It will take the loss of his job for you to know the truth. And whilst Henry VIII stopped approving of monasteries and convents, he wasn’t about to let those who had joined said institutions marry, as Joanna of The Chalice finds out, on her wedding day, no less.

If you want to be typically Georgian, or rather just typically Desperate Duchesses, take up cow-pat discus. It’s as messy and smelly as it sounds. And do know that when it comes to the subject of his mother’s whereabouts (she went up in a cloud of smoke that whisked her back in time) the response from Issac, from Like Chaff In The Wind, is likely to be “can I have some ice-cream?”.

If the rest of the family are downstairs and you want to complete your collection of animals-forcibly-drawn, you can always take a leaf from the book of Smudge from The Uninvited Guests, and lead the pony up the stairs to your room. Any excrement is unimportant, it’s the drawing that matters.

If you are having an argument with Rhett Butler, the sort in which you should be slamming doors, rest assured he will do it for you.

Don’t be like Nick from The River Of No Return – if you choose to return to the past having lived in the future (our present), modern phrases just do not work, and as much as the person you fancy (ah, they may not understand that either) seems modern, they really aren’t. Even if their actions indicate otherwise.

If one has an issue creating names, they can always do as Neil Gaiman has with his contribution to Rags & Bones and use the backdrop as a good excuse. Indeed it may just create a similar sort of humour. And while we’re at it, if you’re in a medieval-ish setting, it’s likely the girl has blushed because she’s suggested the prince will wake the princess with a kiss – not with the bucket of water the dwarf considered appropriate. In the 1980s, Michael Palin shared a train with two other people apparently also known as Michael Palin. But it was the camel and its owner, again both called Michael, that may have surprised him the most when he went Around The World In 80 Days.

In Improper Arrangements, Lady Alice reminds us of changing fashions and attitudes when she says that without crinolines and petticoats she will look ridiculous. And whilst generally a girl might feel upset that another girl is wondering what the man sees in her (the first girl), the reaction of Eleanor from Eleanor & Park is one of agreement. It’s funnier than this blogger makes it sound.

In the next few days I’ll be posting my goals for 2014 and, after that, my second film round up.

What were your favourite books of 2013?