2013 Books Review

[jethrien]

Well, I think 134 might be a personal record, and one I'm probably not going to break any time soon. Thank you, late night feedings?


This year's list:

1. All the Windwracked Stars -- Elizabeth Bear
2. The Stepsister Scheme -- Jim C. Hines
3. Subsititution Cipher -- ed. Kaye Chazan
4. The Peshawar Lancers -- S.M. Stirling
5. The Campaign for Domestic Happiness -- Isabella Beeton
6. Hunger -- Jackie Morse Kessler
7. What the Butler Saw -- E.S. Turner
8. The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making -- Catherynne M. Valente
9. Blood and Iron -- Elizabeth Bear
10. The Well-Kept Kitchen -- Gervase Markham
11. The Long Earth -- Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter
12. Libriomancer -- Jim C. Hines
13. The Duchess War -- Courtney Milan
14. Invasion -- Mercedes Lackey, etc.
15. Whiskey and Water -- Elizabeth Bear
16. Feed -- Mira Grant
17. Vessel -- Sarah Beth Durst
18. A Little Dinner Before the Play -- Agnes Jekyll
19. Mama's Big Book of Little Lifesavers -- Kerry Colburn
20. The New Father -- Armin A. Brott
21. Learning the World -- Ken MacLeod
22. Ink and Steel -- Elizabeth Bear
23. Hell and Earth -- Elizabeth Bear
24. The Collected Stories of Verner Vinge -- Verner Vinge
25. Dodger -- Terry Pratchett
26. Devices and Desires -- K.J. Parker
27. Right Ho, Jeeves -- P.G. Wodehouse
28. Crazy for You -- Jennifer Crusie
29. Three Men in a Boat -- Jerome K. Jerome
30. Consuelo and Alva Vanderbilt -- Amanda Mackenzie Stuart
31. Night -- Elie Wiesel
32. Captain Vorpatril's Alliance -- Lois McMaster Bujold
33. Hallucinations -- Oliver Sachs
34. The Warrior's Apprentice -- Lois McMaster Bujold
35. I Am Half-Sick of Shadows -- Alan Bradley
36. The African Queen -- C.S. Forrester
37. All Time Acceptable -- Spring Berman
38. Anna Karenina -- Leo Tolstoy
39. Star Wars: Scoundrels -- Timothy Zahn
40. The Thornbirds -- Colleen McCullough
41. Villette -- Charlotte Bronte
42. A Night Like This -- Julia Quinn
43. Julie & Julia -- Julie Powell
44. Gulp -- Mary Roach
45. Madame de Pompadour -- Margaret Crosland
46. The God of Small Things -- Arundhati Roy
47. There and Back Again -- Sean Astin with Joe Layden
48. The Spark -- Susan Jane Bigelow
49. The Reef -- Edith Wharton
50. My Beloved Brontosaurus -- Brian Switek
51. The Wedding Girl -- Madeleine Wickham
52. The Spymasters -- Charles Whiting
53. What Might Have Been: Alternate Heroes -- Gregory Benford
54. The Warslayer -- Rosemary Edgehill
55. Argo -- Antonio Mendez and Matt Baglio
56. The Ghost Map -- Steven Johnson
57. The Summer Tree -- Guy Gavriel Kay
58. The Garden Intrigue -- Lauren Willig
59. The Emperor of Ocean Park -- Stephen L. Carter
60. Lords of the Horizon -- Jason Goodwin
61. Confessions of a Sociopath -- M.E. Thomas
62. The Wandering Fire -- Guy Gavriel Kay
63. The Rise of Napoleon Bonaparte -- Robert Asprey
64. Baby Sign Language Basics -- Monta Z. Briant
65. Baby Signing for Dummies -- Jennifer Watson
66. You Are Good At Things -- Andy Selsberg
67. The Reign of Napoleon -- Robert Asprey
68. The Darkest Road -- Guy Gavriel Kay
69. The Business of Baby -- Jennifer Margulis
70. Pulling Up Stakes -- Peter David
71. The Camelot Papers -- Peter David
72. Watership Down -- Richard Adams
73. Angela's Ashes -- Frank McCourt
74. The Sea Warriors -- Richard Woodman
75. Crimea -- Trevor Royle
76. Napoleon III -- Fenton Bresler
77. The Human Division -- John Scalzi
78. Saturn -- Ben Bova
79. Color -- Victoria Finlay
80. The Emperor's Giraffe -- Samuel M. Wilson
81. Gone Too Far -- Suzanne Brockman
82. Mistress of the Art of Death -- Ariana Franklin
83. A Streetcar Named Desire -- Tennessee Williams
84. The Serpent's Tale -- Ariana Franklin
85. Grave Goods -- Ariana Franklin
86. A Murderous Procession -- Ariana Franklin
87. Television After TV -- Lynn Spiegel
88. Cold Magic -- Kate Elliot
89. Flashpoint -- Suzanne Brockman
90. Comrade J -- Pete Earley
91. The Night Circus -- Erin Morgenstern
92. Incidences of the Number Three -- Salley Vickers
93. The Disastrous Mrs. Weldon -- Brian Thompson
94. Clockwork Fairytales -- ed. Stephen L. Antczak and James C. Bassett
95. The Happiness Project -- Gretchen Rubin
96. Baby Meets World -- Nicholas Day
97. The Book of Secrets -- Elizabeth Joy Arnold
98. The Movement of Stars -- Amy Brill
99. The Heiress Effect -- Courtney Milan
100. The Last Runaway -- Tracy Chevalier
101. A Dangerous Fiction -- Barbara Rogan
102. Unveiled -- Courtney Milan
103. The Code of the Woosters -- P.G. Wodehouse
104. Look Homeward, Angel -- Thomas Wolfe
105. The Firebird -- Susanna Kearsley
106. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time -- Mark Haddon
107. Truth & Beauty -- Ann Pratchett
108. The Proud Tower: A Portrait of the World Before the War 1890-1914 -- Barbara Tuchman
109. A Traveler's History of Ireland -- Peter Neville
110. Worlds That Weren't -- Harry Turtledove, S.M. Stirling, Mary Gentle, Walter Jon Williams
111. The Year's Best Science Fiction: Thirtieth Annual Collection -- Gardner Dozois
112. Wishful Drinking -- Carrie Fisher
113. Disraeli:The Victorian Dandy Who Became Prime Minister -- Christopher Hibbert
114. The Passion of the Purple Plumeria -- Lauren Willig
115. The Best of Connie Willis -- Connie Willis
116. Kenobi -- John Jackson Miller
117. Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict -- Laurie Viera Rigler
118. Norwegian Wood -- Haruki Murakami
119. The Heist -- Janet Evanovitch and Lee Goldberg
120. Paper Cities -- Ekaterina Sedia
121. Carrie -- Stephen King
122. Steadfast -- Mercedes Lackey
123. Thomas the Rhymer -- Ellen Kushner
124. Nebula Awards Showcase 2013 -- Catherine Asaro
125. Disalmanac -- Scott Bateman
126. The Spirit Thief -- Rachel Aaron
127. This is the Story of a Happy Marriage -- Ann Pratchett
128. Dreamsongs Vol I -- George R. R. Martin
129. The Dain Curse -- Dashiell Hammett
130. The Glass Key and Selected Stories -- Dashiell Hammett
131. Lucrezia Borgia -- Sarah Bradford
132. The Thinking Woman's Guide to Real Magic -- Emily Croy Barker
133. Kings of the North -- Elizabeth Moon
134. Hyperbole and a Half -- Allie Brosch



By genre:
Fantasy 33
History 13
Science Fiction 12
Romance 10
Memoir 9
Mystery 8
Biography 8
Parenting Guide 5
Historical fiction 5
General fiction 5
Literary Fiction 4
Pop Science 4
Humor 4
Classic literature 3
Anthropology/Cultural studies 3
Science Fiction/Fantasy 3
Thriller 2
Poetry 1
Drama 1
Horror 1

66 by male authors, 79 by female. (Some books had authors of both genders.) Kinda proud of that one.



The best, in no particular order:

Night by Elie Wiesel: Horrifying, haunting, monumental personal account of the Holocaust.

Baby Meets World by Nicholas Day: Fascinating and funny look at what we know about the science of babyhood vs what we've believed in the past.

The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern: Lush, gorgeous, dreamlike story of a fantastical circus.

The Heiress Effect by Courtney Milan: Witty and charming, a perfect example of the best of romance.

The Best of Connie Willis by Connie Willis: A collection of absolute gems of short science fiction and fantasy.


The worst, again in no particular order:

The Spymasters by Charles Whiting: Terribly organized and confusing, written badly on basically every level.

The Long Earth by Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter: A waste of a bunch of theoretically interesting ideas, strung together with no plot, no character development, and no real use of setting.

Madame De Pompadour by Margaret Crosland: Boring, clunky, and featuring sidebars a la a bad middle school textbook.

Look Homeward, Angel by Thomas Wolfe: Unbearably pretentious, without a single likeable character.

Disraeli: The Victorian Dandy Who Became Prime Minister by Christopher Hibbert: Unforgivably boring.

Next year: expect a lot fewer.

Comments

[momerath4.livejournal.com]

I'm seriously impressed. My kid won't let me read while nursing—he's too easily distracted by anything in my hands (and forget about the bright shiny screen of my iPad). Most of the "reading" I've been able to do this past year has been listening to audiobooks while taking walks around the neighborhood.

[jethrien.livejournal.com]

ARR stopped nursing a couple months ago--now I'm exclusively pumping. (He decided he was done before I wanted him to stop getting milk.) Which, especially in the middle of the night, is also conducive to reading.