I set a goal of reading 60 books in 2013 and I didn't quite make it. For the 2nd year in a row, I hit 57..whomp whomp...so close, yet so far away....I blame 2 giant books that I spent a long time reading only to give up on halfway through (I'm looking at you "The Twelve" by Justin Cronin and "Inferno" by Dan Brown)...Overall, I feel better about my reading list this year than I have in the past but I still think there is room for improvement. I'm hoping to be sent better books to review this year but I'm already off on a better foot this year simply because I requested to no longer be on the historical Asian fiction train....thank god...
So here is my list! In chronological order:
Think Twice by Lisa
Scottoline
Faith by Jennifer Haigh
Kill You Twice by Chelsea
Cain
Tiger Tiger by Margaux
Fragoso
Motherland by Amy Sohn
Mr. Penumbra’s 24 Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan
Wench by Dolen Perkins-Valdez
A Woman of Angkor by John Burgess
Head in Beds by Jacob Tomsky
Reconstructing Amelia by Kimberly McCreight
The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes
Nightwoods by Charles Frazier
The Light Between Oceans by M.L. Stedman
Drinking and Tweeting by Brandi Glanville
Wonder by RJ Palacio
Poor Little Bitch Girl by Jackie Collins
Don’t Go by Lisa Scottoline
A Land More Kind Than Home by Wiley Cash
The Pillow Book of the Flower Samurai by Barbara Lazar
Post Mortem by Patricia Cornwell
Club Dead by Charlaine Harris
The Outcasts by Kathleen Kent
The Fault in Our Stars by John Green
Me Before You by JoJo Moyes
Six Years by Harlan Coben
Touch and Go by Lisa Gardner
Fly Away by Kristin Hannah
Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison
The Middlesteins by Jami Attenberg
Let Me Go by Chelsea Cain
The Tao of Martha by Jen Lancaster
Beautiful Ruins by Jess Walter
Marbles by Ellen Forney
Meet Me at Emotional Baggage Claim by Lisa Scottoline and
Francesca Serritella
If I Stay by Gayle Forman
Dad is Fat by Jim Gaffigan
Always Watching by Chevy Stevens
Seating Arrangements by Maggie Shipstead
Let’s Explore Diabetes with Owls by David Sedaris
The Storyteller by Jodi Picoult
Lock and Key by Sarah Dessen
The Lost Girls of Rome by Donato Carrisi
Bel Canto by Ann Patchett
NOS4A2 by Joe Hill
Time Flies by Claire Cook
Still Alice by Lisa Genova
The Husband’s Secret by Liane Moriarty
Crazy Rich Asians by Kevin Kwan
Brooklyn Zoo by Darcy Lockman
Birdman by Mo Hayder
We Are Water by Wally Lamb
Goodnight Mind by Colleen Carney
Wonderkid by Wesley Stace
Here I Go Again by Jen Lancaster
E is for Evidence by Sue Grafton
Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins
The Silent Wife by A.S.A. HarrisonHere's the tally for how everything broke down:
Fiction: 47
NonFiction: 10
Audio: 3
Library Journal: 6
YA/Teen: 5
Library Book Discussion: 4 (although that seems really low so I'm wondering if I missed one that I read in previous years)
Top 5 Most Enjoyed Books: (in no particular order)
1) Light Between Oceans
2) A Land More Kind Than Home
3) Beautiful Ruins
4) Crazy Rich Asians
5) The Silent Wife
*Mockingjay is pretty much tied with The Silent Wife as I'll be damned if I didn't shed a tear or two on that series ending...
Also, I'm not saying they were the best books ever written, but they are the ones I find myself passing on to people over and over..
Top 5 Least Enjoyed Books: (in no particular order)
1) Woman of Angkor (SNORE)
2) Fault in Our Stars (this might be the first book for me where I think the movie might be better)
3) The Husband's Secret (Why does ANYONE like this book?? It's terrible!)
4) Brooklyn Zoo (Someone should have suggested that the author needs to decide if this is a textbook, a memoir, or just a whining diary)
5) Goodnight Mind (oh hey, if you're in bed and you're not tired, get out of bed. If you're not tired and you're not in bed, don't get in bed. There. I've summed the book up for you. Hope that was helpful.)
I've set my goal for 2014 at 60 books again. I'm going to get it this year if it means that I need to call in sick to work for the last week of the year to power through books. I also feel like this is the year where I might just read more for my own guilty pleaures...I really just want to read fun books right now...thrillers mainly...maybe it's because wedding planning is stressing me out and all I want to do is totally zone out into a book? who knows...either way, don't hold your breath to see Ulysses or Moby Dick on my list this next year...
Anyone read anything great that I missed?? Anyone ready to slap me for hating The Fault in Our Stars?
2 comments:
I loved the Fault in our Stars, but that might have just been mommy hormones. no slapping, just a bit of side-eye
I'll accept your side-eye...I just thought there was no way any teenager would speak in the pretentious way that he wrote...I found it obnoxious and distracting
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