I also list the Classics that I read for my New Year's Resolution, which was to read 1 Classic a month (boo, I didn't quite make my goal). I will update this list periodically as well, and add some short information/opinion about each book to let you know what I thought of it.
Books of 2013:
- Just One Day, Gayle Foreman: I gobbled up this wonderful young adult novel by Foreman. It's the story of a conservative, no-risk-taking girl who takes a leap of faith and spends a fateful day with a boy in Paris. Not something I would want my teenage daughter to do, but an adventure that the romantic in me adored. Changed forever by this one day, the girl (named Alison) spends her first year of college trying to recalibrate to her new self, discovering friendship and independence on the way. The stunning conclusion leaves readers desperate for me, which Foreman delivered in the duet novel, titled Just One Year.
- A Voice in the Wind, Francine Rivers
- Absaroka Christmas, Craig Johnson
- What a Girl Wants, Kristin Billerbeck
- She's Out of Control, Billerbeck
- Killer Angel, Deborah Blum
- With this Ring, I'm Confused, Billerbeck
- An Echo in the Darkness, Rivers
- Abdication, Juliet Nicolson: I adored this novel. I read several reviews that lambasted this novel as being dry, slow, and boring, but I thought it was delightful. Set in the 1930s in Britain, the story follows the lives of several characters that entwine in the shadow of the British Royal Family's impending doom. The historical time was fascinating and Juliet Nicolson is such a wonderful historian that the story is layered with the kind of rich historical detail that makes the story come alive. And on the heels of this lovely story, I sought out and read #18.
- The World of Downton Abbey
- The Perks of Being a Wallflower, Steven Chobsky
- Starvation Heights, Gregg Olson: I don't generally read that much non-fiction, but this was one that sucked me in all the way through. I had a hard time putting it down, mostly because the story is just so unbelievable. Olson meticulously researched the life of a "doctor" in the early 20th century, who set up practice north of Seattle. Her name was Linda Hazzard, and she was a proponent of healing through fasting. Starvation, in fact, so severe that she killed at least 40 patients. Crazy, right? Yet people flocked to her sanitarium in Oglala, believing that they might find healing through fasting. However, Dr. Hazzard was not as she seemed, backed by a manipulative husband and clever mind of her own that often left her in possession of wealthy clients' estates. The sheer brazenness of her practice of medicine in the face of opposition makes Linda Hazzard a fascinating character from history, and Gregg Olson wrote so well that this book is well worth your time. Check out starvationheights.com.
- The Mark of Athena, Rick Riordan
- Something Borrowed, Emily Giffin
- Something Blue, Emily Giffin
- The Unwanted Wife, Natasha Anders: I downloaded this Kindle book because it was a self-published $.99 book that had gained a following through Kindle reading. As a writer myself, I try to help out other writers. But while I could see the appeal of the novel to readers, I was sad to find that TUW was poorly written and poorly edited, and the story carried along mostly by empty drama, the plot severely lacking in several areas. It has the same high-octane emotional appeal of Twilight, but when it comes down to it, the plot was like Swiss cheese: so full of holes that I was distracted by what I could see on the other side. Now Anders has gone on to write a second book, A Husband's Regret, and both novels are actually being brought to print in April of this year. All I can say is that I hope someone at the publishing company gave Ander's manuscripts to a copy editor.
- Songbird, Syrie James
- That Woman: The Life of Wallis Simpson, Duchess of Windsor, Anne Sebba: I sought this book out after reading Abdication, and enjoyed the real life story of Wallis Simpson immensely. She was a fascinating woman who lived a fascinating life. She was an American debutante that altered the history of a nation irrevocably through her love affair with the Prince of Wales. Wallis was admired, chastised, criticized, and (I believe with Anna Sebba) misunderstood. The book is painstakingly put together and ripe with historical detail, which I appreciated greatly. Fascinating read!
- Cimarron Rose, James Lee Burke
- Looking for Alaska, John Green
- An Abundance of Katherines, Green
- The Last Ride, Thomas Eidson: I LOVED this book!!!! Hubster had me watch the film, The Missing, this spring, and when I saw that the film was based on this book, I ordered it on Amazon. If you haven't seen the movie, please check it out: it's a western, starring Cate Blanchett and Tommy Lee Jones. It's phenomenal. As well is the book, which Eidson wrote gracefully. His western is not a new story, but the main characters consist mostly of females, and they dance off the page with life. The novel weaves Native American mysticism in with the kidnapping of white girls for sale as prostitutes in Mexico, sending the heroine off on a quest to retrieve her beloved daughter. From start to finish, the novel gave me goosebumps, and I wanted to kiss Eidson for filling his book with such interesting and incredible women characters.
- Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, JK Rowling
- Z: A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald, Therese Anne Fowler: This novel is in the top five fiction novels I read this year. Fowler wrote an elegant, precisely researched book from the perspective of Zelda Fitzgerald, writer F. Scott Fitzgerald's wife and great love. Their love story is high drama and true love and addiction and mutual distraction, and completely irresistible for all those reasons. The pair couldn't live without each other but they couldn't seem to live with each other either, and the novel chronicles their life together with heartbreaking truth and loveliness. If you are Fitzgerald fan, you will love this book, for so much of who Fitzgerald was and what he wrote was wrapped up in his relationship with his wife. They lived a tumultuous, transient life filled with drinking and dancing and loving and fighting, and sometimes, writing. I would highly recommend this novel to anyone who either loves literature or historical fiction. You'll laugh and cry and wish that you could go back and help the Fitzgeralds as they walk the road to destruction.
- Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Rowling
- Revenge Wears Prada, Lauren Weisburger: Book sequels usually make me jump up and down with joy. I love the prospect of spending time with beloved characters again, living in their world for a while longer. But on the flip side, there is always some sequel anxiety, in which you worry that the second book will fail to live up to the bar set by the first book. Revenge Wears Prada, the follow up to Weisburger's work of genius, The Devils Wears Prada, is one such sequel. I wanted to throw the book when I finished, because Weisburger took her characters to places that I never wanted to see them go! Of course, we get to see a little more of Her Royal Horribleness, Miranda Priestly, but we also see Andi, who we rooted for all through TDWP, go down a road that we don't want to follow her on, and make a choice in the end that leaves the reader with a sick feeling in their stomach.
- Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Rowling
- Sisterhood Everlasting, Ann Brashares
- A Serpent's Tooth, Craig Johnson
- Paper Towns, John Green
- The Fault in Our Stars, John Green
- Across the High Lonesome, James McNay Brumfield
- The Cuckoo's Calling, Robert Galbraith (nee JK Rowling)
- The Lost Wife, Alyson Richman
- Call Me Zelda, Erika Robuck
- The Spirit of Steamboat, Craig Johnson
- Bones of the Lost, Kathy Reichs
- The Highway, CJ Box
- Lady Almina and the Real Downton Abbey, The Countess of Carnarvon
- The Mischief of the Mistletoe, Lauren Willig
- The Passion of the Purple Plumeria, Lauren Willig
- The Ashford Affair, Lauren Willig
- The Other Typist, Suzanne Rindell: I have to say, that out of all the books I read in 2013, this was the...weirdest. I was lured to this book by Audible.com, which told me that the book was set in the 20s, an era that I've been slightly obsessed with ever since Midnight in Paris was released. But while the book started out with great promise, it continued on to become very, very strange. The ending might have been one of the most...unsatisfying endings I have ever encountered in a novel. That being said, I still think about this book and the characters, trying to work out where everything could have gone so wrong.
- Breaking Point, CJ Box
- The Yonahlossee Riding Camp for Girls, Anton DiSclifani
- Divergent, Veronica Roth
- Just One Year, Gayle Foreman
- House of Hades, Rick Riordan
- The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Steig Larsson
- The Girl Who Played with Fire, Steig Larsson
- The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest, Steig Larsson
- Exposed: The Secret Life of Jodi Arias, Jane Velez-Mitchell
Classics Read this Year:
- Lady Chatterly's Lover, DH Lawrence
- Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare
- The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald
- Picture of Dorian Gray, Oscar Wilde
- The Importance of Being Earnest, Oscar Wilde
- Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen
- Mansfield Park, Austen
- Sense and Sensibility, Austen
- The Odyssey, Homer
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