Friday, January 3, 2014

2013 Best Book Recap

This is more than a bit late, but these were the best books I read in 2013.





Crown of Midnight by Sarah J. Maas


Crown of Midnight was by far my favourite book of 2013!



The Republic of Thieves by Scott Lynch




Conjured by Sarah Beth Durst




Soulbound by Heather Brewer




The Goose Girl by Shannon Hale




Kushiel's Legacy by Jacqueline Carey


This series was by far the most surprising read for me!  The back cover reads like an erotica, but the actual book reads like a crazy awesome fantasy and I could go on and on about all the reasons why this fantasy in particular is mind blowing to me, but I will restrain myself.  For now.


Circle of Magic series by Tamora Pierce

Sandry's Book (Circle of Magic, #1)

I've now officially read every single Tamora Pierce book!
 ..wait I have to retract that statement.  I've read every single Tamora Pierce book except the last two Beka Cooper books.  Yay me and yay Tamora Pierce!







Tiger Lily by Jodi Lynn Anderson





A Cat Called Dog by Jem Vanston









The Lynburn Legacy by Sarah Rees Brennan

Unspoken (The Lynburn Legacy, #1)

My other favourite book of 2013!



The Evolution of Mara Dyer by Michelle Hodkin

The Evolution of Mara Dyer (Mara Dyer, #2)

I don't love everything about these books, but the sensation of feeling like you are slowly going insane and you can't trust in any reality and the suspense are totally worth it.


The Dresden Files by Jim Butcher

Storm Front (The Dresden Files, #1)

I can't believe it's taken me so long to accept that I am predisposed to enjoy this sort of series, but I'm so glad I finally started reading them!  And because this feels like Magnum P.I. as a wizard in Chicago, I can't help but imagine Harry as Tom Selleck, even if Harry doesn't have a glorious moustache.



The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman

The Graveyard Book





Linked by Imogen Howson






Dragonsong by Anne McCaffrey

Dragonsong (Pern: Harper Hall, #1)


Dragonsinger by Anne McCaffrey

Dragonsinger (Pern: Harper Hall, #2)





Seeing Red by Kathryn Erskine

Seeing Red



The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

The Book Thief

I don't even want to talk about what this book did to my soul.



Skeletons at the Feast by Chris Bohjalian

Skeletons at the Feast

How did I manage to read more than one WWII books?  I try to limit those since they're clearly going to be depressing.






Sure Signs of Crazy by Karen Harrington




Ape House by Sara Gruen

Ape House



Just Like Fate by Cat Patrick and Suzanne Young






Lock and Key by Sarah Dessen




The Summer I Turned Pretty by Jenny Han



This book surprised me about as much as the Kushiel trilogy did!  I didn't expect to enjoy this, especially as Contemporary YA isn't my scene (although 3 of these books on this list are Contemporary YA so clearly this is changing!)






Mao's Last Dancer by Li Cunxin


I don't read nonfiction.  To me this includes memoirs.  But this was an absolutely stunning read, and was one of the most beautifully written books I've ever read.



Dragonwriter:  A Tribute to Anne McCaffrey and Pern edited by Todd McCaffrey

 Dragonwriter: A Tribute to Anne McCaffrey and Pern

If you have any interest in Anne McCaffrey, science fiction, or female writers, you need to read this book.



And that's my belated favourites of 2013 list!  What was on your list for 2013?  Leave me a link in the comments!

23 comments:

  1. Wow! There are some amazing books on your list :-) I definitely want to read Just Like Fate and Unspoken. Happy New Year :-)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Better late than never! CoM, of course, no doubt about that. I also loved the Summer Trilogy. It's such nice contemporary read. Awesome list 9love the category (particularly the "impossible to genre." :D Happy New Year! xD

    ReplyDelete
  3. I couldn't recommend them more! I'm sure you've put up a 2013 list, but I'm about a week and a half behind in my blog reading haha!

    ReplyDelete
  4. You give me faith that I want to finish the Summer etc. books. I mean, I
    know I was totally shocked I loved the first book, but I wasn't
    convinced I was going to want to read the others (Especially the third
    one). I'm still so suspicious towards Contemporary YA!

    I read a
    really interesting article on why it's sad that YA is starting to have
    genres - something I never would have thought of as a
    bad thing. I'm not sure if you've read it or not as
    I've no idea where I found it, but it made some good points about how
    it'll start to limit books. But really, I would have no idea how to
    label those books regardless haha

    ReplyDelete
  5. Happy New Year! Great list :) Oh man, I really need to catch up on Scott Lynch; I loved The Lies of Locke Lamora but haven't continued thus far in the series. And yay for Pierce's The Circle of Magic, I loved that quartet growing up :) And The Graveyard Book and The Book Thief are just <333

    ReplyDelete
  6. Crown of Midnight was one of my favorite reads this year, too! It was so good - I couldn't stop turning the pages :) And I first read The Book Thief in 2012 I think, but it was definitely an all-time favorite for me!

    ReplyDelete
  7. And I need to read the first two! I think after reading Fangirl (and at least ONE book off my own shelf because I have GOT to control the book overflowage!) I'll be picking up those two. And Tamora Pierce is basically my childhood! This blog is going to be seeing a lot of Tamora Pierce love as I catch up and actually start reviewing all the books I've read haha

    ReplyDelete
  8. I am of the clearly biased opinion that CoM should be EVERYONE'S favourite book. I have accepted this will likely never be the case, but it makes me way happier than I have a right to be when I find out someone loves it, seeing as I had nothing to do with its creation. I didn't even end up reviewing it because I loved it so much I was afraid I wouldn't be able to articulate it hahaha

    ReplyDelete
  9. Ooh...found a couple books to add to the TBR. I'm going to ignore Goodreads' ratings and add Conjured bases solely on your recommendation. :D

    ReplyDelete
  10. The only one of these I have read is The Graveyard Book o_O a few are on my TBR list though, so I don't feel completely hopeless haha I will have to check some of the others I haven't heard of out though. Yay books!

    Also, Happy New Year!

    ReplyDelete
  11. I feel honoured! I really, really hope you like it!!

    ReplyDelete
  12. Happy New Year to you too! Some of these were middle grade fiction or not YA - I don't know what you read outside of YA, so I'm not too surprised. But DEFINITELY go read Crown of Midnight! Out of all of these, that is what you must. read.

    ReplyDelete
  13. I love so much how you did the headers for the genres. Very good!! Really creative. I love how much of a mixture you read. I too love to mix up the types of books I read or I get bored.

    ReplyDelete
  14. Thank you! I'm still new to figuring out what to do with them, but I quite like these. So I'm glad someone else thinks their cool :)


    Yeah I get stuck in reading ruts if I don't mix things up a bit. And there are just so many amazing books out there, how could I possibly limit myself?

    ReplyDelete
  15. There are some awesome books on your list! I've read only a small portion of them, but almost all of those I've loved, and The Graveyard Book is one of my alltime fav books, I think I'll never get enough of reading it :)
    Thanks for sharing!

    ReplyDelete
  16. I definitely think most of these would be up your alley, so the ones on your TBR you should get to for sure!

    ReplyDelete
  17. I adore Neil Gaiman. I've gotten so behind with his books though! I think The Graveyard book might be the most recent of all his books that I've read (unless Neverwhere is?) so I need to catch up!

    ReplyDelete
  18. I adore him, too. He's my #1 fav author, and I'm happy to say I'm finally all catched up on his books, at least when it comes to his full-length novels. I still haven't read his Sandman graphic novels, as well as most of his collections, that's something I'm still hoping to do.

    Neverwhere is quite older than The Graveyard Book. I really need to read again Neverwhere, one of the few of his books I still haven't reread. I have no idea how many times I've read The Graveyard Book, lots of times :)

    I hope you'll enjoy all of the Neil Gaiman's books when you get to them, almost all of them are awesome :)

    ReplyDelete
  19. I think that I'll appreciate Neverwhere a lot more now then the 1st time I read it, though I still enjoyed it a lot, I just loved some of his others a lot more, and I can't possibly pick one fav.

    I also loved the Neverwhere radio drama in 2013, and I finally watched the tv show, too, which was really good, considering how old it is.

    By the way, have you seen the movie MirrorMask?

    ReplyDelete
  20. I didn't know there was a Neverwhere radio drama! I'll have to check it out. I've hadn't heard of MirrorMask but I just looked it up and it looks awesome!

    ReplyDelete
  21. Yeah, there was one & it was so great, with some wonderful cast. It was available for a while on BBC's webpage, though I don't know if it still is.
    I was lucky to find out about it on Twitter from Neil Gaiman, while it was still broadcasted for the first time.

    ReplyDelete
  22. I think Neverwhere might be my favourite out of all of the ones I've read so far, but they're all pretty close. I haven't read his Sandman graphic novels either, but they're one of my best friend's favourite things ever. I'm not really into graphic novels, I'm more likely to read manga, but I've been considering dipping my toe into the pool. In which case his Sandman series would definitely be at the top of my list!

    ReplyDelete
  23. Oooh, so many books that are still on my wishlist. Makes me want to buy them even more :)
    The only ones I read are The Book Thief and Just Like Fate which I both love too!

    ReplyDelete

Thanks for leaving a comment! You've totally made my day :D

I love talking to you guys, so I always respond to comments. Be sure to check back!