Books I Read in 2013

I read 44 books in 2013, between my book club, library recommendations, Time’s all-time 100 novels, and TED speaker recommendations. My rating system is based mostly on how much I enjoyed the plot, and how well written the book was. Happily, most everything I read is a 3 or above – this year there was only one * (Shine, Shine, Shine) and one ***** (The Night Circus).

The Ratings

Books are rated on a totally subjective scale of 1-5 stars. In short, here’s what each rating means:

• * I couldn’t finish reading it, I hated it so much
• ** I finished the book, but I wish I had the hours back I spent on it
• *** It was about as expected, glad I read it but I wouldn’t recommend it
• **** I really enjoyed reading the book, and would definitely recommend it to others
• **** I MUST OWN THIS NOW! I want to reread it over and over and over

Here’s to another year of reading!

Books I Read in 2013

Yes Chef, by Marcus Sameulson***
The Invisible Man, by H.G. Wells**
Ethan Frome, by Edith Wharton***
Mrs. Dalloway, by Virgina Woolf**
The Receptionist, by Janet Groth**
Cloud Atlas, by David Mitchell****
Eating by the Light of the Moon, by Anita A. Johnston****
We Sinners, by Hanna Pylvainen**
Elantris, by Brandon Sanderson****
Night Circus, by Erin Morgenstern*****
The Blind Assassin, by Margaret Atwood***
In the Woods, by Tana French***
The Hiding Place, by Corrie Ten Boom***
Little Wolves, by Thomas Maltman***
Brideshead Revisited, by Evelyn Waugh**
Rebekah, by Orson Scott Card**
Enchantment, by Orson Scott Card***
The Likeness, by Tana French***
The Golem and the Jinni, by Helene Wecker**
The Story of Lucy Gault, by William Trevor*
The Giver, by Lois Lowry****
Gathering Blue, by Lois Lowry***
Messenger, by Lois Lowry***
Son, by Lois Lowry**
Y, by Marjorie Celona***
YaYas in Bloom, by Rebecca Wells***
Beautiful Ruins, by Jess Walter**
Ender’s Game, by Orson Scott Card****
All the King’s Men, by Robert Penn Warren***
The Chosen, by Chaim Potok***
Ender’s Shadow, by Orson Scott Card***
Shadow of the Hedgemon, by Orson Scott Card***
American Pastoral, by Phillip Roth***
Shine, Shine, Shine, by Lydia Netzer*
Proust and the Squid: the Story and Science of the Reading Brain, by Maryanne Wolf***
The Creation of the Media, by Paul Starr***
Sabriel, by Garth Nix***
The Joy Luck Club, by Amy Tan***
The Penderwicks on Gardam Street, by Jeanne Birdsall**
An American Tragedy, by Theodore Dreiser**
My Name is Asher Lev, by Chaim Potok***
The Interestings, by Meg Wolitzer****
We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves, by Karen Joy Fowler**
City of Thieves, by David Benioff****

 

Attempted but not finished:
Trainspotting, by Irvine Welsh