My Books of 2013

There were good portions of 2013 where reading took a backseat while I adjusting to working outside the home again. Therefore, while last year I read a total of 30 books, this year I only read 23 and a good portion of those were re-reads to prepare for final installments in a series and/or movie versions.

I have seriously lost count of how many times I have read The Hunger Games, Catching Fire and Mockingjay and enjoy them equally if not more every time I read them. I started and failed to finish re-reading The Host and Ender's Game, remembering that while both books were enjoyable, they really didn't warrant a re-read (I think Ender's Game is such a good book because of it's ending).

The Divergent series, in which I loved, loved, loved the first and really liked the second, came up very short for me in it's final installment, Allegiant, leaving me very disappointed.

The Legend series, which was good but nothing amazing ended with the final installment, Champion, my last read of 2013 and I have to say I really, really enjoyed the conclusion.

I didn't give any books 5 stars this year. I'm pretty picky about handing that rating out apparently. However, there were several stand alone books this year that definitely stood out to me as favorites and I would feel comfortable recommending them to almost anybody. They were:

The Age of Miracles by Karen Thompson Walker (4.5 stars)
Where'd you Go Bernadette by Maria Semple
Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn (4.5 stars)
The Art of Fielding by Chad Harbach (4 stars)
Reconstructing Amelia by Kimberly McCreight (4 stars)

As I have stated before I usually don't finish reading books that would ultimately end up with only a 1 or 2 star rating. However, 2 books I did read and give low ratings were:

The World Without You by Joshua Henkin (2 stars)

I really thought it would redeem itself but by the end I just found myself thinking, what was the point? All of the characters were unlikable and not in an interesting/good way.

Requiem by Lauren Oliver (2 stars, Delerium series)

The first book in this series was really good, the second one just okay. I read the third one because many times the last book in a series picks up the pace and rounds out the series but honestly, I can't even remember what ended up happening in this book nor do I care.

Reading is one of my favorite hobbies and I hope to devote more time to it in 2014. One thing I will definitely be focusing on is discovering new books and new authors and while I love YA dystopian series, I am ready to spend more time reading other genres.

Happy reading and if you are not on Goodreads, I highly recommend it.