Read in 2013

[pen_grunt]

The annual booklist-in-review. 31 books, which is rather disappointingly low. I may have missed a few, but I blame the lack entirely on Les Miserables...which is the name of the book and is also the feeling you get whilst reading said book. That took me two stinking months to get through, and I refused to read anything else as long as that was still in-progress. So I ended up just not reading because picking up Les Mis again was SO PAINFUL sometimes. I mean seriously. People die in that book for Reasons. Sadness. Sadness causes death. Or just...I don't know, being away from the people you like. TERMINAL ILLNESS. Even when they come to visit you in the end you're just like, "Newp, mortal coil? Throwing off that shit. TOO LATE."

Good stuff: Wool/Shift/Dust. Also, Bossypants was tremendously funny in parts. Haunted was intense. The Tiger's Wife was very good. I also loved My Life in France because Julia Child. I love her.

Bad stuff: The Church of the Path of Least Resistance kind of proved that my cousin has gone off his libertarian rocker once and for all. His earlier stuff was kind of sloppy, but surprisingly creative. Now it's just bad fiction to Prove A Point. And it's not a good point, either. The Hangman's Daughter wasn't entirely bad, it was just really milquetoast and there wasn't anything impressive about the writing or the story. Oh, and Les Miserables, obviously.

My Life in France -- Julia Child
Les Miserables -- Victor Hugo
Lonesome Dove -- Larry McMurtry
Workin' It -- RuPaul
The Church of the Path of Least Resistance -- Mark Covington

Angela's Ashes -- Frank McCourt
The Night Circus -- Erin Morgenstern
Deathless -- Catherynne Valente
Midnight's Children -- Salmon Rushdie
Three Men in A Boat -- Jerome K Jerome

To Say Nothing of the Dog -- Connie Wills
Wool -- Hugh Howie
Shift -- Hugh Howie
Dust -- Hugh Howie
For Bread Alone -- Mohammud Chokari

Gone Girl -- Gillian Flynn
Bossypants -- Tina Fey
The Ocean at the End of the Lane -- Neil Gaiman
The Fault in Our Stars -- John Green
Haunted -- Chuck Palaniuk

Mary Tudor: Princess, Bastard, Queen -- Anne Whitelock
The Tiger's Wife -- Tea Obreht
The Hangman's Daughter -- Oliver Potsch
American Beauty -- Alan Ball
The Hunger Games -- Suzanne Collins (re-read)

Night of the Living Trekkies -- Kevin David
Catching Fire -- Suzanne Collins (re-read)
Mockingjay -- Suzanne Collins (re-read)
Hideous Kinky -- Esther Freud
Odd and the Frost Giants -- Neil Gaiman

My Uncle Oswald -- Roald Dahl

Goal for 2014: read more. I just have to beat 31 books, which shouldn't be so hard.

Comments

[fontosaurus.livejournal.com]

The Wool/Shift/Dust series was flat-out amazing. I read the first two parts in 2012, and was hanging on waiting for Dust. I wasn't disappointed.

I've heard mixed reviews of "The Fault in Our Stars", which I have in a big bundle of e-books I haven't tackled yet. Thoughts?

Also, yeah, I came in low this year, too -- only 29 books, and a large chunk of them were re-reads. (I re-read all of Scalzi's "Old Man's War" series, and re-read all of grrm's ASOIAF series. I read 29 books in 2013, down from 41 the previous year. Frustrating. I set a goal of 50 for 2014 in Goodreads.

[pen-grunt.livejournal.com]

I really loved Wool/Shift/Dust. It was the first series I've read in a while that was instantly compelling and continued to be compelling.

I would say that "The Fault in Our Stars" tends to be juvenile-ish. It's good if you take into account that it has the appropriate depth of a teen read. It's quick read, too.

I think re-reading ASOIAF counts for a few extra books. :)