I may not have finished NanoWrimo, but I did set a goal of reading 50 books this year…and so far I’ve read 46. But I’ve also read two manuscripts of completed drafts for friends, and I plan on finishing two more books before the year is out, so let’s say I met my goal. Yeah!
And of course, it’s that time of year again–the time for excessive listmaking and needless summarizing! It goes against my better impulses to indulge in this kind of practice, but who am I to rage against the spirit of the season?
Below are the Best Thirteen Books I Read in 2013, Regardless of Publication Date, listed alphabetically by author, with links to my Goodreads reviews.
Pitch Dark by Renata Adler
The Brooklyn Follies by Paul Auster
In Zanesville by Jo Ann Beard
Fun Home by Alison Bechdel
Behind the Beautiful Forevers by Katherine Boo
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald (reread)
Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk by Ben Fountain
The Orphan Master’s Son by Adam Johnson
The Flamethrowers by Rachel Kushner
Leaving the Atocha Station by Ben Lerner
The Heart is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers
The Member of the Wedding by Carson McCullers
Fools by Joan Silber
If you just can’t get enough information about my reading habits, here are the other books I read this year:
Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions, Edwin A. Abbott
Oryx and Crake, Margaret Atwood
Are You My Mother?, Alison Bechdel
What Happened to Sophie Wilder, Christopher Beha
Possession, A.S. Byatt
Telegraph Avenue, Michael Chabon
Collision Low Crossers, Nicholas Dawidoff
At the Bottom of Everything, Ben Dolnick
His Last Bow (Sherlock Holmes, #8), Arthur Conan Doyle
Screw Everyone: Sleeping My Way to Monogamy, Ophira Eisenberg
What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank, Nathan Englander
The Signature of All Things, Elizabeth Gilbert
The World Without You, Joshua Henkin
You Are One of Them, Elliott Holt
In One Person, John Irving
Jesus’ Son, Denis Johnson
It Chooses You, Miranda July
The Liars’ Club, Mary Karr
Orange is the New Black, Piper Kerman
The Twelve Tribes of Hattie, Ayana Mathis
The Miracle of Castel di Sangro, Joe McGinniss
Subliminal: How Your Unconscious Mind Rules Your Behavior, Leonard Mlodinow
Wonder, R.J. Palacio
Night Film, Marisha Pessl
CivilWarLand in Bad Decline, George Saunders
Pastoralia, George Saunders
Writing Alone and with Others, Pat Schneider
The Revolution Was Televised, Alan Sepinwall
The Caliph’s House: A Year in Casablanca, Tahir Shah
Prep, Curtis Sittenfeld
The First Four Books of Sampson Starkweather, Sampson Starkweather
Walden, Henry David Thoreau
The Interestings, Meg Wolitzer