The Magpies
The Mummyfesto
The Secret Keeper
Three Girls and a Baby
When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit
The 19th Wife
One Night
The Leopard
When Will I Sleep Through the Night?: All the Things They Never Tell You
Chasing Harry Winston
French Children Don't Throw Food
Where We Belong
Life After Life
What to Expect When You're Expecting
The State Of Me
The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared
Sweet Talk
The Alchemist

Above are a most of the books I read in 2013. I managed to just beat my self imposed target of 30 books by reading 31! This year I have set myself 50 and hope to beat that, and will spend less time faffing about on my phone and the internet late at night and climb into bed with a book (okay, or a kindle) instead. I very rarely write reviews on the books I read on Goodreads (my profile is here, be my friend!?) but generally always star-rate them. If I had to choose my top four favourite books from this year then they would be as follows:

Kate Atkinson – Life after Life – I haven’t read anything by Kate Atkinson that I’ve not immensely enjoyed and this was no exception. This took a little while to get into but I am so glad I persevered. The story focuses on Ursula, who is stillborn… and who also isn’t, confused? The book follows the life of her and her family through both scenarios, and the numerous ways she dies later in life. So hard to explain but worth a read.
Kate Morton – The Secret Keeper – Another family historical novel, life above but this one focuses on the story of Laurel and her family. She witnesses a terrible thing when she is in her teens and the novel focuses on her digging away at the past to try and find out the truth of why her mother did what she did… I couldn’t put it down.
Lesley Pearce – Never Look Back – Another historical novel, perhaps I’ve found my new favourite genre? This is an epic book, taking us on a journey from the slums of London, to New York, along the Oregon trail and onto San Francisco in the gold rush era. There is a strong romantic storyline which I normally avoid but it actually adds a lot to the novel, and I really felt an affinity with the characters. This novel contains so much detail that it was a joy to read, and I think if I re-read it I’d discover things I’d missed the first time round.
David Ebershoff – The 19th Wife – it’s official, historical novels are my new favourite! I only realised after I picked these four out that they all fit the genre! This focuses on the foundation of the Mormon LDS church, and skips between the present and the past in a pretty interesting way. We get to find out what life was like for the 19th wife in the original church and in the newer, current version, with a bit of a murder mystery flung in for good measure. Really enjoyable!
For this year I plan to do a book review post every couple of months, and also want to read all the actual ‘print and paper’ books on my shelves that I’ve not yet read, so I can pass them on to someone else or donate them to a charity shop. Every time I move I end up giving/donating 2 HUGE boxes of books and so am on a mission to keep books in the house at a minimum.This makes me infinitely sad, as if I had enough space I would keep everything, but having two parents who both have houses full of books (I mean wall to ceiling in my dads and teetering piles all over the place in my mums) I am determined for my house not to get like that until I can have a designated library room. I also want to keep space for Athena’s books too.
What’s the best book you’ve read recently?

2 thoughts on “What I read in 2013

  1. I have read none of your top four – this seems to be a theme recently. Life After Life has been sitting on my shelf for months but it’s never the one I go for despite seeing so many good reviews. Eventually I’ll go for it!

  2. Oh I have Life after Life to read! I also need to read my printed books that are unread so I can stash the ones I want to keep in the spare wardrobe 🙂

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