Chicks On Lit discussion

I love to read people's year end reviews of books! So what was your best book of 2013? Your worst? A surprise read? A book you really wanted to get to but didn't? Any others?

My favorite read for 2013 was Unteachable. Followed closely by Making Faces I have since forgotten my worse. :)

My best book of 2013 was The Gift of Rain. It's just a wonderfully perfect book. Great characters, great plot, interesting history. It was a book I looked forward to losing my self in every time I picked it up!

My 2 worst books were Light from a Distant Star and The Heart is a Lonely Hunter. Both are character studies, which I really can't stand anyway. I think I would have felt less revulsion at Distant Star if goodreads didn't compare it to To Kill a Mockingbird, which is one of my all time favs. Because goodreads primed me for that, I could see similarities, but they were warped and twisted and horrible. Lonely Hunter was just boring and nothing happened.

I think a surprise book was Linger. I had read the first book, Shiver, and liked it, but wasn't completely into it, but the series got much better in Linger. I had hoped to quickly get to the last book, Forever, but didn't. I also wanted to get to Tilt after reading the adult version of the story in Triangles. Thankfully, I have a whole new year ahead of me!

Best:
"A Paper Bag Christmas"
"The Christmas Clock"
"Two Tickets To The Christmas Ball"
"Miracle on 34th St"
"Catacombs"
"The Christmas Note"
"Cloaked"
"Glass"
"The Story Teller"

Worst:
"Your Republic Is Calling You"
"Obasan"
"Murder At The Vicarage"
"House of Stone"
"The Oriental Casebook of Sherlock Holmes"-disappointing
"When It Happens"
"A Night At The Cemetery and Other Stories of Crime and Suspense"

Wanted To Like But Didn't
"Skipping Christmas"

I had lots of great reads in 2013.

Best fiction: The Fault in Our Stars
Best non-fiction: The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined

Worst: The Lifeboat

Favorite reads of 2013:



I can't say there was anything that I really disliked.

I too loved "The Orphan Master's Son" by Adam Johnnson. Another fabulous book I read in 2013 is "Let the great World Spin" by Colum McCann. Highly recommend them both. 2013 was a good reading year for me, so no "worst" books to relate.

Ditto Stacey - loved Let The Great World Spin - didn't read it this year, but did read his Transatlantic. I enjoy his writing.

Nancy (NE) wrote: "Ditto Stacey - loved Let The Great World Spin - didn't read it this year, but did read his Transatlantic. I enjoy his writing."

I am in the middle of Transatlantic. It's amazing!

Glad you like it Diane! Have you read the other one??

Nancy (NE) wrote: "Glad you like it Diane! Have you read the other one??"

No, but it sounds like I should read it.

Yes!!

The best was 'Water for Elephants'. Don't know about the worst.

Interestingly, my 5-stars for last year were all young adult books I read aloud to my daughter. A Wrinkle in Time, The Incredible Journey, The One and Only Ivan, and The Green Glass Sea. Something about all these YA books just touched me. I also enjoyed being able to share the emotion of all of them with my daughter.

My 1-stars for the year were They Think That I Am Somewhat, Sandustee: The Search for the Nazarene's Code, and Infinite Jest.

Too many favourite reads from 2013! Paris, A Constellation of Vital Phenomena: A Novel, The Smart One, Fangirl, Bring Up the Bodies, Shadow of Night, etc, etc.

Least favourite reads from last year included Cousin Bette, The Glass Room, Questions of Travel and Unexploded.

Some surprise reads included Mrs. Poe, Becoming Josephine: A Novel and A Spear of Summer Grass; all three of those books were far more fascinating and engrossing than I initially thought they would be xD

Funny that I put Infinite Jest as one of my favorites of the year. (I'm laughing, Sheila, because I know you hated it!).
I also loved Kafka on the Shore, Norwegian Wood, Letters to a Young Poet, and Unnatural Creatures.

There were no books I really disliked - I guess it was a good reading year!

Amy wrote: "Funny that I put Infinite Jest as one of my favorites of the year. (I'm laughing, Sheila, because I know you hated it!)"

It is certainly a love it or hate it type of book! LOL