My Year in Reading - 2013

We're back from a bit of a holiday-season hiatus with Madeleine, who's taking a look at what exactly she read in 2013.

Madeleine's Top Five Favorite Books of 2013

In alphabetical order by author's last name, because having to rank them further would be torture!

• Life After Life by Kate Atkinson
• Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman
• Burial Rites by Hannah Kent
• Teaspoon of Earth and Sea by Dinah Nayeri
• Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein (no review, sorry)

The Best Reread 

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak (which won by a narrow margin after a rather fierce battle with Jane Eyre and A Tree Grows in Brooklyn).

Breaking Down the Numbers

• I read 70 books in 2013, just shy of my goal of 75 books. This number was a lot lower than last year, when I read a personal record of 107 books.

• I read a lot more fiction than non-fiction (83% fiction). Most books were new to me, but I did reread 7 books.
• My 56 distinct authors came from 12 countries around the world. 26 were from the US, 19 were from the UK, 2 were from Australia, and 1 came from each of the countries marked on the map below.
  
  
  
  
• As you can see, my reading was highly Eurocentric (something to work on!), with only 2 authors from the Middle East, 1 from South America and none from Africa or Asia.
• The oldest book(s) I read were originally published in 1847 (Agnes Grey and Jane Eyre) and the newest hasn't been published yet (The Dead in Their Vaulted Arches).
• Most of my books come from the library! This year, 71% of books I read were library books.
  
• My biggest genres were fantasy, mystery/thriller, and (unexpectedly) historical fiction this year.

My reading goal for 2014 is a more modest 50 books (slightly less than one a week). What about you? What were your favorite books of 2013? What are you looking forward to in 2014?

The Theory of Everything

I saw this book while shelving and was drawn to it because of the blue cover and the trees in the letters of the title. I flipped to the back and without reading the premise of the book, I knew I had to check out. On the back cover is a chart. A CHART! Listing percentages of things in the book. I was sold. 5% possum? Done. I had to see where the possum fits in. It already seemed like my kind of humor and it was a chart!

The premise of the book sounds like a sad one. Our main character, Sarah, lost her friend in a tragic accident and is still not over it. Her family, friends and boyfriend aren't sure how to help her and are frankly getting a little upset with her seeming lack of ability to move on. Add to this a Christmas tree farm, some snarky behavior, and a main character that felt like she could be my best friend, and I was so excited to read this. I was not let down.

Sarah is awesome. I loved that while she was being a bit snarky and bitchy, even she was getting fed up with her own behavior. She wanted to change but couldn't figure out how and I can relate to feeling unsure of how to change yourself. I loved that she would say something and instantly in her head, "Why can't you just be normal?! Why are you like this?" I couldn't put this down because I had to see what happened in her life.

I was a little bummed out by the ending and after reading many other reviews, I was not alone. I won't give away any information, but I felt like one aspect seemed a bit out of character and there could have been more resolution. I wanted this to have the bow tie ending where everything was in its final place and that was that.

I need to request the other book by this author and see if I love it just as much. I will be on the lookout for future books as well!

5/5 stars! I loved this one.