The 2013 Book Post

2013 was a bad year for reading for me. I don't mean to imply that I read bad books. I mean I didn't read much. Over the past few years I've averaged around 35 new books a year (I reread Jane Austen and Scott Fitzgerald a few times a year). Last year I didn't crack 30 (this is pretty embarrassing and I feel like a giant slacker). I can't quite remember why, but I read four books straight off in January and then, excepting John Scalzi's excellent Red Shirts, nothing until April. That long without finishing a new book is virtually unheard of in my life as a reader.

The other sort of, well, surprising thing regarding my reading last year was that I didn't read a single romance novel. Okay, before you get all judge-y (I know you people, you're book snobs) I've read some heavy shit in my lifetime. A Fine Balance. Anna Karenina. I've started Charles Dickens more times than I can count and it's so boring I want to rip my hair out. Last year I suffered through Lady Chatterly's Lover (which, I suppose, if we were just going for smut content could be considered a romance) and wanted to die the whole time I was reading it. Hand to God, sometimes the antidote to modern, single life is crass and immediate retreat into a really good regency romance.

2013 was heavy in science fiction. I read a few novels by Octavia Butler, discovered Sarah Pinborough, destroyed The Shining Girls (which is utterly brilliant and you should pick it up immediately). Writing this, I suddenly realize that in a genre dominated by male authors I managed to read primarily ladies. Wooo, feminism. Or something.

I read a couple fantastical books that I just adored. Mr. Penumbra's 24 Hour Bookstore is the runner-up for my favorite book in 2013. Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell is a holyshityoucouldknockarobberoutwiththis a book and it took me all summer to wind my way through it, but it was absolutely work reading.

Then there were the rip your heart out and do the tarentella on it books. The books that left me a sobbing, shaking mess. The Ocean at the End of the Lane (it seems impossible that this was not my favorite book this year, and I can't tell you exactly why it isn't, only that the other ones just are. I suppose we'll see which books stick with me over time). And then there was my favorite book of the year, Love Minus Eighty. Holy shit. It's based on a short story that appeared in Asimov's in 2006 called "Bridesicles." It is a gem of a book. It's funny, sad, oddly relatable. I think, ultimately, the reason that I loved it was it was a collision between science-fiction, and well, romance (the non-smutty kind). The writing is rock solid, and I completely over-identified with the character Veronika. It's the kind of book that I can't recommend to everyone (as I am doing with my favorite read thus far in 2014) but I know that there are at least a couple people in my life who will adore it. And I'll love them all the more for it.

2013 Reading

Garment of Shadows (Laurie R. King, Mystery, Mary Russell Series)
Wild Seed (Octavia E. Butler, Science Fiction, Patternmaster Series)
Lady Chatterly's Lover (D.H. Lawerence, Classics, Snoozefest)
Gone Girl (Gillian Flynn, Mystery)
Red Shirts (John Scalzi, Science Fiction)
Mind of My Mind (Octavia E. Butler, Science Fiction, Patternmaster Series)
Fledgling (Octavia E. Butler, Horror (?))
Ocean at the End of the Lane (Neil Gaiman, Fantasy, Cried so Hard my Eyes Swelled Up. Seriously)
Sharp Objects (Gillian Flynn, Mystery)
Kushiel's Dart (Jacqueline Carey, Fantasy, Romance (?), Oh My God, is it Warm in Here?)
Bring Up the Bodies (Hilary Mantel, Historical Fiction)
Mayhem (Sarah Pinborough, Historical Fiction, Horror)
Let's Explore Diabetes with Owls (David Sedaris, Memoir)
The Silent Wife (S.A. Harrison, Fiction, Forgettable)
A Matter of Blood (Sarah Pinoborough, Science Fiction, Mystery, Horror (?) Dog Faced God's Trilogy)
The Hangman's Daughter (Oliver Potzsch, Historical Fiction)
The Shadow of the Soul (Sarah Pinoborough Science Fiction, Mystery, Horror (?) Dog Faced God's Trilogy)
Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell (Suzanne Clark, Fantasy)
Help for the Haunted (John Searles, Fiction, Mystery, Damn you, Kindle)
The Shining Girls (Lauren Beukes, Science Fiction, Holy Shit, Go Buy this Immediately)
Oryx and Crake (Margaret Atwood, Science Fiction)
Beautiful Ruins (Jess Walters, Fiction)
Mr. Penumbra's 24 Hour Bookstore (Robin Sloane, Fiction Ohmygodsqueeeeee)
V for Vendetta (Alan Moore, Graphic Novel, I Can't Believe I'm Admitting to Never Having Read this Before Now)
Something Missing (Matthew Dicks, Fiction)
Persepolis (Marjane Satrapi, Graphic Novel)
Submergence (J.M. Ledgard, Fiction)
Love Minus Eighty (Will McIntosh, Science Fiction, It's Ok, I Wasn't Using My Heart Anyway)
Vn (Madeline Ashby, Science Fiction)