2013 Year in Review: Favorite Books

Here’s my annual list of my ten favorite books read in the year.  As always, this is merely the best books I read this year not books published in 2013.  For previous years see 2012, 2011, 2010, 2009, 2008, 2007 and 2006. You may also want to check out My Favorite Books of All Time or see Every Book I’ve Ever Read cataloged in Library Thing.

In no particular order:

• The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
• Cape Cod by Henry David Thoureau
• Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein
• The Fault in Our Stars by John Green
• Hit By Pitch by Molly Lawless
• Laika by Nick Abadzis
• Love is a Mix Tape by Rob Sheffield
• They Might Be Giants’ Flood by S. Alexander Reed and Phillip Sandifer
• Transatlantic by Colum McCann
• Walkable City by Jeff Speck

And the complete list of books read in 2013 (books published in 2013 are in bold). And yes, I do intend to catch up on my book reviews as soon as I can:

January

• Band of Demons by Rob Blackwell – ***1/2
• The Swerve: How the World Became Modern by Stephen Greenblatt (A) – *1/2
• Physics of the Impossible by Michio Kaku (A) – **

February

• Walkable City by Jeff Speck – ****
• A History of the World in 6 Glasses by Tom Standage (A) – ***
• Take Five: Poems in 5/4 Time by Tad Richards – ***
• The Price of Inequality by Joseph E. Stiglitz (A) – ***

March

• Falling Upward by Richard Rohr (A) – **
• When spiritual but not religious is not enough : seeing god in surprising places, even the church by Lillian Daniel – ***

April

• Doctor Who: The Forgotten by Tony Lee – **
• We3 by Grant Morrison – *
• Free Range Kids by Lenore Skenazy (A) – ***
• Transatlantic by Colum McCann – ****
• Laika by Nick Abadzis – ****
• Back to Our Future by David Sirotta – ***1.2
• Love is a Mix Tape by Rob Sheffield (A) – ****

May

• A Spot of Bother by Mark Haddon (A) – **
• Through Time by Andrew Cartmel – ***
• The Discontinuity Guide by Paul Cornell, Martin Day and Keith Topping – **1/2

June

• Cape Cod by Henry David Thoureau – ***1/2
• Star Trek the next generation / Doctor Who. Assimilation² written by Scott & David Tipton with Tony Lee ; art by J.K. Woodward v1 – ***
• Atlantic by Simon Winchester (A) – **
• Who Could That Be At This Hour? by Lemony Snicket – ***
• Doctor Who : the writer’s tale by Russell T. Davies and Benjamin Cook – **

July

• Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein – ****1/2
• My Song by Harry Belafonte (A) – ***1/2
• Because I Said So by Ken Jennings – **1/2

August

• Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk by Ben Fountain – ***
• Travels in Siberia by Ian Frazier (A) – **

September

• Rivals by Tim Green – ***
• Honus & Me by Dan Gutman – ***1/2
• Hit By Pitch by Molly Lawless – ****
• The Wet and the Dry by Lawrence Osborne – *1/2
• Cat’s Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut – ***

October

•  Caleb’s Crossing by Geraldine Brooks (A) – ***
• The Woman Upstairs by Claire Messud (A) – **
• Isaac’s Storm by Erik Larson (A) – **

November

• The Book Thief by Markus Zusak (A) – ****
• Fighting Traffic by Peter Norton – ***1/2
• Distant Corners by David Wangerin – ***1/2

December

• Quiet by Susan Cain (A) – ***
• Give the Devil His Due by Rob Blackwell – ***1/2
• The Technologists by Matthew Pearl (A)
• They Might Be Giants’ Flood by S. Alexander Reed and Phillip Sandifer – ****
• The Fault in Our Stars by John Green – ****1/2
• Fables: Legends in Exile by Bill Willingham – **

What did you read in 2013, and what did you love?  Let me know in the comments.