Book Lists 2013

Once again it’s time to make my wishlist of books I want to read this year and list the books I actually do get around to reading

In additional to  topical lists of books on various subjects I will be maintaining lists of books I want to read for Lent,  Harry Truman’s Birthday and my Around the World for a Good Book project.

I’ll keep track of all the books I actually read in 2013 at the bottom of this page. You can also check out how I did the last couple of years on my Book Lists ‘08,  Book Lists ’09, Book Lists ’10,  Book Lists’ 11 and  Book Lists ’12 pages.  Visit Library Thing to see every book I’ve ever read as well as my 100 favorite books of all time.

Fiction

• Band of Demons by Rob Blackwell
• Sherlock Holmes and the Rune Stone Mystery by Larry Millett
• Every Day by David Levithan
• Who Could That Be at This Hour by Lemony Snicket
• Inheritance by Christopher Paolini
• Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson
• The Underland Chronicles by Suzanne Collins
• Walk the Blue Fields by Clair Keegan
• Cat’s Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut

Music

• Love is a Mix Tape by Rob Sheffield
• How Music Works by John Powell
• Sit Down and Shut Up by Brad Warner
• Our Band Could Be Your Life by Michael Azzerad

Science and Nature

• Bully for Brontosaurus by Stephen Jay Gould
  
• A Tear at the Edge of Creation by Marco Geiser
• Being With Animals by Barbara King
• Voyager by Stephen Pine

Politics and Economy

• The Cost of Rights by Stephen Holmes
  
• Back to Our Future by David Sirotta
• Feminism is For Everyone by bell hooks
• The Economics of Enough by Diane Coyle
• A Strange Stirring by Stephanie Coontz

Cities and Urbanism

• Walkable City by Jeff Speck
• Reclaiming Our Cities and Towns by David Engwicht
• Fighting Traffic by Peter Norton
• Eden on the Charles by Michael Rawson

Travel

• Last of the Donkey Pilgrims by Kevin O’Hara
  
• Round Ireland in Low Gear by Eric Newby
• It’s Game Time Somewhere by Tim Forbes
• Cape Cod by Henry David Thoureau

Misc.

• Cheesemonger by Gordon Edgar
  
• Distant Corners by David Wangerin
• The Long Shadow of the Civil War by Victoria Bynum
• Looking for Jimmy by Peter Quinn

Graphic Novels

• Laika by Nick Abadzis
• Hit By Pitch by Molly Lawless
• Fables by Bill Willingham
• Make A World by Ed Emberley
• Husk by Scott Thompson
• The Sandman by Neil Gaiman

Spiritual Reading For Lent

• Faitheist: How an Atheist Found Common Ground with the Religious by Chris Stedman
  
• Falling Upward by Richard Rohr
• Binding the Strong Man by Ched Myers
• God and Empire by John Dominic Crossan
• Jesus the Rebel by John Dear
• Encounters With Silence by Karl Rahner
• Flying in the Face of Tradition by Louis DeThomasis, FSC
• When spiritual but not religious is not enough : seeing god in surprising places, even the church by Lillian Daniel

Harry Truman’s Birthday (May 8) – switching Presidents this year to read a book that’s been on my shelf for 20 years.

• Truman by David McCullough
  

Around the World For A Good Book

• Algeria:Fantasia : An Algerian Cavalcade by Assia Djebar
• China: The Garlic Ballads by Mo Yan
• Colombia: One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
• Denmark: Smilla’s Sense of Snow by Peter Høeg
• Djibouti: In the United States of Africa by Abdourahman A. Waberi
• Israel: To the end of the land by David Grossman
• North Korea: The Aquariums of Pyongyang by  Kang Chol-Hwan

Audiobooks

Books Read in 2013

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 – ****
• 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 – **