Forgetfulone: My Year in Books (2013)

Sunday, January 05, 2014

My Year in Books (2013)

I love to read! And I love using Goodreads. I keep track of all the books I read, and at the end of the year, I like to take a look back at what I've read and set some new goals for the coming year. My goals for 2014:

to read books by at least 3 new authors that I have never read before,
to read at least 2 nonfiction books,
to read more books in 2014 than 2013,
and to read at least 4 young adult novels that I can recommend to my students.

Here is my year in books:

Stephen White
*Compound Fractures

Robert Swartwood
The Serial Killer’s Wife

Lemony Snicket
*The Hostile Hospital

James Patterson (6)
*Private Games
The Christmas Wedding
*Gone
*Private London
Zoo
*Alex Cross, Run

Wilson Rawls
Where the Red Fern Grows

Darcy O’ Brien
The Hillside Stranglers
Gregory MacGuire
*A Lion Among Men

Tim LaHaye
*Appolyon

Alan Jacobson
*Crush

Kristin Hannah
Firefly Lane
Andrew Gross (2)
15 Seconds
Eyes Wide Open

John Grisham
*Sycamore Row

Anne Frasier
Hush

Janet Evanovich
*Takedown Twenty

Ethan Cross
The Shepherd

Robert Crais
*Suspect

Patricia Cornwell
*Unnatural Exposure

Michael Connelly (4)
*The Black Box
*Nine Dragons
*The Drop
*The Overlook

Ally Condie
*Matched

Richard Castle (2)
*Deadly Heat
*Frozen Heat

Jefferson Bass
*Carved in Bone

21 authors (7 authors were first-timers for me
31 books (30 fiction, 3 of which were young adult novels; 1 nonfiction)
21 books were part of series

There is a 3-way tie for my least favorite book – A Lion Among Men (although I enjoyed the first two books in the series), Matched (the author tried too hard to mimic The Giver, yet the style was repetitive and predictable), and The Shepherd (poor grammar and way too much suspension of reality).

My favorite book was Sycamore Row by John Grisham. I love the main character, and Grisham does courtroom drama better than anyone! However, I would say that Michael Connelly is also one of my favorite authors. I'm starting 2014 by reading his most recent book now.