Top Thirteen Tuesday–Favorite reads of 2013

 

I’m back for Top Ten Tuesday with my favorite reads of 2013.  I couldn’t narrow it down to 10 so in honor of the year I picked thirteen.

Thanks again to The Broke and The Bookish for Hosting Top 10 Tuesdays.

My top 13 in the order I read them.

2013 Reading Summary

I know a lot of book bloggers do little recaps at the end of each month and I always think it’s a great idea, but never quite get it done.  Instead I’m doing a year in review summary for all of 2013.  While analyzing the data I have come to a couple embarrassing conclusions about myself, but I’ll get to those later.  First off the raw numbers.

Books read: 86*

Books reviewed: 26

Pages read: 29,402*

Fiction: 82

Nonfiction: 6

Books in a Series: 38 or 23 (depending on if you count companion novels)

New to me Authors: 44

Female Authors: 56**

Male Authors: 8**

Adult: 41

Young Adult: 45

Books completed for Back to the Classics Challenge: 2 (plan of 6)

Books read for TBR Pile Challenge: 7 (plan of 12)

*Includes 3 books that I DNF and have officially decided I never will.  Does not include about 5 that I did not finish but haven’t given up on.

**Doesn’t count authors twice if I read more than one of their books this year.

The most embarrassing statistic up there (at least to me) is the Female to Male author ratio and it’s actually worse that it appears.  I’ve read books by 56 women and 8 men, but when you count multiple books by the same author it becomes 76 books by women and 10 books by men.

As anyone who follows my blog is probably aware I had a job change this year that put a damper on my reading habits for a while during the adjustment period.  Can you see the adjustment period?

I think this makes it much clearer (I tend to post reviews out about 6 weeks)

I’m quite proud that my Adult to YA ratio was so close to even (although I may have counted New Adult books as Adult and I’m not quite sure on that one).
Here’s a lovely chart that breaks down what I read by genre

Does anyone else have the same issue with author ratio that I do?  Any other interesting discoveries about personal reading habits that surprised you?

Top 10 Tuesday–Specific Recommendations

Every Tuesday the ladies over at The Broke and the Bookish give a top 10 topic up for discussion.

This week Top 10 topic is Top 10 books I’d recommend to X person.  So my friends and family are all getting personalized recommendations (like they don’t get those anyway)

Top Ten Tuesday - Covers I'd like Redesigned

Every Tuesday the ladies over at The Broke and the Bookish host a book related Top 10 theme. 

 

 Today’s Top 10 topic is covers I’d like to re-design.  I have very little artistic ability, but I’d like someone to redesign these covers.

First up is a trend in covers that I’ve never really understood – teenage body parts (legs, torsos) and no face.  I don’t get it.  I’m ok if the focus is on something else like this Sarah Dessen novel.

 But not these

What Happened to Goodbye and Keeping the Moon by Sarah Dessen

Catching Jordan and Stealing Parker by Miranda Kenneally

Sloppy Firsts by Megan McCafferty

More Like Her by Liza Palmer

I just don’t thinks these covers have anything to do with the books.  Look at the pretty face.  Buy the book.

Delirium, Pandemonium, and Requiem by Lauren Oliver

And these last two are just kinda meh.

 

Saving Francesca by Melina Marchetta

A Total Waste of Makeup by Kim Gruenenfelder

Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Sepetys

Between Shades of Gray
Ruta Sepetys
Philomel Books, March 2011, 344 pgs
Physical Book (I think I bought on Amazon)
Official Summary

Lina is just like any other fifteen-year-old Lithuanian girl in 1941. She paints, she draws, she gets crushes on boys. Until one night when Soviet officers barge into her home, tearing her family from the comfortable life they've known. Separated from her father, forced onto a crowded and dirty train car, Lina, her mother, and her young brother slowly make their way north, crossing the Arctic Circle, to a work camp in the coldest reaches of Siberia. Here they are forced, under Stalin's orders, to dig for beets and fight for their lives under the cruelest of conditions.

Lina finds solace in her art, meticulously--and at great risk--documenting events by drawing, hoping these messages will make their way to her father's prison camp to let him know they are still alive. It is a long and harrowing journey, spanning years and covering 6,500 miles, but it is through incredible strength, love, and hope that Lina ultimately survives. Between Shades of Gray is a novel that will steal your breath and capture your heart.

My Thoughts

I never would have made it through Between Shades of Gray if it hadn’t been a bookclub choice.  The writing was beautiful and I was largely unaware of the work camps Russia had run during WWII – I’m glad I read this for that reason alone.  I just found it too depressing and hopeless and I haven’t been able to figure out why I struggle so much with this novel when I’ve read and enjoyed concentration camp novels, slavery novels, Apartheid novels, etc. 

There were a few moments of light (dim and brief) throughout the novel and I grasp at these the best I could to get through the book, but I’m pretty sure I’m the problem on this one so I’m not going to rate it.

Top Ten(6) Tuesday - Sequels I'm Dying to get my Hands on

Every Tuesday the ladies over at The Broke and the Bookish host a book related Top 10 theme. 

 

 

Today’s topic is Top Ten sequels I can’t wait to get my hands on.  After the disappointment of Insurgent, I’ve sort of taken a step back from series.  I still read a few (very carefully), but try not to get my hopes up until they are all out because as I’ve discovered a few times over the last couple years, it’s surprisingly disappointing when a sequel doesn’t measure up.

That said I still have several release dates seared in my brain for sequels that I am quite antsy for.  I don’t have 10.

Here they are in no particular order:

Ruins by Dan Wells – Full disclosure, I still haven’t read Fragments.  I loved Partials, but for some reason have concerns about the second books slump in this series and sometimes immediately reading the final book masks book 2 plot holes.

Evertrue by Brodi Ashton

The City of Mirrors by Justin Cronin - No cover out yet for this one (or official release date)

Into the Still Blue by Veronica Rossi  - They pushed this back to January!  I want it!

Isla and the Happily Ever After by Stephanie Perkins – If this gets pushed back again I may cry.

Cress by Marissa Meyer

 

Throwback Thursday: A Total Waste of Makeup by Kim Gruenenfelder

A Total Waste of Makeup

Kim Gruenenfelder

St. Martin’s Griffin, 384 pgs, 2005

Physical book 

Official Summary

Charlize "Charlie" Edwards certainly knows, in theory, what it takes to lead a successful and happy life. She owns a nice house in Silverlake, LA's trendiest neighborhood. She has glamorous and loyal friends who accompany her to the hottest clubs in town. And she works as the personal assistant to Drew Stanton, Hollywood's sexiest movie star. But she's also turning 30, chronically single, and faced with serving as maid of honor at her younger sister's wedding. Charlie finds herself struggling to juggle the chaos of wedding planning (while wondering if she'll ever wear the white dress herself), her all-consuming job for lunatic boss Stanton, and a serious crush on Jordan, a photographer on the set of Drew's latest feature--a man who might actually return her feelings. A page-turner from start to finish, A Total Waste of Makeup puts a fresh face on women's fiction.

First Read

I don’t remember for sure.  I’m guessing 2009 or 2010 so pre-blog but not that long ago. 

What made me love A Total Waste of Makeup

It’s funny.  Laugh out loud funny.  A lot of the situations that Charlie’s boss Drew gets into are downright ludicrous (I had to spell check that because I spelled it like the rapper), and the clueless way he reacts the these situations is priceless.  But Drew has a great heart even when he’s clueless.  It’s a nice change of pace from the typical celebrity as an overbearing, unreasonable expectations boss story. 

This book has a little bit of everything:  funny, down on her romance luck protagonist in Charlie, swoon-worthy romantic interest (not Drew) and fun girl times with her best friends.  Throw in a quirky, interesting family (and a wedding).  Great light read.

 

 

 

The Devil's Mixtape by Mary Borsellino

The Devil’s Mixtape
Mary Borsellino
Dec 2011, Omnium Gatherum
Kindle

Why I read this book

Normally I pull the official summary of a book and post that before my thoughts.  I read this book without every reading the book summary.  I read it because I stumbled across a quote from the book and from that quote I knew I had to read The Devil’s Mixtape. 

“As soon as teenage girls start to profess love for something, everyone else becomes totally dismissive of it. Teenage girls are open season for the cruelest bullying that our society can dream up. Everyone's vicious to them. They're vicious to each other. Hell, they're even vicious to themselves. It's terrible.


So if teenage girls have something that they love, isn't that a good thing? Isn't it better for them to find some words they believe in, words like the 'fire-proof and fearless' lyrics that Jacqui wrote? Isn't it better for them to put those words on their arm in a tattoo than for them to cut gashes in that same skin? Shouldn't we be grateful when teenage girls love our work? Shouldn't that be a fucking honor?

It's used as the cheapest, easiest test of crap, isn't it? If teenage girls love a movie, a book, a band, then it's immediately classified as mediocre shit. Well, I'm not going to stand for that. Someone needs to treat them like they're precious, and if nobody else is ready to step up, I guess it's up to us to put them on the path to recognizing that about themselves.”

I had an “AHA” moment when I read that.  It was something that I’ve kind of understood, but never fully put the entire thought together. 

My Summary / Thoughts

So this book is told in alternating chapters from completely different perspectives, places, and times.  The first is the perspective of a girl in hell.  She went to school one day in 1999 with weapons and a plan.  It’s been a little more than a decade since she died and she’s writing to her younger sister who grew up in the aftermath of that day.  Sounds appealing, huh?   Next there’s a couple vagabond teenage girls in Australia in 1952.  Finally you read the writings of a journalist doing a story on a band touring in Australia in 2011. 

Each story feels completely separate from the others but with the underlying theme of ignored girls/women.  Then you start to see other connections within the major stories.  I strongly suggest keeping a character list and drawing relationship lines and you discover them.  I finally did this about two thirds of the way through the book.

Anyway, I loved The Devil’s Mixtape.  It was a quote smorgasbord, but I’m not going to put any more of them in here.  I’ve tried not to give anything away in my review and part of the fun of reading it is having those moments where a quote grabs you and you have to go back and read it a couple more times.

My Rating

Enjoyability (4 out of  5 stars)

Characters (4 out of 5 stars)

Writing (5 out of 5 stars)

I’ll remember pieces and quotes from this forever.  I’m still a little confused about certain pieces so if I don’t reread those won’t stick.

 

The Melody of Secrets by Jeffrey Stepakoff

The Melody of Secrets

Jeffrey Stepakoff

272 pgs, 10/29/13

Netgalley

 

Goodreads Summary

Jeffrey Stepakoff's The Melody of Secrets is an epic love story set against the 1960s U.S. space program, when deeply-buried secrets could threaten not just a marriage, but a country.

Maria was barely eighteen as WWII was coming to its explosive end. A brilliant violinist, she tried to comfort herself with the Sibelius Concerto as American bombs rained down. James Cooper wasn't much older. A roguish fighter pilot stationed in London, he was shot down during a daring night raid and sought shelter in Maria’s cottage. Fifteen years later, in Huntsville, Alabama, Maria is married to a German rocket scientist who works for the burgeoning U.S. space program. Her life in the South is at peace, purposefully distanced from her past. Everything is as it should be—until James Cooper walks back into it.

Pulled from the desert airfield where he was testing planes no sane Air Force pilot would touch, and drinking a bit too much, Cooper is offered the chance to work for the government, and move himself to the front of the line for the astronaut program. He soon realizes that his job is to report not only on the rocket engines but also on the scientists developing them. Then Cooper learns secrets that could shatter Maria’s world.

My Thoughts

This is Maria’s story.  It mainly takes place in 1957 with a few flashbacks to 1945 for the backstory.  Maria was born in Germany and lived there throughout the war.  She witnessed terrible things and when Hans – a man who had taken care of her after her parents deaths – proposed with condition of moving to the U.S. she accepted.  Maria is mostly happy with her life in Alabama.  She has a nice house, a caring but not passionate husband, and a son she adores.  She’s also part of a symphony that they (the other German transplants) have started in their town and the symphony is taking off largely thanks to her. 

Then James Cooper, an American Pilot she spent a few days with during the war turns up and everything happens all at once.  Questions of whether she should have accepted Hans’ proposal or waited for James resurface.   Maria starts to wonder whether her husband was as uninvolved with the S.S. and the camps as he has always lead her to believe.  She also really notices segregation and draws parallels to early Nazi treatment of Jews that make her feel she must fight it.

My favorite aspect of the story was the one not even mentioned in the summary – a German woman’s perspective on segregation having spent WWII in Germany.

I read this in one sitting.  The writing is mostly beautiful (with a couple run-on sentences that I hope get fixed for final printing).  Good in concept, but I felt The Melody of Secrets tried to tackle way too many important issues and themes then can be handled well in under 300 pgs.  It left all the characters including Maria feeling somewhat flat.

My Rating

Enjoyability (4 out of 5 stars)

Characters (2 out of 5 stars)

Writing (4 out of 5 stars)

 

I will remember this book for at least a year. 

Disclosure:  I received a review copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

YA Book Signing and Discussion tonight!

Sorry I'm so late posing this, but better late than never.

Gayle Forman, Stephanie Perkins, and Rainbow Rowell will all be in Omaha tonight discussing the topic: “Coming of Age, Falling in Love: Teen Love Stories and Why They Matter to Us All.”

If you're in the Omaha area you should definitely come to the discussion.  It's at the Millard Branch of the Omaha Public Library at 7:00 PM.  Otherwise let me know if you have any questions and I will try to get them answered.

Top Ten Tuesday - Character names

Every Tuesday the ladies over at The Broke and the Bookish host a book related Top 10 theme. 

 

Today's topic are Top 10 character names.  Just to be clear these are not names I would give my kids.  These are names are a little different, but I still like (sorry Katniss) and I feel really fit the character.

First up best "matchy" twin names ever in Fangirl with Cather and Wren.  Genius Rainbow, Genius.

Next, my favorite pet name Heaven's to Betsy from Lola and the Boy Next door.

I'm cheating just a bit here and using a TV character cause I loved the name Lux from Life Unexpected (surprisingly good show that is on Netflix if anyone is interested.

From the Prey series (that I reviewed a couple weeks ago) I always thought that the name Weather was just a little different but really fit the character.

A couple nicknames made my list.  Using Low as an abbreviated version of Willow (Sea Breeze #2) and Cricket from Lola and the Boy Next Door.

I'm assuming this was a fake name for the student since the book was non fiction, but thought Venus really did fit the little girl in Beautiful Child.

And my favorite love interests names (that haven't already been mentioned for other reasons) are Levi from Fangirl and Tobias from Divergent.

Any great character names that I missed? 

Daughter of the God-King by Anne Cleeland

Daughter of the God-King
Anne Cleeland
Sourcebooks Landmark, 368 pgs
November 5^th, 2013
Netgalley

Official Summary

Hattie Blackhouse is the only child of famous Egyptologists, and when they go missing, she travels to their latest excavation in ancient Thebes only to discover that she is attracting interest from the French, the British, and the Egyptians, who believe her the reincarnation of a long-dead princess.

In the second book in the Regency series, the heroine finds herself in the crosshairs of factions who are vying to support or thwart Napoleon’s latest attempt at world domination—and she unknowingly holds the key.

My Thoughts

This novel felt a bit scattered to me.  Hattie Blackhouse leaves the home she grew up in to travel to Paris because she’s convinced she should marry her former neighbor and childhood friend, Robbie.  Turns out he’s engaged (but it’s a weird situation).  Seconds later she stumbles into another man, the mysterious Perry, and is immediately attracted to him.  

While in Paris ominous things start happening and everyone from government officials, to Robbie, to Perry, want her to tell them everything she knows about her missing parents and their work without telling her anything.  All of this is happening while Napolean is in exile in Elba. 

She “escapes” to Egypt to find her parents (who have not been much of a part of her life).  They are archeologists and have discovered a sarcophagus that they believe to be the daughter of the God-King, Seti.   And it kinda seems like the curse of the Tomb is true because people involved keep disappearing or dying.    Perry anticipates her escape to Egypt and is on the same boat leaving Paris.  Hattie gets to Egypt and it’s pretty much the same story – everyone wants info from her but no one will tell her anything.

And I’m bored of summarizing now…I was fairly bored reading it too.  The history of the tombs was woven into the story fairly well I think, but I personally I just wasn’t interested.  I felt the romance was poorly executed.   Hattie starts the book in pursuit of Robbie and quickly changes devotion to Perry (kind of a reverse Romeo).    Hattie would go from distrust of Perry to flirtatiously teasing him in the same paragraph.   Then for no reason whatsoever she decided that he’s trustworthy.     And I spent the rest of the book sort of hoping he would betray her cause giving your trust to someone who won’t tell you anything is just stupid.

I wasn’t aware that this was the second book of a series until I pulled the official summary just now (I requested it from Netgalley cause I liked the title) and I briefly wondered if part of the reason Daughter of the God-King didn’t grab me was cause I hadn’t read the first book.  The summary of book 1 sounds more like a companion novel from the same era of history, but it’s possible there’s backstory I missed that would have made this more enjoyable.

My Rating

Enjoyability (2 out of  5 stars)

Characters (2 out of 5 stars)

Writing (3 out of 5 stars)

Fairly forgettable – I doubt it will cross my mind a year from now.

Top Ten Tuesday - Books I was "forced" to Read

Sorry I'm a bit late posting today.  Crazytown here... and fair warning it probably won't get any better until 2014, but I'm going to try to keep at it. 

Every Tuesday the ladies over at The Broke and the Bookish host a book related Top 10 theme. 

 

Anyway, Books I was forced to read.  You can’t really force me to read something.  Especially since finishing school.  So these are mostly things I wouldn’t have read without someone else’s urging.

The Power of One by Bryce Courtenay  (School) - Pretty well established as my favorite book ever (technically tied).

Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen (Bookclub) -

We Need to Talk about Kevin by Lionel Shriver (All theBooks I can read) - It's a year later and I still think about this book ALL.  THE.  TIME.

Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling (My cousin Mallory, and pretty much everyone else alive) - I held out on reading any of these until all the books were released.  My cousin sent me home from Houston with me.

The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver (My mom,  my aunt Brenda, bookclub) – This one took 3 tries but I’m really glad I persevered.  Then I "forced" my brother to read it and he LOVED it.

The Language of Flowers by Vanessa Diffenbaugh (Bookclub)

East of Eden by John Steinbeck (Friend) - I need to reread this one.

Cane River by Lalita Tademy (Bookclub)

The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson (Friend) - Fascinated story of the World's Fair and a serial killer.

Mini Reviews - Did Not Finish

As of today there are three books that I have started to read and put down and decided I was never going to pick them up again.  I officially moved these to the Did Not Finish pile and while I am getting more comfortable adding books to this pile (why commit more time to a book I’m not enjoying when there are hundreds of books on my TBR list) I still hate to give up.

  

The Adoration of Jenna Fox by Mary E. Pearson – I never really connected to Jenna.  Maybe I wasn’t supposed to.  I liked the concept of the novel and it raised interesting questions as to what it is that makes us human, but after reading two-thirds of the book and still not caring one iota about how anything turned out I decided I was done.

 

 

 

 

Jessica by Bryce Courtenay – I jumped up and down when I found this at the Half Price Book Store.  Bryce Courtenay wrote my favorite book The Power of One but the rest of his books aren’t in print in the US so stumbling across one is a major find for me.  I also read and reviewed April Fool's Day last year. 

The first 40% of Jessica was terrific:  I loved the setting, the characters, and the writing.  Unfortunately about half way through it started to feel like Courtenay knew what he wanted the plot to do, and forced the characters to behave in ways that were not consistent with how they were portrayed leading up to that point.  I got mad and threw the book across the room.  Giving up on this one was hard for me.  Side note – I discovered recently that all his books are now available for Kindle so I’ll definitely give more of them a try. 

 

On the Jellicoe Road by Melina Marchetta – Please don’t hate me.  I know that most book bloggers love her books.  I read “Saving Francesca” last year and while I liked it I definitely didn’t quite get the hype.  I was still really excited to try another of Marchetta’s novels and went with Jellicoe Road.  I was vaguely interested in Taylor’s back story, but the “Turf War” between the Jellicoe Students, the Townies, and the Cadets bored me to tears.  Seriously, not my cup of tea. Please don’t hate me.