So I thought today, whilst I am busy playing catch up with comments from the last few months, we could have a catch up post on the blog about what you have all been reading and particularly what your highlights of 2013 have been book-wise so far. You see I discovered rather alarmingly this morning that it is the end of 2013 in exactly seven weeks, which is most unnerving. This was then highlighted by an email asking me what my book of 2013 has been so far and what I am most looking forward to in 2014. Where does the time go?
I am still torn on what my ‘very favourite’ book of 2013 is, but I will get mulling it over. What I did wonder is which ones I might have missed, which asking you what all of yours has been might make me spot some to squeeze in over the next seven weeks. So, I throw a friendly gauntlet down to you all… What has been your favourite book, or what have been your favourites, of 2013 so far and why? They don’t have to have been published in 2013 by the way! I wonder if there will be any books that appear a few times, will be interesting to hear your thoughts.
Savidge Reads 
No.1 favourite definitely has to be ‘Night Film’ by Marisha Pessl. I haven’t read such a rich, surprising, inventive novel in years. I’ll also be including ‘Orkney’ by Amy Sackville, ‘First Novel’ by Nicholas Royle and ‘Cooking With Bones’ by Jess Richards in my Best of 2013 list. ‘The Engagement’ by Chloe Hooper was also pretty amazing, though it only counts as a 2013 release if you ignore its original Australian publication date.
I have yet to read Pessl but I do feel that I really should read her as have heard so many good things about books. I also like any book deemed inventive. First Novel has been on my shelves for too long, thank you for reminding me to dust that off along with the next Jess Richards, Snake Ropes I have read twice and will finally be reviewed in the next few weeks.
Kate Atkinson – Life after life
Susanna Kearsley – The firebird
Beth Gutcheon – Still missing
Patrick Rothfuss – The wise man’s fear
Donal Ryan – The spinning heart
Hugh Howey – Wool omnibus
Connie Willis – Doomsday book
Laski – To bed with grand music
Jojo Moyes – Me before you
Simon Garfield – Just my type (non-fiction)
Martin – A game of thrones (re-read)
Monica Dickens – Mariana
Mariana & Life After Life have also been two of my favourites this year Marte, what wonderful taste you have. I have yet to try Game of Thrones, I think I am worried I would be addicted and I have so much else to read.
A rough(ish) list of my maybe 10 faves in no particular order and including lots of pre-2013 books would be…
Thaliad- Marly Youmans,
The Book of the New Sun – Gene Wolfe,
Cities of the Plain – Cormac McCarthy,
The Devil in Silver – Victor LaValle,
The Dispossessed – Ursula Le Guin,
The Lathe of Heaven – Ursula Le Guin.
On The Steel Breeze – Alastair Reynolds,
Celebrant – Michael Cisco,
Jack Glass – Adam Roberts,
Iron Council – China Mieville,
Tom, I never cease to be jealous of your wonderful reading and how eclectic it is. I almost hate you for it hahaha. I don’t though, honest. Gav has raved to me any a time about Adam Roberts so I must try him, and I need to read more Cormac. I am reading Ursula Le Guin finally as Gav has chose The Left Hand of Darkness for Hear Read This next month.
Oh man, Left Hand of Darkness is one of the top 10 SF books in my opinion–really sneaks up on you as you’re reading.
My “Five Star’s” on Goodreads for this past year are:
Crusoe’s Daughter – Jane Gardam
A Month in the Country – J L Carr
The Sweet Dove Died – Barbara Pym
Life After Life -Kate Atkinson
Rebecca – Daphne du Maurier
The Saffron Kitchen – Yasmin Crowther
The Railway Children – E. Nesbit
The House of Mirth – Edith Wharton
I also have many “Four Star” reads and am presently reading The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt which, so far, may earn a five star rating too.
Oh the fact you gave Rebecca five stars makes you my commentor of the day, ha. I love that book so much as indeed do I The House of Mirth which I read for the first time only this year too.
I don’t know where the year has gone:
My books of the year are:
Kate Atkinson Life after life
Margaret Atwood MaddAdam
Emily Perkins The Forrests
Chimanda \ngozi Adichie Americaah
Jennie Rooney Red Joan
Rachel Kushner The flamethrowers
Edith Pearlman Binocular vision
Alison MacLeod Unexploded
I started Americanah and didn’t get on with it initially so stopped. I have kept it, is it worth me giving it another whirl? I also must read Maddadam too before the year is through.
Life After Life is proving very popular.
Wow -that’s difficult and none of mine are published this year – far from it!
I would say:
The Brothers Karamazov – Dostoevsky
Merry Hall – Beverley Nichols
The Hopkins Manuscript – RC Sherriff
Pnin – Nabokov
Manuscripts Don’t Burn – Bulgakov
The Gambler – Dostoevsky
Travels of a Capitalist Lackey – Fred Basnett
Mr. Skeffington – Elizabeth von Arnim
plus the whole of the Dance to the Music of Time sequence! Phew!
Hahaha nothing wrong with non of them being from 2013. I have made a resolution with myself that I will be reading a lot less 2014 books in 2014 and reading more underground books from the last year or two and much older books, some classics, some forgotten.
Good plan! Variety is the spice etc etc – although my list doesn’t necessarily have that much variety, being rather full of Russians!
So far (and I hope to fit in a good 15 or more books before the year’s end) my favourite novel of the year has been Ernest Buckler’s ‘The Mountain and the Valley’ (1952). Other novels I’ve loved this year (and given a Goodreads 5 stars to):
Kenneth Bonert – ‘The Lion Seeker’
Christopher Koch – ‘Lost Voices’
Lea Carpenter – ‘Eleven Days’
Patrick Flanery – ‘Fallen Land’
Kent Haruf – ‘Benediction’
Mollie Panter-Downes – ‘One Fine Day’
Michael Winter – ‘Minister Without Portfolio’
Richard Flanagan – ‘The Narrow Road to the Deep North’
Simon Van Booy – ‘The Illusion of Separateness’
Alex Miller – ‘Coal Creek’
Joyce Carol Oates – ‘My Sister, My Love’
And my favourite story collections so far this year:
Jodi Angel – ‘You Only Get Letters from Jail’
Théodora Armstrong – ‘Clear Skies, No Wind, 100% Visibility’
Steven Schwartz – ‘Little Raw Souls’
John Burnside – ‘Something Like Happy’
Raymond Carver – ‘What We Talk About When We Talk About Love’
And although I haven’t rated anything by them as a full-on 5 star read (yet), the two authors I’m most excited about having ‘discovered’ this year, and want to read everything by would be Charles Baxter and Olivia Manning.
David, I can always, always, always count on your for a brilliant comment and book recommendations as you have done here. I am going to have to look all of these up. I am particularly thrilled to see you mention Mollie Panter-Downes in your list as I have fallen in love with her writing after re-reading Good Evening, Mrs Craven.
I really must get around to reading her short stories, especially as they are in the lovely Persephone editions.
What I loved about ‘One Fine Day’ (apart from the exquisite writing) was how incredibly fresh it felt – each year I’ll read a handful of new novels set in and around the second world war and sometimes they can feel over-researched, too much like they’re straining to capture an era that the authors (usually) haven’t themselves lived through, and often they slip into a kind of ‘historical’ style of writing, as though the 40s were as far removed from today as the reign of Queen Victoria or the Regency. What Mollie Panter-Downes reminded me is that, for all society has changed a lot – some for the better, some for the worse – how close that era actually is (‘One Fine Day’ is set in the year my parents were born). The novel has an immediacy about it and is surprisingly modern. It also made a lot of the new books I was reading around the same time (I read ‘Instructions for a Heatwave’ directly after it) seem banal and ephemeral.
a few of my faves (only published this year):
Bear is Broken, by Lachlan Smith
Point Doom, Dan Fante
Schroeder, by Amity Gaige
Stuart Nadler, Wise Men
I haven’t heard of any of these, thank you for the recommendations Ray.
My Five star reads out of 84 and excluding re-reads are:
– Mrs Bridge by Evan S Connell
– The Explorer by James Smythe
– Diary of a Provincial Lady by E.M.Delafield
– Magda by Meike Ziervogel
– Tigers in Red Weather by Liza Klaussmann
– The Cleaner of Chartres by Salley Vickers
– Alex by Pierre Lemaitre
– Glaciers by Alexis M Smith
– The Humans by Matt Haig
– Mr Loverman by Bernardine Evaristo
Great selection of books there Annabel. Magda is amazing isn’t it, you must listen to the latest episode of You Wrote The Book, Meike is on it and the discussion is fascinating.
I completely agree about The Explorer and Alex, those are both corkers and am looking forward to both follow ups in 2014. There is one book on your list I desperately wanted to read but the author is such a self promoter on Twitter and Facebook it killed the desire to read it completely.
I have chosen Mr Loverman for my next ‘in the flesh’ book group at the start of December so am thrilled to read it is a corker.
I can guess which you mean – but it was brilliant!
I’ve still got it. I just need to mute them to get over it and get onto it. Sometimes social media has it’s downsides.
My favorite of 2013 is “Blackout/All Clear” by Connie Willis, hands down !
I haven’t heard of this book, so thank you for the recommendation Frenchie I will look it up.
Kindred – Octavia E. Butler
The Sense of an Ending – Julian Butler
The French Lieutenant’s Woman – John Fowles
We Need New Names – NoViolet Bulawayo
Lamb the Gospel According to Biff – Christopher Moore
The Cutting Season – Attica Locke
Cutting for Stone – Abraham Verghese
Relish My Life in the Kitchen – Lucy Knisley
Not so much an intellectual list but it’s what I enjoyed that I read so far this year.
I don’t think you can rate enjoyment intellectually and those who say they can are big snobs 😉
I really, really want to read Attica Locke, I have had Black Water Rising on my bookshelves for far too long.
It’s been on my shelf since March. I hope to get to it at the beginning of 2014. I really enjoyed the mysterious spooky ambience of The Cutting Season.
Mysterious spooky ambience… I am totally sold.
Yeah I think you’ll like the Cutting Season. If Blackwater Rising is anything like The Cutting Season we should love that one too. I’m just surprised more people are talking about Attica Locke. I did a review on it and it sparked interest with some of my subscribers here and over on You Tube. Speaking of you Tube… Why aren’t you doing more videos? I like them. You make me laugh.
Surprising myself, most of my top reads thus far were non-fiction – won’t give you a complete list because like you, I’m still pondering on it, but here’s a few:
The Magic Apple Tree by Susan Hill (LOVED this one)
A Thatched Roof by Beverley Nichols
How the Heather Looks by Joan Bodger
The Grand Tour Around the World with the Queen of Mystery Agatha Christie by Mathew Prichard
Testament of Youth by Vera Brittain
As for fiction, I very recently discovered Maisie Dobbs by Jacqueline Winspear (a good fiction follow-up to the Brittain book), and Baking Cakes in Kigali by Gaile Parkin (reminded me a little bit of A. McCall Smith’s Mma Ramotswe).
Fun to see everyone’s lists!
You have mentioned a Susan Hill I have not yet read and nor do I own so that is one I need to get around to hunting down. I have the Agatha Christie non fiction and have been saving that for the festive season, not sure why but I have.
I think two of my favourites this year have been Z A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald by Therese Anne Fowler and Life After Life by Kate Atkinson.
I loved Z because it is about a time and people that I have always found fascinating and the book was wonderful.
Life After Life I loved so much and have read it twice within as many weeks,always enjoy Atkinsons writing and this was wonderful.
Z is a novel I was quite interested in and then thought might be too twee, am I wrong and have I missed a gem?
Life After Life is brilliant isn’t it? Loved that book very much indeed.
Z is a real gem and well worth a read 🙂
Thanks Clare!
My fave books are:
A Song of Ice and Fire series by George R.R.Martin
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer
One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World by Haruki Murakami
Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
The Garden of Evening Mists by Tan Twan Eng
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy by John Le Carre
Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman
The Signature of all Things by Elizabeth Gilbert
Night Film by Marisha Pessl
TransAtlantic by Colum McCann
More than 10, but I really liked these books a lot.
What a great list, some I have read and many more I am keen to read. I need to get on with it in terms of Tan Twan Eng, I have been meaning to read that since 2012. Tuts.
Interesting question, thus far I would say my favourites are:
Never Mind by Edward St Aubyn
Fifty Shades of Feminism
Maggie and Me by Damien Barr
I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith
Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut
Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier
The Wasp Factory by Iain Banks
Most of these either made me cry, or I couldn’t stop thinking about them for a time after. St Aubyn and Vonnegut are my favourites of this list, beautifully written and difficult topics.
Alice, you are my favourite person today for saying Rebecca, it is one of the best books in the world isn’t it? (Just say yes in your head as it is rhetorical hahaha.) Though I have to admit I did do a double take then as I thought you had put Fifty Shades of Grey in your list and I would have disowned you!
I think if I ever added Fifty Shades of Grey to any sort of favorite book list I would deserve to be disowned!
Apple Tree Yard by Louise Doughty and Perfect by Rachel Joyce…The first has stayed with me for months…and the second made me cry…just like The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry did the year before…Novels that do both of these things for me mean I have read a good book which then becomes a favourite!
The Beards mother has been raving about Harold Fry to me recently, I need to get to that book at somepoint! Apple Tree Yard is on the TBR. I am quite in love with the paperback though, have you see it yet? Stunning.
The mirror of beauty Faruqi
A man in love Knausgaard
The parrots bologna
I was Jack Mortimer Lernet-Holenia
All is silence Rivas
Needless to say all in translation
I have not yet read any of the Knausgaard books and I feel so behind the times as everyone else is racing through them . I must read him at some point!
Top 10 of the year so far:
Anna of the Five Towns — Arnold Bennett
Light — M. John Harrison
Now All Roads Lead to France — Matthew Hollis
The ‘Sword of Honour’ trilogy — Evelyn Waugh
Arabian Sands — Wilfred Thesiger
The Player of Games — Iain M. Banks
Out of Sheer Rage — Geoff Dyer (a re-read)
Turtle Diary — Russell Hoban
Blindsight — Peter Watts
The Mystery of Edwin Drood — Charles Dickens
Apart from the Dickens (who sadly I do not love), the Waugh (who I must read more of) and the Banks (who I must also read more of) I know none of the authors mentioned. I have a delightful list of books to discover thanks to this post.
I have a real difficult relationship with Dickens but I keep making the effort and this year ended up enjoying both Drood and The Pickwick Papers.
You really gotta read Russell Hoban, Turtle Diary is very fine but Riddley Walker is far and away his masterpiece.
I have never heard if Hoban, I will investigate.
This year I loved:
The Prisoner of Heaven – Carlos Ruiz Zafon
Howard’s End is on the Landing – Susan Hill
Diving Belles – Lucy Wood (on your recommendation)
The Falcons of Fire and Ice – Karen Maitland
Walking Home – Simon Armitage
Rivers of London – Ben Aaronovitch
I also re-read The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon and absolutely loved it the second time. It’s a brilliant book.
Hoorah for Lucy Wood and that INCREDIBLE collection, I cannot wait for her forthcoming novel – though I think the wait may be a little while yet. It is such a glorious book though Diving Belles. I have never reviewed Rivers of London and I am not sure why!
My favorite book for 2013 is “Traveler of the Century” by Andres Neuman.
Not heard of that one Ben I will have to go and check it out.
My fiction reading has, alas, slowed down considerably in the last few months, but I did have some outstanding reads. Donna Tartt’s The Goldfinch is at the absolute top of my list — it is an truly fabulous read and more than makes up for the disappointment I felt with her second novel, The Little Friend. My second favorite read for 2013 was Peter Cameron’s The City of Your Final Destination, a tale of a young Canadian graduate student and his adventures in Uruguay, where he’s traveled to secure permission to access biographical material from the literary executors of a famous expatriate writer. The executors are the dead writer’s wife, mistress and gay brother, who all co-exist more or less peacefully in a crumbling but fascinating mansion in the countryside. I loved the idea, implied by the title, that one’s final destination isn’t always where one thought it would be! I also greatly enjoyed Atwood’s MaddAdam and (a little to my surprise) both Five Star Billionaire, by Tash Aw (a writer whom I promptly placed on my “to be explored further” list) and Colm Toibin’s Testament of Mary, which I had to force myself to start but which was really quite gripping. A great debut novel was Peggy Riley’s Amity and Sorrow, a dark and harrowing tale of a mother and two daughters escaping a polygamous cult. Pessl’s Night Film was a near miss for me—although I literally couldn’t put it down once I started reading it, I must say I found it ultimately a little disappointing. She’s a great writer, however, and I intend to check out her first novel (I believe it’s called Special Topics in Calamity Physics) when I have a bit more time.
So many differing reviews of The Goldfinch, how intriguing. I guess I am just going to have to bite the bullet at some point and read it and make up my own mind, people are very polar about it though.
Riley, Atwood and Cameron (the latter which I hadn’t heard of so thank you) I need to get to.
I have read quite a few great books this year. In no particular order:
Under the Skin, Michel Faber
Burial Rites, Hannah Kent
All the Birds, Singing, Evie Wyld
The Book of Fate, Parinoush Saniee
The Burial, Courtney Collins
Stay Alive, My Son (non fiction), Pin Yathay
A Perfectly Good Man, Patrick Gale
The Fine Colour of Rust, Paddy O’Reilly
The Rosie Project, Graeme Simsion
The Regeneration Trilogy, Pat Barker
The Quiet Earth, Craig Harrison
The Railway Man’s Wife, Ashley Hay
I must, must read Under the Skin before the film comes out, I need to see if the library has it and if so I shall pick it up. Have heard such good things about it from the guys I was in a book group in London with who all LOVED it even though they said it was utterly bonkers. Evie Wyld is amazing, that will be in my top ten I am sure.
My reading year has been really slow this year, I have only 2 five star reads on good reads;
Badgerlands – Patrick Barkham (The Butterfly Isles is also amazing, but I read that a couple of years ago) and
The Crossing Places – Elly Griffiths
Both very different from each other, but both great reads.
Elly Griffiths is an author whose series I have been meaning to try for a while, thank you very much for the reminder.
I loved the Love Affairs of Nathaniel P by Adelle Waldman. Describes young men and their hearts pretty perfectly.
I’m 50 pages from the end of The Goldfinch. Another book about a man by a woman. It’s one of my favourite novels written since 2000, maybe ever. Occasionally he feels more female than he should (never true in Nathaniel P), but I love it and wouldn’t have minded if it had been twice as long. So erudite, covers so many subjects and milieus, describes all of them perfectly. Essentially a novel of loss and sadness, it never becomes maudlin. The more I think about it, the more I love it. Extraordinary achievement.
That is another great recommendation for The Goldfinch there Simon, I am really struggling with whether I want to read it or not over the forthcoming months. I guess I need to just get on with it.
Oh, how could I have forgotten another great book, a memoir. Reading the other comments reminded me how wonderful Maggie and Me by Damian Barr is. Brilliant.
Yes I fully concur, amazing book!
My favourite reads of the year are (in no particular order):
The Casual Vacancy by J K Rowling
Wonder by R J Palacio
The Help by Kathryn Stockett
A Place For The Time Being by Ruth Ozeki
Bellman & Black by Diane Setterfield
The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce
That is a really interesting selection Tim, though I have just noticed… No male authors on that list. Interesting. Need to read the Ozeki and indeed the Joyce as my future mother in law has been raving about the latter.
I never noticed that there were no male authors on the list until you mentioned it. I would recommend both Ozeki and Joyce.
Both are on my periphery. Though I’ve a feeling the way reads are mounting up that it might be a while till I get to them.
Pierre Lemaitre’s Alex. Tremendous French police procedural/thriller which breaks all the crime fiction ‘rules’ and is all the better for that. Brilliant tho downbeat ending.
I also listened to the audiobook of Kate Atkinson’s Life after Life and was captivated.
We are on a wavelength here then Janet as both of those are two favourites of mine. I can’t believe we have to wait so long for the next Lemaitre, I am almost tempted to try and read it in French.
My top reads this year (and only one of these was published this year) have been:
The Year of the Flood by Margaret Atwood
On the Road by Jack Kerouac
Black Vodka by Deborah Levy
The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
Dan Yack by Blaise Cendrars
Thanks for asking! Interesting to see everyone else’s picks.
Black Vodka is very, very good isn’t it? I wanted to write some thoughts on it today but I think I need to go back and read them all over again first, I love Levy and really want to do her book justice. I have never heard of Dan Yack.
The Drowning of Arthur Braxton, Caroline Smailes
A Monster Calls, Patrick Ness
The Hare with Amber Eyes: A Hidden Inheritance, Edmund De Waal
The Industry of Souls, Martin Booth
The Luminaries, Eleanor Catton
The first mention of The Luminaries which I was expecting to see mentioned a lot more than it has been, which is until your comment now Claire, maybe like me everyone else is slowly getting through it still.
The Night Rainbow, Claire King and The Drowning of Arthur Braxton, Caroline Smailes.
Thanks Peter, both of those are in my mount TBR somewhere so will get to them at some point.
My favourite books of the year? I would say…
The Luminaries – Eleanor Catton
Cooking With Bones – Jess Richards
Letters of Note – Shaun Usher
All the Birds, Singing – Evie Wyld
How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia – Mohsin Hamid
The Hottest Dishes of the Tartar Cuisine – Alina Bronsky
The Twelve Tribes of Hattie – Ayana Mathis
Communion Town – Sam Thompson
Address Unknown – Kressmann Taylor
This isn’t the Sort of Thing that Happens to Someone Like You – Jon McGregor
Phew! I hadn’t meant to list as many as ten, but once I start thinking of favourite books, it’s hard to stop…
Aha, there is the second mention of The Luminaries, I was expecting more. I have to admit I am struggling with it. The latest Jess Richards I really need to read, why have I never reviewed Snake Ropes? Evie Wyld as I mentioned above in another comment is AMAZING. So understated, I want that to win the Women’s Prize next year. The Jon McGregor is also on my periphery.
My favourites this year are:
Pinball, 1973 – Haruki Murakami
Libriomancer – Jim Hines
Cloud Atlas – David Mitchell
Joyland – Stephen King
Phoenix Rising – Philippa Ballantine
The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry – Rachel Joyce
Rachel Joyce is getting lots and lots of mentions, must read that. Stephen King I have on the TBR and meant to read ages ago, tut to me. Pinball, 1973 I haven’t heard of. or Phoenix Rising.
This has been a year of non-fiction for me and top spot would have to go to What’s Next? by Joy Chudacoff http://whatsnextthebook.com/
Hugely inspiring and empowering for business women with excellent advice throughout. I haven’t read anything better in it’s category.
Not my kind of book but thank you very much for the recommendation Whitney.
Pingback: Some Books of 2013 | Savidge Reads
My top reads of this year are …
3 Persephone books:
– Still Missing, Beth Gutcheon
– The Crowded Street, Winifred Holtby
– Someone at a Distance, Dorothy Whipple
Others:
– In the Woods, Tana French
– The Red House Mystery, AA Milne (his 1 and only detective novel!)
– A Kind Man, Susan Hill
– Joyland, Steven King
– The Ridge, Michael Koryta
– The Pursued, CS Forester
– Ed King, David Guterson
– The Shock of the Fall, Nathan Filer
– HHhH, Laurent Binet
– The Card, Graham Rawle
– Tigers in Red Weather, Liza Klaussmann
Not sure many were published this year but I’ve had a good year personally for 5 star reads! And hopefully there will be some more.