Tag / 2013

by Sharlene

The 2013 round-up post

Oh 2013, you were quite a remarkable year.

Wee Reader turned two in March. And is such a chatty, silly, sometimes ridiculously whiny when told to go to the toilet, little boy. Who will be three this year. Three! He still loves his trucks and construction vehicles. And thankfully, his books (especially those featuring trucks and construction vehicles). He loves being read to, and now wants to ‘read’ to us too.

And 2013 brought along little C, who is now a grand old 8 months old. A personality so different from his big brother – he’s easygoing and sociable and a terrible napper. And like his brother, he’s quite fond of chewing books.

So much of 2013 was about adjusting to life with a newborn and a toddler undergoing toilet training. And of course we had the brilliant idea of flying with those two young fellas halfway across the world (20 plus hours and a transit) to spend a month in Singapore with our families. The jet lag was a killer and so was the heat and humidity but everyone had a good time (after we started sleeping better).

And I did quite a bit of reading, although not as much as in 2012.

On to the numbers!

Total books read: 223

2012’s total: 227
2011’s total: 171 

More female authors than male!

gender

Mostly fiction (too broad a genre I know), crime/mystery (especially considering that I’ve only quite recently started reading this genre of books) and graphic novels. I really ought to read more non-fiction!

genre

More e-books! I am very very grateful for my Kindle Paperwhite, which accompanied me through those months of middle-of-the-night feeds.

ebooks

Most of the books I read in 2013 were library books, whether print or e-books. The ‘own books’ included books that were sent from publishers and book tours, as well as free classic e-books.

Library

I travelled to:

the Antarctic
Australia
Botswana
Burma
Canada
Chile
China
Egypt
France
Germany
Greece
India
Indonesia
Iran
Iraq
Italy
Japan
Laos
Mexico
The Middle East
Nepal
New Zealand
North Korea
Poland
Portugal
Russia
Scotland
Singapore
Senegal
Sweden
Thailand
Tibet
The United Kingdom
The United States
Vietnam

I read 20 works translated into English from:
Arabic
Chinese
French
German
Indonesian
Japanese
Norwegian
Portuguese
Spanish
Swedish

The oldest book I read was first published in:
1719 (Robinson Crusoe)

I read:
– 1 book published in the 18th century
– 6 books published in the 19th century
– 55 books published in the 20th century
– 162 books published in the 21st century (out of this, 28 books published in 2013!)

The shortest book I read was:
46 pages long (Griffin & Sabine)

The longest book I read was:
994 pages long (The wise man’s fear (Kingkiller Chronicle #2))
(Page counts via Goodreads)

New-to-me authors:
128 of them!

Memorable reads

Ah this is the part I both love and dread. Where to begin? Did I leave anything out? I frantically scrutinize my Google Docs list of books read in case my memory fails me.

namewind

 

everlastingsorrow

monstercalls

skyburial

The Name of the Wind brought the red-headed Kvothe into my world and for that I am grateful.

I fell for Wang Anyi’s gorgeous The Song of Everlasting Sorrow, set in the longtangs of Shanghai.

Patrick Ness’ A Monster Calls broke my heart into tiny pieces, as did Xinran’s Sky Burial and Karen Connelly’s The Lizard Cage, set in a Burmese prison.

It was also the year that I finally read William Goldman’s Princess Bride!

empress

And delved into a solid number of books written by Global Women of Colour (see my list of books and reviews here)

regeneration

I was also blown away by Carol Shields’ The Republic of Love, and Pat Barker’s Regeneration trilogy.

shadesmilkhoney

And enjoyed the Austen-inspired magical (or glamour-filled) Glamourist Histories: Shades of Milk and Honey and Glamour in Glass. Although with my fondness for starting new series and never quite completing them, I’ve yet to read the third book, Without a Summer.

A surprising number of horror books were read, written by the King family (Stephen and his son Joe Hill). I’m looking forward to reading more from Mr King this year, and eagerly awaiting Volume 6 of Hill’s Locke and Key series.

It was also a great year for non-fiction reading, with Susan Cain’s Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World that can’t stop talking; one of my favorite re-reads 84, Charing Cross Road

 

relishanthropologisthabibi

And ah, those graphic novels, like Margaux Motin’s cute But I really wanted to be an anthropologist, the Amulet series, Craig Thompson’s beautiful Habibi, Gene Luen Yang’s Boxers and Saints, and Lucy Knisley’s Relish: My life in the kitchen. (Plus, great covers!).

Thank you 2013 for being an unforgettable year. Here’s to a 2014 of great reads!

by Sharlene

Books read in October and November 2013

A quick write-up of the books read in October and November!

 

October 2013

Fiction (12)
This Earth of Mankind – Pramoedya Ananta Toer
Toer is one incredible writer. His determination to write (he wasn’t allowed pen or paper when imprisoned by the Dutch but managed to compose his books orally and write them down after he was released) never fails to impress me.

Haunted (Women of the Otherworld #5) – Kelley Armstrong
The Women of the Otherworld series is always such fun, even if it’s one which has the rather bitchy Eve (who’s haunting the afterworld) as the main character.

A monster calls – Patrick Ness
Absolutely heart-wrenching. But so very good. I had to buy myself a copy.

Save yourself – Kelly Braffet
For some reason I thought this was a supernatural tale but it turned out to be a story about some very messed up families.

The Accursed – Joyce Carol Oates
Set in Princeton, involves vampires, Woodrow Wilson and Upton Sinclair. Bizzare and intriguing but ultimately too ramble-y.

The thin man – Dashiell Hammett
I finally meet Nick and Nora. And I don’t like them. There’s a lot of drinking involved, and a bizarre scene in which Nick knocks out his wife as there’a man pointing a gun at them.

The Interestings – Meg Wolitzer
It’s made many ‘best of’ lists and it’s easy to see why. Wonderful relationships and characters. I could see this being dissected in creative writing classes.

The Willoughbys- Lois Lowry
A quirky fun little read.

The Death of Bees Lisa O’Donnell
My review

Hikikomori and the rental sister – Jeff Bauhaus
Promising – a shut-in in the US, a Japanese girl helps him out – hate the way it turned out (does the author have an Asian fetish?)

NOS4A2 – Joe Hill
My review

Touch not the cat – Mary Stewart
Kind of awesome.

Graphic novels (3)
Boxers and Saints – Gene Luen Yang; Lark Pien
If I were writing a best of 2013 list (maybe I am, if I can actually get organised enough), this, or rather these two graphic novels would be on my list.

Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind, Vol. 1 – Hayao Miyazaki
Nausicaa was the first Miyazaki film I saw and it will always have a special meaning for me.

Non-fiction (1)
How Eskimos Keep Their Babies Warm: And Other Adventures in Parenting (from Argentina to Tanzania and Everywhere in Between) -Mei-Ling Hopgood
A fun parenting read but I didn’t exactly take anything away from it.

 

Total : 16

In November I read:
Some contemporary fiction, two set in the US and two set in the UK

The House Girl – Tara Conklin
The Middlesteins – Jami Attenburg
Longbourn – Jo Baker
Letters from Skye – Jessica Brockmole

Some crime/mystery books, one by a writer I already love (Touchstone is the prequel of Bones of Paris), and the other a new-to-me writer whose series I’m keen to follow
Touchstone – Laurie R King
The last policeman – Ben H Winters

Some fantasy/sci-fi. The first book of which I quite enjoyed, the imagining of countless parallel Earths, on which no humans ever existed, and those who ‘Step’ to discover them. The second book continued the story, and was still quite a good read, especially seeing from the non-western point-of-view, of sorts
The long earth – Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter
The long war (The Long Earth #2) – Stephen Baxter and Terry Pratchett

A little bit of YA and children’s books. Kate DiCamillo has got to be one of my favorite children’s authors. Too bad I only started reading her as an adult! Shannon Hale is always a fun read too, with wonderful female characters. I wasn’t all that fond of Every Day.
Princess Academy – Shannon Hale
Every day – David Levithan
Flora and Ulysses: the illustrated adventures – Kate diCamillo and KG Campbell
The tale of Despereaux – Kate DiCamillo

The sole non-fiction read was a little startling. Piper Kerman’s story is quite different from what the TV series makes it out to be (PLEASE NOTE THERE WILL BE SPOILERS FOR BOTH BOOK AND SHOW IF YOU READ ON). She is far more likable in her book, as is her fiancé, and her ex only makes an appearance at the end of the book. She doesn’t get sent to SHU and there is a lot less backstory to the many fellow inmates than in the TV series. 
Orange is the new black: my year in a woman’s prison – Piper Kerman

Total for November 2013: 13

by Sharlene

Read in 2013

1. Beautiful Children – Charles Bock
2. Three Strong Women – Marie Ndiaye (Global Women of Colour Challenge)
3. The Uninvited Guests – Sadie Jones (TLC Book Tour)
4. The Messenger (The Giver, #3) – Lois Lowry
5. Under heaven – Guy Gavriel Kay (What’s in a Name Challenge)
6. The cookbook collector – Allegra Goodman (What’s in a Name Challenge)
7. Scent of darkness – Margot Berwin ( TLC Book Tour)
8. Obernewtyn – Isobelle Carmody
9. Sold – Patricia McCormick
10. If you lived here, I’d know your name: News from small-town Alaska – Heather Lende
11. 84, Charing Cross Road – Helene Hanff (Read for Postal Reading Challenge)
12. The Worst Journey in the World – Apsley Cherry-Garrard
13. Water baby – Ross Campbell
14. Gen13. Superhuman like you – Adam Warren
15. Waterwise – Joel Orff
16. The Umbrella Academy Vol 1: Apocalypse Suite – Gerard Way, Gabriel Ba
17. Forget Sorrow: An Ancestral Tale – Belle Yang (Read for Global Women Challenge)
18. American Widow – Alissa Torres
19. Habibi – Craig Thompson
20. The song of everlasting sorrow: a novel of Shanghai – Wang Anyi (Global Women of Color challenge)
21. The Secret of Nightingale Palace – Dana Sachs
22. The mysterious Benedict Society – Trenton Lee Stewart
23. Bel-Ami – Guy de Maupassant
24. Happy birthday Turke!: A Kayankaya thriller – Jakob Arjouni
25. Lost souls – Poppy Z Brite
26. The house I loved – Tatiana de Rosnay (Postal Reading Challenge)
27. Malinche – Laura Esquivel (Global Women of Color challenge)
28. The Mayor of Casterbridge – Thomas Hardy
29. The magician’s elephant – Kate DiCamillo
30. Stories: All-New Tales – Neil Gaiman (ed)
31. Sky Burial: an epic love story of Tibet – Xinran (Global Women of Color challenge)
32. The princess bride – William Goldman
33. Zeina – Nawal El Saadawi (Global Women of Color challenge)
34. The best exotic Marigold Hotel – Deborah Moggach
35. The red badge of courage – Stephen Crane
36. Gold Boy, Emerald Girl – Li Yiyun
37. Industrial magic (Women of the Otherworld #4) – Kelley Armstrong
38. Empress – Shan Sa(Global Women of Color challenge)
39. Maisie Dobbs – Jacqueline Winspear
40. Thirty Three Teeth – Colin Cotterill
41. Thunderhead Underground Falls – Joel Orff
42. The Stonekeeper (Amulet #1) – Kazu Kibuishi
43. Daybreak – Brian Ralph
44. The Stonekeeper’s Curse (Amulet #2) – Kazu Kibuishi
45. Red scarf girl – Jiang Ji-li (Global Women of Color challenge)
46. A spy in the house (The Agency #1) – Y.S. Lee (Global Women of Color challenge)
47. Horseradish: Bitter truths you can’t avoid – Lemony Snicket
48. Real World – Natsuo Kirino (Global Women of Color challenge)
49. The daughter of time – Josephine Tey
50. Red Poppies – Alai
51. Monday Mornings – Sanjay Gupta
52. Jane Eyre – Charlotte Bronte
53. Quiet: the power of introverts in a world that can’t stop talking – Susan Cain
54. The Thief – Fuminori Nakamura
55. Feed – MT Anderson
56. Revenge – Yoko Ogawa (Global Women of Color challenge)
57. More baths, less talking – Nick Hornby
58. Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mt. Everest Disaster – Jon Krakauer
59. The last letter from your lover – Jojo Moyes
60. The 8:55 to Baghdad – Andrew Eames
61. The Bird King: an Artist’s Notebook – Shaun Tan
62. Griffin & Sabine – Nick Bantock (Postal Reading Challenge)
63. Beautiful ruins – Jess Walter
64. The boy in the striped pajamas – John Boyne
65. Anthropology – Dan Rhodes
66. Houdini: The Handcuff King – Jason Lutes
67. The squirrel mother – Megan Kelso
68. Witness: one of the great correspondents of the twentieth century tells her story – Ruth Gruber
69. But I really wanted to be an anthropologist – Margaux Motin
70. Funny in Farsi: A Memoir of Growing Up Iranian in America – Firoozeh Dumas (Global Women of Color challenge)
71. A doll’s house – Henrik Ibsen
72. Hyperion (Hyperion Cantos, #1) – Dan Simmons
73. Marbles: Mania, Depression, Michelangelo, and Me – Ellen Forney
74. Murder on the Orient Express – Agatha Christie
75. Three Shadows – Cyril Pedrosa
76. Wide Awake (Fairest #1) – Bill Willingham, Matthew Sturges
77. Regeneration – Pat Barker
78. A prayer for Owen Meany – John Irving
79. Mirror of the World: A New History of Art – Julian Bell
80. The year of pleasures – Elizabeth Berg
81. Birds of a feather (Maisie Dobbs #2) – Jacqueline Winspear
82. Alif the Unseen – G. Willow Wilson
83. Late For Tea At The Deer Palace: The Lost Dreams of My Iraqi Family – Tamara Chalabi (Global Women of Color challenge)
84. Nick and Norah’s infinite playlist – Rachel Cohn and David Levithan
85. The elephant’s journey – Jose Saramago
86. What was lost – Catherine O’Flynn
87. Robinson Crusoe – Daniel Defoe
88. Sabine’s Notebook – Nick Bantock
89. Heidegger’s glasses – Thaisa Frank
90. Tithe (Modern Faerie Tales #1) – Holly Black
91. Have mother, will travel – Claire and Mia Fontaine (TLC Book Tour)
92. Dreaming in Hindi – Katherine Russell Rich
93. The eye in the door – Pat Barker
94. Murder in Mesopotamia – Agatha Christie
95. Dark lord of Derkholm (Derkholm #1) – Dianna Wynne Jones
96. The Ghost Road – Pat Barker
97. A different sky – Meira Chand (Global Women of Color challenge)
98. The magic toyshop – Angela Carter
99. Travels with Charley: In Search of America – John Steinbeck
100. The republic of love – Carol Shields
101. Maya’s Notebook – Isabelle Allende (Global Women of Color challenge and TLC Book Tour)
102. The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency (No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency #1) – Alexander McCall Smith
103. Blue nights – Joan Didion
104. Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain – Oliver Sacks
105. Swamplandia! – Karen Russell
106. Fear of flying – Erica Jong
107. The thorn birds – Colleen McCullough
108. The prince of tides – Pat Conroy
109. The red chamber – Pauline A Chen (Global Women of Color challenge)
110. The Paris wife – Paula McLain
111. Flight behavior – Barbara Kingsolver (TLC Book Tour)
112. Graceling – Kristin Cashore
113. Bridge to Terabithia – Katherine Paterson
114. Away – Amy Bloom
115. The space between us – Thrity Umrigar (Global Women of Color challenge)
116. Among others – Jo Walton
117. To the people, food is heaven: Stories of food and life in a changing China – Audra Ang
118. Black boy – Richard Wright
119. Hotel on the corner of bitter and sweet – Jamie Ford
120. Girls in white dresses – Jennifer Close
121. Shades of milk and honey – Mary Robinette Kowal
122. Dragonflight – Anne McCaffrey
123. The leftovers – Tom Perrotta
124. Tales of the jazz age – F Scott Fitzgerald
125. MWF Seeking BFF: My Yearlong Search For A New Best Friend – Rachel Bertsche
126. The Best American Travel Writing 2012 – Jason Wilson (Editor), William T. Vollmann (Editor)
127. Outlander – Diana Gabaldon
128. My life in France – Julia Child and Alex Prud’Homme
129. Speaking from among the bones – Alan Bradley
130. Breasts: A natural and unnatural history – Florence Williams
131. The end of your life book club – Will Schwalbe
132. Attachments – Rainbow Rowell
133. The Phantom Tollbooth – Norton Juster and Jules Feiffer
134. Jane and Prudence – Barbara Pym
135. A letter of Mary (Mary Russell #3) – Laurie R King
136. Cod: A biography of the fish that changed the world – Mark Kurlansky
137. Glamour in glass – Mary Robinette Kowal
138. The Last Council (Amulet #4) – Kazu Kibuishi
139. The Cloud Searchers (Amulet, #3) – Kazu Kibuishi
140. The girl with the dragon tattoo – Stieg Larsson
141. A natural history of the senses – Diane Ackerman
145. Tiny beautiful things: advice on life and love from Dear Sugar – Cheryl Strayed
146. The wind in the willows – Kenneth Grahame
147. Price of salt – Patricia Highsmith
148. The whole fromage – Kathe Lisson
149. The orphan master’s son – Adam Johnson
150. Queen of the air: A true story of love and tragedy at the circus – Dean Jensen
151. Five Star Billionaire – Tash Aw (Reading Southeast Asia in August)
152. The strange files of Fremont Jones (Fremont Jones #1) – Dianne Day
153. Loki’s wolves – K.L. Armstrong, M.A. Marr
154. Bangkok 8 (Sonchai Jitpleecheep #1) – John Burdett (Reading Southeast Asia in August)
155. Crazy rich asians – Kevin Kwan (Reading Southeast Asia in August)
156. The bones of Paris (Harris Stuyvesant #2) – Laurie R King
157. Disco for the departed (Dr Siri Paiboun #3) – Colin Cotterill
158. Fire from heaven – Mary Renault
159. Harriet the spy – Louise Fitzhugh
160. The Headmaster’s wager – Vincent Lam
161. Case histories – Kate Atkinson
162. The name of the wind (The Kingkiller chronicle #1) – Patrick Rothfuss
163. Human remains – Elizabeth Haynes (TLC Book Tour)
164. Raising a Reader: A Mother’s Tale of Desperation and Delight – Jennie Nash
165. The Lizard Cage – Karen Connelly (Reading Southeast Asia in August)
166. The rose garden – Susanna Kearsley
167. Wildwood – Colin Meloy
168. Iggie’s House – Judy Blume
169. Aunty Lee’s Delights: A Singaporean Mystery – Ovidia Yu (Reading Southeast Asia in August)
170. A grave talent (Kate Martinelli #1) – Laurie R King
171. The Cutting Season – Attica Locke (TLC Book Tour)
172. Relish: My life in the kitchen – Lucy Knisley
173. Heart shaped box – Joe Hill
174. The Murder of Roger Ackroyd (Hercule Poirot #4) – Agatha Christie
175. The wise man’s fear (Kingkiller Chronicle #2) – Patrick Rothfuss
176. Tales of terror from the tunnel’s mouth – Chris Priestley
177. Mastering the Art of Soviet Cooking: A Memoir of Food and Longing – Anya Von Bremzen
178. Before I go to sleep – S.J. Watson
179. Mrs Queen takes the train – William Kuhn
180. This Earth of Mankind – Pramoedya Ananta Toer
181. Haunted (Women of the Otherworld #5) – Kelley Armstrong
182. A monster calls – Patrick Ness
183. Save yourself – Kelly Braffet
184. The Accursed – Joyce Carol Oates
185. The thin man – Dashiell Hammett
186. How Eskimos Keep Their Babies Warm: And Other Adventures in Parenting (from Argentina to Tanzania and Everywhere in Between) – Mei-Ling Hopgood
187. Boxers – Gene Luen Yang; Lark Pien
188. Saints – Gene Luen Yang; Lark Pien
189. The Interestings – Meg Wolitzer
190. The Willoughbys – Lois Lowry
191. The Death of Bees – Lisa O’Donnell (TLC Book Tour)
192. Hikikomori and the rental sister – Jeff Bauhaus
193. NOS4A2 – Joe Hill (TLC Book Tour)
194. Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind, Vol. 1 – Hayao Miyazaki
195. Touch not the cat – Mary Stewart
196. My ideal bookshelf – Thessaly La Force (editor); Jane Mount (illustrator)
197. Touchstone – Laurie R King
198. The last policeman – Ben H Winters
199. The House Girl – Tara Conklin
200. The Middlesteins – Jami Attenburg
201. The long earth – Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter
202. Princess Academy – Shannon Hale
203. Every day – David Levithan
204. Orange is the new black: my year in a woman’s prison – Piper Kerman
205. The long war (The Long Earth #2) – Stephen Baxter and Terry Pratchett
206. Flora and Ulysses: the illustrated adventures – Kate diCamillo and KG Campbell
207. Longbourn – Jo Baker
208. The tale of Despereaux – Kate DiCamillo
209. Letters from Skye – Jessica Brockmole
210. The jungle book – Rudyard Kipling
211. The Alchemyst (The secrets of the immortal Nicholas Flamel #1) – Michael Scott
212. It’s not the end of the world – Judy Blume
213. The Museum at Purgatory – Nick Bantock
214. Foreign student – Susan Choi
215. The elegance of the hedgehog – Muriel Barbery
216. Last night at the lobster – Stewart O’Nan
217. A great and terrible beauty – Libba Bray
218. Enna Burning – Shannon Hale
219. Guarding the moon: a mother’s first year – Francesca Lia Block
220. A rogue by any other name (The rules of scoundrels #1) – Sarah McLean
221. Consider the fork: how technology transforms the way we cook and eat – Bee Wilson
222. Adrian Mole: the prostrate years – Sue Townsend
223. Tell the wolves I’m home – Carol Rifka Brunt
224. At the mouth of the river of bees – Kij Johnson
225. Joyland – Stephen King
226. Imaginary Friends – Melanie Lee

by Sharlene

The 2012 round-up post

Ok so January has been upon us for quite a few days now. But I have an excuse! A week-long roadtrip to Southern California with the family! A great time was had by all – more on that in another post. Meanwhile I’ve been catching up on everyone’s year-end round up posts, and figure that it’s time for my own.

It was a year of discovering new-to-me authors, borrowing heaps of library books and reading a fair amount of translated books.

Total books read: 227 (not counting 7 books I started but did not finish) 2011’s total: 171 

Woah… was not expecting that!

Fiction/literature (by which I mean general literature that doesn’t fit into the more specific genres below): 64 (28.2%) 2011: oddly, it wasn’t on my 2011 round-up post, although of course I had read fiction!
Non-Fiction: 42 (18.5%) 2011: 25 (14.62%)
Comics/Graphic Novels: 36 (15.9%) 2011: 25 (14.62%)
Science fiction/fantasy: 32 (14.1%) 2011: 17 (9.94%)
Mystery/crime: 17 (7.5%) 2011: 9 (5.26%)
Classics: 15 (6.6%) 2011: didn’t count
Young adult/children’s: 11 (4.8%) 2011: 18 (10.53%)
Short story collections: 7 (3.1%) 2011: didn’t count
Poetry: 2 (0.9%) 2011: 1 (0.58%)


 Genre

By Women: 114 (50.2%)  2011: 82 (47.95%)
By Men: 102 (44.9%) 2011: 79 (46.2%)
By Men and Women: 11 (4.8%) 2011: 9 (5.26%)

gender

Longest book: The Forsyte Saga at 912 pages
2011: Vanity Fair at 912 pages

Shortest book: Angel and Faith Volume 1: live Through This at 32 pages
2011: The Night Bookmobile at 40 pages (page numbers taken from Goodreads)

New-to-me authors: 135 (59.5%) 2011: didn’t count

E-books: 65 (28.6%)  2011: 62 (36.26%) 
Library books: 190 (83.7%) 2011: 127 (74.23%) (includes Overdrive e-books)

So fewer e-books (odd considering that 2012 is when I acquired my first e-reader!) and more library books!

Translated books: 39 (17.2%) 2011: didn’t count
Languages translated from: Arabic, Chinese, Dutch, French, German, Hebrew, Hungarian, Icelandic, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Norwegian, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Swedish

Countries I visited: The Arctic, Brazil, Burma, Cambodia, Canada, China, Colombia, Congo, France, Germany, Greece, Greenland, Hungary, Iceland, Indonesia, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Kenya, Laos, Malaysia, Mauritius, Mexico, Nepal, Nigeria, Norway, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Scandinavia, Scotland, Singapore, South Africa, Surinam, The Netherlands, UK, US, Vietnam, and made-up realms and the future.

I’ve been thinking about what my favourite reads of the year were. And boy, is that a difficult task! Because there were so many amazing reads. Of course there were also plenty of DidNotFinish-es and books that were more meh than anything else. So I went down my list of books read in 2012 and just plucked out all those books that stood out. Books that made me cry, made me laugh, made me just so happy to be a reader.

Best fantasy reads
The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms (The Inheritance Trilogy #1) – N.K. Jermisin
China Mountain Zhang – Maureen McHugh

Best graphic novel series
Locke and Key – Joe Hill, Gabriel Rodriguez
The Color series – Kim Dong Hwa

Best translated reads
Out – Natsuo Kirino
To the end of the land – David Grossman
Girl from the Coast (Gadis Pantai) – Pramoedya Ananta Toer

Best short story collection
Married Love: and other stories – Tessa Hadley

For making me think of home
The garden of evening mists – Tan Twan Eng

Starting out right: series to continue reading
The Giver series – Lois Lowry
The Dreamblood series – N.K. Jemisin
The Dr Siri Paiboun series – Colin Cotterill

Because everyone should read something by Sara Wheeler
Too close to the sun: The Audacious life and Times of Denys Finch Hatton – Sara Wheeler

A foodie read: for its intriguing insight into the restaurant business (hidden cameras!)
The Fourth Star: Dispatches from inside Daniel Boulud’s Celebrated Restaurant  – Leslie Brenner

Here’s to many more fantastic reads in 2013! Happy new year!