Best Books of 2013

Every year between Christmas and New Year’s I prepare a list of my favorite books of the year. In 2013 I read 103 books. My husband noted that this means that I met my goal of reading fewer books in 2013, since my average for the last several years has been two a week. So I made it by just one book!

Here is my list of the best of 2013. They are listed in the order I read them – not order of importance. They are also not all newly published books. Some, like John O’Hara’s “New York Stories,” are older than I am (but I note that reading those short stories gave me renewed enthusiasm for the short story form). The list is a mix of fiction, short stories and non-fiction. I read a good bit of mystery, especially Northern Irish and Japanese noir this year. None of those books made the list this year but I want to give a special mention to the new series by Jonelle Patrick, which are set in Japan. She has released three so far and I thought they were all great.

The Yellow Birds – Kevin Powers
The Wife – Meg Wolitzer
My Beloved World – Sonia Sotomayor
The Good House – Ann Leary
We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves – Karen Joy Fowler
And The Mountains Echoed – Khaled Hosseini
Mastering the Art of Soviet Cooking – Anya Van Bremzen
The New York Stories – John O’Hara
Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk – Ben Fountain
The Barbarian Nurseries – Hector Tobar
Bobcat – Rebecca Lee
The Dinner – Herman Koch
A Constellation of Vital Phenomena – Anthony Marra
The Interestings – Meg Wolitzer
Mary Coin – Marisa Silver
Good Living Street – Tim Bonyhady
Americanah – Chimamanda Ngozi Adiche
Saving Italy: The Race to Rescue A Nation’s Treasures – Robert M. Edsel