My Favorite Books of 2013

The year 2013 has turned out to be a year of confusion.  I read alot of great books during the year and many of them came to me in a very roundabout way.  Usually I browse the bookstore looking for new titles.  Of course I keep up with the bestseller lists in the New York Times, USA Today because I love lists. I looked at the top 100 books of 2013 on Amazon and surprisingly I hadn't heard of most of them and had actually read only about 5.  Lists can make me feel out of touch but I'm hoping my list will put some new life into your own reading choices.

The Best Book by those of the Same Title:    Life After Life by Jill McCorkle
Life After Life by Kate Atkinson was released to much acclaim on the same day as the novel of the same title by McCorkle.  I read them both because of the intrigue.  You will find the title by Atkinson on many of the best book lists, but I didn't like it at all. Neither did my sisters. Repeating  Ursula's life over and over, tired me.  Life After Life by Jill McCorkle portrayed brilliantly what it feels like to be young and grow old. 

The Funniest Book:  The 100 Year Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window by Jonas Jonasson
The title says it all.  The 100 year old man climbed out the window of the old folks home and found the adventure of his life.  As I said before, its a cross between Forest Gump and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.  Laugh out loud, funny.

The Book with the Most Publicity that Should be Skipped:  The Cukoo's Calling  by Robert Galbraith
Or was it really written by J.K Rowling?  It doesn't matter who wrote it.  Dull.  Skip it.

The Best Self Help Book that Wasn't:  The Book of Why by Nicholas Montemarano
With a title like that, it's easy to understand why I thought this was a self help book.  It's a novel full of help understanding the mysteries of life.  I adored it.

The Best Books for Women:  I couldn't decide between The Husband's Secret by Liane Moriarty, The Silent Wife by A.S.A Harrison and The Wives of Los Alamos by TaraShea Nesbit
The Husband's Secret is on all the best books list as it should be.  Loved it.   I couldn't remember the title at first so The Silent Wife came up instead on my search.  This novel shows up on very few lists and it needs to be on more.  A great read! The Wives of Los Alamos will be released after the first of the year.  Pre order it!  You will not be disappointed and you will learn a few things about the history of WWII.

In 2013, I read many more fascinating books, some good, some bad, and the rest only OK.  They couldn't all make the list. A few made other well known lists but couldn't make my cut.  My resolution for the New Year is to read only good books.  Let's see how that works for me!  Happy New Year.  Happy Reading!

Life After Life by Kate Atkinson

Life After Life by Kate Atkinson

I selected this book as somewhat of a novelty.  Another book by a different author with the same title was released on the same day.  That's an unusual event in the publishing world. I felt it only fair if I was reading one to also read the other.  I loved Life After Life by Jill McCorkle and posted a review of it earlier.  I didn't enjoy Life After Life by Kate Atkinson quite so much.

Ursula Todd is born with her umbilical cord wrapped around her neck.  The midwife is stopped at the local pub due to a driving snowstorm and unable to make it to Sylvie Todd's bedside.  Each time we think the worst has happened to this baby, the author rewinds the tape, leading the reader down a different path where the doctor does make it through the snow, or the servant uses the kitchen shears to cut the cord to give Ursula another chance at life.

At pivotal points in a young girl's life, Ursula's choices are simply undone and her path reset to something different.  The new path didn't necessarily lead Ursula to a better place, only a different one.  Each turn became more tedious than the last. As a reader I often found myself lost and confused as to where I was supposed to be in the story.  There was an awful lot of rehashing of the same conversations and events. Boring!

I think this is an interesting concept for a story, however I began to feel like it was Groundhog Day, repeating itself over and over again.  Maybe I would have enjoyed it more if Ursula had been a likeable character, but she wasn't.  Maybe if her mother, brothers and sister had been more appealing I would have enjoyed the book, but they weren't.  I'm not one to stop reading once I start, but I'll admit I skipped alot of the middle hoping the end would bring redemption.  Unfortunately, it didn't.