Best Books Read in 2013

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As in years past, I have asked a handful of diverse people in my life to recommend the best book they read in the last year. It’s a pressure-free recommendation, as the only rule is that the book had to have made some kind of personal impact. So, this latest list of  "Best Books" includes titles that might have you reading cover to cover in one sitting, make you cry or laugh uncontrollably, or (simply!) change the way you look at the world or even live your life.

Fiction

Non Fiction

For more book recommendations, check out the lists from 2012, 2011, and 2010.

Best Books Read in 2012

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“What was the favorite book you read last year?” Put this question to a diverse group of readers and you will get a very interesting list indeed. This year’s group of favorites is no exception and includes fiction, nonfiction, memoirs, old classics, new prize winners.  If you are looking for something to read in 2013, close your eyes and point somewhere below – it’s bound to be a winning choice because every one of these books was a favorite read of someone’s in 2012.

For even more suggestions, check out the list of best books read in 2011.

Daunt Bookstore, London UK
Daunt Bookstore, London UK

Best Books Read in 2011

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Looking for some book recommendations? I’ve asked people whom I know to be avid readers for the title of ONE book which they read in 2011 that made an impression on them – ie gave them a new perspective, was enjoyable to get lost in, or difficult to slog through yet difficult to forget. It could be a classic novel, science fiction, biography, business, self help, you name it – and, while some of the same titles popped up again and again, the results are various.

Many people tried to sneak in a second favorite – or two or three. (It didn’t work, I can count – even in Spanish!) Luckily for some (myself included), runners-up were the number one choice of others. One book does deserve special mention though, being included in so many people’s second breath: Jennifer Eagan’s A Visit from the Goon Squad.

I may never own a kindle. I may never walk down the street reading a novel from a thin slice of a tablet (really, I have seen people do this.) I may always board planes with a carry-on that is heavier than my checked baggage because it is filled with books and actual hold-in-your-hand magazines.

That’s what makes me love the list below. It’s a bit like walking into a room with floor to ceiling bookcases just to stare at the bindings.

May this list give you reading inspiration for the New Year!

Isabel Allende, Island Beneath the Sea David Benioff, City of Thieves Ron Chernow, The House of Morgan: An American Banking Dynasty and the Rise of Modern Finance Suzanne Collins, The Hunger Games Trilogy John Connolly, The Book of Lost Things Patrick DeWitt, The Sisters Brothers Robert Dreyfus and Sean Dorrance Kelly, All Things Shining: Reading the Western Classics to Find Meaning in a Secular Age Debbie Ford, The Dark Side of the Light Chasers Ian Frazier, Travels in Siberia Philippa Gregory, The Boleyn Inheritance Jennifer Haigh, Faith John Irving, The Cider House Rules John Irving, The World According to Garp Walter Isaacson, Steve Jobs Shaun Johnson, The Native Commissioner Brad Kessler, Goat Song: A Seasonal Life, A Short History of Herding, and the Art of Making Cheese Barbara Kingsolver, Lacuna Thomas Lewis, Fari Amini and Richard Lannon, A General Theory of Love Charles C. Mann, 1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus George R.R. Martin, A Game of Thrones Steve Martin, An Object of Beauty David Mitchell, The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet Gregory David Roberts, Shantaram JD Salinger, Nine Stories Mark Stevens and Annalyn Swan, De Kooning: An American Master Rabindranath Tagore, The Hungry Stones and Other Stories Eckhart Tolle, The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace John Updike, Rabbit, Run Abraham Verghese, Cutting for Stone

For more, check out the Best Books Read in 2010 list.

Best Books Read in 2010

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The end of the year is all about lists – “Top 100 Albums of the Year,” for example, or “Top Ten Must-Have Gadgets of 2010.” And so, I  add to the noise with my own list of Best Books Read in 2010.  Rather informally, I’ve asked the people around me what book was their favorite  this year – it didn’t have to be the “best” book or even one recently published, just something they were glad to have picked up along the way.

Here's the list, random and inspiring (and perhaps mis-categorized) as it is:

 

Nonfiction

Historical Fiction

Dystopian

Biography, Memoir

Classics

Novels, Recently Published

Novels, Somewhat Recently Published

Books Catch-up: After the Quake, An Unquiet Mind, The Yellow Wallpaper, All the Pretty Horses

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After the Quakeby Haruki Murakami Rating: four out of five stars

Prior to this book, I’d only ever read The Wind Up Bird Chronicle –which is, as I've mentioned before, a strange, strange book that mixes mystery, relationships, WWII, mysticism … basically the kitchen sink and a bunch of cats. So, I knew that there is something to love about Murakami. His short stories are a treat, because for the most part, they keep to one story line and allow you to appreciate his sparse writing style. A master story-teller, Murakami is inventive. I particularly enjoyed “Landscape with Flat Iron” followed by “Honey Pie” and “All God’s Children Can Dance.”

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An Unquiet  Mind: A Memoir of Moods and Madness by Kay Redfield Jamison Rating: three out of five stars

An Unquiet Mind is an inside look at manic depressive disorder – how difficult it is, even for a doctor  to recognize in herself, acknowledge, treat, and live with it. I found the book a lot less sensational than I anticipated, and for this I am grateful. Not only is it a brave work of someone going through something I cannot quite understand, but it also provides an historical perspective of the illness and its treatments. This book is brave on both a personal and professional level, as Jamison risked her professional career to be so honest about an illness that comes with so much stigma and misunderstanding.

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The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman Rating: three out of five stars

This is a re-read, of course, and a reliable one. These stories are simple but still enjoyable. It’s nice to read a short story with a straight-forward (for the most part) moral and lesson. More current short stories are often so complicated that, as a reader, I cannot remember what took place or what point the author was trying to make, just a few weeks after I close the book covers. But these stories stick with me. Yes, they are dated, but still thoughtful.

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All the Pretty Horses (Border Trilogy, Vol 1) by Cormac McCarthy Rating: four out of five stars

This book did it for me. McCarthy is a master. He uses spare language – he doesn’t spoon feed readers the story. Rather, the reader is expected to make connections, to make themselves comfortable with the fact that they don’t know all the information upfront and that they will learn more by...wait for it...reading. All the Pretty Horses has everything I want in a book: love, courage, heartbreak, redemption, injustice, and sentences that can stand alone as poems – oh yes, and horses. I’ve ordered the other two books of this border trilogy.