My Best Read of 2013

Every year I like to do a recap on my favorite books of the previous year!  Goodreads helps me remember and track them!  They even show you your stats – so it tells me last year I read 24 books and 9,235 pages.   Neat!  I love reading and discovering new authors and writing styles and meeting new characters in books!   And yes, I do most of my books on audio – it still counts! - while I am doing dishes, laundry, running, etc, so no excuse not to finish some good books this year!

Here are my top favorites and my do not waste your time books from 2013 – I would love to hear what yours were as well!

Dad is Fat, by Jim Gaffigan

My only 5 star book of the year because  #1: Jim Gaffigan is hilarious, #2: the only way to survive parenting is through humor and #3: I swear this was the book I WAS GOING TO WRITE ON PARENTING but from a mom's point of view and minus a few chapters and the title! Seriously almost every thought/chapter in his book was something that was so right on target and funny because it is so true and was probably something I thought at the time! If you are a mom or a dad you have to read this! If you do not have kids, don’t bother, you won't get most of it...I listened to this on audio which made all the difference I am sure as he reads it himself so it was like listening to his stand up act - so very funny - reading it may not have the same effect.

Voice in the wind, Echo in The Darkness, Sure is the Dawn – The Mark of the Lion Series - by Francince Rivers

 I had never read anything by her and breezed through this trilogy.  She is such a descriptive and beautiful writer and the characters and stories come alive and are marvelous (though tragic like most good stories). AND LOVED THE ENDING!

The Fault in our stars, By John Green

This story was so well written! I loved the quirkiness of the characters and the beauty that they portrayed through their lives and words. I felt like I could have met both main characters in real life and known them instantly. It is very touching and also humorous at the same time (so many quick witted one-liners!). It is a tragic love story as you may surmise from the fact that it is written from point of view of a teenager cancer patient, but at the same time a happy story because along the way, the characters find in their journey as they come to discover their own truth about life, death and love. A quick read and everyone should read this to appreciate such great writing! And they are making a movie out of this!

And The Mountains Echoed, By Khaled Hosseini

Hosseini is a brilliant storyteller! In this book he used the style of several short stories connected through the characters with each story having its own powerful ending/lesson. I really enjoyed each story and the way he tied all the characters stories together as the book concluded. There were a few holes in a few stories here and there which was a tad frustrating, but overall brilliant writing. I guess my other complaint is that so many stories were so depressing, but most great stories are bred from tragedy, and this book is probably the least depressing from all 3 of his books. The ending does have a shimmer of rainbow of happiness, but I still wish for a bit more happiness for the characters throughout the book.

Love Survivor by Marcus Luttrell - A great hero story and pretty amazing to hear what he went through! I enjoyed the background of the SEAL training and how personal the story felt. Several F bombs (mostly the author quoting others) but not surprising as it is a retelling of a military story). But beyond that a story of courage which helped me to have an even greater appreciation for those protecting our freedom! Looking forward to the movie.

TO check out previous years reviews/books, click here!

Don’t waste your time

12 Tribes of Hattie

Sorry Oprah, I rarely like your book picks so maybe I will start using any you recommend as what not to read! The writing was decent. It was a collection of stories of each of Hattie's children in a snapshot during their lives, but only one or two of them had any semblance of closure which is very frustrating for me as a reader. Maybe I just did not get her literary style or goal of the book, but there was no message from the book and no morals in the stories. It was depressing as well and I kept waiting for the happy story/closure/something to tie the stories together, and it never came. So only 2 stars and there are many other books out there that are more worth your time

Let’s Explore Diabetes with Owls – Supposed to be one of the funniest comedy books of the year –  NO – although there were a few funny parts, I kept waiting for it to get better and wish I had not even wasted my time on it (although I did skip over some short stories when I could see where they were leading!)  but most of them seemed like he was trying to hard to be funny and other parts were very insulting and not funny at all.

If you don’t want to wait a year to read what I am reading you can join me at Goodreads at http://www.goodreads.com/review/list/641993

For past year’s favorites, go to http://niftynelsonnews.blogspot.com/search/label/books