Summary Post for 2023

>*>*>*>*>*>*>*>* Updated a few days later to say that my current read (listen), The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store, has QUITE THE SCENE with pie!Sweet potato pie. Dare ya to read it and not think of me. LOL Happy New Year! (this note added on 12/28) <*<*<*<*<*<*<

Total Books read: 100+ (again, I read a few children’s books to make it to this century mark.) This year was actually quite similar to last year.

Pages read: 27,127 ………………………………2022: 27,952
Average pages per book: 268……………………………..274
Average pages per day: 76.4……………………………….77

Hours listened: ~255 compared to 240 last year.
Audiobooks count: 26

My TOP 23 in the year 2023:

Top Ten: Iona Iverson’s Rules for Commuting, Hello Beautiful, Tom Lake, The Rachel Incident, Buried in the Suburbs, The Bandit Queens, LaRose, Lots of Candles Plenty of Cake, The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida, The Book of Delights

Random Stuff:

31 FIVE SLICES OF PIE

43 FOUR

22 THREE

8 TWO

0 ONE

(These are spookily similar to last year!)

Books read that were over 400 pages: 14 with only 4 of 500 pages or more. Where have my chunksters gone?

Female to Male Ratio: 68 / 34 (~12 of that 26 being US or Brit white dudes…)
Total Books by New-to-Me Authors = 77 (compared to 42 last year, but 72 in 2021)
Repeat Authors = 22 and some multiple time in 2022 (Wilson, Patchett, Morrison) A few were new and I read a second: McDermott, Kuang
Total Books by Authors of Color/LGTBQ+ = 19 (best guess estimate – didn’t do thorough research into backgrounds; assumptions might have been made)

Oldest Book: 1919 – The Haunted Bookshop – fun!

Number of Books Pub’d in 2023: 27 (and 22 pub’d in 2022!, 57% pub’d in the last 3 years.)
Books over 25 years old = 12 – These count towards my Classics Club – Round 2 which is due this time next year.

Number of books read on the list of 1001 Books to Read Before You Die: 4
All Quiet on the Western Front
The Once & Future King (uh,DNF! eek)
Beloved – a reread, and
Jazz also by Toni Morrison

Hardcovers 29
eBooks 23
Audiobooks 26
Tradeback 26
paperback 1 . . . . . . . . also spookily similar to last 2 years.

Genres
Total Adult Fiction Books Read = 34
Total YA Fiction Books Read = 0
Children’s = 9
Total Memoir Books Read = 11
Total Nonfiction Books Read = 23 (22 LAST YEAR)
Short Story / Essays = 6
Poetry = 6
Mystery/Thriller = 9
Translated = 2 (Japanese and German)
Fantasy = 6
SciFi = 1
Historical Fiction = 2
Cookbooks = 1 – not really a cookbook but was about pie, go figure.
Adventure = 0 – what IS this anyway? Maybe the 2 art books I read?
Business = 1
Graphical = 0

Number of debuts: 8 (best guess)
Best debut: The Bandit Queens by Parini Schrof

Interesting Coincidences – Three books with CAT in the title? I am allergic to cats, as cute and feisty as they are – I don’t own one. I seem to have read quite a few titles featuring animals: goat, dog, cat, lamb, sloth, horse, bird, snake (copperhead)

Books that mentioned pie: 50

And…  the Care’s Books & Pie 2023 Pie in Literature Award goes to:

First Honorable Mention: A Gathering of Old Men had a pretty good scene about pie as a way to charm the man you love but doesn’t seem to notice you; but also, that you have your maid/cook bake that pie… 

I had Lucy bake me an apple pie, because I knew how much Jack just liked his apple pie. I told Lucy when she came to work that morning if she baked me the best apple pie she ever baked in her life, I would give her half the day off.

Second Honorable Mention: Tom Lake by Ann Patchett. Set on a cherry farm, so a good bet cherry pie would make a mention.

Emily has made bread and pie and after a day of work, bread and pie are really all we want.

Finally, drum roll please.

And the winner goes to The Guncle for baking pie for a birthday and also the discussion of what KIND of pie to make. I then proceeded to post a recipe on Litsy for Snowman Pie!

“We could get a cake,”
“Okay. But your father likes pie.” . . .

“Pie is hot.” . . .

“One of every cold pie we can find and then everybody will have a choice. Satisfied?
Thnowman pie.
Snowman pie? What‘s that?
Grant shrugged. “It just sounded good.”

.

.

.

Best Pie Quote:

“At Adrian TX, we stop at a little place called the Midpoint Cafe, located at the exact “Geo-Mathematical” midpoint of Route 66, whatever that means. I finally got my appetite back, even though I’m not sure what I can keep down. They do have homemade “Ugly Crust” pies, which intrigue me.”

The Leisure Seeker by Michael Zadoorian

Copyright © 2007-2024. Care’s Books and Pie also known as and originally created as Care’s Online Book Club. All rights reserved. This post was originally posted by Care. It should not be reproduced without express written permission.

Summary Post for 2022

Total Books read: 100+ (and yes, I read all the short little ones to make it to this century mark!)

Pages read: 27,952 ………………………………2021: 29,419
Average pages per book: 274……………………………..241
Average pages per day: 77……………………………….81

Hours listened: ~240
Audiobooks count: 33

My TOP 22 in the year 2022:

Top Ten: City of Girls, Brown Girl Dreaming, Autumn, Lucy by the Sky, Lessons in Chemistry, Five Tuesdays in Winter, Dinosaurs, The Sentence, Trust, This Time Tomorrow

I’m so pleased that these hit many different genres and categories!

Random Stuff:

29 FIVE SLICES OF PIE

53 FOUR

16 THREE

3 TWO

0 ONE

(These are spookily similar to last year!)

Books read that were over 400 pages: 13

REALLY ODD to me that I didn’t read any true chunksters (>500) this year. #Shrug

Female to Male Ratio: 72 / 26 (~12 of that 26 being US or Brit white dudes…)
Total Books by New-to-Me Authors = 42 (compared to 72 last year)
Repeat Authors = 34
Total Books by Authors of Color/LGTBQ+ = 26 (best guess estimate – didn’t do thorough research into backgrounds, assumptions might have been made)

Oldest Book: 1850 – Sonnets from the Portuguese by EBB

Number of Books Pub’d in 2022: 32 (and 27 pub’d in 2021!, 67% pub’d in the last 3 years!!!)
Books over 25 years old = 10 – over 50 years old = 7

Hardcovers 22
eBooks 19
Audiobooks 33
Tradeback 26
paperback 1 . . . . . . . . also spookily similar to last year.

Genres
Total Adult Fiction Books Read = 46
Total YA Fiction Books Read = 1
Children’s = 2
Total Memoir Books Read = 12
Total Nonfiction Books Read = 22
Short Story / Essays = 3
Poetry = 5
Mystery/Thriller = 2
Translated = 2
Fantasy = 1
SciFi = 1
Historical Fiction = 8
Cookbooks = 0
Adventure = 0
Business = 1
Graphical = 1

Number of debuts: 10 (best guess)
Best debut: Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus

Number of books read on the list of 1001 Books to Read Before You Die: 2
The Optimist’s Daughter
Giovanni’s Room
(this is a very low count for me. eeeek)

Interesting Coincidences – How many time the word TOMORROW was in the book titles this year! This Time Tomorrow by Emma Straub, Tomorrow Will Be Different by Sarah McBride, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin

Books that mentioned pie: 47

And…  the Care’s Books & Pie 2022 Pie in Literature Award goes to:

Four books vie for the title this year, let me explain.

The Disreputable History of Frankie-Landau Banks by E.Lockhart. has considerable space devoted to a cross-country adventure eating at pie shoppes along the way. Who wouldn’t LOVE that? However, it wasn’t til I had completed the book that I realized that Lockhart was an author of a book I loathed. (We Were Liars. UGH)

True Biz by Sara Novic has a bit about a character wearing a Miss Sweet Potato Pie costume!

The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek has multiple mentions of pie and also features a town dance where eligible young ladies bring a tempting pie to attract a future husband. Pivotal pie plot point, methinks.

The Rabbit Hutch features a diner that has a pie theme – but not any old pie theme: Avant Garde pie: new and unusual  — which is ME! and how I came into my pie passion.

drum roll, please

.

.

.

And the winner goes to The Rabbit Hutch! weird pie wins hands down, all day every day. I only wish we could have had more descriptions.

Best Pie Quote:

“I left a slice of pie in my desk drawer,“ she said mournfully. “It’s probably halfway to the moon by now.”

Subdivision by J.Robt Lennon

Summary Post for 2021

Total Books Read = 122
Average Books Read Per Month = 10
Best Reading Month =  July 15 or April 14
Worst Reading Month = Jan or Nov

Total Pages Read = 29,419
Average Pages Per Book = 241
Average Pages Read Per Day = 81

Total Chunksters (400+ pages) Read = 14

Genres
Total Adult Fiction Books Read = 36
Lighter Contemporary Fic = 5
Total YA Fiction Books Read = 6
Children’s = 4
Total Memoir Books Read = 12
Total Nonfiction Books Read = 24
Short Story Collection = 1
Poetry = 8
Mystery/Thriller = 2
Translated = 5
Fantasy = 5
SciFi = 9
Historical Fiction = 8
Cookbooks = 2
Adventure = 1
Business = 2
Graphical = 1

Formats
Total Audio Books “Read” = 29
Total Ebooks Read = 28
Total Hardcover Books = 26
Tradeback/Paperback = 39

Ratings
★★★★★ = 37
★★★★ = 57
★★★ = 21
★★ = 6
★ = 

Authors
Total Books By Women = 77
Total Books By Men = 45
Total Books by New-to-Me Authors = 72
Repeat Authors = 26
Total Books by Authors of Color = 33

Miscellaneous
Total Graphic Novels Read = 0
Total Books Reread = 0
Total “Classics” Read = 15
Total Books Read for Book Club = 6

Oldest book: The Epic Gilgamesh
Longest book:  856 JS&MN
Shortest book: 18 Pumpkin Pie

Longest book title:    A Bound Woman Is a Dangerous Thing: The Incarceration of African American Women from Harriet Tubman to Sandra Bland  

Shortest book title: Jack

Debuts: 17
On List of Books to Read Before You Die: 4
Book to Movie: 3, Book to Play: 1, Book to TV Miniseries: 1

Books with Pie: 58

Care’s 2021 Pie in Lit Award goes to….  The Resisters!

 

I read more books than I ever have in one calendar year. Yet, I didn’t have any standout amazing reading experiences. BUT WAIT! I do NOT mean to say I didn’t have a great reading year because I did! I had many tremendous 4 & 5 star reads and if I were to really look at the list, some of those fives would drop to 4 and some of those 4s would elevate to a 5 and so I’m NOT going to look.  

I’m going with what I set when I recorded in my spreadsheet and blog. I did pretty good on blogging reviews this year, though that last few months were a disappointment. That’s OK, it’ll be OK. Get back up if you fall down; no need to dither/dather over spilt milk and attempt to go back in time to fix. Nope.

I can’t think of how to do a top 5 or even a top 10 so I’m following Melissa’s example over at Avid Reader:

Best Books You Read In 2021

♦ Classics — One True Thing by Anna Quindlen 1994
Historical Fiction — The Cold Millions by Jess Walter and Everyone Knows Your Mother is a Witch by Rivka Galchen
Mystery — Swann -or- Long Bright River
Literary Fiction — Top 3: The Promise by Damon Galgut, Luster by Raven Leilani, Oh William by Elizabeth Strout
Nonfiction —These Precious Days by Ann Patchett
Fantasy —The Spindle Splintered by Alix Harrow
Poetry – It Shouldn’t Have Been Beautiful – Lia Purpura and Jeanne Griggs Postcard Poems!
Science Fiction — Martha Wells Murderbot Series
YA — Alone with the Stars by David Graham 

♦ Books You Were Excited About & Thought You Were Going To Love More But Didn’t? The Book of Form and Emptiness by Ruth Ozeki, Skippy Dies/Paul Murray and Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart

♦ Most surprising (in a good way) book you read? Stephen Florida. It is a DEBUT.

♦ Book You “Pushed” The Most People To Read? n/a

♦ Best series you started in 2021? Murderbot

♦ Favorite new author you discovered in 2021? Anna Quindlen and Raven Leilani

♦ Best book from a genre you don’t typically read/was out of your comfort zone? (I can’t think of anything to fit this…)

♦ Most action-packed/thrilling/unputdownable book of the year? I can’t think of anything to fit this either. The most memorable “unputdownable” book that comes to mind is the opposite of action-packed! Whereabouts by Lahiri

♦ Book You Are Most Likely To Re-Read Next Year? Goodness, um NONE? Maybe These Precious Days. I rarely reread and certainly not so quick in time. (OK, that isn’t quite true… I read Milkman twice in the same year and I read Duchess Goldblatt, twice in the same year, too! #shrug)

♦ Favorite cover of a book you read in 2021? Everyone Knows Your Mother is a Witch or Euphoria by Lily King or The Resistors by Gish Jen

♦ Most memorable character of 2021? Narrator of My Year of Rest and Relaxation or Narrator in The Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison or Konstance in Cloud Cuckoo Land .

♦ Most beautifully written book read in 2021? The Soul of Kindness by Elizabeth Taylor

♦  Most Thought-Provoking/ Life-Changing Book of 2021?  Did That Just Happen?!

♦  Book you can’t believe you waited UNTIL 2021 to finally read? Oranges are Not the Only Fruit (and Anne Frank and Housekeeping and Fun Home and Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell) (And Alice in Wonderland.)

♦  Favorite Passage/Quote From A Book You Read In 2021?

♦ Shortest & Longest Book You Read In 2021? You’re My Little Pumpkin Pie (18 pages) by Natalie Marshal and Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell (865 pages) by Susanna Clarke

♦  Book That Shocked You The Most? Effin Birds by Aaron Reynolds (LOL)

♦  Favorite Couple? Caroline & Tom Donohoe in The Radium Girls. True love.

♦  Favorite Non-Romantic Relationship of The Year? Murderbot and ART?

♦  Favorite Book You Read in 2021 From an Author You’ve Read Previously? The Green Mile by SK, These Precious Days by AP

♦  Best Book You Read In 2021 That You Read Based SOLELY On A Recommendation From Somebody Else? Yoga Pant Nation maybe. Or… wait for it. Murderbot!

♦ Newest fictional crush from a book you read in 2021? no idea.  I can’t keep answering with Murderbot, can I?

♦  Best 2021 debut you read? Luster by Raven Leilani

♦ Best Worldbuilding/Most Vivid Setting You Read This Year?  The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune

♦  Book That Put A Smile On Your Face/Was The Most FUN To Read? Murderbot

♦  Book That Made You Cry in 2021? These Precious Days

♦ Hidden Gem Of The Year?  The Tenth Muse by Catherine Chung (probably the book that had the least chatter in my world…)

♦  Book That Crushed Your Soul? The Trees by Percival Everett

♦ Most Unique Book You Read In 2021? Several People Are Typing! by  Calvin Kasulke

♦ Book That Made You the Maddest? Detransition, Baby (that so many people argued about  Torrey Peters being eligible for the Womens Lit Prize)

♦  Best Audiobook? Cloud Cuckoo Land / Anthony Doerr and Black Gold by Theresa Edwards

♦ Best Book to Film Adaptation? One True Thing & Housekeeping

 

Copyright © 2007-2022. Care’s Online Book Club aka Care’s Books and Pie. All rights reserved. This post was originally posted by Care from Care’s Online Book Club aka BkClubCare. It should not be reproduced without express written permission.

2020 in Review

I read 102 books. 

 Total pages 14,320. Hours ~124

Female/Male:  51/49 

Fiction/Non: 78/24 

New to Me Authors: 91 /  Repeat Authors: 11 

This year, I read my 6th Shirley Jackson. I read a 5th book by Elizabeth Strout. Four authors, I read for the 3rd time:  James McBride, Wallace Stegner, Drew Rozell, and Toni Morrison. The rereads included an author that was both a first for the year and then read it with my ears for its second intake: Becoming Duchess Goldblatt. I reread The Sellout for the TOB Super Rooster and I read two poetry collections by Billy Collins. I read 4 authors for the second time:  read another by Ta-Nehisi Coates but the second was fiction. I read the next in a series to catch my second by Hilary Mantel. Michael Pollan’s Caffeine was my second of his. 

Classics: didn’t have the patience to figure this out; oldest book The Picture of Dorian Gray 1890. Only 2 books published before 1900. Books published in 2019 = 20, in 2020 = 23.

Shortest book:  Not figuring this out because I read so many poetry collections that were < 100 pages and plenty of novellas, and I couldn’t decide how to handle exceptions to not. Plus I read a lot of kids books. 

Longest book: Ducks, Newburyport at 1020 pages. Took me months. 

Longest Audiobook: Ok, here’s where I admit that I didn’t keep track this year. And more truth is that last year, I created my track sheet in December! So, it is just not going to happen where I present all the stats and show pretty pie graphs. Maybe 2021. Maybe.

The longest audiobook was likely We Ride Upon Sticks by Quan Barry, at 14 hours and 44 minutes. And it was too long. Fun! but too long. Not typical that I didn’t have any chunkster audiobooks!  You might suggest it would be lack of a commute and thus no listening while driving time?  But I rarely listened to my audiobooks on commute to work. Not sure…  

LIke last year, I took advantage of Audible’s monthly freebies quite often.

This is last year’s pie chart just because this post needs some color. LOL

Comparing… THIS YEAR, I upped my 5 star givings to 34%! Four stars were given to 33 %, three stars to 38%, and 4% got 2 stars. No ratings of 1 star.

Which is interesting… Because I don’t feel like I had a really tremendous feel-good reading year. Maybe this actually supports that I can’t quickly think of my top reads? Too many?

Favorite poetry:  Mad With Yellow by Lisa J. Starr

I didn’t do any readalongs. I didn’t do any reading projects. (Tho, @Bybee might think different?)

WAIT! not true. My poetry was a personal reading project and it was wonderful. I succeeded beyond my wildest dreams to read a poem every day. Did it change my life? Maybe. Maybe…

I did do the Super Rooster and am quite pleased with myself.

My blogging could be described as “fits of bursts”; I’m okay with what I managed to post.

I finished the What’s in a Name 2020 Challenge earlier than usual. All good.

I read 4 (2 to completion) books in 2020that were on the 1001 Books To Read Before You Die: Tender is the Night, Club Dumas, Cry the Beloved Country, Treasure Island.

My first time to read 100+ books but I feel like I cheated, to be honest. Yea, yea, I know that the book police ain’t out to get me or anything but the challenge to make it doesn’t sit right with me. I honestly have taken that last 3 weeks off. I can feel it in my brain that I’m not reading — yet I can’t seem to sit and READ. It’s such the weirdest thing.

Hoping the flip of the calendar page, will truly bring a renewed motivation and thrill with reading. But yowza, I hate to DNF. 

Finally, PIE:                               

and, drumroll please for the 2020 Pie in Literature Award, the WINNER of my best book with pie for this year is  Ducks, Newburyport by Lucy Ellman!

The fact that it’s important not to despair though when you’ve got pies in the oven, …, the fact that you have to have mercy on your pies, be there for your pies, and in return they will be good dutiful pies and serve you, …

Honorable Mentions:  Oh, goodness. I read so many more pie-themed books this year! I read a pie cookbook (wait, I do that every year, don’t I?). I sought out pie-themed books, truth. 

I hail Ladybird, Collected (and NO – not just because it mimics Ducks with that comma) but because I want everyone to read it and have it get picked up for national distribution. Please visit HERE or HERE to get your copy.

I bring to your attention to We Ride Upon Sticks – some good pie mentions; make me smile just to think on. And well, sure, of COURSE:  Summer of a Thousand Pies, Enemy Pie, and Midnight at the Blackbird Cafe.

Finally, the pies I made yesterday and today! 

Harvey Wallbanger Pie for Dad’s birthday and the Spinach Ham Gouda Quiche made today for Happy New Year!!

Be kind, be readin’, give me a book rec. Let’s chat this year, yes? 

 

 

 

It’s no small thing, feeling that we matter, that we couldn’t just be any diner and it couldn’t just be any pie.        – Ladybird, Collected 

Review 2019

Copyright © 2007-2019. Care’s Online Book Club. All rights reserved. This post was originally posted by Care from Care’s Online Book Club. It should not be reproduced without express written permission.

2019 in Review

I read 73 books. 

 Total pages 13,568. Hours 240

Female/Male:  40/33

Fiction/Non: 59/14

New to Me Authors: 59 /  Repeat Authors: 14 

This year, I read my 7th Ann Patchett. Two authors, I read for the 3rd time:  Thomas Hardy and Matt Haig. I read 11 authors for the second time. The only reread was Milkman, by Anna Burns, both this year – one by eBook and one by audio. I also read Say Nothing, a nonfiction view into the times and setting of Milkman. A themed combination that created a great reading experience.

Classics: 14; oldest book Candide 1759. Only 3 books published before 1900. Books published in 2019 = 20, in 2018 = 23.

Shortest book: No Small Gift, 110 pages. Poetry

Longest book: The Golden Notebook, 640 pages

Longest Audiobook: Wolf Hall (and the only series book?)  24+ hours

I took advantage of Audible’s monthly freebies quite often.

Highlights:

I completed the Classics Club 50 in 5 years!!!!!  

I also completed – for the VERY FIRST TIME – the Back to the Classics Challenge at the 9 book level.

I already mentioned my Milkman twice + Say Nothing “Reading Experience”. Wonderful. 

A renewed focus to blog and write reviews. Lots of Business/Leadership books = 5.  Three books with the word GOLDEN in it. Another year of no readalongs. And no Stephen King. Anyone up for The Green Mile in 2020?

I did a fair job of reading books for the March Tournament of Books – always a wonderful time of year. 

My top favorites to share are:

Finally, PIE.

and, drumroll please for the 2019 Pie in Literature Award, the WINNER of my best book with pie is  The Lager Queen of Minnesota by J.Ryan Stradal!

Edith would just as soon take another woman’s husband as another woman’s pie recipe, and she had the best husband in the world, so there you go.

 

Honorable Mentions: Where the Crawdads Sing for a boat named The Cherry Pie, and The Psychology of Time Travel for frozen butter pies on a stick.

Which reminds me, I read a few time travel books this year, too.

 

One more thing:

I read 8 books in 2018 that were on the 1001 Books To Read Before You Die: The Accidental, Candide, A Clockwork Orange, The Woodlanders, Naked Lunch, The House of the Seven Gables, A Handful Dust, Love in a Cold Climate

Happy New Year! Read and enjoy a slice of pie – in real life or in a book.

Diana frowned. “We told you, we don’t want cake, we want pie.”

Review 2018

Copyright © 2007-2019. Care’s Online Book Club. All rights reserved. This post was originally posted by Care from Care’s Online Book Club. It should not be reproduced without express written permission.

Year 2013 Reading Review

It’s the most wonderful time of the year…

I read 60 books!! I count my DNFs, but sometimes, I only count the pages that I actually read. Sometimes I don’t. Aint this gonna be fun?

I know this shows that I read 59…  um,

(I can’t remember how I cut just the image above but it was before I finished the 60th book: The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt…)

Ratings breakdown:  13 FIVE 22%, 24 FOUR 40%, 16 THREE 27%, 5 TWO 8% and 2 ONE 3%.

Longest book read and longest book title:   SAME BOOK!  Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, clocking in at 875 pages.

Over 60% of my books this year were penned by female authors. Female 37 to Male 23.

The 11 chunksters (>450 pages) comprised 7677 pages or 41% of total pages read  —  18,621.

I read 6 books less than 200 pages. I averaged 358 pages a week; 310 pages per book. I tell ya, The Goldfinch in 5 days helped a LOT.

I read 8 more books on the 1001+ Books To Read Before I Die List. I only read 5 last year.

I listened to 14 audiobooks, two more than last year but only 10 more hours. I listened to 241 hours!!

Three books were translated from another language;  Italian, Swedish and Dutch. I read a book set in Amsterdam and visited Amsterdam.

Highlight of my book blogging experiences involved travel – I bought a book at the Persephone Bookstore in London and I had lunch with Judith in Amsterdam.

TOO many books set in the United States?  Other exotic locales I visited were Wales, Ireland, Canada (surprisingly, only 1), Australia (twice), North Korea, Italy, Antarctica, Iran, France, Japan, Sweden, somewhere nondescript in Europe (Calvino’s IoaWNaT). I covered a lot of ocean water with Moby Dick and Unbroken, I suffered war in Ancient Greece/Persia (The Song of Achilles), and I spent some time traveling the galaxies.

I read only 9 nonfiction books compared to 17 last year! yikes.

Stephen King and JK Rowling competed for most books read by same author with THREE. Rowling won with pages numbers; I finished the Harry Potter series for a total of 2281 pages read but King only got 2065. He would have won with hours listened to since I audiobooked ALL of his. I just love to listen to his words and the narrators chosen to read them.

I FINISHED THE HARRY POTTER SERIES!!!!  Now I finally get all the references…

And how about MOBY DICK? Just how many books do you read that reference Herm’s masterpiece? a LOT.  Including The Goldfinch, by the way… This is the book that I was most surprised with. I liked it much more than I ever expected to. It’s really quite a treat to the senses.

I think I read 20 books as part of a readalong and/or book clubs.  The Shining was the most fun because of everyone who tweeted and sent gifts. GIFTS!

Again, I did a horrible job tracking debuts but I know I read some astonishingly good ones:  The Light Between Oceans, The Orchardist, The Good House, The Song of Achilles.

I read 42 new to me authors. Yikes!  The ones I hope to repeat on that list?  Beth Howard, Donna Tartt, Kate Atkinson, Maria Semple, and SJ Gilman.

2013 was a great reading year for me – diverse, chunkster-full and classic-surprising. For my next year’s reading goals, I do hope to visit a few more worldly spots and enjoy some more nonfiction. Bring it on.

Thank you for allowing me to share my bookish thoughts with you. I appreciate you!

HIdeinWhitetoSkipLine

Copyright © 2007-2013. Care’s Online Book Club. All rights reserved. This post was originally posted by Care from Care’s Online Book Club.  It should not be reproduced without express written permission.

Year in Review BEST OF BESTs 2013

    

I awarded more 5 slice-o’-pie books this year than ever. Typically and statistically, I give ~13% of the books I read each year this highest rating. However, this crazy 2013, I honored 13 books or 22% of the 59 books read with the FIVER. I hereby attempt to list for you the 13 titles in order of how I liked them – no easy task and would likely change if I did it tomorrow. Ready?  Remember, the last book listed will be the top toppest of my favorites. Also, keep in mind that my ratings reflect how I feel at the time of reading. I don’t want to give any impression that these titles are ‘great books’ or literary masterpieces. They just worked out for me and I thoroughly enjoyed the experience.

13. Stories I Only Tell My Friends – Audio – NF – Rob Lowe – Jan

12. The Orchardist – Hardcover – Amanda Coplin – July

11. Alias Grace – Tradeback – Margaret Atwood – July

10. The Great Gatsby – Audio – F.Scott Fitzgerald – Jan

9. Beloved – Tradeback – Long-Awaited Reads – Toni Morrison –  Jan

8. The Song of Achilles – Tradeback Readalong – Madeline Miller – March

7. The Orphan Master’s Son – Tradeback – Adam Johnson – Aug

6. Up the Down Staircase – eBook  – Personal Challenge – Bel Kaufman – June

5. Maman’s Homesick Pie – Hardback – NF – PIE! – Donna Bijan – Sept

4. Making Piece – PIE! – Hardback – NF – Beth Howard – Jan

3. Doctor Sleep – Audio – Stephen King – Dec

2. Life After Life – eBook – Kate Atkinson – May

1. Beautiful Ruins – Audio – Jess Walter – June

Four of these I read in January;  a great month of reading! Two are PIE-centric and pie-riffic. Four were audiobooks. One title here might have to suggest that Stephen King is a favorite writer. I believe he has moved into my most-read-author slot. (Which would be 9 times I have read a King book. I better get back to reading more Kidder! I did manage one this year (nope! it was 2012!!) and I also got in more Atwood…)

Would I re-rate them differently if you asked me today? Maybe. Which is why I tend to let my ratings stay because I think they reflect or capture how I felt at the time I finished the book. Do some stay with me longer than others? Sure. Would I look at my FOUR slicers and think some are better than this list? Maybe.

WHAT ABOUT YOU? DID YOU LIKE, LOVE OR HATE ANY OF THESE?

Statistics and other boring observations coming up in my next post…

HIdeinWhitetoSkipLine

Copyright © 2007-2013. Care’s Online Book Club. All rights reserved. This post was originally posted by Care from Care’s Online Book Club.  It should not be reproduced without express written permission.