As you can see, I once again failed to blog like I had planned. I do have a bit of a legitimate excuse-my mother became ill and then died in September. Being an only child I was busy for most of the year dealing with everything involved from the medical care to the disposal of property afterwards. Now I am dealing with 1 1/2 households worth of stuff crammed into one household. But I've also decided it's time for me to get back to some stuff I used to love to do but don't do anymore-like writing. I also have some friends who are starting to blog because they are at a cross road of their lives right now so I thought I should try to get into it properly too. I've written blogs in my head all year, just never took the time to put them into the blog!
So, I'm going to start out with a book blog about my reading in 2013. Here are a few stats:
Books read in 2013: 62
Number of cookbooks read: 4
Authors new to me: 14
Number of books reread: 16 (Harry Potter series, Percy Jackson series, one other)
Five Favorite Books (in no particular order):
1. Scoundrels-Timothy Zahn
I enjoyed getting back into the Star Wars universe, especially since this book focused on Han. I also read the novella "Winner Loses All" by Zahn which had Lando in it and was a bit of a setup for this book and enjoyed it also.
2. Jane Casey's Maeve Kerrigan series
I read about Jane Casey's first Maeve Kerrigan book on the website Criminal Elements and was intrigued enough to get the first book on my Kindle. I quickly bought the rest of the books in the series, even getting one in hardcover. Maeve is a Detective Constable in London and it's interesting watching her work with new people and trying to impress her boss. I am anxiously waiting for the next book in the series.
3. The Hobbit ( and many movie tie ins)
I waited to read the Hobbit until after seeing the first movie. I had heard the book on record (yes, I'm old) when I was in elementary school but didn't remember much of it. I was glad I waited since the movie does deviate but I was able to enjoy the movie as a separate entity and enjoy the book too. I also read many tie-in books to the movie and will be reading more for the second movie (which I'm not sure how I feel about still).
4. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
I had read Mansfield Park and Sense and Sensibility previously and decided to read more and really liked this one. I also read Persuasion and thoroughly enjoyed it too (and the tv movie version starring Amanda Root and Ciaran Hinds).
5. Casino Royale-Ian Fleming
I was really surprised by how much I enjoyed this book. I was never a big James Bond fan until Daniel Craig became the newest incarnation and I decided to read the first book. I may read more if I find the time :).
Five Least Favorite Books:
1. The Wicked Game by Michelle Zink
I was highly disappointed in the is book. It's a young adult novel set in New Orleans with a descendant of Marie Laveau as the main character-and she's white. There really wasn't a lot of voodoo in the story and it could have been set anywhere since the author really didn't use much of New Orleans for atmosphere.
2. City of Dark Magic-Magnus Flyte
Magnus Flyte is a pseudonym for two authors writing as one and it shows at times in the book. I understand having twists but it was like one author headed one way in a chapter and then the other author totally went the other way for the next. I'm able to suspend disbelief fairly well but this book pushed my limits.
3. Mr. Churchill's Secretary-Susan Elia MacNeal
I don't even know where to start with this one. It showed promise in the beginning but steadily went down hill. Too many characters with few fleshed out and things solved way too easily.
4. Mr. Darcy's Letter-Abigail Reynolds
This started out as fanfiction and it shows around the edges. The author is talented but this retelling of Pride and Prejudice had many faults, many being modern ideals set in a historical setting. Much of the characters actions were incorrect for the time period which made me enjoy it much less. Jane Austen this author isn't.
5. Death by a Honey Bee-Abigail
This book wasn't bad but the ending left me a little cold. I found the set up intriguing and may try the author's next book.
Books I'm still not sure about:
The Cuckoo's Calling-Robert Galbraith (AKA J.K. Rowling)
Wasn't a bad book, I rather liked to the protagonist, but I found some of the ending a bit confusing I guess, for lack of better words.
Torn Water-John Lynch
I read this because I became obsessed with John Lynch the Irish actor last year after seeing him in the television show "The Fall". It was good though I wasn't sure about some of the elements in the story. I have gotten Lynch's other book and hope to read it soon.
The House of Hades-Rick Riordan
I liked parts of the story, other parts not so much. The revelation about Nico surprised me in a way but not completely. I still struggle with not caring about some of the main characters so when it's their chapters I get a little bored. Leo really grew on me and he's become one of my favorites but I still have really no use for Piper, Jason, and Frank. I hear Riordan may be doing a series with Nordic gods which I hope is true, I would read it.
So, that was my year in books. I made my goal of 50 books on Goodreads (for some reason I can't get the widget to work on here) so I upped my goal this year to 60 books and have already read nine. I am floundering a bit on what to read ( I sometimes think having too many books to read is overwhelming so I don't know what to read next) but I hope to solve that problem soon (same with my motivational problem-maybe another blog post).
Here's to good reading in 2014...
No comments:
Post a Comment