Since 2003, I’ve posted a list of all the books I read that year. Previous lists can be found at the following links; the number in parentheses is the total number of books read: 2012 (66), 2011 (27), 2010 (47), 2009 (25), 2008 (34), 2007 (31), 2006 (110!), 2005 (45), 2004 (42), 2003 (41).
Total for 2013: 42
I divided the books into four categories: Highly Recommended (my favorites); Recommended (good but not must-reads); Okay (read only if interested in the subject matter); and Not Recommended.
I read mostly nonfiction. Fiction books are denoted with an asterisk (*) after them. I read more fiction than usual this year (six books out of the total 42), mostly because they were book club selections.
(Note: I also update my Goodreads account with each book and their rating as I finish them.)
Highly Recommended
1. Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith, Jon Krakauer
2. Beyond Belief: My Secret Life Inside Scientology and My Harrowing Escape, Jenna Miscavige Hill
3. Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity, Katherine Boo
4. The Long Walk: A Story of War and the Life That Follows, Brian Castner
5. Between Two Worlds: My Life and Captivity in Iran, Roxana Saberi
6. Eighty Days: Nellie Bly and Elizabeth Bisland’s History-Making Race Around the World, Matthew Goodman
7. Loving Frank, Nancy Horan*
Recommended
8. In the Garden of Beasts: Love, Terror, and an American Family in Hitler’s Berlin, Erik Larson
9. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, Rebecca Skloot
10. Yes, Chef: A Memoir, Marcus Samuelsson
11. The Psychopath Test: A Journey Through the Madness Industry, Jon Ronson
12. Them: Adventures with Extremists, Jon Ronson
13. The Men Who Stare at Goats, Jon Ronson
14. Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood, and the Prison of Belief, Lawrence Wright
15. Salt Sugar Fat: How the Food Giants Hooked Us, Michael Moss
16. Dirt Work: An Education in the Woods, Christine Byl
17. The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down: A Hmong Child, Her American Doctors, and the Collision of Two Cultures, Anne Fadiman
18. An Unquiet Mind: A Memoir of Moods and Madness, Kay Redfield Jamison
19. Running the Books: The Adventures of an Accidental Prison Librarian, Avi Steinberg
20. The Cure for Everything: Untangling Twisted Messages about Health, Fitness, and Happiness, Timothy Caulfield
21. Have Mother, Will Travel: A Mother and Daughter Discover Themselves, Each Other, and the World, Claire and Mia Fontaine
22. All That Is Bitter and Sweet, Ashley Judd
23. The Diving Bell and the Butterfly: A Memoir of Life in Death, Jean-Dominique Bauby
24. The Sweet Life in Paris: Delicious Adventures in the World’s Most Glorious – and Perplexing – City, David Lebovitz
25. Nine Years Under: Coming of Age in an Inner-City Funeral Home, Sheri Booker
26. Bossypants, Tina Fey
27. Season to Taste: How I Lost My Sense of Smell and Found My Way, Molly Birnbaum
28. What the Dog Saw: And Other Adventures, Malcolm Gladwell
29. City of Light, Lauren Belfer*
30. Buffalo Lockjaw, Greg Ames*
31. The Day the Falls Stood Still, Cathy Marie Buchanan*
32. Gone Girl, Gillian Flynn*
Okay
33. The Astronaut Wives Club, Lily Koppel
34. Does Jesus Really Love Me?: A Gay Christian’s Pilgrimage in Search of God in America, Jeff Chu
35. Uncorked: My Journey Through the Crazy World of Wine, Marco Pasanella
36. Heads in Beds: A Reckless Memoir of Hotels, Hustles, and So-Called Hospitality, Jacob Tomsky
37. A Devil to Play: One Man’s Year-Long Quest to Master the Orchestra’s Most Difficult Instrument, Jasper Rees
38. Dinner: A Love Story, Jenny Rosenstrach
39. The Road to Santiago, Kathryn Harrison
40. Heaven is for Real: A Little Boy’s Astounding Story of His Trip to Heaven and Back, Todd Burpo
41. Buffalo Steel, Lizz Schumer*
Not Recommended
42. Funny in Farsi: A Memoir of Growing Up Iranian in America, Firoozeh Dumas
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