What I Read in 2013

Grad school ruined pleasure reading for me, mostly because any time I read a book for fun, I felt guilty that I wasn't reading something for a class or a research project instead. I still did some pleasure reading, but not much, and my Goodreads to-read list grew longer and longer. So in 2013 I decided to set a specific reading goal to put a dent in that list.

The rules: 40 books. 20 that I already owned (because I have SO MANY on my shelves that I haven't gotten around to reading). None related to my dissertation.

It turns out I broke all the rules—I didn't quite make it to 40 (which isn't even very many compared to what some of you manage!), I only owned 10 of the ones I read, and I included a few dissertation-related choices if a) they were enjoyable and b) I was reading them for the first time. Despite failing in the strictest sense, though, I'm pleased that my goal reminded me to stop surfing the internet so much in my downtime and go read a book instead. 

I think the main reasons I was able to get back into the swing of reading are 1) I got a Kindle for Christmas 2012—and my local library happens to have a great ebook selection—which made reading while traveling easier (also, many years of heavy internet use mean that I read faster on screens) and 2) I made a point of reading for at least a few minutes every night before going to bed. Now that I'm more or less finished (!!!) with my dissertation and grad school, I should have time for more. My 2014 target is 50 books.

Anyway, all of this is surely very boring, but here we go. Books I particularly recommend are starred.

1. Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me?, by Mindy Kaling. Entertaining but not very memorable.
2. *The Omnivore's Dilemma, by Michael Pollan. I was a few years late to the party on this, but it was incredibly fascinating. I do have a few quibbles with the way Pollan addresses the ethics of food and the role of shifting gender norms in changing our cultural eating habits. But I loved the chapters tracing where certain ingredients come from and where they show up in our food, and overall the book made me think much more deeply about how I eat. Peter probably got tired of me reading excerpts aloud to him.
3. *Graceling, by Kristin Cashore. My first YA fantasy of the year. And a good one. Interesting magical concept + political intrigue + kickass heroine.
4. Still, by Lauren Winner. I read this for a book club and wish I'd remembered to copy down some favorite passages. It's a spiritual memoir about renegotiating faith, and finding what's best about religious life and community, in the midst of doubts and major life changes.
5. NW, by Zadie Smith. Not Zadie Smith's best, I don't think, and I didn't always feel like the sections focusing on different characters cohered overall, but in general a really vivid, gritty London novel. I liked the experimental style of the first part, but if that's not your thing, don't worry—it's not all like that.
6. *The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, by Rebecca Skloot. Another one people have been talking about for ages. I'm really glad I read this—fascinating, important, well researched story.
7. Drift, by Rachel Maddow. Read this quickly and don't remember much detail, but it's a timely and damning account of mission creep and how the US military industrial complex has come to control foreign policy.
8. People of the Book, by Geraldine Brooks. The execution didn't live up to the concept (a book conservator uncovers the centuries-long history of an illuminated Jewish text), but I still enjoyed it.
9. Speak, by Laurie Halse Anderson. I didn't love this book like I expected to—the style and voice irritated me a little bit—but it's super important as an eye-opener and conversation-starter about rape and victim-blaming/shaming.
10. Sweet Tooth, by Ian McEwan. Very McEwan: lovely writing, dramatic narrative twist at the end. It was fun to read the University of Sussex and Brighton scenes while I was there doing research.
11. Unbroken, Laura Hillenbrand. I enjoyed this, despite not being super interested in sports or military biographies.
12. Leaving Everything Most Loved, by Jacqueline Winspear. Maisie Dobbs is my very favorite fluff reading. It features a charming private investigator, intriguing mysteries, World War I memories, 1930s London, and British class drama all rolled into one delightful series.
13. *Fire, by Kristin Cashore. Companion to Graceling; also excellent.
14. Divergent, by Veronica Roth. Okay, lots of people don't think this is very good. And sure, it's not the best. But I have a huge weakness for YA dystopian novels, and I thoroughly enjoyed this one.
15. Insurgent, by Veronica Roth. See above.
16. *The Wednesday Wars, Gary Schmidt. Fantastic. Read it.
17. There Were No Windows, by Norah Hoult. My first experience with Persephone Books, a fabulous small press that reissues neglected works by twentieth-century writers (mostly women). This particular one is about an old woman losing her memory during the Blitz—a darkly humorous and provocative metaphor for the condition of the city.
18. *Miss Ranskill Comes Home, by Barbara Euphan Todd. Another Persephone book. This one is a campy and hilarious novel about a women who was shipwrecked on an island before World War II started and is baffled by the strange wartime England she returns to.
19. The Dispossessed, by Ursula K. LeGuin. Not my usual fare (a book club pick) and LeGuin's writing style usually feels kind of flat and detached to me, but this one is an intriguing and influential exploration of anarchism and collectivism.
20. Regarding the Pain of Others, by Susan Sontag. Sometimes useful, sometimes problematic. Which is how I usually feel about Sontag.
21. A Drama in Muslin, by George Moore. A satirical look at Anglo-Irish society and the marriage market in the late nineteenth century.
22. Digging for Mrs. Miller, by John Strachey. A collection of fictionalized stories about Strachey's experiences as an air-raid warden in the Blitz.
23. *Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking, by Susan Cain. Worthwhile reading for introverts and extraverts alike. Cain makes a compelling case for challenging our institutions and systems that cater to extraverts at introverts' (and the institutions' own) expense.
24. Good Evening, Mrs Craven: The Wartime Stories of Mollie Panter-Downes. Mollie Panter-Downes should be read more. The end.
25. The World My Wilderness, by Rose Macaulay. Not my favorite post-Blitz novel, but still good. Macaulay does cool things with ruins.
26. Blink, by Malcolm Gladwell. Confession: I think Malcolm Gladwell is totally overrated. One of his books was enough for me. The case studies themselves are interesting, but his conclusions are wildly speculative and oversimplified and the writing is repetitive and sometimes contradictory.
27. The Midwife's Apprentice, by Karen Cushman. I finally got around to reading this Newbery winner, and it was lovely.
28. Bitterblue, by Kristin Cashore. Not as good as Graceling and Fire, but still worth reading.
29. Blitz Kids, by Elinor Mordaunt. Cheesy, morale-boosting fiction about kids in London during the Blitz.
30. *The One and Only Ivan, by Katherine Applegate. A deserving Newbery winner—sweet and sad.
31. A House in the Country, by Jocelyn Playfair. Another Persephone book--country house novel meets World War II. 
32. Saplings, by Noel Streatfeild. A much less cheesy and better developed story of a family of children growing up amidst the fear and destruction of the Blitz.
33. *Okay for Now, by Gary Schmidt. Just as fantastic as The Wednesday Wars. Only this one involves Audubon instead of Shakespeare.
34. Allegiant, by Veronica Roth. This was an unexpected ending to the trilogy. The pacing was a little strange, and there wasn't enough time to explain and explore the larger world in which the final installment is set, but Roth made some interesting, moving choices for plot and narration. Overall, I was satisfied.
35. Homer and Langley, by E. L. Doctorow. Meh. I love the idea—the story of two compulsively hoarding brothers (based on actual people) who gradually recede from the world into the squalor of their New York house—and Doctorow's writing is, as usual, vivid and incisive, but overall it was just okay.
36. Pale Fire, by Vladimir Nabokov. I rarely do this, but I got about halfway through this, then I got bored, then I got more exciting books for Christmas... Look, it's well done and really fascinating in concept, but I felt like I read enough to get the point and didn't feel compelled to finish.

 Did you read any of these books? What did you think? What were your favorite books of 2013?