Happy December, Crassholes. 2013 is almost behind us!
What are the books (published in 2013 or not) that really grabbed you this year? What are you reading to end the year, or what books do you wish you had received for Christmahannukwanzaa? I’m going to keep my “what I’ve been reading” section short and instead take a look at my favorite books of the year.
Here are some best of 2013 lists so you can see if you missed anything this year:
- New York Times
- AV Club
- The New Yorker
- Publishers Weekly
- The Daily Beast (they tallied up a whole bunch of best of lists to create this one)
- Goodreads
- Amazon
(don’t forget to use the Crasstalk link to Amazon if you’re going to buy something for yourself!)
- Amazon Celebrity Lists — I thought Colum McCann’s picks looked interesting
What I’ve Been Reading:
- Darkly Dreaming Dexter by Jeff Lindsay
(Goodreads Avg. Rating: 3.84 | Amazon)
Status and Verdict: Finished. 3/5 Breadcrumbs. It was enjoyable enough, but I don’t feel like picking up the rest of them right away. - Let’s Explore Diabetes with Owls by David Sedaris
(Goodreads Avg. Rating: 3.78 | Amazon)
Status and Verdict: Finished. 3/5 Breadcrumbs. Not my favorite of his. - Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me by Mindy Kaling
(Goodreads Avg. Rating: 3.76 | Amazon)
Status and Verdict: Finished. 2/5 Breadcrumbs. Meh. Sorry, Susie. - Red On Red by Edward Conlon
(Goodreads Avg. Rating: 3.33 | Amazon)
Status and Verdict: Finished. 3/5 Breadcrumbs. It’s written by an actual NYPD detective, so it’s an interesting look at procedural matters by someone who knows what he’s talking about, but not all that thrilling. - What It Is Like to Go to War by Karl Marlantes
(Goodreads Avg. Rating: 3.91 | Amazon)
Status and Thoughts: About 1/3 of the way through. Yes. Marlantes, author of Matterhorn, writes about his own experiences with killing and war in Vietnam and talks about the ways in which we could be helping the troops deployed today deal with their experiences. Very interesting so far.
I’m also still reading Wolf Hall and started re-reading The Hobbit because a) I have barely picked up books or my Kindle in the past several weeks and b) because oh my God, the movies barely resemble the actual story from the get-go. Couldn’t you have reined it in a little, Peter?
And now, drumroll please! Kidding, it’s all made up and the points don’t matter. Check the bio.
Favorites of 2013:
- The Underworld USA Trilogy by James Ellroy
(Goodreads: 1, 2, 3 | Amazon
Why I Loved Them: Do you like your fiction with plenty of violence, conspiracy, criminals, and real-life characters? Then the Underworld USA might be for you. Ellroy took the events of the 1960s that rocked us the — the assassinations of JFK and Martin Luther King, Jr., Vietnam, RFK’s pursuit of Jimmy Hoffa, and the Bay of Pigs — and wove a coherent, if complicated, tale around them. As hard as it may be to read through historically accurate racism and prejudice, the story never lets up. I look forward to reading it again to catch things I missed the first time around. - Wool by Hugh Howey
(Goodreads Avg. Rating: 4.31 | Amazon)
Why I Loved It: I’ve written about Wool in this space before. There haven’t been many novels since Harry Potter (suck it, haters) that have made me want to stay up late to finish them, but Howey’s post-apocalyptic mystery did it for me. You’ll wonder which will bring down the silo: the toxic environment or the toxic secrets. - Julian by Gore Vidal
(Goodreads Avg. Rating: 4.15 | Amazon)
Why I Loved It: Vidal’s Julian is the story of Julian the Apostate, nephew of Constantine and secretly devoted to Hellenism even after Constantine established Christianity as the state religion. Watch Julian struggle, and rise to the highest position in Rome. It is, of course, a classic, but one that landed on my favorites list this year because of Vidal’s storytelling and subtle humor. The story is told my Julian himself, and through the correspondence and diaries of two of his now elderly friends remembering their younger days after Julian is gone. I got a surprising number of chuckles from reading their semi-antagonistic messages to each other. - Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller
(Goodreads Avg. Rating: 4.05 | Amazon)
Why I Loved It: Song of Achilles is a beautiful book. Told from the point of view of Patroclus, the exiled young prince, the story follows him as he finds a new home and companion in Achilles, prince and son of a goddess. With time, their friendship becomes quite a bit more. Love, war, the supernatural, hunky Greeks–there’s something for everyone. - Official Negligence: How Rodney King and the Riots Changed Los Angeles and the LAPD by Lou Cannon
(Goodreads Avg. Rating: 3.84 | Amazon)
Why I Loved It: This is a monster of a book — definitely not for someone who is not at least moderately obsessive (me). To me, the full story of what happened is exponentially more alarming than the overly-simplified version set out by the media. Cannon probes every aspect of what happened that night, the trials that followed, and the series of incompetent performances that culminated in the LA riots of 1992. It almost defies belief.
And that’s all, folks! Happy New Year’s, and now that the holidays are over I should be able to maintain some sort of regular schedule, so see you at the end of January!
Image: Cybil the kitty, courtesy of Cookies. No re-use without permission.
- Darkly Dreaming Dexter by Jeff Lindsay
