Hey everyone! I can’t believe the year is almost over! Seriously! I’m hoping 2013 will be a great year for all of us, it will definitely be a year of change for me!
Anyway, today’s post is a look back on all the books I read in 2013. Don’t worry, I left all those law school books off this list. Those might bore you to death… I also have two new reviews for you, and two to come since I’m working on reading It Starts With Food, and Anna Karenina.
The first review is Lone Wolf by Jodi Picoult.
I. Loved. This. Book. Reason 1: It had a great story and kept me very entertained, I was DYING to know how it ended! Reason 2: I love wolves and there is so much information in this book about how wolf packs function. I just thought it was fascinating.
The story follows a family that was torn apart many years ago. The father studies and lives with wolf packs, spending more time with his wolves than his family. The mother divorced him and re-married and now has a “new family” with young twin boys. The older brother left at 18 (6 years ago) after a mysterious fight with his father and moved to Thailand and the daughter moved in with her father after feeling like an outsider in her mom’s family (she is now 17).
The story begins with a car crash, and follows the two children as they deal with having to make very difficult decisions regarding their father’s life. The story also spends a great deal of time looking back into the past, before their family fell apart. Each chapter of the story changes perspective, jumping from one character to the next. She uses a specific font for each character, which I loved. Even if I picked the book back up in the middle of a chapter I immediately knew who was speaking.
The story touched on some very interest and highly debated issues in our culture, as Jodi Picoult always does, and I liked how she never really took a side, especially since each child was on their own side of the issue. I loved this book and highly recommend it. I actually recommend Jodi Picoult’s novels in general!
The second book review I have for you today is Something Blue by Emily Giffin.
I never really wanted to read this series of books, but I heard they were coming out into a movie and so I was intrigued. I got this one for Christmas and dug right in, finishing it in just 2 days.
Overall, I liked the book. It’s a cute chick lit, beach read type of book and has a nice ending, which kind of kept me guessing. About halfway through I figured out how it would end, which is pretty good for most chick lit. My only issues were that I disliked the main character for the first half of the book, I kept thinking “Seriously!?! Get ahold of yourself!” Also, she insults redheads a couple of times, which I took personal offense to. It was a fun read, and good if you want something light and quick, but I can’t say I LOVED it.
And now, here are the rest of the books I read during 2012:
Brave New World by Aldous Hudley
The Maze Runner, The Scorch Trials, and The Death Cure by James Dashner
The Paris Wife by Paula McLain
Little Bee by Chris Cleave
Divergent by Veronica Mars
The Secret Life of CeeCee Wilkes by Diane Chamberlain
Still Missing by Chevy Stevens
The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides
Wither by Lauren DeStefano
Peach Keeper by Sarah Allen
American Wife by Curtis Sittenfeld
Anthem by Ann Rand
Sing You Home by Jodi Picoult
Wild by Cheryl Strayed
Insurgent by Veronica Roth
Sisterhood Everlasting by Ann Brashares
Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot
MWF Seeing BFF by Rachel Bertsche
Dark Places by Gillian Flynn
Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher
Have you read any of these books?
What was the best book you read in 2012?
Holy moly you find a lot of time to read in addition to law school!! I’ve been looking for some good book recommendations for 2013. This list is great!
A lot of those were read during breaks, I try to pack in as many as I can when I have time off!
Such a great book list! I’m hoping to get a chance to read more in 2013, so I’ve got a good starting-off point. I read Gone Girl and Sisterhood Everlasting this last year. Both were great, but I’m still sad about Sisterhood Everlasting! Did not see that coming at all.
Oh yea, that book totally threw me off! But I thought it was done well, and it was realistic, sad things happen!
This is fantastic Katie, thank you for all of these reviews and taking the time to put them all together in one post! I have read several of the ones you talked about, but there are a whole bunch that I haven’t! Off to do some library poking around 🙂 Have a nice rest of your Sunday pretty girl!
I hope you find some books you like!
Off your list I’ve read, Something Blue, Little Bee, and The Paris Wife. I really loved The Paris Wife.
Excellent list, darlin! Gone Girl is definitely on my 2013 must read list…I think my favorite book(s) from 2012 was the Divergent/Insurgent series…absolutely loved them and can’t wait for the last one to come out!!
Me neither! I hate that the last book won’t come out until next fall!
Anna Karenina is the best and now once you’re done reading the book you can watch the movie too 🙂 Wow you have a lot of time to read- so jelly. Thanx for sharing the list and I’ll probably give a couple of these a try.
Happy New Year 🙂
That’s why I wanted to read it – so I could read it before seeing the movie!
this is awesome that you read so many books this year! I will be using this list to pick some new reads for sure
I hope you find a couple you like!
Enjoy Anna Karenina, it’s a slow read but really good!
OMG thats a lot of books. I dont even think I finished one book, but I did start two, lol 🙂
That’s a big list! You’re awesome! I love reading, but always found, especially when I was in school, that is was hard to get in time to read when I was constantly reading text books and studying. I’m thoroughly impressed with your literary awesomeness.
I get most of them in during breaks, and otherwise I try and read a bit before bed or during my commute!
Thanks for leaving your law school books off the list 🙂
I’m also a reader and have read quite a few of the same books! I haven’t read Wild and definitely have it on my list for 2013.
I think my fave book was Chrissie Wellington’s bio- A Life Without Limits. Amazing!
I’ve heard of that book, I’ll have to check it out! Thanks, Abby!
Gosh, I can’t choose the best book I read in 2012!!! I’ve read so many.
Notice how I never chose either? I just expect more out of every one else.
We have such similar taste in books, it blows my mind a little bit. If you haven’t read Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn, you should absolutely read that one too. Hers are so creepy but awesome, I love them.
I think my favorite book of the year was Gone Girl and I actually listened to that on audiobook while doing my long runs. I am reading The Book Thief now though so the jury is still out!!
So glad for some new suggestions and since I have read so many of the same as you, I’m sure I will love them.
Sharp Objects is definitely on my “to read” list, I just have so many books that I need to get through before I go get some more! I hope you find some from my list that you like!
I read Middelsex and American Wife years ago. I enjoyed both. My goal in 2013 is to read more actual books (versus reading the internet, haha). I only read 5 books in 2012! Kind of sad.
Haha yea, I have to remind myself to read real books and not blogs all the time!
none of those books – but I did read Oxygen magazine at least once or twice.
😉
Haha I’m sure if you combined those magazines they’d count as a book, right? Totally.
I have been reading so much over the past two weeks while on vacation and I realize how much I miss it. I need to make time for more reading (Kindle AND real books). I have been resisting, but maybe I need to organize a reading list online or something to plan out my books so I don’t aimlessly wander around the library.
I have a list on my phone of books to read, that way if I ever need a new book and don’t know what to read, I can just go straight to that list!
I am about half way through Emily Giffin’s newest book ‘Where We Belong’ and it is a great read. I think she has grown as a writer with her books! I also read gone girl this year and loved it and then The Red Queen series by Philipa Gregory. Very good if you like history!
You read so many great books! I loved Middlesex. I’ll definitely keep this list in mind when choosing my 2013 reads.
You read a lot of books this year and all your school reading and work on top that is impressive!
I love Jodi Picoult books so I’ll have to check out Lone Wolf.
I read the first two Divergent books this year too and can’t wait for the third one to come out later this year!
I just got Lone Wolf for Christmas. I love Jodi Picoult, so I can’t wait to start reading it!
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