Month: January 2014

by

2013: A Year in Books

Bookshelf 2

Last year I drafted up a post with bookish stats and my top ten favorite books completed (not necessarily published) in the previous year.  I had so much fun looking back over my year of reading that I knew I had to repeat the exercise this year… only this time, I had even MORE pie chart fun!  Here’s 2013 by the numbers, followed by my top ten favorite books read this year.

In 2013, I read 118 books, for a total of 38,566 pages.  Of those books, 98 were fiction and 20 were non-fiction.

Here’s a detailed breakdown of the different fiction genres I read:

2013 Fiction Books

(It’s worth noting that I assigned these categories myself.  There were probably some books that I assigned as “literary fiction” that someone else might call “general fiction,” or books I put into “classics” – like the Anne of Green Gables series – that another reader might consider “children’s.”  But this pie chart is based on my own impressions of what I read, so there you have it.)

Then, there’s the 20 non-fiction books:

2013 Non-Fiction Books

(The “other” category included two knitting books, one book of poems, one advice book, and one travel book.)

Well, that was fun!  In fact, it was so much fun that I thought this year I’d make a few more pie charts, you know, for giggles.  First, I thought it would be neat to see where most of the books I read were set, geographically speaking:

2013 Settings

A couple of things, I thought, were interesting about this chart.  For one, I thought England would wipe the floor with the rest of the categories, and it did win out with 38 of my books having English settings.  But the good old US of A was right behind, with 36!  I also read five books set in fictional realms, which is unusual for me.  (Note that the setting I chose was the main setting of the book.  So, for instance, Royal Blood and Naughty in Nice both got assigned to “Europe – Other,” because although the stories begin in England, Georgie spends most of her time on the Continent in both novels.  And A Tale of Two Cities was also assigned to “Europe – Other,” because the main action took place in Paris, although plenty happened in London, too.  If a book involved multiple settings, I just chose the setting where either the majority of the action took place, or where the most important events took place, as I saw fit.)

I also thought it would be fun to take note of how many books by male authors and how many by female authors I read:

2013 Male Female Authors

Well, I’m definitely not that dude who only likes male authors!  Next year, I need to work on giving the guys a bit more attention, clearly.  (Note: this pie chart counts the number of books read, not the number of authors.  So authors by whom I read more than one book last year, got counted more than once.  For example, I read five books by Rick Riordan, so Rick Riordan counted five times for the guys.  I read eight books by L.M. Montgomery, so L.M. Montgomery counted eight times for the ladies.  Make sense?)

Since we also know that I have no willpower when it comes to the library, I thought it would be interesting to see where the books I read this year came from:

2013 Sources

So, the vast majority were from the library – no surprise there!  (Twenty of the library books were from the Buffalo library; the rest hailed from Fairfax County.)  Maybe next year I’ll do a little more reading off my own shelves… but probably not.  I’m always going to be an enthusiastic library patron.

Whew!  Okay, I think that’s probably enough pie charts for now.  So onward to the last part of my 2013 reading retrospective: my top ten favorites, in no particular order.

Middlemarch 

MaddAddam 2

bernadette cover 

Attachments 

Anne of Green Gables 

jane_eyre_large 

The Boys In The Boat 

Main Street 

Eighty Days 

Lord of the Rings 

What a year 2013 was!  I read some really amazing books, by some fantastic authors.  Can’t wait to see what 2014 will bring!

by

2013 Book Superlatives

For the past two years, I’ve had a blast doling out high school yearbook-style awards to some of the books I read over the course of the previous year.  (Fun fact: I actually won a Senior Superlative in high school… “Shortest.”  Womp, womp.)  Here are my Book Superlatives for 2013:

Middlemarch

Brainiest: Middlemarch, by George Eliot

One of the last books I read this year was also one of the most challenging.  Not only is this novel an absolute tome, but it touches on all kinds of political, religious and economic issues of 1830s England.  You’ll absolutely need to wear your thinking cap for this one.  Middlemarch is definitely the Class of 2013 Valedictorian.

Beautiful Ruins

Best Looking: Beautiful Ruins, by Jess Walter

I wanted to read this book in large part because it received so many raves around the book blogosphere.  But it didn’t hurt that the whole package – cover design, story, writing – was absolutely stunning.  Full review here.

Anne of Green Gables

Best Friends: Anne of Green Gables, by L. M. Montgomery

Anne and Diana are one of the classic BFF duos in the entire literary canon.  From their early friendship, where Anne convinces Diana that it would not be a sin to “swear” to be friends forever, to their brief separation thanks to Diana’s mother freaking out when Anne accidentally gets Diana drunk on currant wine, to their lives as young women, wives and mothers, these two are the definition of kindred spirits.

poet's pub

Class Clown: Poet’s Pub, by Eric Linklater

Linklater’s little-known classic starts out ponderously, but the hijinks kick in midway through and then it’s hilarious.  Three words: charabanc. car. chase.

The Boys In The Boat

Biggest Jock: The Boys in the Boat, by Daniel James Brown

I don’t read a lot of sports books, so this was an easy one to pick, but it would have been on my list of 2013 reading highlights no matter what.  This non-fiction account of the University of Washington crew team that went to the Berlin Olympics in 1936 and won gold (that’s not a spoiler, people, HISTORY!) was an absolutely fantastic read.  There were one or two pages that got a bit over-technical and a little dry on the subject of rowing theory or boat-building, but mostly, it was just a great story of some remarkable young men and the sport they loved.

Villette

Teacher’s Pet: Villette, by Charlotte Bronte

I read Villette with Beth and Amal back in the spring and loved the story of Lucy Snowe, a young woman of reduced means who takes a post teaching in a girls’ school in the Continental city of Villette.  Lucy is a teacher, but she also does a fair amount of learning – some from experience, and some from a cantankerous master in the school who turns out to have more depth of emotion than originally thought.  Fabulous book, and you can find my readalong posts here: Vol. I; Vol. II; Vol. III; Reading Companions.

The Time Traveler's Guide to Medieval England The Time Traveler's Guide to Elizabethan England

Biggest Nerd: The Time Traveler’s Guide to Medieval England and The Time Traveler’s Guide to Elizabethan England, by Ian Mortimer

Or am I the biggest nerd for totally geeking out over these?  Mortimer’s histories (the first focusing on medieval England – roughly, the 1300s – and the second on Elizabethan England) are written like travel guides, covering things like where to stay and eat, what to do, and how to handle money, just like a travel guide to a modern country.  Both were fun and fascinating, although I enjoyed the Elizabethan England guide just a tiny bit more.

Cloud Atlas

Most Creative: Cloud Atlas, by David Mitchell

This was something new that Mitchell accomplished here.  Six different stories, set in six different time periods – from the 1800s to the dystopian future – each told through a different vehicle (a journal; an epistolary format; straight narrative; and a statement of a condemned prisoner are some examples) and each connected to the other stories in a mysterious way.  It didn’t grab me immediately, but once it did, holy WOW.

MaddAddam 1 MaddAddam 2 MaddAddam 3

Most Opinionated: The MaddAddam Trilogy (Oryx & Crake, The Year of the Flood, and MaddAddam), by Margaret Atwood

This was the year I decided I love Margaret Atwood, and it was the MaddAddam trilogy that did it for me.  (I’d previously read The Handmaid’s Tale and appreciated it but concluded that I didn’t care for it.  Now I want to read it again and see if my opinion has changed.)  Oryx and Crake was my least favorite of the trilogy, because the child abuse scenes really upset me and I didn’t think they were necessary to the story.  But The Year of the Flood and MaddAddam were marvelous.  So why did I award them “Most Opinionated” in this game?  Well, on top of being a good, well-written, exciting story, the MaddAddam Trilogy is Atwood’s warning to all of us about what will happen if we neglect the environment and continue to pursue the insane path of progress at the expense of our humanity.  There was SO much material for thought here.

Lexicon

Most Likely To End Up In Hollywood: Lexicon, by Max Barry

There are car chases, secret organizations at war with one another, and massive explosions… how could Hollywood fail to make this one into a movie?  But if (when?) they do, it will be a doubly cool movie because all the action is set off by a WORD.  Yep, behind the made-for-Hollywood action is a thrilling story about the power of language.

The Goldfinch

Biggest Rebel: The Goldfinch, by Donna Tartt

Theo Decker has good reason for being a disturbed kid – his dad ran off and his mom was killed in a terrorist attack.  So it’s no wonder that Theo grows up troubled, or that he falls in with another troubled kid, Boris.  Theo is good at heart, though, and he wants to do the right thing.  It’s just that, in his efforts to do the right thing, he often goes awry.  He’s that kid who puts up a tough front but is really looking for some understanding.

bernadette cover

Biggest Loner: Where’d You Go, Bernadette, by Maria Semple

Bernadette Fox is a brilliant architect, but she’s been a recluse for years, ever since one of her projects met an unfortunate end.  Now she’s hiding out in Seattle, a mom to precocious Bee, troublesome wife, and reviled member of the parent community at Bee’s school.  That is, until Bernadette disappears.  Bee assembles letters, emails and documents that she is sure will help her to track down her missing mom.  But does Bernadette even want to be found?  This was another of my 2013 reading highlights.  I loved every moment of Bee’s search, and I recommend it to everyone.

Attachments

Cutest Couple: Attachments, by Rainbow Rowell

Lincoln is an “internet security officer” at an Omaha newspaper, which he thought would be way more exciting than it turned out to be.  Instead of leading the charge against internet vice, he’s stuck monitoring red-flagged emails that show up in his folder every time someone forwards an inappropriate joke.  The only thing that keeps Lincoln going is the chance of seeing an email pop up between copy editor Jennifer and entertainment reporter Beth, who know their email is being monitored but can’t seem to stop discussing every detail of their private lives.  It doesn’t take Lincoln long to realize that he’s falling for Beth… right around the time that Beth notices a cute IT guy in the break room.  It only took me a day to read this because I was rooting so hard for Lincoln and Beth that I couldn’t put it down.

Eighty Days

Most Likely To Succeed: Eighty Days: Nellie Bly and Elizabeth Bisland’s History-Making Race Around the World, by Matthew Goodman

This one’s a no-brainer – everyone knows Nellie Bly!  Bly made headlines by being up for anything – from exposing the ruthless “Lobby King” of Albany to posing as insane and writing an expose of a notorious mental institution.  But she really went all out with her challenge to beat Jules Verne’s fictional eighty day record for traveling around the world – a challenge which attracted plenty of interest and a little healthy competition, in the person of Elizabeth Bisland.  Bly and Bisland’s race was such fun to follow, but it’s Bly who gets “most likely to succeed” honors in this yearbook.

That was fun!  What were your reading highlights of 2013?  Oh – and stay tuned, because I have some pie charts coming up next.  Yay!  Pie charts!

by

Reading Round-Up: December 2013

Reading is my oldest and favorite hobby.  I literally can’t remember a time in my life when I didn’t love to curl up with a good book.  Here are my reads for December, 2013…

Excellent Women, by Barbara Pym – Mildred Lathbury is one of the “excellent women” of her parish.  A clergyman’s daughter in her early 30s, Mildred is unmarried but not idle.  She finds plenty to do, whether its meddling in the marriage of her new neighbors, Rocky and Helena Napier, or chatting about the minister’s new love interest with the other excellent women of the church.  This book was a relaxing, enjoyable read for this Anglophile.  I read Excellent Women as part of the Classics Challenge, and my full review can be found here.

Naughty in Nice (Her Royal Spyness Mysteries #5), by Rhys Bowen – This was my favorite of Lady Georgie’s adventures so far!  Binky and Fig have decided to leave England to winter on the French Riviera.  Georgie would love to get out of the soupy fog too, but Fig cries poverty.  A timely appeal to the Queen sees Georgie sent to Nice on assignment: to retrieve a snuffbox which the queen suspects a self-made baronet of stealing from her, and to spy on Wallis Simpson again.  Georgie traipses off to the South of France and soon finds herself modeling for Chanel, with disastrous results (of course).  And when the thieving baronet is found murdered in his own backyard, Georgie is the prime suspect.  She might have gotten out of the soupy fog, but she’s landed directly in the soup!  I had SO much fun following Georgie through this adventure… and darned if a nice armchair holiday in Nice wasn’t exactly what I needed to get me through some chilly, snowy days.

Village Christmas, by Miss Read – I wanted to revisit Fairacre this holiday season, because there’s really no place better to get some holiday spirit.  Village Christmas is a slim little book (just over 50 pages) but it’s packed with Christmas spirit.  The book focuses on the elderly Waters sisters, their new neighbors, the Emery family, and a new baby who teaches Fairacre to love their neighbors – just like another baby did 1,950 years earlier.  I love this novella – it’s one of my favorite holiday reads.  I read it last year, and I’m sure I will be reading it year after year.

The Twelve Clues of Christmas (Her Royal Spyness Mysteries #6), by Rhys Bowen – I just had to read this one before Christmas, and it was SO much fun.  Georgie escapes a dreary Christmas with Fig and Family up at Castle Rannoch by finding herself a job as hostess of a house party down in Devon.  But no sooner has Georgie arrived on the scene than a local mischief-maker is found dead, apparently accidentally, in a tree.  As the days roll by, the death toll mounts and only Georgie seems to think there is something suspicious about the parade of supposed accidents.  This was my favorite Georgie escapade so far.

Giada’s Feel Good Food: My Healthy Recipes and Secrets, by Giada de Laurentiis –  I usually don’t include cookbooks on these roundups, but this one deserves to be on the list because I actually sat down and read it cover to cover.  Giada is my favorite Food Network personality and I own all of her books.  This most recent was under the tree for me on Christmas morning and I want to make just about everything in it – especially the orange-scented almond muffins, which I can’t stop dreaming about.  Giada also shares her secrets for living a healthy, balanced life.  I’m trying not to acquire too many cookbooks while we’re living in our little rental, but I’m so glad I have this one in my collection now.

Middlemarch, by George Eliot – Loved.  Loved loved loved loved loved.  I could go on and on about how fabulous Middlemarch was, but I’ll just link you to my #Middlemarch13 posts instead: Vol. I and II; Vol. III and IV; Vol. V and VI; and Vol. VII and VIII and Finale.  Read it as soon as possible.

Heirs and Graces (Her Royal Spyness Mysteries #7), by Rhys Bowen – And with that, I’m all caught up on Georgie’s adventures.  Having absolutely nowhere to go, Georgie appeals to the Queen and gets herself an assignment: train up the recently discovered heir to the Duke of Eynsford, who has been found on the Australian outback, on the rules of high society.  It seems like an easy job until the current Duke is found dead with the heir’s hunting knife in his back.  What’s the thirty-fifth in line to the throne to do with this crowd?  Cute and fun, as usual.

No Holly for Miss Quinn, by Miss Read – Another one that I read for the first time last Christmas and had to pick up again this year.  I love the story of introverted Miss Quinn’s rediscovery of the joys of family and mess and noise at the holidays.

Well, December for me can be summed up in one word: Middlemarch.  Okay, it looks like I did read other things – including three mysteries featuring Lady Georgiana, who I have come to love.  I had plenty of fun reading this month, and I am looking forward to January, which I’ve decided to dedicate to comfort reading.  Stay tuned!

by

Happy 2014! (And a Look Back at 2013)

 

Freezer1

Happy New Year!  Hope all my friends are enjoying a day off with their families.  I’m off to do just that, but I wanted to look in here and wish you all health and happiness in 2014.

And while I’m here, I also wanted to do one of my favorite things: reflect on the year just ending before I look ahead to the clean slate before me.  So here’s a little retrospective of 2013 highlights here on Covered In Flour:

In January, I set goals for the year, shared what’s in my essential healthy kitchen (fridge, freezer, pantry and utensil drawers), and chatted about Scholastic’s 2012 Kids and Family Reading Report.

In February, Peanut turned six months old, and D.C. was awarded the honor of being the most literate city in the U.S. for the third year in a row!

In March, I pondered genre-bending and rode out the winter.

In April, we celebrated Peanut’s first Easter and made a family visit to the cherry blossoms.

In May, I celebrated my first Mother’s Day and started Beth’s Villette readalong.

In June, the #Villettealong wrapped up, we celebrated Audiobook Week, and I worked my way through a ridiculous stack of library books.

In July, my books begged the internet to rescue them from Peanut’s tiny but very sharp teeth, and I finished reading the Fairacre series.

In August, two HUGE things happened: Peanut turned one, and we moved to Buffalo!

In September, I finished my second readalong (Kerry’s Septemb-Eyre) and shared my answers to a Bookish A-Z Survey.

In October, I had a birthday and we celebrated with a trip to Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario!

In November, I turkey trotted with Emma and Grace, and then we had a fabulous family Thanksgiving weekend.

In December, I shared ornaments that remind me of my beloved Virginia, and we took a stroll through Chestnut Ridge Park with Zan and Paul.

Hope you enjoyed that little look back at some of my 2013 highlights!  Before we move on to 2014, I have to ask: what were your highlights from the past year?