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I have a burning need to know stuff and I love asking awkward questions.

Saturday, January 04, 2014

The Best Books of 2013

Yes, it’s that time of year again (already) where I list the best books reviewed in the previous year. As usual I’ll group them into Fiction and Non-Fiction. The list is Non-Fiction and Vampire heavy this year which is kind of interesting. I’ll see if I can increase the levels of great fiction for 2014.

So, of the 78 books reviewed (a good crop) the best are:

Fiction

Echo City by Tim Lebbon
Company of Liars by Karen Maitland
The White Queen by Plilippa Gregory
The Scar-Crow Men by Mark Chadbourn
Already Dead by Charlie Huston
Dracula, Cha cha cha by Kim Newman
Paint it Black by Nancy A Collins
Fevre Dream by George R R Martin

[Honourable Mention for Darkest Hour by James Holland]

Non-Fiction

Wired for War by P W Singer
Target London by Christy Campbell
Spies in the sky by Taylor Downing
A Night to Remember by Walter Lord
Ian Fleming’s Commandos by Nicolas Rankin
Afgantsy by Rodric Braithwaite
A Brief History of the Royal Flying Corps by Ralph Barker
The Etymologicon by Mark Forsyth
The Berlin Blockade by Ann and John Tusa
The Dam Busters by James Holland
Revolution 1989 by Victor Sebestyen

This is somewhat military history heavy and I’ll try to do something about that and turn the focus elsewhere this year.

5 comments:

Stephen said...

Yes, definitely lots of war. Do you think you'll read more Gregory?

VV said...

I wish I could read as much as you.

CyberKitten said...

sc said: Yes, definitely lots of war.

Seems to be my theme of the moment. Back in my teens/20's my history reading was pretty much exclusively military history. I guess that its how I'm wired. I am trying to expand things a bit though.... [lol]

sc said: Do you think you'll read more Gregory?

White Queen I thought was very good. Red Queen was a bit of a slog probably because I didn't relate to Margaret Beaufort as much. I've just finished the next book in the Cousin's War series and the one after that is in the pile of books waiting to be read. I've also started picking up her Tudor series... So, yes. Much more Gregory to come!

v v said: I wish I could read as much as you.

I wish that I could read as much as sc! [grin] He reads twice as much as I do. Even back in my late school days I only managed about 100 books a year.....

I read because I don't do very much else. If I had a life I'd be reading a *lot* less!

dbackdad said...

Oddly, I get equal enjoyment out of when our lists have a lot in common ... and when they do not. This year was the latter. I enjoy that because it gives me plenty of ideas for new things to read in the upcoming year.

CyberKitten said...

Always more than happy to give you reading ideas. Many more to come I assure you!