2013 - A Year in Review

Wow! What a year, both in the reading world and in real life. A lot a happened for me this year, including some big changes in my life. I started working on my library and never finished that. Opps! Maybe I'll finish it this year - I already need more space for my books - not sure how that happened!

So this year I did a lot of fun reading activities, including attending word on the street, which was awesome, attending some great book related conventions, even spoke on a panel, and had a blast discussing the Giller longlist and shortlist nominees. Which I realize now, I never wrapped up my thoughts on that - although anyone who followed my reviews could probably guess them. I thought about doing a quick wrap up, but there are so many things I need to focus on now, I won't find the time. Canada Reads is coming up, and I need to gear up for that - perhaps I'll be better organized for that one (perhaps, being a better organized blogger, for keeping up with posts, comments, other bloggers should be my resolution I likely won't keep ;)).

Back to my reading year. It was a great one, I read some fantastic books - and some not so fantastic, and then the ones where I'll just say - don't ask. I participated in a lot of challenges and completed almost all of them. A new record for me. And the one challenge, I never figured I'd finish in the first place. Either way, I'm happy with that too and I'm looking forward to my 2013 challenges. (And, this New Years Day morning, I find myself having trouble spelling challenge - I keep throwing an "A" instead of an "E"). So below is a summary of my 2012 year, including a list of all the books I read this year, my favourites, least favourites and the honorable mentions. Fun statistics about what I read, along with a few other fun facts. My challenge summary, and maybe all the books that followed me home this year. A few more came home with me from a friend at a new year's party! Shout out to fellow book geek from the bad wolves hub, adi!

Okay, so sit back, grab a coffee, because this will be a long post, and enjoy!

The Books 

This year I read 136 books, of those 3 were rereads (and as I've already reviewed them didn't get a review), so below are all the books I read and reviewed this year. All 133 of them.

 1) Touch - Alexi Zentner - 7.25/10
2) The Dream World - Alison Pick - 8.25/10
3) The Sisters Brother - Patrick dewitt - 6.75/10
4) Oroonoko and Other Writings by Aphra Behn - 7.25/10
5) Childhood - Andre Alexis - 7/10
6) For Those Who Hunt the Wounded Down - David Adams Richards 7.25/10
7) Alligence - SGA -18 - Amy Griswold and Melissa Scott - 7.5/10
8) The Lost Salt Gift of Blood - Alistair MacLeod - 7.5/10
9) Alone in the Classroom - Elizabeth Hay - 5/10
10) Gathering Blue - Lois Lowry - 7.5/10
11) The Messenger - Lois Lowry - 7.5/10
12) The Colony of Unrequited Dreams - Wayne Johnston - 8.25/10
13) Anil's Ghost - Michael Ondaatje - 8.75/10
14) Transitions (SG-1 18) Sabine Bauer - 6.75/10
15) Selected Short Stories - Virginia Woolf - 9.5/10
16) A Long, Long Way - Sebastian Berry - 8.5/10
17) Offshore - Penelope Fitzgerald - 7.25/10
18) The Sense of Ending - Julian Barnes - 6.75/10
19) The Boxcar Children - Gertrude Chandler Warner - 8.25/10
20) The Druid - Frank Delaney - 8.75/10
21) The Girl Who Lived on The Moon - Frank Delaney - 9/10
22) Living With The Dead - Kelley Armstrong - 6.75/10
23) The Dogs and the Wolves - Irene Nemirovsky - 7.25/10
24) The Paris Wife - Paula McClain - 6.75/10
25) Great Expectations - Charles Dickens - 7.75/10
26) Gavelston - Paul Quarrington - 3.5/10
27) Shannon - Frank Delaney - 7.75/10
28) Agassiz Stories - Sandra Birdsell - 7.75/10
29) Casualties of War (SGA #7) - Elizabeth Christensen 7.75/10
30) Requiem for a Dream - Hubert Selby, Jr. - 5/10
31) My Ántonia - Willa Cather 7.75/10
32) Pigsong - Frank Delaney - 8.25/10
33) The Return of the Soldier - Rebecca West - 6.5/10
34) Fall On Your Knees - Ann-Marie MacDonald - 9.5/10
35) The Book Borrower - Alice Mattison - 4/10
36) The Penguin Book of Scottish Short Stories - 8/10
37) Song of the Silk Road - Mingmei Yipp - 8.75/10
38) Silas Marner - George Eliot - 7.25/10
39) Fighting Gravity - Leah Petersen - 7.25/10
40) La Grosse Fifi - Jean Ryhs - 7.25/10
41) Turtle Valley - Gail Anderson-Dargartz - 6.75/10
42) The Sound of Blue - Holly Payne - 8.25/10
43) Stones - Timothy Findley - 8.5/10
44) Ru - Kim Thúy - 8.5/10
45) Frostbitten - Kelley Armstrong - 7.75/10
46) Crazy Heart - Thomas Cobb - 6.5/10
47) Trial by Fire - Sabine Bauer - 5/10
48) The Newspaper of Claremont Street - Elizabeth Jolley - 7.75/10
49) Storm Glass - Jane Urquhart - 8.75/10
50) To Have and Have Not - Ernest Hemingway - 5.5/10
51) The Box Garden - Carol Shields - 7/10
52) The Historian - Elizabeth Kostova - 7.75/10
53) Casino Royale - Ian Fleming - 5/10
54) Mennonites Don't Dance - Darcie Friesen Hossack - 5.25/10
55) Beatrice and Virgil - Yann Martel - 4.5/10
56) The Prestige - Christopher Priest - 9/10
57) Next Episode - Hubert Aquin - 7/10
58) The Painted Veil - W. Somerset Maugham - 7.25/10
59) The Yellow House - Patricia Falvey - 8/10
60) The Ship of Brides - Jojo Moyes 7.25/10
61) Rockbound - Frank Parker Day - 8/10
62) Who Do You Think You Are?- Alice Munro - 9.25/10
63) Reliquary (SGA - 2) - Martha Wells - 8.25/10
64) Living Dead in Dallas - Charlaine Harris - 7.5/10
65) The Sea-Folk - Frank Delaney - 8.75/10
66) Street of Riches - Gabrielle Roy - 8/10
67) The Years - Virginia Woolf - 8.75/10
68) The In-Between World of Vikram Lall - M.G. Vassanji - 7.5/10
69) A Complicated Kindness - Miriam Toews - 5.5/10
70) Chocolat - Joanne Harris 7.5/10
71) The Colour - Rose Tremain - 3.75/10
72) Light Lifting - Alexander MacLeod - 9/10
73) The Sentimentalists - Johanna Skibsrud - 7/10
74) This Cake is for the Party - Sarah Selecky - 8.25/10
75) Circle of Friends - Maeve Binchy - 8.75/10
76) The Mistress of Nothing - Kate Pullinger - 6.75/10
77) The Bad Girl - Mario Vargas Llosa - 5/10
78) Do No Harm (SG-1 12) Karen Miller - 5/10
79) Nikolski - Nickolas Dickner - 6.5/10
80) The Heart Specialist - Claire Holden Rothman - 5.5/10
81) Stanley Park - Timothy Taylor - 6.5/10
82) Deafening - Frances Itani - 7.5/10
83) Years of Red Dust: Tales of Shanghai - Qiu Xiaolong - 8.5/10
84) Daughters Who Walk This Path - Yejide Kilanko - 8.75/10
85) Hetty Dorval - Ethel Wilson - 7/10
86) Waking the Witch - Kelley Armstrong - 8/10
87) Spell Bound - Kelley Armstrong - 7/10
88) Star Sullivan - Maeve Binchy - 7.5/10
89) The Long Song - Andrea Levy - 7/10
90) The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms - N. K. Jemisin - 7.5/10
91) Whirl Away - Russell Wangersky - 9.5/10
92) Dr. Brinkley's Tower - Robert Hough - 7.75/10
93) Y - Marjorie Celona - 9/10
94) Inside - Alix Ohlin - 7.5/10
95) The Emperor of Paris - C. S. Richardson - 8/10
96) One Good Hustle - Billie Livingston - 7.5/10
97) The Imposter Bride - Nancy Richler - 5/10
98) 419 - Will Ferguson - 3.5/10
99) Our Daily Bread - Lauren B. Davies - 9.25/10
100) My Life Among the Apes - Cary Fagan - 7/10
101) Everybody Has Everything - Katrina Onstad - 6.75/10
102) North and South - Elizabeth Gaskell - 6/10
103) The Furies (SGA 19) - Jo Graham - 8/10
104) The Hound of Baskervilles - Arthur Conan Doyle - 8/10
105) The Lost Garden - Helen Humphreys - 7.25/10
106) The Mirrored World - Debra Dean - 7.5/10
107) Vintage Munro - Alice Munro - 7.75/10
108) The Juliet Stories - Carrie Snyder - 8/10
109) The Golden Mean - Annabel Lyon - 3/10
110) Harvest Moon - Multiple Authors - 7.75/10
111) I'm Starved For You: Positron, Episode 1 - Margaret Atwood - 8/10
112) The Mystery of Mercy Close - Marian Keyes - 9.5/10
113) Natasha and Other Stories - David Bezmozgis - 7.25/10
114) The War of the Worlds - H.G. Wells - 7/10
115) The Barque of Heaven (SG-1 11) - Suzanne Wood - 8.5/10
116) The Whirlpool - Jane Urquhart - 7/10
117) Sacrifice Moon - Julie Fortune - 7.75/10
118) Small Change - Elizabeth Hay - 6.5/10
119) Feathered Serpent - Xu Xiaobin - 7/10
120) Clara Callan - Richard B. Wright - 10/10
121) Fauna - Alissa York - 5/10
122) Summer - Edith Wharton - 5.25/10
123) The Well of Ascension - Brandon Sanderson - 8.5/10
124) The Road Past Altamont - Gabrielle Roy - 7.75/10
125) The Bostonians - Henry James - 4/10
126) Entanglement (SGA - 6) - Martha Wells - 6.5/10
127) An Irish Country Village - Patrick Taylor - 7.25/10
128) Doppler - Erlend Loe - 9.5/10
129) The Time Keeper - Mitch Albom - 8.75/10
130) Five Quarters of the Orange - Joanne Harris - 4.5/10
131) A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens - 8/10
132) Jacobs Room - Virginia Woolf - 6.75/10
133) 13 - Kelley Armstrong - 6.75/10

The Reread were the first three books in the Harry Potter Series.

Breakdown of ratings

My lowest review was a 3. My highest was a 10. Only one book received a 10/10 this year.

Rating Category	Amount of Books
1 - 3.75	4
4 - 4.75	4
5 - 5.75	13
6 - 6.75	17
7 - 7.75	50
8 - 8.75	33
9 - 9.75	11
10	1

Jules' Top Ten's 

Top 10 Favourite Books of the Year (books listed alphabetically by author)

 Y - Marjorie Celona
Our Daily Bread - Lauren B. Davies
The Mystery of Mercy Close - Marian Keyes
Daughters Who Walk This Path - Yejide Kilanko
Doppler - Erlend Loe
Fall On Your Knees - Ann-Marie MacDonald
Anil's Ghost - Michael Ondaatje
The Prestige - Christopher Priest
Clara Callan - Richard B. Wright
Song of the Silk Road - Mingmei Yipp

Top Five Short Story Collections (books listed alphabetically by author)

Light Lifting - Alexander MacLeod
Who Do You Think You Are?- Alice Munro
Storm Glass - Jane Urquhart
Whirl Away - Russell Wangersky
Selected Short Stories - Virginia Woolf

Ten Least Favourite Reads(books listed alphabetically by author)

419 - Will Ferguson
Five Quarters of the Orange - Joanne Harris
Requiem for a Dream - Hubert Selby, Jr.
The Golden Mean - Annabel Lyon
The Bostonians - Henry James
Beatrice and Virgil - Yann Martel
The Book Borrower - Alice Mattison
Gavelston - Paul Quarrington
The Colour - Rose Tremain
The Bad Girl - Mario Vargas Llosa


Some Fun Book Statistics about this years read.

I have to say, I've read far more EBooks, than I ever thought I  would. I do prefer print over EBooks, but the number between the two is closing. It saves so much space, and when it comes to library books, no late fees!

General Stats	Number of Books
Books Read	136
Pages Read	36, 622
Re-Reads (included in total)	3
Format of Book
Print	83
EBook	53
Where they Came From
Own	112
Library Books	24

This year I found a love for short story collections, and I have quite a few on my shelf to read this year.

Type of Book	Number of Books
Fiction	99
Short Story Collections	20
Short Story and/or Novella (Individual)	15
Poetry	1
Combined	1

One of my personal goals this year was to read more Canadian Books, and almost half of my reads were. This year I hope to read more, and explore some new to me Canadian Authors.

Other Random Facts	Number of Books
Canadiana	62
Authors New to Me	74
Women Writers	87
Speculative Fiction	30
1001 Books	17
Series	33
Children's/YA Lit	6

The Challenges

Wow! My little table I made up in OneNote (which is how I keep track of all my challenges, book stats etc) came in very handy! Less work for me! This year I participated in 17 challenges. And I completed 14 of those challenges. The Ireland Challenge I moved up a level, originallly completing it in September  and I didn't realize I messed up the dates to when it ended. It actually ended in November. But I completed my original goal, so I'm counting it as a win!

	Challenge Name	Progress	Start Date	End Date	Completed Date
1	12 in 12	133/144	January 1, 2012	December 31, 2012	DNF - 92% Complete
2	100+ Challenge 2012	101/100	January 1, 2012	December 31, 2012	October 15, 2012
3	1001 Books to Read Before  Challenge 2012	15/15	January 1, 2012	December 31, 2012	December 8, 2012
4	Alphabet Challenge 2012	26/26	January 1, 2012	December 31, 2012	October 12, 2012
5	Canadian Award Winners Challenge	5/5	January 1, 2012	December 31, 2012	January 24, 2012
6	Canadian Reading Challenge V	45/13	July 1, 2011	July 1, 2012	October 31, 2011
7	Canadian Reading Challenge VI	39/13	July 1, 2012	June 30, 2013	September 1, 2012
8	Ebook Reading Challenge 2012	25/25	January 1, 2012	December 31, 2012	June 13, 2012
9	Fall into Reading Challenge 2012	22/22	September 22, 2012	December 21, 2012	December 19, 2012
10	Finish That Series Challenge 2012	1/3	January 1, 2012	December 31, 2012	DNF - 33% Complete
11	Global Reading Challenge 2012	14/14	January 1, 2012	December 31, 2012	September 13, 2012
12	Ireland Reading Challenge 2012	8/6	January 1, 2012	December 31, 2012	December 18, 2012
13	Mount TBR Reading Challenge 2012	42/50	January 1, 2012	December 31, 2012	DNF - 84% Complete
14	New Authors Reading Challenge 2012	50/50	January 1, 2012	December 31, 2012	August 30, 2012
15	Short Stories Reading Challenge 2012	12/12	January 1, 2012	December 31, 2012	July 31, 2012
16	Speculative Reading Challenge 2012	24/24	January 1, 2012	December 31, 2012	November 16, 2012
17	War Through the Generations - WWI Reading Challenge 2012	3/3	January 1, 2012	December 31, 2012	April 18, 2012

Countries Visited through Reading

Below are all the countries I visited, and the amount of times.

Canada:   45/England: 21/ USA: 21/ Ireland: 11/ France: 10/ China: 4/ Australia: 2 /Hungary: 2 /Nigeria: 2 / Northern Ireland: 2/Belgium: 1/Bulgaria: 1/Croatia: 1/ Cuba: 1/Egypt: 1/Hong Kong: 1*/Grease: 1 /Jamaica: 1/Kenya: 1/Mexico: 1/Netherlands: 1/New Zealand: 1/Nicaragua: 1/Norway: 1/Peru: 1/Romania: 1/Russia: 1/Scotland: 1/Sri Lanka: 1/Switzerland: 1/Turkey: 1/Ukraine: 1/Vietnam: 1

Create your own travel map - TravBuddy

Books that Followed Me Home

Wow. I just looked at that number, and it is a big one. Some are EBooks mind you. But a lot more books followed me home, than the amount of books I read. I added almost 160 books to my collection this year. I would list them all, but I would be here for forever trying to do that.


And that was my 2012 year in a (large) nut shell. There is far more to say, I'm sure I'm forgetting things too, but this should be enough light reading for everyone! Cheers!