Top Ten Favorites of 2013

My picks for the Tuesday Top Ten, as invented by The Broke and Bookish.

The Broke & Bookish bloggers seem to be operating on the same wavelength as me this week; I'd planned a blog of my favorite 2013 reads before I even read it on their schedule. Gotta love convenient coincidences. So here's the list of my personal faves, based on what I read this year, not necessarily publication date. These are the stories I didn't know I couldn't live without.

1. Battleship: A Daring Heiress, A Teenage Jockey, and America's Horse by Dorothy Ours. 
-----Nonfiction about Marion Dupont and her hunt race enterprise, reads like fiction.

2.Life of Pi by Yann Martel. 
-----This has plenty of metaphors for the reader who likes to analyze and plenty of adventure for the reader who doesn't need a romantic subplot in every story.

3.A Density of Souls by Christopher Rice. 
-----Emotionally raw story of bullying, bigotry, and the overwhelming power of mother nature.

4. The War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells.
-----Classic lit and sci-fi. This book present the vicious struggle between conquerors and their inferiors.
5. Map of the Sky by Felix J Palma.
-----Historical fiction/Science fiction. Plenty of plot twists to keep readers guessing.

6. Out of Oz by Gregory Maguire. 
-----The final installment of the Wicked Years, brings Dorothy back to Oz for one final hurrah, and ends with closure for those who need it most.

7. World War Z by Max Brooks.
-----Smart story of the zombie apocalypse, told from varying viewpoints by those who experienced it.

8. The Casual Vacancy by JK Rowling.
-----The biggest virtue of this book is the characters. Every character revelation made me gasp with shock and every act of petty revenge or retaliation made me laugh and the ending sent me running for a box of tissues.

9. Mongoliad Book 1 by Neal Stephenson, Greg Bear, Mark Teppo, and friends. 
-----Historical/speculative fiction written by multiple writers instead of just one...Part of one of a story stretched over 3 books, but let's be honest, the other two parts weren't as good as they could have been.

10. The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho. 
-----This is probably a better read for kids than adults, but either could read it and gain something from the message. "It's the possibility of having a dream come true that makes life interesting."--The Alchemist.
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All my reviews for the above stories can be found on 5. Loved It page...Although I admit my review for War of the Worlds was really small and does the story little justice.

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