2013 Wrap Up

Wow, 2013 has been an intense year for me, and a great year in terms of both reading and writing! So, here is my 2013 in review...

Books Read

I read 72 books in 2013 and reviewed 51. I thought it might be fun to look at some stats, so here are some interesting break downs of what I read in 2013:

38 books by female authors (including anthology editors)

34 books by male authors (including anthology editors)

1 unknown (K.J. Parker)

32 British authors and anthology editors

22 US authors and anthology editors

5 non-British or US authors and anthology editors (wow, I need to try to read more next year!)

29 review copies

6 audiobooks

12 book club reads

62 SFF or with SFF elements

5 contemporary

5 historical (non fantasy)

2 crime/mystery

25 YA or children’s

My Favourite Books of 2013

Yesterday I listed my favourite books of 2013. You can find the post here, and since then I've finished another book that I would have included on the list: Some Kind of Fairy Tale by Graham Joyce.

Challenges

Goodreads Challenge - I managed to complete this with half a day to go! I set my challenge as 70 books, and I actually read 72 books this year, but two of them were not listed on the site.

British Books Challenge - I completed this with 18 books read and reviewed.

Paranormal Challenge - I completed this with 26 books read and reviewed.

Witches and Witchcraft Challenge - I completed this with 8 read and 3 reviewed. I'd have liked to read and review more for this one, and was surprised how few books about witches I actually had. Plenty with magic, but not many with witches.

Richard and Judy Challenge - I completed this with 5 read and 3 reviewed. This was a fun challenge, forcing me out of my reading comfort zone, and it was great to try new things that I otherwise might not have picked up.

Genre Variety Challenge - I completed this with 16 read and reviewed. My genres ranged from fantasy and science fiction to contemporary, crime and even a zombie western!

TBR Challenge - I completed this with 11 read and 9 reviewed. I definitely want to get more of my TBR pile finished in 2014!

Success in all challenges! :-D

My Writing – Short Stories

I finally felt ready to start sending out short stories, and have had some successes! Next year I’ll have stories appearing in three anthologies – The Sword and Laser Anthology, Women Writing the Weird 2, and Missing Monarchs. I’m so pleased with this, and can’t wait to get writing and sending off some more!

My Writing – Novel

I’ve planned, plotted and begun writing a novel. It’s still in early stages yet, but I’m feeling pleased with the progress and hopeful about finishing it next year!

Internship

I’ve started an internship at Angry Robot, a science fiction and fantasy publisher in Nottingham. I’ve been learning and experiencing so much so far, and I’m really enjoying it. :-)

Conventions

I attended three conventions this year – Edge Lit in Derby, Eastercon in Bradford, and World Fantasy Con in Brighton – as well as one book fair in Leicester. I enjoyed all of them, but I think Edge Lit was my personal favourite.

Readathons

I took part in 5 readathons this year – three Bout of Books, the Wicked Valentine Readathon and the WWReadathon. I love readathons, but haven’t had as much time to join in with them this year. I’m hoping I can be involved in more in 2014!

So that was my 2013. Did you have a good year? :-)

My Favourite Books of 2013

2013’s coming to an end, so it’s time for the inevitable favourites of the year post! I’m not limiting this to books that were released this year, as this is a personal faves list. So this includes everything that I’ve read in 2013, no matter how old. Here were my favourites:

Favourite Books Read This Year

The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern

A beautifully written story about a magical duel played out in a Victorian circus. A gorgeous book.

The Folding Knife by K.J. Parker

This is a clever story with a lot of layers. Low fantasy with no magic, revolving around banking and politics in a Romanesque setting.

Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie

Science fiction with an intriguing society and a very unique feeling created through its approach to gender, and through the main character’s position as an ancillary unit of a larger shipmind who is now severed from the ship.

The Shining Girls by Lauren Beukes

A time travelling serial killer loose in Chicago. I love time travel stories, and this one is excellently written, the time travel logic works well, and the characters are brilliant.

The Other Half of the Sky edited by Athena Andreadis

An anthology of science fiction stories about women, but also exploring non-western cultures and characters, and exploring tropes and ideas from new perspectives. Intelligent, fantastic stories.

Best Served Cold by Joe Abercrombie

A story of revenge with a lot of depth. Gritty fantasy in which a mercenary seeks revenge on the seven men who tried to kill her and murdered her brother. A great main character and some wonderful side characters.

The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making by Catherynne M. Valente

The story of a girl who visits fairyland. One of the best examples of the girl-taken-by-fairies stories that I’ve read. Wonderful writing and brilliant characters.

Any Other Name and All Is Fair by Emma Newman

I read Between Two Thorns in 2012, and followed with the last two books in the Split Worlds series this year. A fantasy series set in modern day Britain with sorcerers, magic, evil fae, feuds and investigations, and people just trying to drink their tea in peace.

Warm Bodies by Isaac Marion

Told from a zombie’s point of view, this is a love story with a difference. The wonderful writing and black humour took me by surprise. A great book!

Holes by Louis Sachar

The story of a young boy who is wrongfully accused of stealing and sent to a juvenile correction camp, but this is so much more than that. With strong themes dealing with race, fate and family, and the way in which echoes of past actions can be felt in the future, this story amazed me with its complex weaving together of seemingly separate storylines.

Retribution Falls by Chris Wooding

Airship pirates in a fantasy setting! This is a fun, exciting adventure story with some memorable characters.

Pantomime by Laura Lam

It’s hard to talk about this one without giving away what others might perceive as a spoiler, so I will just say that the main character in this one is wonderful, the world is rich and interesting, and I’m hooked on this series now!

The Eternity Cure by Julie Kagawa

I enjoyed The Immortal Rules, and its sequel is even better! The story of a vampire girl in an apocalyptic world – it’s part vampire novel, part zombie novel, with echoes of Fallout, great characters and a can’t-put-it-down story.

Bitten by Kelley Armstrong

I have to admit that I didn’t expect to like this one so much. Werewolves in modern America, a story about rivalry, feuds, murder, and romance. A very quick and exciting read, with characters I really cared about.

Geek Girl and Model Misfit by Holly Smale

These stories charmed me so much. A geeky girl called Harriet is suddenly thrown into the fashion world when she is spotted at the Clothes Show on a school trip. I adore Harriet and she is probably my favourite narrator ever. The author writes her voice so perfectly, and her observations about the world are brilliant. Incredibly funny, warm and intelligent books.

Gretel and the Dark by Eliza Granville

I finished this one in December and haven’t even had a chance to review it yet, but I had to add it to the list. An extremely dark and disturbing story in which fairytales are expertly woven with real events in 19th century Vienna and at a Nazi concentration camp in the final stages of the war. Impressive writing and a story that will stay with me for a very long time.