Best books of 2013

Three beautiful performers in The Little Shadows, one of the books of the year

Statistics

Before getting on to the best books: I’m always fascinated by other bloggers’ and readers’ statistics, so have produced a few of my own.

Of the books I read in 2013:

About 57% were by female authors (really happy and relieved by this!)

Only about a quarter very recent, ie published 2012/13

Two thirds were, roughly-speaking, UK-based (ie set here, or written here, or by an author closely associated with the UK): about a quarter were US-based, and the rest were spread out from France to Japan, taking in Ancient Greece, Eire, Australia, Canada and Discworld as well. (I was surprised that the proportion of American books wasn’t higher.)

Only 18 books were translated from other languages (French was the most-represented, along with Ancient Greek, Japanese and Danish). I was surprised and disappointed that the number was so low. (More Scandi-noir needed?)

Best books of 2013

 

These are best books read, so most were published in earlier years. (Crime fiction has been dealt with in a separate entry.) Not in any special order.


The Little Shadows by Marina Endicott – an astonishing book about a music-hall act in North America in the early years of the 20th century, and Exhibit 1 in my claim that books by women are under-valued. This book is successful, but it should be a world-class bestseller, up for all the major prizes.

That they May face the Rising Sun by John McGahern Hard to describe. Just read it.

Happyland by J Robert Lennon Extraordinary book with an extraordinary backstory – read the entry – and his other recent book Familiar would be another contender.

The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt. Yes it was as good as you could have hoped, and well worth the length and the wait.

Shepperton Babylon by Matthew Sweet Best non-fiction – an unmatched combination of information and entertainment, and hilariously funny.

Therese Desqueyroux by Francois Mauriac A real oddity, but a wonderfully strange and un-heroic heroine.

Anna Karenina in a fur hat and a snowstorm in 1969

Impossible Object by Nicholas Mosley the book that should have won the Booker Prize in 1969, breath-taking but now forgotten.





Sunday clothes

Mr Ives' Christmas by Oscar Hijuelos (who died this year) a life-affirming book about life loss and faith.

Deadeye Dick by Kurt Vonnegut - sooo much better than I was expecting

Lolly Willowes by Sylvia Townsend Warner an early feminist classic about single women, English lives, and witches.

Sneaking in five runners-up: Jess Walters Beautiful Ruins, Eva Ibbotson's Madensky Square,  Stefan Zweig's The Post Office Girl, Angela Carter's Wise Children, Charles Darwin's Voyage of the Beagle.



midnight silk dress with flickering flames...





It seems unfair to have chosen favourite crime novels separately, though it gave me a chance to name more books. Five of the best crime authors, who would have a place on the overall best books list: Catriona McPherson, Elly Griffiths, Robert Galbraith (aka JK Rowling), Lynn Shepherd, Michael Hogan.  

And hoping for equally good books in 2014.