2013: The Year and Its Booklist

It has been a good year. A really nice year. I have the people I love around me, or at least available by phone or internet, and they all seem pretty happy. My roof is more waterproof than not. My pantry is full. And I have stacks of books to read. Other than hoping for improvements in health for some of my people, and for a little more academic dedication on the part of my children, all I really ask of 2014 is more of what this year had. Some long walks, lots of great book talk, meals together, hugs, and some silly dancing! I wish you a 2014 filled with lots of all the things you love best!

(Sweet Ed. The Facebook Scrabble god.)

(My mom always insists we don't need to turn up the heat for her. Would you believe her?)

 (Travis with cheese and crackers. Because we welcome in the new year with wild excess!)

(My brother. He isn't actually usually here, more's the pity, but he just was here and this was on the camera. He likes his gadgets!)

And the cats. They are good reading buddies, even if they do shed like crazy and do some other stuff that I refuse to consider in my current, genial mood. Maybe in 2014 they will reform!

And the booklist...
I didn't read as many books this year. Partly, at least, because Audible started carrying Teaching Company courses, so instead of listening to books I've been listening to lecture series. That's okay. What I did read was mostly very satisfactory! And here they all are, including read-alouds and audio books (but not TC lectures, or a few books that turned out to be rubbish that I skimmed or didn't finish!)...

January
Song of the Vikings: Snorri and the Making of Norse Myths, by Nancy Marie Brown
The Wave in the Mind, by Ursula LeGuin
Liesl & Po, by Lauren Oliver
The Fellowship of the Ring, by J.R.R. Tolkien
Father and Son, by Edmund Gosse
Leaving Church, by Barbara Brown Taylor
The Odyssey, by Homer
The Violinist's Thumb, by Sam Kean
Dodger, by Terry Pratchett

February
Taran Wanderer, by Lloyd Alexander
The Last Dragonslayer, by Jasper Fforde

March
The Golden Ocean, by Patrick O'Brian
The End of Your Life Bookclub, by Will Schwalbe
The High King, by Lloyd Alexander
Homeric Moments: Clues to Delight in Reading the Odyssey and the Iliad, by Eva Brann
The One and Only Ivan, by Katherine Applegate

April
Starry River of the Sky, by Grace Lin
Animal Farm, by George Orwell
Mistress Masham's Repose, by T.H. White
Hamlet, by William Shakespeare

May
Arabel's Raven, by Joan Aiken
Middlemarch, by George Eliot
Arabel and Mortimer, by Joan Aiken
The Book of Atrix Wolfe, by Patricia McKillip
Doctor Who and Philosophy, by Courtland Lewis
The Jesuit Guide to (Almost) Everything, by James J. Martin
The Marvelous Misadventures of Sebastian, by Lloyd Alexander
Bad Religion: How We Became a Nation of Heretics, by Ross Douthat

June
Goblin Moon, by Teresa Edgerton
Gilgamesh: A New English Version, by Stephen Mitchell
The Two Towers, by J.R.R. Tolkien
Mortimer's Cross, by Joan Aiken
Christmas at Thompson Hall, by Anthony Trollope
Understanding Genesis, by Nahum Sarna
Herodotus and the Road to History, by Jeanne Bendick
Lavinia, by Ursula LeGuin
The Trolls, by Polly Horvath
Destiny Disrupted: A History of the World Through Islamic Eyes, by Tamim Ansary
The Rise of Rome: The Making of the World's Greatest Empire, by Anthony Everitt
The Gifts of the Jews, by Thomas Cahill
What the Tortoise Taught Us: The Story of Philosophy, by Burton Porter
The Pushcart War, by Jean Merrill

July
Sailing the Wine-Dark Sea, by Thomas Cahill
Charmed Life, by Diana Wynne Jones
The Aeneid, by Virgil
The Last Lecture, by Randy Pausch
Desire of the Everlasting Hills, by Thomas Cahill
The Return of the King, by J.R.R. Tolkien
Reflections: On the Magic of Writing, by Diana Wynne Jones
The Lives of Christopher Chant, by Diana Wynne Jones

August
Aspects of the Novel, by E.M. Forster
Conrad's Fate, by Diana Wynne Jones
Mixed Magics, by Diana Wynne Jones

September
Exploring Exodus, by Nahum Sarna
It Was on Fire When I Lay Down on It, by Robert Fulghum
The Magicians of Caprona, by Diana Wynne Jones
Witch Week, by Diana Wynne Jones

October
A Companion to the Iliad, by Malcolm Willcock
The Sword in the Stone, by T.H. White
The Pinhoe Egg, by Diana Wynne Jones
The Iliad, by Homer
The Ocean at the End of the Lane, by Neil Gaiman
How Literature Works: 50 Key Concepts, by John Sutherland
The Oldest Dead White European Males & Other Reflections on the Classics, by Bernard Knox

November
A Little History of Literature, by John Sutherland
The Riddle of the Labyrinth: the Quest to Crack an Ancient Code, by Margalit Fox
The Little Bookstore of Big Stone Gap, by Wendy Welch
The Library at Night, by Alberto Manguel
A Guide to the Odyssey, by Ralph Hexter
The Odyssey, by Homer
Howl's Moving Castle, by Diana Wynne Jones
The David Story: A Translation with Commentary of 1 and 2 Samuel, by Robert Alter
It's a Don's Life, by Mary Beard
Political Philosophy, by Steven Smith (only the section on ancients)
Till We Have Faces, by C.S. Lewis

December
Castle in the Air, by Diana Wynne Jones
Egyptomania, by Bob Brier
Emma, by Jane Austen
Christmas Pudding and Pigeon Pie, by Nancy Mitford
Letters from Father Christmas, by J.R.R. Tolkien
How to Read the Bible: A Guide to Scripture, Then and Now, by James Kugel

Lots of good books this year! The Iliad and the Odyssey were surprisingly great, and Middlemarch was fabulous. The Riddle of the Labyrinth was one my daddy recommended, so, of course, I wasn't surprised when it was wonderful, but it really was! And 2014 looks like a very promising reading year! Stacks of good stuff piled around the house, and I am (currently) filled with good resolve to read through what is in the house before being lured into new purchases by my delightfully enabling book buddies on the internet!