A Year in Review: 2013

Welcome to the New Year! It is now 2014 and I hope everyone is ready for the great things to come this year. The end of the month will mark a year since my first blog post! I must say that I have really enjoyed all of the books that I’ve read this year and posting the reviews of the different books on this blog. This is something that has become an integral part of my reading process. I love that I am able to share it with people who share my love and interest for books. There is definitely more to come in this new year and I am excited to share with you all that is going on as of right now.

I read 83 books this year! I love it! I’m including the list of books at the end of the blog. There are quite a few books that have been read and reviewed, I simply haven’t posted them on the blog yet. I do this for consistency. I want to be able to post a new review every Friday for you to enjoy so I have stockpiled in order to keep that rate going. In case I hit a reading slump (which I doubt will happen) or if I decided to read Harry Potter more than once this year (which just might happen) you will still get a blog post every Friday.

Reading in 2013 was great for a few reasons. One of which was the fact that I had a focus to get me through what turned out to be a somewhat difficult year. I was dealing with my husband’s deployment during the first half of the year and reading helped keep me sane and occupied. My father passed away in April and reading the Stephen King collection helped me deal with his death. I know that sounds weird but my father introduced me to Stephen King and we would always have these conversations about him as a writer. Even when he was sick and my family knew his time was coming, we would still sit and talk about Stephen King. We would talk about what I was reading and how finishing would be a huge undertaking for me. When I finished the last book the one person I wanted to call and tell was my father. But it had been months since he passed. Finishing almost felt like honoring my father and thanking him for giving me Firestarter, the first Stephen King novel I have ever read, that set me on this path of being such an avid reader. So again, thanks Daddy.

The last reason 2013 was a great reading year is because of how much I pushed myself this year. I not only read 2 more books than last year but I kept this blog up and running, writing reviews as soon as I completed books. I forced myself to write a comprehensive review before I would allow myself to begin a new novel. That in turn made me a more observant reader and helped me communicate how I felt about each book. I wish I had this much discipline in 2012 because then I would have had dozens of more reviews that I could have shared.

So what’s in store for 2014? Well, the theme for this year is Banned books. I have a list of banned books that I will be choosing from throughout the year. Starting in February (January I try to reserve for Harry Potter) every other book I read will be a banned book. As part of the reviews of the banned books I plan on discussing what has made these books so controversial that restricting them became necessary to some. I have also joined the website Goodreads.com which is an amazing database for readers. If you are a member and would like to follow what I am reading, planning to read or have already read, you can definitely send me a friend request on my profile, Stacie_C. I am also now part of a review team for Onlinebookclub.org. All of the reviews I do there will only be listed on that website but I will provide links to those reviews on my blog once they become available. I am debating on whether or not I will start a Facebook page for my blog. It will simply be another tool for providing information about books and what’s going on in my reading universe.  I will keep everyone updated on that development. I am also considering placing a rating system on the blog reviews. Rating books on Goodreads has given me a different perspective on how to make recommendations about books. Only time will tell with both of those ideas but any input would be much appreciated!

Here is the 2013 reading list as promised! Happy New Year and Happy Readings! Enjoy!

2013 Reading List 

#	Books	Author
1	Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone	J.K. Rowling
2	Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets	J.K. Rowling
3	Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban	J.K. Rowling
4	Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire	J.K. Rowling
5	Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix	J.K. Rowling
6	Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince	J.K. Rowling
7	Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows	J.K. Rowling
8	Carrie	Stephen King
9	Salem's Lot	Stephen King
10	The Shining	Stephen King
11	The Stand	Stephen King
12	The Long Walk	Stephen King
13	The Dead Zone	Stephen King
14	Firestarter	Stephen King
15	Roadwork	Stephen King
16	Cujo	Stephen King
17	The Running Man	Stephen King
18	The Gunslinger	Stephen King
19	Christine	Stephen King
20	Pet Sematary	Stephen King
21	Cycle of the Werewolf	Stephen King
22	The Talisman	Stephen King
23	Thinner	Stephen King
24	It	Stephen King
25	The Eyes of the Dragon	Stephen King
26	The Dark Tower II: The Drawing of the Three	Stephen King
27	Misery	Stephen King
28	The Tommyknockers	Stephen King
29	The Dark Half	Stephen King
30	The Dark Tower III: The Wastelands	Stephen King
31	Needful Things	Stephen King
32	Gerald's Game	Stephen King
33	Dolores Claiborne	Stephen King
34	Insomnia	Stephen King
35	Rose Madder	Stephen King
36	The Green Mile	Stephen King
37	Desperation	Stephen King
38	The Regulators	Stephen King
39	The Dark Tower IV: Wizard and Glass	Stephen King
40	Bag of Bones	Stephen King
41	The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon	Stephen King
42	Dreamcatcher	Stephen King
43	The Black House	Stephen King
44	From a Buick 8	Stephen King
45	Dark Tower V: Wolves of the Calla	Stephen King
46	Dark Tower VI: Song of Susannah	Stephen King
47	Dark Tower VII: The Dark Tower	Stephen King
48	The Colorado Kid	Stephen King
49	Cell	Stephen King
50	Lisey's Story	Stephen King
51	Blaze	Stephen King
52	Duma Key	Stephen King
53	Under the Dome	Stephen King
54	11/22/63	Stephen King
55	The Wind Through the Keyhole	Stephen King
56	Joyland	Stephen King
57	Doctor Sleep	Stephen King
58	The Cuckoo's Calling	J.K. Rowling
59	The Storyteller	Jodi Picoult
60	Silver Girl	Elin Hilderbrand
61	Stranger in a Strange Land	Robert A. Heinlein
62	The Handmaid's Tale	Margaret Atwood
63	Where the Heart Is	Billie Letts
64	She Wolves: The Women Who Ruled England before Elizabeth	Helen Castor
65	The Man in the High Castle	Phillip K. Dick
66	Fahrenheit 451	Ray Bradbury
67	A Farewell to Arms	Ernest Hemingway
68	Red Rain	R.L. Stine
69	Inferno	Dan Brown
70	Catching Fire	Suzanne Collins
71	The Great Gatsby	F. Scott Fitzgerald
72	Divergent	Veronica Roth
73	Libra	Don DeLillo
74	The house Girl	Tara Conklin
75	An Army at Dawn: The War in North Africa 1942-1943	Rick Atkinson
76	Insurgent	Veronica Roth
77	Allegiant	Veronica Roth
78	A Train in Winter: An Extraordinary Story of Women, Friendship, and Resistance in Occupied France	Caroline Moorehead
79	The Book thief	Markus Zusak
80	Orphan Train	Christina Baker Kline
81	The Goldfinch	Donna Tartt
82	She's Come Undone	Wally Lamb
83	The Re-Awakening	Carter Vance