My life in books; 2013

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2013~gone.  It was an exciting year though and I read some excellent titles!

One child turned 21 and another turned 18. One child starred as literary children's favorite Junie B. and is in her last (sob) year of elementary school.  Next year at this time she will be half way through 7th grade.

I've spent another year working and reading my way through my teacher-librarian job.  I want to read and discover even more fantastic books this year and desire to stay on top of what's new and plus do more writing.  Here are my stats for the past year.

2013

I read 62 books (chapter and nonfiction).  My blog total is different from my Goodreads total (68) as I added a few excellent picture books to my lists.  My highest reading months were January, June and July and December with 7 books each.  I never read more than 7 in a month. My lowest month was September-I only read two books-which makes sense as it was the beginning of school and I was probably doing a lot of lesson planning and deep thinking!

I can never pick just one.
Here are my absolute favorite 5-star books for 2013:

The Snow Child
Ender's Game
Room
I am J
Wonder
The Humming Room
Angry Housewives eating bon bons
The light between the oceans
Boy still missing
Strange but true
Code name Verity
Rose under fire
Mr Penumbra's 24-hour bookstore
Navigating Early
Eleanor + Park
Bud, Not Buddy
Between shades of gray

I love looking back at my list and remembering all those great stories.  My two favorite authors of the year would be John Searles (Boy still missing, Strange but true) and Elizabeth Wein (Code name Verity, Rose under fire). My favorite elementary fiction was Bud, Not buddy; an old one but I hadn't read it and had the opportunity when one of my 5th grade book clubs picked it.  My favorite YA title was Eleanor + Park and I am J.  Best historical fiction was Between shades of gray and Wein's companion books about WWII female pilots.

I read several great titles with Groovy Girl this year like One White Dolphin and Patrick Carman's series The Dark Hills Divide.  And I read a few great titles over my lunch time as well-Wonder tops the list, a book everyone should read as well as The one and only Ivan.

I read 18,100 pages, down from last year, which totaled 19,759.  And I love that Goodreads configures all  this for me!   I wonder how many words that is?

What were your favorites in 2013? What goals have you set for 2014?