The 106 1/3 Books I Read In 2013!

I reached my nondescript goal of reading over 100 books in 2013! 

Now before you scroll down and say with a scoff or a sneer, "But, Alyse, 47 of those are picture books," let me share Jordan Sonnenblick's writing advice, found in the Q&A section of Drums, Girls & Dangerous Pie:

"Read a ton. And don't just read one genre or format; read everything. The only way to figure out how to use the nuts and bolts of this thing called storytelling is to examine a lot of these complicated machines called books." 

This is not just great writer advice (which I still hope to be someday); it is also excellent librarian advice. 2013 marked my first full year as a certified information scientist (read: librarian). Although I didn't find a full-time job, I worked three long-term subbing positions in three different high schools, gathered and shared experiences along the way, and all the while had at least one book ready and waiting with a bookmark. The best part about being an [unemployed] librarian: Reading counts as professional development! 

I could go on and on about the other librarian-related experiences I had this year (I MET LOIS LOWRY!), but I'll save those for another time, as this post is going to be long enough with the book list. Like last year, I will share reviews (copied from Goodreads) of some my favorites from this year.

As for this new year we've just begun? I'm kicking off 2014 by refocusing my reading efforts on some adult literature (a.k.a. books I've been longingly staring at on my book shelf but putting off for the sake of keeping up with the ever-growing YA genre) and more non-fiction. Here's a photo of what I intend to be my initial (and quite ambitious-might-take-all-year) stack (and my turtle, Ninja).

2013 List

Fiction

1) Odd Thomas by Dean Koontz

2) Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn

  I have a tendency to rebel against reading books that every book club on the planet is reading, however I've learned there's usually a reasoning behind it--the books are really good. Took me years to finally read The Kite Runner and The Help, for instance. Both wonderful. 

I'm rating Gone Girl 5 stars because I couldn't put it down, and I can't tell you the last time I've had that experience with a book (yes, I realize this is also the first adult book I've read in over a year). It'll totally screw with your head (as a lot of relationships do in real life) and keep you guessing and feeling betrayed, yet hopeful from cover to cover. 

3) Room by Emma Donnahuge

4) The Great Gatsby (audio) by F. Scott Fitzgerald

5) Where'd You Go, Bernadette? By Maria Semple

Is it a crime that I am a newly-ordained librarian and I fully admit to judging books by their covers? Probably. However, that is the exact reason I chose to read this novel: I love(d) the cover.
Add in a librarian friend's recommendation that she thinks I'd love the story because of its epistolary format (which is masterful, in my opinion, I must add), and voila! Jumped to the top of my to-read list.

Throw in consistently-outstanding character development, an enviable back-story, a missing-persons mystery, as well as facts and journeys to Antarctica, a magical place you don't tend to hear a whole lot about, and you've got yourself a prize-winning, 5-star novel.

One of my favorite lines in the book happened to be a parenthetical statement: "This is why you must love life: one day you're offering up your social security number to the Russia Mafia; two weeks later you're using the word calve as a verb."

I mean, right?
The interweaving points of view, the humor, and the quirky characters inspired me to start writing again. Thank you, Maria Semple. I can't wait to read your debut novel, "This One is Mine."

I will end this review with another underlined quote, a P.S. if you will:
"My heart started racing, not the bad kind of heart racing, like, I'm going to die. But the good kind of heart racing, like, Hello, can I help you with something? If not, please step aside because I'm about to kick the shit out of life." 

6) The Paris Architect by Charles Belfoure 

I heard about this title at a Book Buzz event a few days before attending ALA and was so excited when I saw one of the publisher's booths at ALA giving away free ARC copies of it. It was recommended to people who like Ken Follett but enjoy reading about the WWII era.
When I excitedly asked if I could take one of the copies, the woman said, "Don't start it at 10pm like I did!" She was right. Although I enjoyed "Pillars of the Earth" by Follett, it was for way different reasons. I didn't have a hard time putting it down. In fact, I was often bored with the lengthy architectural descriptions of churches.
This book is nothing like that. The short chapters and the non-stop, bite-your-nails drama, made it hard to stop reading this, as I read it with constant battling feelings of hope, fear, love, hate, dread and awe.
"The Paris Architect" is about Lucien, a renowned architect in Paris, who is asked to build hiding places for Jews on the run from the Nazis. As he becomes more and more involved, his reasoning for agreeing to continue creating these hideaways changes when the situation becomes deeply personal.
The descriptions of the Gestapo torturing people for information made me squirm, and as with everything I've read and listened to about this time in history, I found myself once again flabbergasted that any of this really happened.
Historical fiction at its finest. I'd love to know if there was a real-life team like this back then who risked their lives to save their neighbors and outwit the Gestapo.
The back of the book sums this book up well: "The Paris Architect asks us to consider what we owe each other, and just how far we'll go to make things right."

7) Night Circus (audio) by Erin Morgenstern

8) Defending Jacob (audio) by William Landay

9) The Casual Vacancy (audio) by J.K. Rowling

10) The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman

11) Life of Pi (audio) by Yann Martel

Seemed to be the perfect audio accompaniment for a solo road trip. Phenomenal storytelling-- Religion vs. personal philosophies, vegetarianism vs. cannibalism, survival vs. escape, animals vs. people--this book was way more than I ever thought it would be.

Non-Fiction

12) Guns by Stephen King (Kindle essay)

It's not even worth me writing a review because if anyone follows me on Twitter (@LibrarianForYou), you'll see that I "highlighted" and "shared" more quotes from this essay than I have from any full-length novel I've ever read. So all I have to say (for now, while a blog post is drafting itself in my head) is Thank You, Mr. King. I hope everyone reads this and finally gets it.

13) Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer

Here's what you need to know, bottom line: Factory Farms Are The Devil. I admit I probably have an unnatural affinity with the animal kingdom, but you don't have to even like animals to comprehend that what factory farms do to them is cruel and unnatural punishment and torture. Even the author, who I saw speak on this topic at the Chicago Humanities Festival last month, admitted his case for vegetarianism is not out of a love for animals but out of standing on moral ground against factory farming. He said, "It's unspeakably cruel. One doesn't have to love animals. I don't love animals. You don't have to love a pig to disagree that a pregnant pig..." I'll save you the gory details. It took me almost an entire year to fully read this book, and that was after owning it and staring at it on my bookshelf for about 3 years without opening it. I knew that this book would be a game changer (even though I've resisted most meat from my diet for the past 7 years already), and now that I've finally finished it--after being on the verge of crying or vomiting on every single page--I can honestly say, I don't know how, being the animal lover I am, I can morally continue to eat them. I could write an extremely long-winded anecdotal review of this book, but I'm constructing a blog post about it instead (and will post the link here once it's finished). Read it. And weep.

14) Point Your Face at This by Demetri Martin

15) The Pregnancy Project by Gaby Rodriguez

16) 911: The Book of Help by Michael Cart (editor)

I read the intro to this book when I found it at the ISLMA conference last fall. It took almost a year for me to pick it up again and actually read it. The timing intentional, it's hard not for me to reflect on the difference between 9/10/01 and 9/11/01 around this time of year. Edited by Michael Cart, this book is broken up into four sections, titled: Healing, Searching For History, Asking Why? Why? Why? and Reacting and Recovering. Renowned writers, such as Naomi Shihab Nye, Walter Dean Myers, Katherine Paterson, and Sharon Creech [among many more], all contributed a poem, short story, or essay about 9/11 and its impact. This book was therapeutic in a sense because I felt like a lot of the contributing authors and I shared a mutual understanding of what happened and how important it is to form that into words that can help us grieve, make sense of, and deal with something that seemed completely incomprehensible. Here are some stand-out sentences I underlined along the way... "Art takes the pain and chaos of our broken world and transforms it into something that brings forth life." ~Katherine Paterson "You can see it all on the news, but when you stand on the Promenade in Brooklyn Heights, when you hear the roar of the Brooklyn Queens Expressway under your feet, when you look up at the Manhattan skyline and realize that the towers are really, really gone--then you know how much they took." ~Joan Bauer "When I think about the events of September 11, I'm torn between wanting to say nothing because no words can be enough--and wanting to describe everything that is still worth living for." ~Kyoko Mori "Even as I grieve the loss of our oasis, I want to welcome the opportunity to belong to the rest of the world...suffering create [a bond] between people past and present, here and there, and all over the world." ~Kyoko Mori "USE WORDS. It is the most helpful thing I have learned in my life. We find words, we select and arrange them, to help shape our experiences of things. Whether we write them down for ourselves or send them into the air as connective lifelines between us, they help us live, and breathe, and see...if people who are angry, or frustrated, could use words instead of violence, how would our world be different?" ~Naomi Shihab Nye

17) The Woman Who Wasn't There by Robin Gaby Fisher

18) With Their Eyes by Annie Thoms (play)

In preparation for speaking to high school students during Teen Read Week about what it was like to be a teenager in NYC during 9/11, I wanted to not just talk about my own experiences but recommend books for them to read more about that point of view if interested. I read this cover to cover during a good chunk of a weekend commute to MI. It brought back a lot of memories, a few of which I hadn't thought about in a really long time. This book is actually the script for a play performed by Stuyvesant students in February, 2002, based on transcripts of interviews the student actors recorded of other students and staff after the entire school population was temporarily displaced as the school was transformed into a triage unit. Some people don't like the fact that these transcripts include all the "uhs" "likes" and "umms," but I think for what it exists to document, it's a perfect way to do so. I liked the "staging notes" at the end. Really helped me visualize the production in all it's power with simplicity. I've never had a desire to direct a play until I read this.

19) Is Everyone Hanging out Without Me? by Mindy Kaling (audio)

It was refreshing to listen to an audiobook that made me chuckle as I drove on my long commute, walked the streets of Chicago, and cleaned my kitchen. Mindy is super easy to relate to, and I enjoyed listening to her narrate her own text. Her love of comedy as a pre-teen/young adult was so in tune with how I was at that age (memorizing and acting out SNL skits, idolizing comedians, going on about the brilliance of Conan O'Brien etc.) that I found myself wondering how I never made it onto The Office as Kelly Kapoor's BFF. She described her "Amy Poehler moment" much like I describe mine. Kelly got invited out to drinks with the cast. Amy and I shared Paris Hilton-is-the-worst-host-ever musings in a quick elevator ride at 30 Rock. Same thing, right? I also enjoyed her list of 11 Favorite Moments In Comedy, most of which would also be on my own. Her observational insights about men, how no one has a nailed-down definition of "hooking up," and what it's like to "still be a nanny" while desperately wanting to contribute to the world of art and comedy really made me want to say, "You totally get it, Mindy!" 20) Nubs by Major Brian Dennis 21) Tarra & Bella by Carol Buckley

Young Adult

22) Impulse by Ellen Hopkins

23) The Sky is Everywhere by Jandy Nelson

I really enjoyed the "found" poems that begin and/or end chapters in this book. Those alone could have provided an intriguing peek into Lennie and Bailey's sisterhood, but Nelson did a great job of expanding on the poems by creating a whole novel of the Walker family in imaginary Clover, CA. Having a sister myself, I felt an immediate connection to the book because I can't imagine the world without her (spoiler alert: the older sister dies suddenly in the first chapter). I also read and loved Wuthering Heights when I was the same age as Lennie, and I think Catherine and Heathcliff have always camped out in the back of my brain. I enjoyed the quirky characters and memorable dialogue, and a line from page 152--"Each time a person dies, a library burns."--inspired a personal writing project as soon as I read it, while riding the blue line el train.

24) re-read The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster

I just re-read this as an adult after I saw that a YA book club I randomly heard about was going to be discussing it. Still awesome. It's not the kind of book where you can't put it down because it's so engaging, but it's a quick read, full of adventure and great lessons ("...he'd certainly never realized how much he could do in so short a time."), awesome wordplay ("I'm the Whether Man...it's more important to know whether there will be weather than what the weather will be.") and illustrations (by Jules Feiffer). It was memorable enough that I remember reading and loving it when I was in fifth grade. As someone pointed out last night at the book club, this text is way more complex than a lot of the YA material being written today.

25) The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky

26) Looking For Alaska by John Green (audio)
27) Love, Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli (audio)
28) Paper Towns by John Green

29) The Future of Us by Jay Asher

Remember a world with disposable cameras, YM quizzes, Looney Tunes, papasan chairs, beepers, Boys II Men, Discman, and screensavers made of pipes and brick mazes? Most importantly, remember those life-altering AOL discs with 100 hours of FREE INTERNET (just read my diary--I got grounded every other day for using up all the hours)?? Welcome to 1996! Emma and Josh, next door neighbors and best friends, get their first AOL disc in the mail and it turns their life upside-down because not only is it their first glimpse into the World Wide Web, but something called Facebook pops up and suddenly they're seeing profiles about themselves 15 years in the future.
"At some point in the future, *we* created it. I don't know exactly what it is, but it looks like interconnected websites where people show their photos and wrote about everything going on in their lives, like whether they found a parking spot or what they ate for breakfast."
"Why does it say she has three hundred and twenty friends? Who has that many friends?"
"Why would anyone say this stuff about themselves on the Internet? It's crazy!".
The chapters switch off between Emma and Josh's perspectives, and both of them try to alter their present lives to affect their futures based off what they see on their profiles. Drama ensues.

The book is full of funny quotes about our current tehnologically-drowning world as well:
"What's a blog?"
"What's an iPad?"
"What the hell happened to Pluto?"
after Emma sees her future Facebook status as, "Netflix + Glee = my life" she narrates, "I have no idea what I'm talking about, but if Netflix plus Glee equals my life, I'm hoping those are good things."

And of course, I had to chuckle at Emma's interaction with the librarian after asking if the library had any phone books available. "It's amazing, isn't it? The resources we have available today. You can plan your whole future right here."

Took a long hiatus from this book, when I was just past the middle, but for good reason...to get it autographed by the author when he spoke at my alma mater, Fremd HS, for Writers Week a few months ago (Thanks, Mr. Anderson!). Despite the hiatus, I read this book very quickly both before and after. I am a total sucker for 90s nostalgia, but I couldn't quite rate this 5 stars because I feel like no teens in this day and age (just call me Grandma) will have any connection to the AOL discs, and much less a world without Facebook.

30) Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor (audio)

31) The Diviners by Libba Bray (audio)

Imagine you're around a campfire and someone starts telling you a ghost story about a creepy demon named Naughty John. Now picture driving 100 miles each day and listening to a well-versed narrator tell you the 18-hour extended version full of life and death and memorable characters, as well as plenty of creepy moments to make your heart race at times. Libba Bray's commentary about the historical portions of her story (Fitter Families for Future Firesides, KKK, Chinese Exclusion Act, Pillar of Fire Church) in her author's note at the end provided an added chill: "Often, the monsters we create in our imagination are not nearly as frightening as the monstrous acts perpetuated by ordinary human beings in the aim of one cause or another."

32) Marcelo in the Real World by Francisco X. Stork (audio)

33) See You at Harry's by Jo Knowles

34) Everybody Sees the Ants by A.S. King (audio)

35) Every Day by David Levithan

"Normal people don't have to decide what's worth remembering. You are given a hierarchy, recurring characters, the help of repetition, of anticipation, the firm hold of a long history. But I have to decide the importance of each and every memory...the only way I am going to see them again is if I conjure them in my mind...People take love's continuity for granted, just as they take their body's continuity for granted. They don't realize that the best thing about love is its regular presence." ~A, Day 5997 A is an ungendered person who embodies a new person's body every morning and detaches from them every midnight while asleep, only to wake up as yet another new person. A doesn't know any different, nor does it affect his/her life much until he meets Rhiannon while embodying her boyfriend Justin one day. This changes everything, and the book revolves around A's desire to keep Rhiannon in his/her life. As the reader, we get a glimpse of 40 of these days. I think I built up the concept of this book too much in my head. I liked it, but for a reason I can't quite put my finger on, not wholeheartedly enough for it to be a favorite. What I did love about it, though, was the subtext behind having a main character who doesn't have a defined gender, which brings about important questions about love, whether that love be between two girls, a boy and girl, two boys, or girl who identifies as a boy and is in love with a girl. The way these relationships are written about I would think (and hope) would make people question their own constructs of what it means to really love someone for who they are as a person. And for that reason, because it's a work of fiction (which, more so than non-fiction, the news, the media, and religion, a lot of times allows readers to imagine the world around them in a more positive framework), I think everyone should read this to start imagining what it would be like to live as someone else. You might reconsider how you approach people who think and act and love differently than you. "And once again I think about how people use the devil as an alias for the things they fear...But I see no sin in a kiss. I only see sin in the condemnation." ~A combined quote from pages 142 & 223 I know this review is already full of quotes, but I also thought it was worth sharing what David Levithan wrote on the cover page when I met him at ALA 2013: "To Alyse-- Live every day in wonder."

36) Purple Heart by Patricia McCormick

37) Miss Peregrine's Home of Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs (audio)

I was drawn to this book because of the cover photo, the title font, and the title. Don't judge a book by its cover? This librarian disagrees. Sue me. I enjoyed this mystical tale of wonder, time loops, and an abundance of descriptively delightful characters and creatures, who the narrator of the audio version did a fantastic job of giving voices to. I have a physical copy of this book on hold at the library because although I really liked the audio format, I think seeing the photos included in the story will enhance it all the more.

38) Cut by Patricia McCormick (audio)

39) Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell (audio)

40) Five Flavors of Dumb by Antony John

41) Hate List by Jennifer Brown

I started reading this book, and the next day there was yet another school shooting in the news in Colorado. And I had several family members grimly inform me that the student was seeking out the librarian. And once again, like Columbine, the library was the scene of the crime. And I am currently sitting at the circulation desk of a high school library the morning after finishing this book in bed.

I wasn't sure I would enjoy this book because "Columbine" by Dave Cullen, a factual account from all different perspectives of that tragic and nauseating event, was so well-written and well-researched (and if you haven't read it yet--check it out immediately), that I didn't think I'd want to spend time reading a fictional account of a school shooting.

I was wrong. This is Jennifer Brown's debut novel and is masterly written for young adults. Valerie, the girlfriend of a boy named Nick who shoots up their school, narrates the story, which covers the day of and the aftermath when she returns to school months later. Already an outcast and nicknamed "Sister Death" before the shooting, now no one really knows how to handle her presence. Is she a hero? Was she in on it? Certain things trigger Valerie to recall happier times with Nick, the loveable boyfriend she knew, which Brown seamlessly weaves into the story, as though we're right there in Valerie's brain as she flashes between past and present.

This is a tremendous story about how we really need to "see what's really there" (as her expert psychiatrist, Dr. Hieler, advises), forgiveness, the immense toll these tragedies take on everyone involved, and what it means to mend and do our best to move forward.

42) An Abundance of Katherines by John Green

(This is the book I read a third of in April and didn’t pick back up and finish until the calendar had already turned to 2014.)

Children-Middle School Books

43) Gossamer by Lois Lowry

44) re-read Clementine by Sara Pennypacker

45) The Talented Clementine by Sara Pennypacker

Clementine easily became one of my favorite characters when I read the original book a few years ago in my Children's Lit class. The Talented Clementine is its sequel, and I loved it just as much. This time Clementine is worried that she has no talents and therefore can't possibly take part in her school's "Talent-Palooza." She tries to keep up with her orderly, perfect-dressing, talent-ful friend Margaret, and also continues to be overprotective of her younger brother, who she still refers to as various vegetables (since she's named after a fruit). In the end, she becomes one of the most instrumental parts of the show and learns a great lesson that she is "one of a kind!" With lines like, "She [the school nurse] always looks bored, as if she's just killing time until a really good disease hits the school," and "The Ritz is the fanciest restaurant in Boston. It is very expensive, probably because it costs a lot to make all those crackers," you'll surely love this quirky, sassy 8-year-old as well.

46) Clementine’s Letter by Sara Pennypacker

47) Counting By 7s by Holly Goldberg Sloan

"It's sort of tragic that we can't remember the earliest of the early years. I feel as if these memories could be the key to the whole 'Who am I?' question." (page 15) This is another ARC I received for free at ALA (and got signed by the author!) after hearing high praise--"The 'Wonder' of 2013"--at the Harold Washington Book Buzz event a day prior. It's hard not to love Willow and the way she interacts with all living people and creatures, be it a Vietnamese family, her guidance counselor, a taxi driver, hummingbirds, and every array of plant life that can feasibly grow in Bakersfield, California. This book, narrated by all of the aforementioned characters, covers tragedy, grief, cultural differences, science, and family (albeit unconventional). Definitely teared up at the end. As all the reviews I'm sure are already stating, I think this will be a great read for middle school-aged students, especially those dealing with the feeling of being lost in the shuffle. And, really, haven't we all felt that way one time or another? Willow and her growing fan club will help you feel otherwise. Guaranteed. As a P.S.- Had a neat occurrence on p 152 when Willow makes reference to "the classic book where two kids run away from home and go to hide in a museum in New York City," as I had just finished re-reading "The Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler" for the first time as an adult right before starting this book. I feel like Willow would have appreciated that. Also on that same page she tells us that "books = comfort." I wholeheartedly agree.

48) When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead (audio)

49) re-read From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E.L. Konigsburg

 Poetry

50) October Mourning by Leslea Newman

I've had this book on my "to-read" list since I heard Michael Cart talk about it at the ISLMA conference last October. When I saw Mr. Anderson rated it 5 stars a few days ago, it shot to the top of my to-read list. I checked out a copy from the library this morning and finished reading it in less than an hour. Everyone should read this book of poetry, which, as a collection, is called a "song for Matthew Shepard," the 21-year-old college student who was kidnapped, beaten, and left for dead tied to a fence in rural Montana in October, 1998 all because he was gay. These poems, which are each written from a different point of view (including the moon, the fence, the killers, the cops, etc.), are incredibly moving, nauseating, and powerful. Newman uses a variety of poetic forms and includes an explanation of those forms in the back of the book, in addition to a list of relevant resources. I have a lot more to say about how meaningful these poems are, but I'm going to save those thoughts for a blog post, so for now I will leave you with a paragraph taken from the author's Afterword: "I have tried my hardest to imagine the last hours of Matthew Shepard's life before he lost consciousness. It is impossible to fathom the raw fear he surely felt as he begged for his life. As a poet, I know it's part of my job to use my imagination. It's part of my job as a human being, too. Because only if each of us imagines that what happened to Matthew Shepard could happen to any one of us will we be motivated to do something. And something must be done." Longer review on blog: http://alyseliebovich.blogspot.com/2013/08/october-mourning-song-for-matthew.html

51) The Lightning Dreamer by Margarita Engle

52) Cinnamon Girl by Juan Felipe Herrera

53) Sold by Patricia McCormick

Graphic Novels

54) Drama by Raina Telgemeier 

55) Mom's Cancer by Brian Fies

A story of hope. Made me feel so grateful that, although my mom had lung cancer, she never had to go through radiation (or chemo). Loved the illustrations and that this book was picked up by medical professionals to better understand how patients and their loved ones feel during the entire cancer "process." Fies's mom wrote the afterword, which really added to the real-ness of what everyone went through, especially since she was the patient (and survivor). I loved her last paragraph: "Cherish rest, laughter, friends and prayers. Trust in yourself and make a peace treaty with your High Power. Have a Hero to never let go of and help you through terrifying nights. Take frequent baths to get ride of the scent of toxins. Watch a lot of comedies. Keep your mind and hands busy. Then just breathe for as long as you can, knowing others are helping to hold you up."

56) Electric Girl, Volume 1 by Michael Brennan

57) Mother Come Home by Paul Hornschemeier

58) A Game for Swallows by Zeina Abirached

59) Wilson by Daniel Clowes  

60) Primates by Jim Ottaviani

61) 9/11, Vol. 1: Artists Respond

62) Building Stories by Chris Ware

Disclaimer: Think twice about reading if you have a general tendency to get depressed by the redundancy of everyday life, especially by anything listed below.

This box contains:
Relationship disintegration
Marriage regret
Giving up on your own dreams
Pet loss due to forgetfulness due to having a human child replacement
Bees
Spending most of your 20s making sure someone else's life is running smoothly instead of your own

I bought this as a gift to both myself and my boyfriend for Valentine's Day earlier this year. I thought it would be a unique activity to explore this box full of stories, in 14 different pieces (newspaper, pamphlet, game board, etc), together, like a "Choose Your Own Adventure" for grown-ups. The box has been sitting upright on top of our low-rider bookshelves all year, like a piece of 3D art.
I finally took it down and ended up binge-reading all of the pieces by myself over the past two days because I wanted to finish it before the end of the year. And now that I'm finished and truthfully kind of depressed from the material (a few of the scenarios hit a little too close to home), I'm glad we didn't indulge in this together. In fact, I'd venture to say it was probably the worst Valentine's Day gift I've ever given.

But. I am not rating it on its potential as a V-day gift, and with that aside, I loved the concept and design, and despite how depressed I felt while doing so, I did enjoy piecing this woman's life together. I chose where to start and where to continue at random. Interesting that you can either read it chronologically (is that possible? I'm not sure.) or you end up having the added heaviness of foresight and hindsight as you plow your way through.

For a way better and more comprehensive review, including thoughts on the significance of the words "building" and "stories," please read Gary Anderson's review on his follow-worthy blog, "What's Not Wrong?": http://whatsnotwrong.wordpress.com/2012/12/30/review-building-stories-by-chris-ware/

 63) Abelard by Renaud Dillies

Picture Books

64) This is Not My Hat by John Klassen

65) Splat the Cat by Rob Scotton

66) No T Rex in the Library by Tony Buzzeo

67) I Want My Hat Back by Jon Klassen

68) Extra Yarn by Mac Barnett

69) Sleep Like a Tiger by Mary Logue

70) I, Too, Am America by Langston Hughes

71) September Roses by Jeanette Winter

72) Under the Big Sky by Trevor Romain

73) The Right Number of Elephants by Jeff Sheppard

74) The Library Dragon by Carmen Agra Deedy

75) Elmer by David McKee

76) 17 Things I'm Not Allowed to Do Anymore by Jenny Offill & Nancy Carpenter

77) Tuesday by David Wiesner

78) Thank You, World by Alice B. McGinty

79) Pingo by Brandon Mull

80) re-read Imogen's Antlers by David Small

81) Moosetache by Margie Palatini

82) Tomas and the Library Lady by Pat Mora

83) Miss Spider's Tea Party by David Kirk

84) Dinosaur Bob and His Adventures with the Family Lazardo by William Joyce

85) Jimi Sounds Like a Rainbow by Gary Golio

86) Bugs! by David T. Greenberg

87) Big Anthony by Tomie dePaola

88) Pickles to Pittsburgh by Judi Barrett

89) Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs by Judi Barrett

90) Tiger Who Wore White Gloves by Gwendolyn Brooks

91) The Princess and the Pizza by Mary Jane and Herm Auch

92) Bark, George by Jules Feiffer

93) The Librarian of Basra by Jeanette Winter

94) Verdi by Janell Cannon

95) If You Want to See a Whale by Julie Fogliano

96) A Long Way Away by Frank Viva

97) The Day the Crayons Quit by Drew Daywalt

98) Big Appetites by Christopher Boffoli

99) Goodnight iPad by Ann Droyd (get it?)

100) Abe Lincoln's Dream by Lane Smith

101) Goodnight Keith Moon by Bruce Worden

102) Creepy Carrots by Aaron Reynolds

103) Grandpa Green by Lane Smith

104) Blackout by John Rocco

105) Me...Jane by Patrick McDonnell

106) Aziz the Storyteller by VI Hughes

107) Matzo Ball Moon by Lesléa Newman

What books did you love in 2013? What books should we steer clear of reading? Any reading goals for the new year?