This year was a good one for reading and listening to books. Thanks to Good Reads, keeping track of what I read was easy to do. After a look through my book list, I came up with this top ten list. All were books read for the first time in 2013, though many were published in previous years. That said, here’s my list.

10. Elsewhere by Richard Russo. Russo is a favorite novelist, and this memoir gives a peek into why he writes what he writes and how he thinks up the most loveable loser characters in modern literature.

9.  Every Good Endeavor: Connecting Your Work to God’s Work by Timothy Keller. An adult Sunday school at our church studied this book last January. Thoughtfully and intelligently written, it shifted my perspective about what work is and why God created work.

8.  A Curious Man: The Strange and Brilliant Life of Robert “Believe It or Not!” Ripley by Neal Thompson. My inner biography junkie loved this book. Reading it teaches so much about this very unusual man, the Believe It or Not! brand, and the times during which lived.

7.  Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel by Garcia Marquez. Cindy, a book buddy, recommended this book by a Nobel Prize winner. The writing breaks all the modern writing rules about fast-moving plots, dialogue, and showing rather than telling. Still, Marquez created characters impossible to forget. When that happens, it’s a good book.

6.  The Language of Flowers by Vanessa Diffenbaugh. This first novel has a somewhat predictable plot. But Diffenbaugh skillfully weaves the language of flowers and a peek into the world of foster care with great care and beauty.

5.   The Fish That Ate the Whale: The Life and Times of America’s Banana King by Rich Cohen. Who knew a biography about the man who made United Fruit the top banana selling company in the United States could be so interesting? And this book reveals the origin of the phrase “Banana Republic.” So worth reading.

4.  The Kitchen House by Kathleen Grisson. In her historical novel set in the South before the Civil War, Grisson sheds light on the evils of slavery and shows how many wives of plantation owners lived in a prison created by the society.

3.  The Hunger Games Trilogy by Suzanne Collins. I just finished listening to the trilogy and get what the hype is about. An interesting premise, an exciting story line, and a strong female protagonist who wrestles to determine what’s good and evil make it a page turner with a satisfying, bittersweet conclusion.

2.  W Is for Wasted by Sue Grafton. Grafton manages to plunk her spunky, quirky heroine, Kinsey Millhone, into the world of homelessness without sounding preachy. She also advances the overarching character development of Millhone that began way back in A Is for Alibi.

1.  Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln by Doris Kearns Goodwin. The movie Lincoln inspired me to listen to Goodwin’s biography of Abraham Lincoln and his political rivals. It was fascinating. It joins a very short list of books worth reading or listening to more than once.

What were your favorite reads in 2013? Please share them in the comment box.

Photo Credit: www.freedigitalphotos.net