What I Read in 2013

It's no secret that I love to read, and I thought this link-up with Haley over at Carrots for Michaelmas served as the perfect year in review for all of my bookish finds; especially because she has just as many books on her "started but not yet finished" list as I do! Guess I'm not the only one...

I also can't wait to snag a few titles from her list and the rest of the bookworms taking part in the link-up so I can get my read on in 2014!

I ultimately had to consult three different places to "find" all of my books--my Kindle, my Goodreads, and the various 'shelves' around the house where I tend to leave my non-digital books. (And I had to wrack my brain for the few I borrowed from the library, too, if that counts as a place). But I think I got them all. So here they are, grouped into loose categories, with the understanding that many fall into multiple categories (anything more is beyond my organization level!):

Don't be fooled - this Kindle is the king of enablers.

Finished Reading

Faith:

• Story of a Soul: The Autobiography of St. Thérèse - Thérèse de Lisieux
• The Miracle of the Illumination of All Consciences - Thomas W. Petrisko

Autobiographies/Memoirs:

• The Story of My Life - Helen Keller
• That Bear Ate My Pants! - Tony James Slater    Pretty sure I got this because it was a Kindle free or discounted edition. It's about a British ex-pat's adventures volunteering at a wildlife refuge in Central America. I laughed--hard--at parts in the beginning, but can't give it a great review because overall it was just totally off-color, which eventually degenerated into an account of his total lack of moral compass (like pursuing married women) and ended without any real point.
• Carry On, Warrior: Thoughts On Life Unarmed - Glennon Doyle Melton Though I'll never agree with everything written, there were plenty of hilarious and relatable portions to keep me highly entertained.

Fiction/Classics:

• The Secret Life of Bees - Sue Monk Kidd
• Treasure Island - Robert Louis Stevenson
• The Tale of Despereaux - Kate DiCamillo    So I picked this up from the library one day when I took the kids to story time, thinking they were old enough for us to start some chapter books together. The 'Staff Favorite' bookmark caught  my eye, and flipping through it quickly I made the egregious error of thinking it was along the same lines as Ratatouille. But aside from soup, mice and rats, and being set in France, there are no other similarities, and the whole story is rather dark. Should have looked for the youth edition, because this was definitely not the G-rated story I thought I was picking up for my 4 and 5-year old; I would place it more at a 10 or 11-year-old level (not reading level, but more maturity level because of the rather disturbing chain of events that carry the plot). I finished reading it for my own edification but stopped with the kids after about ten chapters, even though they wanted to keep reading--and what we did read I edited heavily to avoid the frightened reactions that surely would have followed! But the experiment of reading aloud went well, so we'll definitely be cracking open some more age-appropriate read-aloud books together in 2014!
• Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen (re-read...because let's face it, I've never made it more than 12 months without re-reading my true all-time favorite...)
• Persuasion - Jane Austen
• Northanger Abbey - Jane Austen
• Eight Cousins - Louisa May Alcott

Favorites: 
My top three (which conveniently come from each of the three categories) were undoubtedly Story of a Soul, The Story of My Life, and The Secret Life of Bees.

Story of a Soul made St. Thérèse both accessible as a saint and relatable as a normal, emotional, headstrong woman with loads of simple wisdom to share with the world. It's slowly but drastically changing my way of thinking for the better!

The Story of My Life was fascinating, and opened  my eyes to so much beyond that famous moment at the water pump; in my (embarrassingly) limited knowledge of Helen Keller's life, I didn't know that she had learned multiple languages, survived a scandal of suspected plagiarism, achieved a college education, and traveled extensively. But more than that I enjoyed the memories she shared, her descriptive yet intellectual writing style, and personal reflections on the senseless vs. the important matters of life.

And The Secret Life of Bees was just one of those wholesome, page-turning novels with a real plot and no fluff, chock full of hidden wisdom and life lessons; it mixed the harsh realities of the real world with the intrigue of another, and carried me way too quickly from page to page when I really should've been sleeping.

Currently Reading

Faith:

• Small Steps for Catholic Moms - Danielle Bean and Elizabeth Foss   I love this daily devotional so much...it is both encouraging and fosters an attitude toward life and actions that are good for the soul. Unfortunately I've been slacking since November, but I'm hoping to make it part of my daily routine again in the new year.
• 10 Prayers God Always Says Yes To - Anthony DeStefano    This book was revered as life-changing by a mother who lost her daughter in the Virginia Tech shootings. Though I personally wouldn't put it quite at that level, I have gotten a whole lot out of it, and am constantly marking and re-reading tidbits for use and encouragement in daily life.

A book about France & faith in
my Parisian reading sitting
corner.
How unpredictable of me!

Autobiographies/Memoirs:

• Paris to the Pyrenees: A Skeptic Pilgrim Walks the Way of Saint James - David Downie  A slow but steady read for me-satisfying my ever-present craving for all things France
• Love Does: Discover a Secretly Incredible Life in an Ordinary World - Bob Goff    Heard great reviews on this; I got through the first three chapters easily but it's not really pulling me in. Will revisit soon to see if it gets any better...

Fiction/Classics:

• The Shack - William P. Young   Also having a hard time sticking with this one. Reviews are pretty polarizing, haven't decided yet whether or not I'll give it another try...
• Paradise Lost - John Milton

Self-Improvement/Writing Reference:

• Living Without Fear - Ernest Holmes   This book was recommended this past summer during an appointment for our eldest with the head of the Anxiety Disorders Department at our local children's hospital. Halfway through the appointment, she said "let me switch gears...is there any family history of anxiety?" To which I replied, "no...not really..." Then thinking out loud, I said, "well I guess there is some travel anxiety, and I'm a bit of a germaphobe.." She sat up straighter and her pencil started scratching away as she asked me about how much of my day was affected. "Oh mayyybe half..." I said nonchalantly. Turns out that was the wrong answer, and there's a better way to deal with things than constantly calculating how soon it will be before the stomach bug hits my family if someone five states away posts about it on Facebook. Also, the correlation she made to my anxieties adversely affecting my own children's progress woke me up. So I took her recommendation for this book along with a few other workbooks to help me get started on my self-imposed therapy sessions--which will be my #1 New Year's Resolution for 2014.  
• I Thought It Was Just Me (but it isn't): Making the Journey from "What Will People Think?" to "I Am Enough" - Brené Brown
• Writer Mama - How to Raise a Writing Career Alongside Your Kids - Christina Katz
• The Grammar Devotional - Mignon Fogarty

In the queue for 2014:

Faith: 

• Witness to Hope: The Biography of John Paul II - George Weigel
• Pope Awesome and Other Stories: How I Found God, Had Kids, and Lived to Tell the Tale -  Kari Donaldson
• 33 Days to Morning Glory - Michael E. Gaitley

Self Improvement: 

• Daring Greatly - Brené Brown
• Science of the Mind - Ernest Holmes
• The Anxiety and Phobia Workbook - Edmund J. Borne

Fiction/Memoirs/Adventure:

• Left to Tell: Discovering God Amidst the Rwandan Holocaust - Immaculée Ilibagiza
• The Invention of Wings - Sue Monk Kidd  Same author as Secret Life of Bees; it comes out January 7th!
• Papillon - Henri Charrière

Pleasure/For the Kids: 

• Boxcar Childern Series - Gertrude Chandler Warner
• Little House on the Prairie Series- Laura Ingalls Wilder
• Harry Potter Series - J.K. Rowling   No, you may not shoot me after I announce that I have never read/seen any part of the Harry Potter Series. It never grabbed my attention when they first came out, but I figure since my kids are getting older I should be well-versed in the literature they'll soon be begging to read. 

And no doubt I will be expanding my to-read list by entirely too many as I peruse the other bloggers' lists...

Cheers to a well-read 2013, and happy reading to all in 2014!

Updates:

What I read in 2016