The 2013 Reading list

 It's January 27, and I hadn't yet published my annual "What I read in 2013" list!

Looking through the list, I saw that I read several series this year.  Some I liked, some I didn't.  Some I finished, some I didn't.  A couple I gave up on and read the synopsis on Wikipedia.  Why waste my time reading a series if it just didn't keep my interest?  I discovered Susanna Kearsley this year.  I really enjoyed reading her books set in Cornwall, or in the wilds of England.  There's a touch of the supernatural in all her books, but they aren't creepy or scary.  Just a little mysticism.  Very well done.  I'm looking forward to more books by her.  I don't know why I'd never read Ken Follett's books.  With my love of history and BIG books, I should have found them years ago. I know he's fairly prolific, and I know he has a couple newer titles, but I really enjoyed Pillars of the Earth  and World without End.  I decided to read them after watching the mini-series of World without End.  I enjoyed the mini-series, but as usual, the book was MUCH better!

TV also led me to Call the Midwife and two sequels.  I'd watched the PBS series and had to read the books.  The PBS series follows the books very well.  A couple of Non-fiction stand outs were The Omnivores Dilemma and Salt, Sugar and Fat: How the food giants hooked us.  Both made me angry about how big business controls our diets and how our food is produced.  Both reinforced my decision to heavily limit processed foods and to produce as much of our food as we can.  It all boils down to money folks.

The last book of the year, A Woman in Berlin by Anonymous will stick with me for a while.  I've read WWII memoirs, but this one really stands out. It's actually a diary written by a woman who was a German journalist who wrote of the events during April-June 1945, the end of the War and the invasion of Berlin by the Russian soldiers.  It's the first memoir I've read where the author admits to being raped.  Most say "my neighbor, my friend, a girl in the neighborhood, I know some were" raped, but the authors always assert "it didn't happen to me."  But, it's about more than Rape.  It's about surviving in a world where there isn't enough to eat, there isn't any electricity of utilities and you are on the losing end of the stick.  It's about how soldiers treat the native population.  It was very thought provoking.  Yes, it will stick with me a long time.

Finally, at the end of the year, after reading A Woman..., I needed a little escapism.  So, using one of my ereader accounts from the Library, I decided to re-read the entire "In Death" series by JD Robb.  There's 30-some titles in the series, and I'm enjoying reading and reliving the continuing story of Eve and Roarke.  Since they are all ebooks, I'm reading most at the gym while I'm on the elliptical.  It makes the time go fast and is a nice distraction.  It's fun!

So, without further ado, here is the complete list (remember, the "e" signifies those I've read as ebooks):

	Hot Ice	Nora Roberts
	Don’t Know much about the American Presidents	Kenneth C. Davis
	Midnight Awakening	Lara Adrian
e	The Wedding Shroud	Elisabeth Storrs
e	The Winter Sea	Susanna Kearsley
	Notorious Nineteen	Janet Evanovich
e	Bountiful Creek	Steven B. Weissman
	Midnight Rising	Lara Adrian
	Veil of Midnight	Lara Adrian
	Ashes of Midnight	Lara Adrian
	Shades of Midnight	Lara Adrian
	Taken by Midnight	Lara Adrian
	Deeper than Midnight	Lara Adrian
	Darker after Midnight	Lara Adrian
	A taste of Midnight	Lara Adrian
e	The Rose Garden	Susanna Kearsley
e	Edge of Dawn	Lara Adrian
	Calculated in Death	J D Robb
	Pillars of the Earth	Ken Follett
e	World without End	Ken Follett
	Beyond the Sling	Mayim Bialik
	Those who save us	Jenna Blum
	The Goddess Inheritance	Aimee Carter
e	Night Drake	Lara Adrian
e	The Apothecary's Daughter	Julie Klassen
e	Elisie	Barbara Waite
	Allegiance Sworn	Kylie Griffin
	Origin	Jessica Khoury
	Dark Triumph	Robin LaFevers
e	Blackout	Connie Willis
e	All Clear	Connie Willis
e	Call the Midwife	Jennifer Worth
	Whiskey Beach	Nora Roberts
e	Call the Midwife: Farewell to the East End	Jennifer Worth
e	Call the Midwife: Shadows of the Workhouse	Jennifer Worth
	The Ashford Affair	Lauren Willig
e	Dead Ever After	Charlaine Harris
e	Somewhere in Time	Barbara Bretton
	Silent Truth	Sherrilyn Kenyon and Dianna Love
	The Business of Baby
e	Mariana	Susanna Kearsley
e	The Firebird	Susanna Kearsley
e	The Boleyn King	Laura Andersen
e	The Seamstress: A memoir of Survival	Sara Tuvel Bernstein
e	The Shadowy Horses	Susanna Kearsley
e	The Garden Cottage Diaries	Fiona J Houston
e	The Midnight Breed Series Companion	Lara Adrian
e	The Preacher's Bride	Jody Hedlund
e	The Remnant: Jewish resistance in WWII	Othniel Selden
e	The Long Lonely Road	TJ Reeder
	The House Girl	Tara Conklin
	The Dust Bowl: an Illustrated history	Dayton Duncan & Ken Burns
	Omnivore's Dilemma	Michael Pollan
	Shirley Jones: A memoir	Shirley Jones
	Sarah's Key	Tatiana De Rosnay
	The False Prince	jennifer Nielsen
	Twice Tempted	Jeaniene Frost
	Orphan train	Christina Baker Kline
	Rise	Andrea Cremer
	Thankless in Death	JD Robb
e	White Lions Lady	Lara Adrian
e	Black Lions Bride	Lara Adrian
	Lady of Valor	Lara Adrian
e	Through a Dark Mist	Mars Canham
e	For I have sinned	Darynda Jones
	Time Traveler's guide to Elizabethan England	Ian Mortimer
	Bone Season	Samantha Shannon
e	House of Hades	Rick Riordan
	Notorious Royal Marriages	Leslie Carroll
	Mirror Mirror	J D Robb, et al.
	The Assassination of the Archduke	Greg King & Sue Woolmans
	Queens Consort	Lisa Hilton
e	After Dead	Charlaine Harris
e	Boleyn Deceit	Laura Andersen
	Emerald Green	Kerstin Gier
	Dark Witch	Nora Roberts
	Dragonwriter: a tribute to Anne McCaffrey & Pern	Todd McCaffrey
	The Thirteenth Tale	Diane Setterfield
	The Given Sacrifice	SM Stirling
	Teardrop	Lauren Kate
	Salt Sugar Fat: How the food giants hooked us	Michael Moss
	Takedown Twenty	Janet Evanovich
	A Woman in Berlin: 8 weeks in the conquered City	Anonymous
	The Royal Ranger	John Flanagan
	Naked in Death
	Glory in Death
	Immortal in Death
	Rapture in Death
	Ceremony in Death
	Vengeance in Death
	Holiday in Death
	Conspiracy in Death