Beth Fish Reads: Best Adult Books from 2013

27 December 2013

Best Adult Books from 2013

It's time for my best-of 2013 lists! I will post four this year. Yesterday was all about audiobooks, today is adult books, tomorrow is food and cookbooks, and Monday is middle grade and young adult. Enjoy!

A note on my selections: Although I liked and was moved by many books this year, these are the ones that have stuck with me, that I still talk about, that I ~~pushed on~~ highly recommended to my friends and family, and that I gave as presents. Books are presented alphabetically by title; links lead to my reviews or thoughts.

Kent Haruf's Benediction (Random House / Knopf), fiction, western
Larry Watson's Let Him Go (Milkweed Editions), fiction, western Top read of the year
Jo Baker's Longbourn (Random House / Knopf), historical fiction, Pride & Prejudice
Philip Caputo's The Longest Road (Macmillan / Henry Holt), nonfiction, travel, social commentary

Beth Hoffman's Looking for Me (Viking / Pamela Dorman), fiction, southern
Sharon Short's My One Square Inch of Alaska (Penguin / Plume), fiction
Paul Lynch's Red Sky in Morning (Hachette Book Group / Little, Brown), historical fiction
Jess Walter's We Live in Water (HarperCollins / Harper Perennial), short stories

22 comments:

Harvee, 12/27/13, 6:46 AM: Haven't read any of these. Good to find out about books you may want to look at in 2014!
Book Dilettante, Book Beginnings
(Diane) bookchickdi, 12/27/13, 7:30 AM: The Longest Road intrigues me. I have to say that I did not like We Live In Water as much as Beautiful Ruins, which is the one book I will recommend to everyone.
rhapsodyinbooks, 12/27/13, 8:29 AM: I only read one of those! :--)
Gayle Weiswasser, 12/27/13, 8:52 AM: Lots I haven't heard of on here! Will check them out. And I loved Longbourn too.
bermudaonion, 12/27/13, 9:24 AM: I've only read Looking For Me and it made my best of list as well!
JaneGS, 12/27/13, 10:06 AM: I'm halfway through Longbourn and loving it. Excellent vision of life below stairs, and the merging with P&P is seamless. I love the perspective the servants have of their masters.
Beth Hoffman, 12/27/13, 10:10 AM: Oh wow ... I'm incredibly honored to see my novel on your Best Adult Books list! Thank you so much, Candace!
Unknown, 12/27/13, 10:25 AM: I've only read Looking for Me, so there are some other books that I may need to pick up.
Anonymous, 12/27/13, 1:09 PM: I am so excited to read the Jess Walter book. Question - were any of these audio? Just curious... Happy New Year!
Kailana, 12/27/13, 1:27 PM: Yesh, I haven't read any of these! I am so behind. haha
Barbara, 12/27/13, 3:04 PM: I'm putting The Longest Road on my list to read.
Laura at Library of Clean Reads, 12/27/13, 6:07 PM: I haven't read any of these but Longbourne and Looking for Me are both on my list.
Amy, 12/27/13, 6:17 PM: I've read one of these! I really feel like my reading volume was so low this year!
Marg, 12/28/13, 6:14 AM: I haven't read any of these either!
Sandy Nawrot, 12/28/13, 7:25 AM: I listened to Benediction and Looking For Me on audio, and they were both incredible. I'm definitely going to have to get my hands on Jess Walter's short stories!
Heidi’sbooks, 12/28/13, 10:51 AM: I'm putting Longbourn on my TBR list. I love these end of the year lists!
Laurie C, 12/28/13, 1:24 PM: This is such a great, varied list. I want to read all of them!
Athira, 12/29/13, 12:59 PM: Great list! I've been thinking of reading LET HIM GO - it sounds pretty intriguing!
Anonymous, 12/30/13, 9:02 AM: I put Longbourn on my list when you reviewed it, and then was reminded of it from the latest Bookmarks magazine. I will read it in 2014.

Looking for Me made it onto my favorites list, too.
Serena, 12/30/13, 11:08 AM: I loved Beth Hoffman's book, but never got to Longbourn, since I couldn't renew it from the library and had to return it.
Ann Weisgarber, 1/3/14, 10:15 AM: I loved My One Square Inch of Alaska by Sharon Short. So glad to see it on the list.
Literary Feline, 1/6/14, 4:12 PM: I haven't read any of the books on your list, but at least three are on my must read list--hopefully sooner than later. They all sound good though!