Best Books I Read in 2013

With the New Year just around the corner, it is time to jump on the list making bandwagon. Everywhere you look there are best of 2013 lists for every quantifiable thing imaginable. This year at Musings for a Leather Chair I have put together my own list, of the Best Books I Read in 2013. I must say, this year was an interesting one in terms of my book intake. According to Goodreads, a nifty website where you can track the books you’ve read and find suggestions for similar picks, I read 43 books this year. I had joined in the reading challenge hoping to finish 50 and I’m not entirely sure that I haven’t hit that, since all the reading for grad school has to add up to at least a few books.

Regardless, what stood out to me while looking over my Goodreads list and trying to choose books for my best of list was that 2013 was the year of re-reading. Nearly every single book I read this year I had already read, be it years ago or even just months before. I know some people hate the idea of re-reading a book. They have been there and done that and feel no need to revisit a plot they already know. For me, re-reading is like tucking into your favorite comfort food, or hanging out with friends you have had all your life. To open pages you have turned before and follow along on adventures with characters that you feel utterly connected to is a special thing. It is a comforting thing. You know your favorite books will never let you down, and so at least in my case, I go back to them time and time again.  I made a lot of changes in 2013, from finally landing my professional coaching job and moving out of my parent’s house to starting to train for athletics again and attending a new grad school campus. With all these changes whisking me one way or another, I read books that could keep me in one place for a while.

With that being said, I now present to you (in no particular order) Musings from a Leather Chair’s Best Books I Read in 2013:

1. The Kingkiller Chronicles by Patrick Rothfuss –A fantasy series that I am positive will be my absolute favorite by the time it is over, eclipsing the likes of A Song of Ice and Fire and The Lord of the Rings. Rothfuss has two books in the series so far, The Name of the Wind and The Wise Man’s Fear.
2. The Fault in Our Stars by John Green – A darkly funny love story about kids with cancer. I have yet to find a John Green novel I don’t like, but this one made me cry and laugh within a hundred pages of each other and so wins a spot on this list.
3. A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. LeGuin – Thank God my boyfriend made me re-read this book. It was so much better than in fifth grade. LeGuin creates a fully realized fantasy world that tries to answer the bigger questions of human existence.
4. The Beka Cooper (Provost’s Dog) Trilogy by Tamora Pierce – Tammy has once again given the reader a heroine to be proud of. Beka is shy, funny, incredibly loyal, smart and perhaps one of my favorites among Pierce’s extensive body of work. The police work provides mystery and a new setting in a world I was used to seeing from the point of view of a knight or mage.
5. Ender’s Game and Ender’s Shadow by Orson Scott Card – Despite Card having political views that I adamantly disagree with, he knows how to write spectacular science fiction. The characters are deep and the story sneakily philosophical between the fun space battles.
6. The Hunger Games Trilogy by Suzanne Collins – I will re-read these books forever. I love Katniss and the complexities of her character and I love that Collins resisted the urge to make these books merely teenage romance and instead strove for something deeper, darker and in the end way more engaging to read. Plus I love the movies and think Jennifer Lawrence is a goddess.
7. City of Bohane by Kevin Barry – A wonderfully original work by an up and coming Irish author. Bohane is a new take on the violence and dark humor that has consumed many Irish texts for the last decade. There are ridiculous characters that you root for and a poetic spirit to the novel that was unexpected. If you like the movie Snatch then this is a must read.
8. The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman – I cannot believe I hadn’t read any Gaiman up until this point. A beautiful story told simply, as the best ones are. This is the kind of book I can image reading to my kids years from now and still enjoying it.
9. The Will of the Empress by Tamora Pierce – I know, Pierce has already shown up on here, but this is by far my favorite book out of all of her works. Characters who I met when we were both ten years old have now grown up and I love them all the more for it. There is plenty of magic and sass and women doing badass things in various ways and I know I will come back to this book over and over again as the years go by.
10. The Boys in the Boat by Daniel James Brown – Of course a rowing book would make it on here, and what a rowing book it is. A historical work of non-fiction telling the story of the 1936 Olympics in Berlin and the US rowers who went over and won a gold medal right under Hitler’s nose. The book gives us the rowers’ stories and a remarkably human look at surviving in the Great Depression. Regardless of whether or not you row, this is a book worth reading. 

The Belgariad & The Mallorean

 

First of all, a hearty apology that I have been remiss in my reviewing for so long. Life, as it has a way of doing, got in the way of literature for a while. In November I completed National Novel Writing Month, which although is a tremendous flurry of words and excitement leaves very little room for actual reading. That being said, I have a new sort of review for y’all today, one that has been in the works since the middle of September. I have decided to review not only two books, but two entire series at the same time, since they fit wonderfully together and have a few quirks that cannot be noticed without talking about both. Therefore, I present to you, The Belgariad and The Mallorean, by David Eddings.

            I first read both series when I was in middle school. That is not to say that they are geared specifically towards children in any way, but more a testament to storytelling that is broad enough to hold the attention of multiple audiences. I found that re-reading as an adult allowed me to pick up tons of things that had simply gone over my head at the age of eleven, the most obvious being the sarcastic humor these novels are practically saturated in. Eddings has truly mastered snarky characters and clever dialogue, which raises these two series up out of the typical magical adventure plot to something a lot more fun.

            Now then, to business. The Belgariad is the first series, comprised of five novels: Pawn of Prophecy, Queen of Sorcery, Magician’s Gambit, Castle of Wizardry and Enchanter’s Endgame. They follow the story of Garion, a young boy who lives on a farm with his Aunt Pol and an old storyteller Garion calls Mister Wolf. One night Aunt Pol wakes Garion, telling him they must leave the farm, and they, along with Mister Wolf, set out on an unknown adventure. They are soon joined by a host of other companions as they journey throughout the continent, meeting royalty of diverse nations on a quest to reclaim the mysterious Orb of Aldur that has been stolen by a devious disciple of the sleeping dark god Torak. Already I can see questions rising in the readers mind. Who is Torak? What is the Orb? How are these farm hands qualified to visit royalty and get the Orb back? At this point I’m going to throw out a huge SPOILER ALERT! Proceed with caution.

            At the beginning of Pawn of Prophecy, and every subsequent novel, Eddings includes a prologue that has been taken from some sort of prophecy or in book scholarship. The first is describing how the gods made the earth and chose particular nations as followers. Among these gods were Aldur and Torak. Aldur is a benevolent god, choosing no one as followers and instead teaching a handful of those talented in the art of sorcery. Torak is an arrogant and power hungry god, ruler of the Angaraks and evil at his core. When Aldur creates a stone more perfect that anything else in the world and filled with power that cannot be matched, Torak is overwhelmed with desire and steals the so called Orb. Warriors set out to steal the orb, the world is cracked by Torak in an effort to keep his prize, and yet good ultimately wins out, with the people of the West reclaiming the Orb and forcing Torak into an enchanted sleep, his body ruined but his mind merely subdued for the time being.

            Aunt Pol is really Polgara the Sorceress, famed daughter of Mister Wolf, better known to the world as Belgarath the Sorcerer. They have been tasked with hiding an ancient bloodline of kings who the world thinks is wiped out. This particular bloodline, of Riva, is the only one who can touch the Orb without suffering immediate maiming and death.

As we pick back up with the books, Polgara and Belgarath lead their company across the continents of the West in search of the Orb, with Garion in tow. Garion realizes slowly who his family actually is, and by the middle of the series, realizes he is the heir to the bloodline so carefully protected by Polgara and Belgarath. He is the only one who can touch the Orb and bring it back to Riva where Garion will take his rightful place as King. As one can imagine, this is a bit much for a boy who starts this journey at the age of fourteen. However, part of the beauty of the series is watching Garion grow into his true identity as a sorcerer, eventual king and the only person who can defeat Torak in an ultimate battle of good and evil. Eddings plays with the idea of fate and destiny, making use of prophecy to drive his characters toward the climactic battle in the last book. Through some useful digging around on Wikipedia, I found that Eddings intentionally titled his books with chess piece names and fantasy twist, to further emphasize the game aspect of things.

 Garion is the Child of Light, guided by one prophecy, and Torak the Child of Dark, guided by another and only one of them may survive, to decide the fate of the world. By the time this final battle takes place, the company has recovered the Orb; Garion has claimed his throne and true name, Belgarion, sorcerer and protector of the Orb and has matured into his role of savior.

            Now this whole series would be horribly tedious if it weren’t for the characters that make up Garion’s traveling companions. Eddings chooses to bring levity to many situations that would simply flounder in overwhelming darkness otherwise, and for that I thank him. If not for Silk, a clever merchant-prince, and Barak, a huge warrior with a quick mouth, I probably would have not finished the series. It is their banter with each other and Belgarath, and Polgara’s staunch disapproval that makes The Belgariad more than just a typical fantasy series.

            I know this is getting long, so allow me to move onto The Mallorean. Again, the series is comprised of five books: Guardians of the West, King of the Murgos, Demon Lord of Karanda, Sorceress of Darshiva and The Seeress of Kell.

 In this series we again follow Garion, along with Polgara and Belgarath and a host of characters, new and old, on another quest for something that has been stolen. In this case that stolen thing is Garion’s son, the heir to the Rivan throne. The new Child of Dark has kidnapped the baby and it comes to light that the battle between Torak and Garion was no in fact the final battle of good and evil. It seems that this time when the Child of Dark and the Child of Light come together everything will be decided. I can already hear you all going “huh?” Yes, this does seem like a complete rehashing of the plot of the first series and in a way it completely is. Yes, there are new characters, who I must say are even funnier than the last bunch, and new countries, but in the end the plot is nearly identical. Instead of plowing onwards and pretending the parallels aren’t there, Eddings makes use of them. In a wonderful moment of meta-literary awareness, Garion points out to Belgarath that events feel like they have all happened before. Instead of being held back by reusing the same plot, Eddings has made The Mallorean hinge upon that repetition. I will refrain from going in depth with the plot of The Mallorean, but I will say that I prefer this second series to the first.

            Part of why I am drawn to The Mallorean over The Belgariad is Garion’s character development. In the second series he is a full-fledged adult. He has become a well-liked and successful ruler, and has even managed to pick up on some of that sarcastic wit he was surrounded with during his adolescence. In short, Garion is funny as all hell and holds together a second series that otherwise wouldn’t really have any business existing.

            Eddings not only does humor well, but he has a gift for imagining new worlds and creating them for his reader with vivid detail. Every new setting the characters wander into was perfectly clear in my mind. He on occasion waxes poetic as he describes something, but for the most part the language serves as means of introduction to yet another new place. To have so many fully realized countries and races of people is a triumph when done well, and Eddings certainly has. I would put Eddings in the same realm of authors like Tolkien, G.R.R. Martin, Patrick Rothfuss and Robert Jordan. He might not have the same poetic command of language that Rothfuss and Tolkien share, but he has managed to create a world I am willing to revisit and a cast of memorable characters that I encourage you, my readers, to discover.