The Year in Review, Part Three

Librarian of Snark's Favorite YA Books of 2013

Quintana of Charyn by Melina Marchetta

Boxers & Saints by Gene Luen Yang

Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell

Rose Under Fire by Elizabeth Wein

The Dream Thieves by Maggie Stiefvater

Two Boys Kissing by David Levithan

Game by Barry Lyga

Allegiant by Veronica Roth

Reality Boy by A.S. King

Midwinterblood by Marcus Sedgwick

Honorable Mentions

Black Helicopters by Blythe Woolston

The Fall of Five by Pittacus Lore

The Kingdom of Little Wounds by Susann Cokal

Unsouled by Neal Shusterman

Siege and Storm by Leigh Bardugo

I know I'm getting quite repetitive, but I remind you that this is but a small sample of the YA books I read this year. I managed 119 total (once again, overlapping a bit with middle-grade). For Printz contenders, I continue to wonder how the committee manages to keep up with all the reading (though I suppose I could manage if I stopped reading middle-grade and adult novels). I'd be terribly pleased to see Boxers & Saints, Fangirl, Two Boys Kissing, or Rose Under Fire among the winners circle. My prediction last year (The Fault in Our Stars) didn't even get a silver, so take my thoughts with a grain of salt.

My overall stats for the year:

- 422 books total (148 picture book, 100 middle-grade, and 120 YA, plus a smattering of adult books - probably more than last year): my total is over 100 books less than last year, which doesn't surprise me terribly much, particularly with the number of picture books going down by about 100.
- 91,723 pages read: this is only about 2,000 less pages than last year, so I don't feel like I did terribly much less reading.
- 42 5-star reads, 161 4-star reads, 144 3-star reads, 56 2-star reads, and 10 1-star reads (I don't think I had any did-not-finish books this year)

Looking back at my most anticipated reads of the year, I did manage to find time for all the series books I was looking forward to except two - and of those two, one had its publication date pushed to 2014. I didn't do so well with the standalones - I still have half of them on my to-read list.

That's my wrap-up of 2013. I expect once again that 2014 will be a busy year for me - I'm a second-round Cybils judge in the Elementary/Middle Grade Speculative Fiction category and I've accepted another YALSA committee appointment (once again, not one that will effect the content of my blog). I am going to put it in writing here - one of my goals for 2014 is to read the books I currently have in my house. What does that mean? Well, expect less of the brand new and shiny, though I'll still be getting some ARCs. I'd really like to read the ARCs I've acquired at past conferences and find new homes for them (not to mention, clear some of my shelf space). So I've made a promise to myself - no library books (unless they are for my boyfriend). Let's see how well I do!