Best of 2013: In Books.

So far this year, I've completed 36 books and have surpassed my Goodreads goal of 30 books. I am hoping to round out the year by finishing four more, but I feel pretty safe in declaring my favorite reads from the past year.

My first favorite book was Me Before You by Jojo Moyes. It is a contemporary fiction book about a woman in England who accepts a job as a caretaker for a quadriplegic man, and the story follows the development of their work and personal relationship. It's hard to say any more without giving the story away, but I thought it was both lovely and tragic, heart-wrenching and life-affirming. If you enjoy Jodi Piccoult books, I highly suggest you give this book a read. I cannot promise it won't make you cry though! I am a robot made of stone when reading some books-- The Fault in Our Stars made me shed nary a tear, for example-- but Me Before You hit me right in the ventricles.

My second favorite is less of a book and more of an author-- Cheryl Strayed. I read both Wild and Tiny Beautiful Things this year, and I won't be forgetting either book anytime soon. Wild is Strayed's memoir from her time hiking the Pacific Crest Trail during a time in her life when she'd experienced quite a bit of tragedy and loss. I loved the balance between Strayed's personal story and the physical journey she was on. I'm already prone to wanderlust, and this book definitely made me want to get out in nature in the worst way-- even with the mention of her toenails falling off.

Strayed's other book, Tiny Beautiful Things, is a collection of questions and answers from her formerly anonymous advice column, Dear Sugar, for the website The Rumpus. This book demonstrates Strayed's amazing talent for getting right to the heart of the matter. People have written to Sugar who are in the midst of difficult and heart-wrenching situations, and Strayed's responses draw heavily upon her own life experiences. Her approach is less advice and more life lessons, and I came away from many of the essays feeling immense gratitude and awe at the beauty and tragedy of the human experience. I underlined the hell out of my book, and I walked away from it wanting to be a better, more kinder person. READ IT READ IT READ IT.

Other notable reads:
- A Million Miles in a Thousand Years: How I Learned to Live a Better Story by Donald Miller
- A Homemade Life: Stories and Recipes from My Kitchen Table by Molly Wizenberg
- It Chooses You by Miranda July

A few "misses"-- overhyped and/or poorly written, in my opinion:
- Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs
- Allegiant by Veronica Roth
- Making Your Creative Mark by Eric Maisel

PS - I've been attempting to play with watercolors a little bit more to figure out how they work, so I created the two book cover images above during my practice time. It was super fun and I'm really enjoying the "daintiness" of watercolors compared to the big, messy acrylic paintings I've done in the past. It might be something I want to continue to play with next year!