I have had so many great books this year ( and fortunately only a few dismal ones) . I don’t think I can limit myself to just 5 or 10, I’ll see what I come up with.
In no particular oder or genre:
Alex – thrilling. Read more here.
False Witness – this narrative stands the test of time, more about this great read here.
I Am Pilgrim – Brilliant! More here.
The Narrow Road To The Deep North – rumours of many awards next year. Read more here.
Bone Ash Sky – why hasn’t this book made waves? It is fantastic and so relevant to our times. Read more here.
Burial Rites – emotionally rich and moving. Read more here.
Questions of Travel – has already won many awards! More here.
Zero At The Bone – memories and crime – a great mix. Read more here.
The Guilty – a great Canadian author. Read more here.
The Last Winter of Dani Lancing – love the playfulness of this crime story. More here.
My Notorious Life by Madame X – a great historical fiction. Read more here.
Chocolate Cake for Breakfast – Own up ,who doesn’t secretly indulge now and then? More here.
The Boy Who Could See Demons – the author convinced me they were real. Read more here.
The Returned – I understand why the rights has been snapped up, tv series follow soon. More here.
The Rosie Project – fun. Read more here.
Thornwood House – Australian modern Gothic. Review coming soon.
The Sacrificial Man – unique, surprising, chilling. Read more here.
Cross and Burn – crime read at its best, McDermid never disappoints. Read more here.
Hades – Like no other crime read. Read more here.
Love Story with Murders – great narrative, love the cover. Review coming 2014
Mostly Murder – voodoo, murder, gators, what more could you want? More here.
Watching You – the best crime/thriller red of 2013. Read more here.
There are so many more I could list but I must stop somewhere, looking forward to discovering many more good reads in 2014.
Reading, Writing and Riesling 
We have a couple of overlaps on our ‘best of’ lists, namely Zero at the Bone and Burial Rites. I also loved The Rosie Project. I’m putting both the Richard Flanagan and the Michael Robotham on my summer reading pile.
I am sure you will love them Angela.
Carol – What great choices here! I’m glad you’ve found so many books to love this year. And you make an interesting point about books that are really of excellent quality but that haven’t made waves. That’s an interesting phenomenon and I’ve always wondered how it happens. And then on the other hand you have those books that get a lot of publicity, but are complete disappointments. Glad you didn’t have a lot of disappointments in your reading this year.
Margot – sometimes hype can lead to the reader having unrealistic expectations and can actaully damage a reasonable book’s reputation when it fails to soar to extreme heights. Marketing is a tricky balancing act.
Not as much of a crossover between our lists as I’d have expected – only Burial Rites, I think. The only other one I’ve read is The Last Winter of Dani Lancing and though I liked it I wasn’t quite as taken with you as you. Still haven’t got around to reading the Val McDermid…
Towards the end of the year I read some really great books, too many to list unfortunately…I think you would enjoy quite a few of these on my list. The Last Winter…there was just something about the voice of Dani in the book that I really enjoyed and that all wasn’t what it first seemed…and a little different to run of mill crime/procedurals.