While Alaska and Northern Canada have been giggling up their parka sleeves, much of the US has freaked out over the weather.

So today’s word is: wonderland

So, I’ve really enjoyed the mysteries by non-English writers I’ve been reading, but I’d like to find more books set in non-English speaking countries or places that are culturally different from what I normally read.

I absolutely adore Sergei Lukyanenko‘s Night Watch series–I re-read it in the fall and am currently listening to the audible versions.

I also love John Burdett‘s Sonchai Jitpleecheep series, which although written by a native English speaker, he’s one who lived in the place about which he’s writing.

I’ve been a fan of Andrea Camilleri and Arturo Pérez-Reverte for quite awhile. And I’ve recently read some excellent mysteries by Henning Mankell, Karin Fossum, Arnaldur Indridason.

But I want more. As may or may not be obvious from my love of fantasy, I like reading about places with which I’m unfamiliar. And Bangkok and Moscow are just about as foreign to me as Middle Earth and Newford.

I found this site, , which had some suggestions, but I want more.

So, recommendations please! If you want you can peruse the Fantasy and Mystery authors I’ve already read.

And if you want to squee about a particular author and tell me all the reasons I need to read them, that’d be awesome as well.

Here are the books I read in December. Yes, I read mostly mysteries.

~ Mystery ~

Kurt Wallander
The Fifth Woman (1996/2000) Henning Mankell translated by Steven T. Murray (Rating: 9/10)

Inspector Erlendur
Silence of the Grave (2002/2005) Arnaldur Indridason translated by Bernard Scudder (Rating: 8/10)

Inspector Sejer
Don’t Look Back (1996/2002) Karin Fossum translated by Felicity David (Rating: 7/10)
He Who Fears the Wolf (1997/2003) Karin Fossum translated by Felicity David (Rating: 8.5/10)
When the Devil Holds the Candle (1998/2004) Karin Fossum translated by Felicity David (Rating: 3/10)

~ Supernatural Mystery ~

Detective Inspector Chen
Snake Agent (2005) Liz Williams (Rating: 8.5/10)
The Demon and the City (2006) Liz Williams (Rating 8.5/10)
Precious Dragon (2007) Liz Williams (Rating: 8.5/10)
The Shadow Pavilion (2009) Liz Williams (8/10)

~ Fantasy ~

Day Watch (Audio Version) (2006/2010) Sergei Lukyanenko and narrated by Paul Michael (Rating: 8.5/10)

~ Comics ~

Fables Vol. 19: Snow White (2013) Bill Willingham, Mark Buckingham

~ Anthology ~

Kicking It  (2013) edited by Faith Hunter and Kalayna Price (Rating: 2/10)
I’d like to point out that several of the stories here were very good and worth searching out, but as a whole it was a very disappointing anthology.

Here’s what I have on pre-order for 2014:

January
Ashes & Alchemy (The Gaslight Chronicles)  Cindy Spencer Pape  Jan 6th eBook : This is a fun series, in spite of the boinking. I was a little disappointed in the last book, and hope it picks back up with this book. (steampunk, romance, erotica)
Black Arts: A Jane Yellowrock Novel  Hunter, Faith   Jan 7th paperback : This has been a pre-order book for me since I read the first book. (supernatural fantasy, mystery)
Up from the Grave (Night Huntress)  Frost, Jeaniene  Jan 28th paperback : This is another automatic pre-order series, despite all the boinking. (supernatural fantasy)

February
Broken Homes: A Rivers of London Novel  Ben Aaronovitch  Feb 4th eBook : I devoured the first three books in the series this summer, and am looking forward to this addition. (urban fantasy, mystery)

March
Night Broken (A Mercy Thompson Novel)  Patricia Briggs  March 4th eBook (I switched to eBook format when the series shifted to hard back) : I really love Mercy, and hope she gets a break in this book. (supernatural fantasy, mystery)
Why Kings Confess: A Sebastian St. Cyr Mystery :  C.S. Harris  March 4th eBook (I previously bought this in hardback, but am now delighted to have an eBook option) I love this series so much I have all the books in hard back. And might end up getting this book as a hard back, just for symmetry. (historical mystery)

May
Reborn (Shadow Falls: After Dark) C. C. Hunter  May 20 eBook : Shadow Falls was a YA series that finished up this summer, but this is a spin off following a character I quite like, and who has appeared in several short stories. (supernatural fantasy)

June
Fairest Vol. 3: The Return of the Maharaja Sean E. Williams et al June 3 : I will NOT read this until I have read Fables. (comics)

July
Fetch  Thurman, Rob  July  1st paperback  (?) This book isn’t actually listed anymore. I’m hoping it’s a new Cal Leandros book. Because that may be my favorite series going right now. Which is saying something.
Fables Vol. 20: Camelot   Willingham, Bill et al July 8 trade paperback : I will read this BEFORE I read the newest Fairest. (comics)
Magic Breaks (Kate Daniels)   Ilona Andrews  July 29 eBook (I switched to eBook format when the series shifted to hard back) This is another series I’ve pre-ordered since reading the first book. (supernatural fantasy, mystery)

So, what are you looking forward to reading? Anything I should be aware of?

First, links to the other posts of the round-up:

Genre Grab Bag: Non-Fiction, Romance, YA, Anthologies
Comics
Mystery
Fantasy

And now, if you don’t geek out over statistics and numbers, this would be a good time for you to go pick up whatever book you’re reading and skip this post.

Because I am totally going to geek out here.

I read 172 174 books in 2013, averaging 14.5 books a month.  This beats my previous yearly total from 2006, of 164 books.

Of those 172 174 books, 68 (40%) were re-reads.  And 29 of those re-reads were books I have in more than one format (generally hardback/paperback and ebook).

I overwhelmingly read more ebooks than any other format, coming in with a total of 105 107. Considering that I read zero ebooks in 2010, this is a pretty impressive jump. Mass market paperbacks (39) beat out trade paperbacks (18), and hard back books almost matched the previous all-time low coming in at only five hardback books read in the entire year.

(You don’t have to tell me, I know the chart is off–I realized after I made the image that one of the comics I read last month was hardback and not trade paperback.)

I expect that trend to continue, with the number of hard back books I read becoming limited to cookbooks and the occasional

Considering genre, fantasy took a slight dip this year, as I re-read several mystery series, but this isn’t an unusual trend for me. Also, a single book can have multiple genre classifications, so Liz Williams’ Detective Inspector Chen series is classified as mystery and fantasy, which is actually my favorite flavor of both those genres, but makes the numbers look a little odd.

I read twelve thirteen books that were translated into English from their original language, covering Russian, Icelandic, Norwegian, Spanish, Swedish, and Italian. Not a ton of variety, but all the books were part of a series, so it’s also not surprising. I’ve got other books by non-English speaking authors lined up to read, so I hope the variety will be a little better next year. (Italian is likely to reappear, as I adore Andrea Camilleri’s Inspector Montalbano series and generally order the next book as soon as it is available.

And then there’s the author’s gender.

Females wrote an overwhelming majority of the books I read, 52%, but that’s closer to 57% when you add in women writing under their initials or male pseudonyms.  I read the same number of books written jointly (anthologies, comics, multiple authors under a single name) as I read by male authors, 20%.

Since 2006, my reading preferences average out to 42% male: 51% female. That includes three years where more than 50% of the books I read were by male authors.

I’ll be fascinated to see if this trend continues over time.

One last note: I fully expect to have completed the book I’m currently reading by the end of the day. Yeah, finished up two books last night, so we’ll see what I’ve read by the end of the day today. :)

Fantasy, of various sub-genres.

These are books I read for the first time in 2013, that rating an 8,9, or 10/10. If it was a re-read, I’m not listing it, not matter how good it was.

Fantasy, straight-up

Heaven’s Net is Wide (2007) Lian Hearn   (10/10)

I really love this series, set in an historical, imaginary, Asian country.

River of Stars (2013) Guy Gavriel Kay  (9/10)

He is always astounding, the amount of research he puts into creating a world and time that never actually existed, but is based upon one or more historical places. And this book has an absolutely gorgeous cover.
 
 
 
Supernatural Mystery

Slashback (2013) Rob Thurman (9/10)

I love Rob Thurman’s writing, and I adore the Cal Leandros series.

Peter Grant / The Rivers of London

Midnight Riot (2011) Ben Aaronovitch  (8/10)

Moon Over Soho (2011) Ben Aaronovitch  (8/10)

Whispers Under Ground (2012) Ben Aaronovitch  (8/10)

Peter Grant is a London cop who can see things few other people can, so he’s transferred to the secret unit of the London force–a very very small unit that’s less elite than it is one the department is trying to forget.

Occult Crimes Unit Investigation

Hard Spell (2011) Justin Gustainis  (8/10)

Stan Markowski is a Detective on the Scranton Police Supernatural Crimes Investigation Unit. This is the series I pointed out as having absolutely terrible covers. Luckily, the writing was better than the cover.
 
 
 
Supernatural

Written In Red (2013) Anne Bishop  (8/10)

Neurondoc got me this book, saying I’d really like it. She was right. I had quibbles, but they were only quibbles, and the story really was enjoyable.

Magic Rises (2013) Ilona Andrews  (8/10)

The Kate Daniels book for 2013 didn’t hold up in my memory as well as my initial impression upon reading. But I still pre-ordered the next book as soon as it appeared.

Frost Burned (2013) Patricia Briggs  (8/10)

Fair Game (2012) Patricia Briggs  (8/10)

These books are set in the same world, but follow two different sets of characters. In general, I prefer the Mercy Thompson series to the Alpha and Omega series, but there were some amazing events in Fair Game.

Blood Trade (2013) Faith Hunter  (8/10)
 
 
 
Steampunk / Victorian Magical

The Death of the Necromancer (1998) Martha Wells  (8/10)

This is an older book, written before Steampunk / Victorian Magical became a thing, and I really enjoyed it.
 
 
 
Short Stories

Companions to the Moon (2007) Charles de Lint (short story)  (9/10)

I love pretty much everything I’ve ever read by Charles de Lint. That that under advisement.

In Sea-Salt Tears (2012) Seanan McGuire (short story)  (8/10)

This was a free story available from the author’s website, and was a marvelous look The Luidaeg, who is a fascinating character.

And that’s the past year in reading.

I read a lot more mystery than you see here on this list, mostly because I re-read a lot of mysteries: especially Donna Leon and Agatha Christie

Historical

What Darkness Brings (2013) C.S. Harris (9/10)

I love the Sebastian St Cyr series–I actually purchase and READ the hard back editions, I love this series so much, and it feels like it just gets better over time.

The Sleeping Partner (2012) Madeleine E. Robins (8/10)

I read the first two books in this series, the Sarah Tolerance mysteries, and then she lost her publisher, so I was delighted to discover this new book.

An Unmarked Grave (2012) Charles Todd (8/10)

An Impartial Witness (2010) Charles Todd (8/10)

This series is set during The Great War, which is the biggest attraction for me. We may say that the men and women who made it through the Second World War are the Greatest Generation, but I think that title more rightfully goes to their parents’ generation, those who survived the first World War, when absolutely everything changed.

The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie (2009) Alan Bradley (8/10)

Flavia de Luce is an eleven-year old quite unlike any other girl in her English village. She loves chemistry, and science, and solving problems. So when she stumbles across the body of a man who was most likely murdered, she sees is as an exciting challenge.
 
 
 
Police

After hearing about the woman who was trying to Read Around the World, I ran across some mysteries written in languages other than English in my TBR pile, and started reading.

I’m quite glad I did.

Silence of the Grave (2002/2005) Arnaldur Indridason translated by Bernard Scudder

This is the second book in the Inspector Erlendur series, and I really liked it. In fact, looking back, I liked the first book more than my initial impression when I wrote the review. I also really want to go to Iceland (I’d wanted to prior to this, this series just reinforced that.)

He Who Fears the Wolf (2003) Karin Fossum translated by Felicity David (8/10)

This is the second book in the Inspector Sejer series, and I’ll be honest, as much as I enjoyed this story, I absolutely couldn’t stand the story that followed. It wasn’t bad–it just really was not for me.

And that’s the year in mysteries.

There are two types of comics here: the traditional comics complied into a graphic novel, and web comics, compiled into a collection of stories, and one book that doesn’t fit either category.

Graphic Novels

Madame Mirage (2008) Paul Dini and Kenneth Rocafort (9/10)

This may say volume one, but as best I can tell, there isn’t a volume two, which is too bad, because I really liked this.

And don’t let the cover fool you. This isn’t one of those types of characters.

Fairest Vol 1: Fairest In All the Land (2013) Bill Willingham (8/10)

Fairest Vol. 2: Hidden Kingdom (2013) Lauren Beukes, Bill Willingham, Inaki Miranda (8/10)

Although I love Fables, I’ve been less fond of the spin-offs, Cinderella and Jack of Fables. So it was with a bit of trepidation that I started this series. Never fear, it was actually very good and I really enjoyed it.

Fables Vol 18: Cubs in Toyland (2013) Bill Willingham, Mark Buckingham, Steve Leialoha, Gene Ha (8/10)

Warning, this is not one of the happier comics. This series hasn’t hesitate to kill of characters (like Stinky, I’m still waiting for Boy Blue to return) and there’s a death here. You’ll know it’s coming, but you won’t know who. This is also a comic where I missed a lot because I tend to gloss over the art for the story, forgetting that the two are integrated.
 
 
 
Web Comics

Walking Your Octopus: A Guidebook to the Domesticated Cephalopod (2013) Brian Kesinger  (9/10)

This isn’t a web comic, but a collection of gorgeous drawings. I gave this as a gift to a friend, and she took her copy to work, where visitors are constantly delighted by it. It’s gorgeous and marvelous and wonderful.

Erstwhile: Untold Tales From the Brothers Grimm (2012) Gina Biggs, Louisa Roy, Elle Skinner  (8/10)

I’ve been reading Erstwhile for awhile, and so wanted to support them when the published a paper book. In my opinion it was well worth it.

Evil Diva Anthology Volume 1 (2013) Peter Menotti, Joe Cashman, Stephen Hood, Team Diva  (8/10)

Sadly, I don’t think this is being published anymore, which is too bad, because I really enjoyed it.

And that’s 2013 in comics.

We’ll start the yearly wrap up with the genres that I read less frequently: Non-Fiction, Romance, YA, and Anthologies. (I read enough YA for it’s own category last year, but read more mysteries this year.)
 
 
 
Non-Fiction

A History of the World in 6 Glasses (2005) Tom Standage  (10/10)

This is a look at how six beverages: beer, wine, liquor, coffee, tea, and Coca Cola–changed the world. I found it both fascinating and enjoyable as things I knew but hadn’t really considered (living without access to clean water) were put into perspective.
 
 
 
Romance

Midsummer Moon (1987) Laura Kinsale  (8/10)

This book had a marvelous cover what first attracted me, and then the story was an amusing romp. There are elements of fantasy and steampunk, but they are only a minor part of the story. How can you resist a story where a hedgehog is a (non-speaking) recurring character?

Twice Tempted: A Night Prince Novel (2013) Jeaniene Frost  (8/10)

Theoretically, this is supernatural fantasy, but the romance is really the largest part of the story, so I decided it’s primary classification was romance. And although there are vampires, and there is a lot of boinking, it’s really quite good.
 
 
 
YA

Shadow Falls

Whispers at Moonrise (2012) C. C. Hunter  (8/10)

Chosen at Nightfall (2013) C.C. Hunter  (8/10)

These two books are the conclusion to Kylie Galen’s story arc, and I thought she did a lovely job wrapping up Kylie’s discovery of who she is and how she fits into the world. The parallel series, focusing on Delia Tang, is, I believe, not YA, but the short stories and novella’s I’ve read have been quite good.
 
 
 
Anthologies

I love anthologies. These properly should have been classified as fantasy, but there were already too many books for that post.

Weird Detectives: Recent Investigations (2013) edited by Paula Guran  (8/10)

The Mad Scientist’s Guide to World Domination: Original Short Fiction for the Modern Evil Genius (2013) John Joseph Adams  (8/10)

Teeth: Vampire Tales (2011) edited by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling  (8/10)

Happily Ever After (2011) edited by  John Klima   (8/10)

All of these are fantasy compilations, and all are quite good.

(more…)

I’ve scheduled a series of posts on the books of 2013, starting tomorrow. I’ll try to remember to come back here and link to each post.

Genre Grab Bag: Non-Fiction, Romance, YA, Anthologies
Comics
Mystery
Fantasy

And then I’m going to try to write an overview of the year, as well as the December wrap-up. These of course have to come last, as I’m planning on doing plenty of reading over the next several days.

In the meantime, what did you read this year that you particularly loved, and what books did you get for the holidays that you’re looking forward to reading?

Merry Christmas! I hope you’re spending the day with people you love, following whatever traditions you may have, be that a Christmas feast or Chinese take-out.

Today’s word is: joy

Adeste fideles læti triumphantes,
Venite, venite in Bethlehem.
Natum videte
Regem angelorum:
Venite adoremus Venite adoremus Venite adoremus
Dominum.

Deum de Deo, lumen de lumine
Gestant puellæ viscera.
Deum verum, genitum non factum.
Venite adoremus Venite adoremus Venite adoremus
Dominum.

Cantet nunc ‘Io’, chorus angelorum;
Cantet nunc aula cælestium,
Gloria! Soli Deo Gloria!
Venite adoremus Venite adoremus Venite adoremus
Dominum.

Ergo qui natus die hodierna.
Jesu, tibi sit gloria,
Patris aeterni Verbum caro factum.
Venite adoremus Venite adoremus Venite adoremus
Dominum.

O Tannenbaum, o Tannenbaum,
Wie treu sind deine Blätter!
Du grünst nicht nur zur Sommerzeit,
Nein, auch im Winter, wenn es schneit.
O Tannenbaum, o Tannenbaum,
Wie treu sind deine Blätter!

O Tannenbaum, o Tannenbaum,
Du kannst mir sehr gefallen!
Wie oft hat nicht zur Weihnachtszeit
Ein Baum von dir mich hoch erfreut!
O Tannenbaum, o Tannenbaum,
Du kannst mir sehr gefallen!

O Tannenbaum, o Tannenbaum,
Dein Kleid will mich was lehren:
Die Hoffnung und Beständigkeit
Gibt Mut und Kraft zu jeder Zeit!
O Tannenbaum, o Tannenbaum,
Dein Kleid will mich was lehren!