December 2013 Reads

Here are the final books that I read in 2013:  49 books in December alone, an even 400 for the year, making this the fifth straight year that I read 400 or more books in a calendar year.  I managed to meet or surpass every one of my original 2013 reading goals, along with the stretch goals that I added over the previous few months.  Some were very close, however.  Those goals will be listed at the end of the post.  Now for the books read/re-read this month:

352  Svetislav Basara, Mein Kampf (Serbian; excellent)

353  Tahar ben Jelloun, Le racisme expliqué à ma fille (French; non-fiction; very good)

354  Assia Djebar, L'Amour, la fantasia (French; excellent)

355  Fausta Cialente, Le quattro ragazze Wiselberger (Italian; Premio Strega winner; good)

356  Mariateresa di Lascia, Passaggio in Ombra (Italian; Premio Strega winner; good)

357  Iosi Havilio, Open Door (Spanish; very good)

358  Milorad Pavić, Kutija za Pisanje (Serbian; re-read; very good)

359  Fernando Nobre (ed.), Cartas a Deus (Portuguese; essays; good)

360  Françoise de Graffigny, Lettres d'une Péruvienne (French; excellent)

361  Moacyr Scliar, A Guerra no Bom Fim (Portuguese; very good)

362  Dino Buzzati, Sessanta racconti (Italian; short fiction collection; Premio Strega winner; excellent)

363  Umberto Eco, Il cimitero di Praga (Italian; re-read; very good)

364  Umberto Eco, El cementiri de Praga (Catalan; very good)

365  Umberto Eco, El cementerio de Praga (Spanish; re-read; very good)

366  Umberto Eco, The Prague Cemetery (very good)

367  José Saramago, Cadernos de Lanzarote IV (Portuguese; essays; very good)

368  Pepetela, Mayombe (Portuguese; Premio Camões winner; very good)

369  Ann Leckie, Ancillary Justice (already reviewed)

370  Valter Hugo Mãe, O Remorso de Baltazar Serapião (Portuguese; Premio José Saramago winner; very good)

371  Eleanor Catton, The Luminaries (2013 Man Booker Prize winner; excellent)

372  João Negreiros, O Mar que a Gente Faz (Portuguese; very good)

373  João Cerqueira, A Tragédia de Fidel Castro (Portuguese; very good)

374  João Cerqueira, The Tragedy of Fidel Castro (very good)

375  Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, Pilote de guerre (French; very good)

376  Andre Dubus, Selected Stories (short fiction collection; excellent)

377  Gordana Ćirjanić, Оно што одувек желиш (Serbian; NIN Prize winner; very good)

378  George Packer, The Unwinding:  An Inner History of the New America (2013 National Book Award winner for Non-Fiction; outstanding)

379  Edwidge Danticat, Claire of the Sea Light (very good)

380  Ron Rash, Nothing Gold Can Stay (short fiction collection; very good)

381   László Krasznahorkai, The Bill (art essay; excellent)

382  Michel de Montaigne, Les Essais (French; essays; excellent)

383  Umberto Eco, Storia delle Terre e dei Luoghi Leggendari (Italian; non-fiction/art book; excellent)

384  Umberto Eco, Le Sette Meraviglie (Italian; non-fiction/interactive art e-book; very good)

385  Paolo Giordano, La solitudine dei numeri primi (Italian; Premio Strega winner; very good)

386  João Tordo, As Três Vidas (Portuguese; Premio José Saramago winner; excellent)

387  João Tordo, O Ano Sabático (Portuguese; excellent)

388  Mariano Villarreal and Luis Pestarini (eds.), Terra Nova vol. 2 (Spanish; anthology; good)

389  Rafael Marín, Lágrimas de luz (Spanish; very good)

390  Tom Drury, Pacific (good)

391  Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, Manifest der Kommunistischen Partei (German; non-fiction; excellent for what it is)

392  Scott and Kimberly Hahn, Rome Sweet Home (religious; re-read; very good)

393  Rainer Maria Rilke, Duino Elegies (bilingual English and German; poetry; re-read; excellent)

394  Yasmina Reza, Le dieu du carnage (French; play; good)

395  James McBride, The Good Lord Bird (2013 National Book Award winner for Fiction; very good)

396  Tash Aw, Five Star Billionaire (2013 Man Booker Prize longlisted nominee; good)

397  Bill Cheng, Southern Cross the Dog (meh to decent attempt at Southern Gothic)

398  Jamaica Kincaid, At the Bottom of the River (re-read; very good)

399  Jim Holt, Why Does the World Exist? (non-fiction/philosophy; excellent)

400  Charles Perrault, Contes de ma Mère L'Oye (French; fairy tales, excellent)


2013 Reading Goals:

Overall:  400/366

Women Writers/Editors:  134/400, or 33.50%, 1 book ahead the 1/3 or 33.33% goal.

Foreign Language:  186/175 (46.50% of total reads)

Spanish:  54/52

Italian:  31/25

French:  26/25

Portuguese:  26/25

Serbian:  14/12

German:  12/12


I'll post my 2014 reading goals later today.