The Right Stuff - Tom Wolfe
Mastery - Robert Greene
The Price of Politics - Bob Woodward
The Center Holds - Jonathan Alter
Skagboys - Irvine Welsh
Under the Banner of Heaven - Jon Krakauer
Tender Is the Night - F. Scott Fitzgerald
The Bully Pulpit - Doris Kearns Goodwin
Going Clear - Lawrence Wright
Dissident Gardens - Jonathan Lethem
The Adventures of Roderick Random, by Tobias Smollett
Waverley, by Sir Walter Scott
Germinal, by Emile Zola
Far From the Madding Crowd, by Thomas Hardy
Les Miserables, by Victor Hugo
Middlemarch, by George Eliot
The Woman in White, by Wilkie Collins
Vanity Fair, by William Thackeray (re-read)
An American Tragedy, by Theodore Dreiser
Those were the ones that stood out. An honourable mention goes to The Forsyte Saga, which had a great first section, a good second section, and a mediocre third section.
The Laughing Policeman by Maj Sjöwall, Per Wahlöö
Meet Me at Emotional Baggage Claim Lisa Scottoline. I’ve enjoyed her mysteries. This was totally different, a compilation of columns, mostly about mothers and daughters.
The Racketeer John Grisham. My favorite Grisham in a while.
A Tale for the Time Being Ruth Ozeki. Best book of not only 2013, but best in quite a long time.
Leaving Everything Most Loved Jacqueline Winspear. Not my favorite of the Maisie Dobbs, but still enjoyable.
The Pyramid: And Four Other Kurt Wallander Mysteries Henning Mankell. A pre-quel from when Wallander was just a young policeman.
In approximately the order I read these books, rather than any order of preference.
The Blade Itself, Joe Abercrombie
An Artificial Night, by Seanan McGuire
The Trade of Queens by Charles Stross
Solaris (direct translation) by Stanislaw Lem, translated into English by Bill Johnston
The Human Condition by John Scalzi
Singer from the Sea by Sheri Tepper
A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan
Ready Player One by Ernest Cline
The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern
Among Others by Jo Walton
Of the books I read for the first time this year, and could remember that I read for sure this year - these are the 10 favorites.
The Blade Itself was the first book in a series that I read several books of, An Artificial Night is a middle book in a series I read several of, and The Trade of Queens is the last book of a series I read most of this year. Another series I read this year was the Imager series by L. E. Modessit, but the standout book of that series was one I’d first read before the year 2013.
I watched the original Russian Solaris movie this year, and then bought the new translation; I have read all the Kandel translations of Lem’s work but couldn’t handle the flatness of the English from French “translation” of Solaris, so I’d never read it before this year. I’m glad finally a real translation became available!
I’d never heard of it until just now! Judging from the reviews on Goodreads, it doesn’t look too promising.
I read 65 books (29,925 pages, approx 7.5 million words) by July when I stopped doing my list. I figure I made 100 (46k pages, 11.3m words) easily.
The Passage, Justin Cronin
The Twelve, Justin Cronin (Liked these so much I read both of them twice this year. Psychic zombie-vampires are created by the US Army as a perfect killing machine. What can go wrong here?)
The War that Ended Peace: The Road to 1914, Margaret McMillan (Currently reading)
Lonesome Dove, Larry McMurtry (First Western I ever read. Great book. Likely the last Western I’ll ever read.)
In Conquest Born, CS Friedman (The best space opera I read all year.)
Duane’s Depressed, Larry McMurtry (No shit! And there’s a shocker in this book that I was not expecting. But be sure to read The Last Picture Show and Texasville beforehand.)
Statistical Review of World Energy, British Petroleum (Only 48 pages, but packed full of more information than the rest of my list. I look forward to this one every year.)
After America, John Birmingham (Apocalyptic fun.)
Madame Bovary, Gustave Flaubert (Great book.)
The Book of Basketball, Bill Simmons (on this list for it’s second straight year, I now have to buy a new copy the old one is so beat up.)
Hey, wait just a dern minute…I apparently forgot to put one of my recent books on my Goodreads list! I would like to kick Gulp off my list and substitute The Accidental Time Machine.
Hopefully this will not result in a penalty.
A minor distortion in the space-time continuum, I suspect, but no penalty.
I only read 55 books last year - 49 fiction and six non-fiction. The following are listed in the order I read them; by coincidence, Cold Days, which I thought was the best book of the year, was also the first one I finished.
Cold Days, by Jim Butcher
Dream Park, by Larry Niven and Steven Barnes
The Hen of the Baskervilles, by Donna Andrews
11 Birthdays, by Wendy Mass
Presumed Lost: The Incredible Ordeal of America’s Submarine POWs During the Pacific War, by Stephen L Moore
The Barsoom Project, by Larry Niven and Steven Barnes
The California Voodoo Game, by Larry Niven and Steven Barnes
Duck the Halls, by Donna Andrews
The Last Present, by Wendy Mass
Burning Paradise, by Robert Charles Wilson
As an animated movie adaptation, it is famous for being a prime example of the “animation ghetto” trope: an animated movie about fluffy little bunnies - that will leave young children very badly traumatized. 
I read 36 books in 2013 (my first baby was born in January and wow, it has really put a crimp on my reading time!). Here are my favorites from last year (in no order):
The Republic of Thieves
Joyland
Cinnamon and Gunpowder
Paper Moon
Heads in Beds
And When She Was Good
Heft
Eleanor & Park
Fangirl
Gulp
Here’s my Goodreads list:
1- To the End of the Land - David Grossman
2- Pretty Monsters- Kelly Link
3- Taking Care- Joy Williams
4- 62: A Model Kit - Julio Cortazar
5- Honored Guest- Joy Williams
6- Dirty Wars: The War is a Battlefield- Jeremy Scahill
7- Blow-up and Other Stories- Julio Cortazar
8- The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making- Catherine Valente
9- Little Brother- Cory Doctorow
10 - A Dance with Dragons - George R.R. Martin
The original novel, Addie Pray, by Joe David Brown? As much as I like the movie, the book was even better - had so much good stuff in New Orleans that didn’t make it on screen.
The Book Thief by Markus Zusak - Great book about a German girl living with her foster parents in Nazi Germany. Narrated by Death.
A Guide to the Present Moment by Noah Elkrief - A self-help book that is my second favorite book of the year because it had a remarkable quality often missing among self-help books - practical information that I was able to use. The book is about managing your emotions.
The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde - Gothic horror classic.
Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky - Long, dreary, but very thoughtful.
The Fault in Our Stars by John Green - Young adult fiction about teenagers with cancer.
The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky - Young adult fiction about an introvert becoming less sheltered.
Nausea by Jean-Paul Sartre - Philosophical fiction about the nature of purpose. I read it after I listened to the director’s commentary for Objects in Space where Joss Whedon said he created the episode based on ideas from this book.
The Broom of the System by David Foster Wallace - Hard to describe, but essentially about a girl who has to deal with a talking Cockatiel, a missing great grandmother, and an obsessive, neurotic boyfriend.
Your Brain at Work by David Rock - Strategies for managing brain power.
The Revolution was Televised by Alan Sepinwall - How 14 of the greatest TV shows were made, and how they influenced the rest of TV.
In 2012, my last full year of college, I read 52 books. This year I’ve read a total of 12, so my top ten is going to be pretty easy to pick.
1: Replay. It’s about a guy who keeps dying at one point in time and we see how he does things different each time. I was originally going to read it over a few days but then I stayed up one night and finished it.
2: The Forever War. Classic Sci-Fi about a soldier coming home and then going back to fight. Very good. This was tied for my favorite of the year because it really captured the alienation (HA!) one can feel after coming back from war.
3: Real Enemies. This one I had to read for class and I really liked it. It traces the differing conspiracy theories in American history and discusses why they’ve changed over the years.
4: I Will Teach You to be Rich. A very good introduction to personal finance. The trick to being rich is getting your credit card debt under control and investing smartly for the long-term.
5-10: Odds Against Humanity; The Knife of Never Letting Go; Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire; The 5th Wave; Mad for God; Castaways.
In no rank order, lumped together in categories:
Fiction
- The Egyptologist by Arthur Phillips (2005) Dueling unreliable narrators!
- Life After Life by Kate Atkinson (2013) Hard to describe, but a very English approach to having the opportunity to keep living your life over.
- Tell the Wolves I’m Home by Carol Rifka Blunt (2012) The early days of the AIDS crisis, as experienced by a teenage girl.
- The Goldfinch, by Donna Tartt (2013) Absolutely a home run. Worthy of all the hype.
- The Long Ships by Frans Bengtsson (1941) EPIC VIKING ADVENTURE. Also, hilarious.
- The Big Burn: Teddy Roosevelt and the Fire that Saved America (2009) I confess this probably has special appeal to crazy TR fans, but I do think it’s overall a very good book about forestry.
Non-fiction
7. The Riddle of the Labyrinth: The Quest to Crack an Ancient Code by Margalit Fox (2013) Decyphering Linear B.
8. Horseshoe Crabs and Velvet Worms: The Story of the Animals and Plants that Time Has Left Behind by Richard Fortey (2012) Interesting overview of some basic workings of evolution, for a non-sciencey person. Plus, you got the feeling that the author is simply the NICEST PERSON in the history of the world.
9. Traffic: Why We Drive The Way We Do by Tom Vanderbilt (2008) A great way of combing the psychology of how people approach driving with the actual physics that happens when people drive … and the very scary gap between those two things.
YA
10. Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell (2013) Teen romance among the outcasts, set in the 80s.
Looking over my book journal to make this list, I had given 11 books 5/5 stars, so this was fairly easy. The 11th book that didn’t make the cut was Redemption Falls, by Joseph O’Connor, which was extremely impressive in a literary sense, but didn’t make as much of a personal impression on me as the others (by a lot).
I also noted many of my 4/5 star books were great, fun reads, and I saw several of these titles listed by other folks in this thread.
Every year, I think about going back to my book ratings and see, after some time has passed, which ones really stick in my mind as terrific, innovative, or otherwise memorable reads. I don’t think that is always the same as my immediate reaction.
Both are favorites of mine, too. Glad you liked 'em.
Love that book - I’ve read it several times. Apparently Grimwood was working on a sequel when he died… 
That one made my top ten, but I think I liked the prequel better – Star of the Sea. I really like O’Connor. Ghost Light is also quite good, based on the life of a woman who was the mistress of a 19th century actor.