Unabridged Chick

January Linda Bamber, Taking What I Like Colin Falconer, Isabella: Braveheart of France J. Boyce Gleason, Anvil of God Elaine Neil Orr, A Different Sun Nicky Penttila, An Untitled Lady Sam Thomas, The Midwife's Tale [reread] Sam Thomas, The Harlot's Tale Heather Webb, Becoming Josephine February Kim Cooper, The Kept Girl Michelle Diener, Mistress of the Wind Nancy Horan, Under the Wide and Starry Sky Marci Jefferson, Girl on the Golden Coin Nina Siegal, The Anatomy Lesson Peter Swanson, The Girl with a Clock for a Heart Michele Zackheim, Last Train to Paris March Ruth Hull Chatlien, The Ambitious Madame Bonaparte Laurel Corona, The Mapmaker's Daughter Nicole Dweck, The Debt of Tamar Daniel Levine, Hyde M.J. Neary, Never Be At Peace Shannon Selin, Napoleon in America Jan Shapin, A Snug Life Somewhere Carol Strickland, The Eagle and the Swan April D.W. Bradbridge, The Winter Siege Mario Giordano, 1,000 Feelings For Which There Are No N

First things first: you're not reading this wrong!  This is indeed my top ten post for 2013 -- not 2014.  Somehow, I never posted this last December or January, and I liked these books too much to let them go without some praise.  My top ten of 2014 will be posted later this week. Now, my favorite reads from last year (all of which I still passionately recommend and think about!). It was incredibly challenging assembling my top ten reads for 2013. So many standout, stellar books this year! In the end, my final top ten list is made up of the reads that emotionally rocked me in some shape or way, that I haven't stopped thinking about, that I have purchased or gifted for others. Seven of the ten were written by women. Eight of the ten are historical fiction. (Pretty on par with other top tens since I've started blogging.) Four are part of a series, but only one is the end of the series; the rest are the start. Two are reads from Literary Wives , and both are books I

Even though we moved three months ago, we just unpacked Little Reader's bookshelf last weekend. (Just in time for his grandmother's visit this weekend!)  We're mostly just reading Hello, Bugs to Little Reader right now -- but he really does seem to like the images! Unbelievably, I read a whole book last week! It was fabulous, too -- Megan Mayhew Bergman's short story collection Almost Famous Women .  (Review to come in January when it releases.) But I managed to get reading in while nursing or pumping, and I'm glad to be back in the reading groove. My read for this weekend (and beyond) is How To Be A Heroine: Or, what I’ve learned from reading too much by Samantha Ellis. It's very readable for non-fiction, a mix of memoir and personal essay about some favorite, beloved, and well-known heroines from Western lit. It makes me want to revisit (or read for the first time) every book she mentions! (But that's a wish for later -- I'm not that bold to a

Life is a blur these days -- Little Reader turned three weeks! -- and it feels like it's been forever that he's been here and that he's still a new arrival.  But every day it gets a little easier to do more and more, and I've got books by me for when he's nursing -- I've got in a page or two now and then! Here are my giveaway winners! The winner of The Tiger Queens is ... Alise ! The winner of The Spoils of Avalon is ... Susan T ! Congrats to the winners! I don't have any upcoming giveaways for a few weeks, but I'm going to try to keep reviewing -- although at this point, it may just be breastfeeding books, board books, and other parenting guides. I'll try to keep it interesting!