reading line by line

I started off this year reading the Queen's Thief series by Megan Whalen Turner, backwards, starting with A Conspiracy of Kings. It's making me question whether I want to keep track of all the books I read in 2014, or just the new ones, or maybe just the good ones.

Especially since I got a bookshelf for Christmas and as part of my New Year's holiday I brought down from home most of my books. Well, at least half of them. And quite a few from home that aren't mine (mostly those are ones that I need to read). But having so many of my favorites in such close proximity makes it all the more likely I'll reread a lot of them.

Since I reread books fairly regularly I thought about making my criteria for what I recommend from 2013 "Books I would read again" but life is kind of short and I really enjoyed a lot of books I don't need to read again.

So that's been my dilemma, and that's why it's been more than a week since I said I would post my recs. But I'm going to do it.

From the last quarter of the year I would highlight: The Chaos of Stars, Shadows, All Our Yesterdays, For Darkness Shows the Stars, All the Truth That's In Me, The Clockwork Scarab.

But you know what I didn't include in that list? Sequels to books I really enjoy!

So here is my list of Favorite Ongoing Series of 2013:

• Sammy Keyes by Wendelin van Draanen -- this series is almost over and I've almost outgrown it, but I'm determined to stick it out through the end
• Finishing School by Gail Carriger -- the first two books in the series are out, Etiquette & Espionage and Curtsies & Conspiracies and I have enjoyed them both. It's nice to have a YA story set in this world.
• Code Name Verity and Rose Under Fire by Elizabeth Wein -- Both of these books are masterpieces. I discovered them because someone on the internet was lambasting another WWII-era female protagonist novel for being exceedingly wrong about historical facts and they said "If you want accuracy about what women did during WWII read Code Name Verity." So I did.
• The Raven Cycle by Maggie Stiefvater -- The first two books in the series are out (The Raven Boys and The Dream Thieves), and I hope they don't stress you out as much as they do me (in the best way, though!).
• The Woodcutter Sisters by Alethea Kontis -- When I first read Enchanted I thought it made a great one-off novel that mashed all the fairytales together just the way I like. This year the sequel Hero came out and I just realized I remember about nothing of this book. But I'm still interested in the series.
• The Fire and Thorns Trilogy by Rae Carson -- Good news! This trilogy is now complete. Now I can reread it.
• Elemental Blessings by Sharon Shinn -- I fell hard for Troubled Waters when I got it for Christmas lo these many years ago. I was very excited for an unexpected sequel in Royal Airs and it didn't disappoint. I have been trying to decide if there's going to be another one in the series, and my gut says "yes."
• Lunar Chronicles by Marissa Meyer -- Cinder and Scarlet are out. The next one, Cress, comes out next month. I'm pretty excited about that. (Also how clever is it to call a Rapunzel-like character "Cress"? I love it.)

So there's a touch of recommendation from me. Not meant to be comprehensive (I'm pretty sure it's impossible for me to be comprehensive about books people should read).