Books of 2013

I did this 17-word exercise after a teaching seminar last year, and I thought I'd try it again with the books I read in 2013. Sadly, my 2013 list is shorter than 2012, but what I did read, I read with much more gusto. #englishteacherprobz

So here goes, the books of 2013 in exactly 17 words:

*Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
Loathed book as 9th grader, but Pip's adventures in England are CAPTIVATING! Havisham: most creative character ever? (LOVED it!)

*The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls
Reading number three, never gets old.  Favorites: picking chicken for prostitute, Hitler loved dogs, et tahm seben. (LOVED it!)

*Othello by William Shakespeare
Green-eyed monster still just as pernicious; teaching Shakespeare is intimidating, y'all. Tried to channel inner Professor Marshall. (LOVED it!)

*The Chosen by  Chaim Potok
Coming of age friendship between Jewish boys (Orthodox and Hasid). Very informative about Judaism minutiae, ergo dry. (Liked it.)

Where'd You Go, Bernadette by Maria Semple
Fun epistolary story about a crazy mother's neighborly spats and eventual disappearance in Antarctica, needed another chapter. (Liked it.)

We Are Water by Wally Lamb
Disturbing and crazy and beautiful and engaging and enraging and gerbils and painting and lesbians, that's Wally. (Liked it.)

The Interestings by Meg Wolitzer
Friendships and romances and histrionics from summer camp extend into adulthood, very much A Marriage Plot feel. (Meh. Kind of liked it.)

Beautiful Ruins by Jess Walter
Sweeping continents and eras, a sweeping novel about Richard Burton's pitiful mistress and a wannabe movie developer. (Loved it.)

Mysteries of Pittsburgh by Michael Chabon
Summertime adventures and experimentations of twenty-somethings. Crime rings, book warehouses and a girl named Phlox, maybe? (Liked it.)

City of Women by David Gillham
WWII era married Gentile woman falls in love with and forsakes (?) Jewish "Jew collector." Movie theater sex. (Liked it.)

Those last two were from January, clearly. And the *ed books were texts I taught.