Out of the 134 books/stories I've read in 2013 so far, and without counting re-reads, I've given five stars on Goodreads to eight books/stories.
"Objectively" (or as close as I can get when trying to rate books), they're not necessarily the
best books I read this year (of course
The Luminaries is more "worthy" than a flippant and funny Doctor Who short story), but they're the ones I
loved, the ones that made me laugh or cry (sometimes both in the same book), and the ones that stayed with me even after I was done with them.
Skulduggery Pleasant: Last Stand of Dead Men - Derek Landy
Tanith Low in the Maleficent Seven - Derek Landy
Doctor Who: The Mystery of the Haunted Cottage - Derek Landy
The Beekeeper's Apprentice - Laurie R. King
Justice Hall - Laurie R. King
Unsouled - Neal Shusterman
The Ask and the Answer - Patrick Ness
Monsters of Men - Patrick Ness
In addition, I've given four stars to 60 books (and I expect the one I'm currently reading will end up there as well), so all in all, it's been a very good reading year for me - I've rated more books highly than in the last two years, and I don't think it's because I've got less discerning - if anything, it's the opposite - but because I've got better in picking books I have a reasonable expectation of enjoying.
General highlights of the year include, well, anything by Derek Landy, but also my this year's new big favourite "find" - the Mary Russell series (all the ones I didn't rate as five star books got four stars), Patrick Ness's Chaos Walking trilogy,
The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton,
Great North Road by Peter Hamilton,
Earth Girl and
Earth Star by Janet Edwards,
The Cuckoo's Calling by Robert Galbraith,
Wild Justice by Kelley Armstrong,
One Salt Sea by Seanan McGuire ... and I should probably stop here before mentioning all the other four star reads too.
