I know it’s the first Monday of the month, and you probably came here expecting the regular “What Are You Reading” post. But, since it’s the first Monday of the year, we’re going to use today as our retrospective to discuss what we read in the twelve months that comprised 2013. If you commented on the First Monday posts last year, just click here to go back and look at what you posted.

I’m going to break mine down into categories instead of doing it chronologically (for that, you can visit me on Goodreads and look at my Books Read in 2013 list). And since my list is pretty long, I’m going to break it into two posts, today and tomorrow.

Audiobooks
If it weren’t for audiobooks, there would have been a few months of 2013 in which I didn’t do any reading. Here are the audiobooks I listened to in 2013, ranked by my rating. Each title is linked to my Goodreads review page. Those marked with an asterisk were re-reads.

1. A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens; read by Jim Dale. Overall Rating: 4.5 Stars
2. The Boleyn Inheritance* by Philippa Gregory; read by Davina Porter, Bianca Amato, and Charlotte Parry. Overall Rating: 4.5 Stars
3. The Tudor Secret* by C.W. Gortner; read by Steve West. Overall Rating: 4.5 Stars
4. Under The Dome by Stephen King; read by Raul Esparza. Overall Rating: 4.5 Stars
5. Flowers from the Storm by Laura Kinsale; read by Nicholas Boulton. Overall Rating: 4.25 Stars
6. Innocent Traitor by Alison Weir; read by Stina Nielsen, Davina Porter, Bianca Amato, Jenny Sterlin, Jill Tanner, Gerard Doyle, & Robert Ian Mackenzie. Overall Rating: 4.25 Stars
7. Sycamore Row by John Grisham; read by Michael Beck. Overall Rating: 4.25 Stars



8. The Dead Travel Fast* by Deanna Raybourn; read by Charlotte Parry. Overall Rating: 4.25 Stars
9. The Tudor Conspiracy by C.W. Gortner; read by Steve West. Overall Rating: 4.25 Stars
10. Scandalous Desires (Maiden Lane, #3) by Elizabeth Hoyt; read by Ashford McNabb. Overall Rating: 4.125 Stars
11. Thief of Shadows (Maiden Lane, #4) by Elizabeth Hoyt; read by Ashford McNabb. Overall Rating: 4.125 Stars
12. Seduction & Scandal* (The Brethren Guardians, #1) by Charlotte Featherstone; read by Helen Stern. Overall Rating: 4 Stars
13. The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle (The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, #7) by Arthur Conan Doyle; read by Alan Cumming. Overall Rating: 4 Stars
14. The Six Wives of Henry VIII by Alison Weir; read by Simon Prebble. Overall Rating: 4 Stars



15. Duke of Midnight (Maiden Lane series, Book 6) by Elizabeth Hoyt; read by Claudia Harris. Overall Rating: 3.75 Stars
16. Her Royal Spyness (Her Royal Spyness Mysteries, #1) by Rhys Bowen; read by Katherine Kellgren. Overall Rating: 3.75 Stars
17. The Queen’s Fool by Philippa Gregory; read by Bianca Amato. Overall Rating: 3.75 Stars
18. I Thee Wed by Amanda Quick; read by Barbara Rosenblat. Overall Rating: 3.5 Stars
19. Lord of Darkness (Maiden Lane, #5) by Elizabeth Hoyt; read by Emma Taylor. Overall Rating: 3.5 Stars
20. Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking by Susan Cain; read by Kathe Mazur. Overall Rating: 3.5 Stars
21. The Life of Elizabeth I by Alison Weir; read by Davina Porter. Overall Rating: 3.25 Stars
22. The White Queen (The Cousins’ War, #1) by Philippa Gregory; read by Susan Lyons. Overall Rating: 2 Stars
23. Outlander by Diana Gabaldon; read by Davina Porter. Overall Rating: 1 Star

This very robust list of audiobooks taught me a few things this year, the most important being that a narrator can make or break a book (see the reviews for Lord of Darkness and I Thee Wed) and even a great narrator can’t save a book I just don’t like (see the reviews for the last three on the list—despite good narrators, one of which did two of these three books—I couldn’t finish them).

Did you listen to audiobooks in 2013? What were your favorites? Who are your favorite/least favorite narrators?