Best Books of the Year
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The Boston Globe Best Books of the Year 2013

The Boston Globe Best Books of the Year 2013 names 23 books across 2 categories. 10 of them also won or were shortlisted for an award.

Fiction

  1. Bleeding Edge by Thomas Pynchonsource (opens in a new tab)
  2. Claire of the Sea Light by Edwidge Danticatsource (opens in a new tab)
  3. How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia by Mohsin Hamidsource (opens in a new tab)
  4. My Struggle, Book Two: A Man in Love by Karl Ove Knausgaard, translated by Don Bartlettsource (opens in a new tab)
  5. Tenth of December by George Saunderssource (opens in a new tab)
  6. The Good Lord Bird by James McBridesource (opens in a new tab)
  7. The Hired Man by Aminatta Fornasource (opens in a new tab)
  8. The Isle of Youth by Laura van den Bergsource (opens in a new tab)
  9. The Story of a New Name by Elena Ferrantesource (opens in a new tab)
  10. The Woman Upstairs by Claire Messudsource (opens in a new tab)
  11. Vampires in the Lemon Grove by Karen Russellsource (opens in a new tab)

Nonfiction

  1. Book of Ages: The Life and Opinions of Jane Franklin by Jill Leporesource (opens in a new tab)
  2. Candy: A Century of Panic and Pleasure by Samira Kawashsource (opens in a new tab)
  3. Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood, and the Prison of Belief by Lawrence Wrightsource (opens in a new tab)
  4. Holding Silvan: A Brief Life by Monica Wesolowskasource (opens in a new tab)
  5. Margaret Fuller: A New American Life by Megan Marshallsource (opens in a new tab)
  6. Stay: A History of Suicide and the Philosophies Against It by Jennifer Michael Hechtsource (opens in a new tab)
  7. Sugar in the Blood: A Family's Story of Slavery and Empire by Andrea Stuartsource (opens in a new tab)
  8. The Book of My Lives by Aleksandar Hemonsource (opens in a new tab)
  9. The Child Catchers: Rescue, Trafficking, and the New Gospel of Adoption by Kathryn Joycesource (opens in a new tab)
  10. The Heir Apparent: A Life of Edward VII, the Playboy Prince by Jane Ridleysource (opens in a new tab)
  11. The Skies Belong to Us: Love and Terror in the Golden Age of Hijacking by Brendan I. Koernersource (opens in a new tab)
  12. To the End of June: The Intimate Life of American Foster Care by Cris Beamsource (opens in a new tab)

About the The Boston Globe Best Books of the Year

The Globe's year-end Fiction and Nonfiction critics' picks. Picks from the same year-end package for mystery, poetry, sports, graphic novels, science, New England, children's, middle grade, and young adult books are left out. 2006-2009 lists are the boxed title lists that ran with the year-end fiction and nonfiction essays on boston.com. In 2011 and 2014 each section was the combined picks of two or three critics; books picked by more than one critic appear once. Missing years: no 2010 adult list could be found in the Wayback Machine (only a children's list was archived). No list is ranked. bostonglobe.com robots.txt blocks AI crawlers, so no Globe page was fetched directly: Globe pages were read through Wayback Machine captures, and the 2022-2024 lists were read from the Flourish card embeds the Globe pages load. Secondary sources: yearendlists.com copies of the 2020-2025 lists were used to cross-check counts and to correct three page typos (Walter Mosley, Natasha Trethewey, and the title Loved and Missed). Other page typos were corrected against existing catalog entries (Tenth of December, Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay, Karl Ove Knausgaard, Jodi Kantor) and against the publisher listing for Helon Habila's Travelers. The 2016 list files Svetlana Alexievich's Secondhand Time under Fiction, as the Globe did.

Organization: The Boston Globe. Official site (opens in a new tab)

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