My top books of 2013 according to Goodreads

Wordsmack is back from holiday! And this year we will be bringing you some amazing books. In the meantime though, if you're looking for recommendations, you can go to my Goodreads profile. I am now the 11th top reviewer on Goodreads in SA.

In 2013 I fell just shy of my target of 50 books with 47 books. Here are my five-star books:

And some local favourites I enjoyed this year (I'm only including one of our own):

To see the full list, click here.

Speculative fiction we recently splurged on

I went to the Bloody Parchment event at Book Lounge in Cape Town and spent way too much money on books. I think it was worth it though. I got the following:

The Sandman Volume 1



Neil Gaiman's The Sandman series has got to be the definitive graphic novel series of all time. I have only (embarrassingly) recently gotten into them, but I would recommend them to any adventurous reader who likes to be challenged (and who doesn't mind a few scary dreams).

Something Wicked Volume 2



Acclaimed as South Africa's best speculative science fiction and horror anthology, this book contains some incredible stories by some big names in South Africa - including our own Abi Godsell. If you'd like to see an author's career take off, buy this book and be there at the beginning.

The Root Cellar and Other Stories



The Bloody Parchment competition is going from strength to strength every year and this anthology combines the best of the most recent horror short stories coming out of South Africa. Go read it if you want to be creeped out of your socks.