Around the World discussion

Now that we're approaching the end of 2013:

1. Which book captivated you from this challenge, that you would highly recommend to those of us planning for 2014?

2. Which book was a disappointment, even if you didn't finish it?

Several of my favourites this year were ones I already had on my bookshelves and read again for this challenge, or ones I would have read anyway because they were on the Booker list. Some I hunted out for the challenge and liked a lot are:
Paranoia: A Novel
Ali and Nino: A Love Story
When The Edelweiss Flowers Flourish
The Rock of Tanios
and I will add this one, although I am still reading it
We, the Drowned

No books were really disappointing, but I was anticipating liking this one more than I did:
The Mosquito Coast

I read some great books in 2013.

My favorites for the year with 5-star ratings are:

Lawrence in Arabia: War, Deceit, Imperial Folly and the Making of the Modern Middle East
When a Crocodile Eats the Sun: A Memoir of Africa
Americanah
Half of a Yellow Sun
I Am Malala: The Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban
How the Light Gets In
The House by the Dvina: A Russian Childhood
The Book of Fate
Glimpses of Bengal Selected from the Letters of Sir Rabindranath Tagore
And the Mountains Echoed
Rules of Civility
What is the What

Books I also enjoyed with 4-star ratings are:

The Yellow Birds
Cleopatra's Daughter
Mao's Last Dancer
How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia
Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead
Inferno
The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down: A Hmong Child, Her American Doctors, and the Collision of Two Cultures
Orphan Train
The House on Paradise Street
A Suitable Boy

Disappointments because I thought I would have enjoyed them much more are:

Bring Up the Bodies
Beautiful Ruins
A Constellation of Vital Phenomena
Temple of a Thousand Faces
Life After Life
Anya
The Housekeeper and the Professor

All in all though, I've had a wonderful reading year in 2013. Thanks to Around the World in 52 Books as I've picked up some great recommendations from many of you, which I might not have come across on my own. Thanks a ton. Here's to some more great reading in 2014!

Val wrote: "Several of my favourites this year were ones I already had on my bookshelves and read again for this challenge, or ones I would have read anyway because they were on the Booker list. Some I hunted ..."

mosquito coast...i couldn't wait to finish it.

Hah! Totally vindicated of bias with Heart of Darkness!!

My top books for this challenge read in 2013:

1. A Constellation of Vital Phenomena by Anthony Marra, set in Chechnya
2. Five Star Billionaire by Tash Aw - a Malaysian author, set in China
3. Mastering the Art of Soviet Cooking: A Memoir of Food and Longing by Anya von Bremzen (I even made my main dish for Thanksgiving from this book!)
4. A Universal History of the Destruction of Books: From Ancient Sumer to Modern-Day Iraq by Fernando Baez

Disappointing books, mostly less than what I expected:
1. The Dinner by Herman Koch
2. Waiting for the Barbarians by J.M. Coetzee