More books are being published than ever before — how can you possibly decide what to read? Here are a few we loved in 2013.
What is a "best book"?
Storytelling? Characterization? Prose? Depth? Innovation? Why are some books held up and proclaimed to be "the best," while others barely attract notice? WE PROBABLY CANNOT ANSWER THESE QUESTIONS. More writing is being published now than ever before in human history. No one could read every work of fiction published in 2013, so, for us, there are no "best books." There are only the books that mean something to you. The books you love. The titles below are the works of fiction that BuzzFeed staff members and contributors couldn't put down this year (in no particular order). What are yours?
The Flamethrowers by Rachel Kushner
Kushner's second book is effortlessly erudite, dropping an anonymous narrator — nicknamed Reno — in and out of the downtown New York art scene of the '70s, Italian anarchist gangs and salt-flat motorbike speed trials. For all its laudable set pieces, The Flamethrowers is essentially a coming-of-age novel — Kushner plots Reno's adventures and false starts and insecurities with a wonderfully wondering pace and inventive sentence after inventive sentence.
Recommended for: The person who loves motorcycles, New York City's art scene, and political upheaval, which is to say any cool person you know.
—Alex Naidus, BuzzFeed staff writer
Via therumpus.net
Twelve Tribes of Hattie by Ayana Mathis
Beginning in 1923, Mathis' debut novel introduces us to Hattie Shepherd, the soon-to-be mother of 12 children, as she holds her family together with what best can be described as "tough love," but, more aptly, "ice-cold love."
Recommended for: The reader who loves stories about families that give every member of the clan a chance to have his or her say.
—Saeed Jones, BuzzFeed LGBT editor
Via media.npr.org
