Ladies and gentlemen – the year is almost over. We know, we know … it went by far too fast! We’ve had plenty of good days (like Market Wharf selling out),  checked out new attractions (like Ripley’s Aquarium) and ate a cronut burger. We also read plenty of good books so instead of our usual monthly book list, we’ve compiled a list of our favourite 10 books that we read this year. Some are completely new while others have graced the pages of Context in the past – and not all of them were written in 2013, hey would you rather us be behind in our reading or our work? That’s what we thought!

Take a look!

1. The Orenda – A tale set in early Canada, it involves the ongoing battle between the Huron and Iroquois people. This is the third book in the series, with protagonists that bridge generations.  So it’s kind of like the Assassin’s Creed video games, but in book form.  In all seriousness, this made the ScotiaBank Giller Prize long list – which means it’s a pretty great read.
2. The Postmortal – The book first takes place in 2019, where a cure for aging has been discovered – and subsequently, outlawed. What happens when things are outlawed? They hit the black market of course! The main character, John, takes the cure and then blogs about his life. More on it here.
3. Before I Go To Sleep – A horrible accident leaves Christine in a terrifying predicament: she loses her memory every single night so that when she wakes up she finds herself next to a strange man, in a strange bed, in a strange home. Captivating – more on it here.
4. The Power of Habit – If you’ve seen the movie Memento you know what life would be like with no short-term memory. This fascinating book by Charles Duhigg leads off with a case study about a real-life patient with no short-term memory, and illustrates how habits help him do everything from walk around the block to find a jar of peanuts in the kitchen cupboard. The author then uses case studies from organizations like P+G and Alcoholics Anonymous to show how the power of habit can change everything from the way we exercise and approach bad habits, to how a company can increase their annual profits.
5. The Son – If you’re into history, family sagas and power trips, then you must read Philip Meyer’s book. We read it and loved it – check our review here.
6. I Wear the Black Hat – Chuck Klosterman out did himself with this best-seller. The book is about bad guys and delves deep into why we sometimes like the villains and cheer them on. More on it here.
7. Divergent – So this book may be in the Teen section at the local Chapters but hey, it’s really good. They’re making a movie out of it next year so we decided to give it a shot. The lovely Customers Service rep at Chapters told us that we’d love it if we loved the Hunger Games, which we did, and so we picked it up. Like many popular YA books of today, Veronica Roth dives into a dystopian era where society is divided into different groups depending on different behaviours. These behaviours are enforced to better society – but we all know what happens when people are forced to do things right? Rebellion!
8. Orange is the New Black – Hands down the best thing to grace our television in a long time. And the fact that we watched the entire series over a span of two days made us go buy Piper Kerman’s book right away. More on it here.
9. An Astronaut’s Guide to Life – A book on space and fulfilling your dreams written by Canadian of the year Commander Chris Hadfield? Gold. We would list this book 10 times on this list if we could. More on it here.
10. The Rosie Project – A heartwarming book, and a perfect read to end the year.  Graeme Simsion’s debut novel is one of those books that you absolutely cannot put down. Genetics Professor Don Tillman is looking for the perfect life partner and thus creates a super intense questionnaire to weed out all but the perfect match, and ta-da! The Wife Project is born. But then Rosie walks into his office (PS she’s not his perfect match, according to his questionnaire) and she needs help finding her dad, and thus it becomes Rosie’s Project. It’s funny, it’s cute … it’s the perfect feel-good book.

There you have it – our favourite books of 2013. Did we miss any? Let us know below!

All of these books should be available at your local Toronto Public Library . We know we definitely can’t wait until the city’s 100th library is built adjacent to Library District so we can just shimmy on down to grab a book or two.