I ended 2013 pretty strong (at least on the pages read front)

Thank goodness for vacation at the end of the year.  Otherwise, December would have been pretty pathetic.  So away we go!

Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy by Helen Fielding (386 pages).  Bridget is back!  And is now a widow (let's all shed a tear from Mark Darcy, shall we?!)  I 100% enjoyed reuniting with Bridg.  In typical Bridget fashion, she is still scatterbrained.  And still unlucky in love.  Well, sort of.  Daniel is still around (and shockingly a rather good stepfather to Bridget's two kids).  I had totally forgotten how much fun her diary style of writing is.

Mrs. Poe by Lynn Cullen (310 pages).  This was my book club book, and the one that I chose.  In 1845, Edgar Allan Poe met Frances Osgood, a children's book author and budding poetess.  Frances' husband, a famous portrait painter, had abandoned her and their two daughters for younger, richer women.  Frances, Edgar and Edgar's wife Virginia struck up a friendship.  Virginia was young and sick, actually dying of consumption during the time Frances knew her.  Frances tried to keep her relationship with the Poes strictly platonic.  But eventually, the passion between her and Edgar became too great to ignore.  They traveled to Boston for an evening, where their daughter Fanny Fay was conceived.  Frances knew that they had no future together.  Her philandering husband agreed to raise Fanny Fay as his own.  The last time Frances saw the Poes, Virginia was days from death.  As it turns out, Edgar wasn't too far behind her.  I am a huge fan of historical fiction and this one was right up my alley.  As enjoyable as The Paris Wife or Z or any of the other recent historical fictions I have read.

Divergent by Veronica Roth (487 pages).  This book had been suggested by more than one person.  And now a movie has been made based on it.  So I decided to give it a read.  In dystopian Chicago, you are forced to chose a faction at the age of 16.  The options are Abnegation, Amity, Candor, Dauntless and Erudite.  If you don't fit into just one faction, you are Divergent.  Beatrice undergoes testing, just like everyone else, to learn her faction.  Turns out, she doesn't belong with the rest of her family in Abnegation- she is Divergent.  On the day of her Choosing Ceremony, she switches factions and chooses Dauntless.  As she begins to go through initiations, Tris (as she chooses to be called now) begins to learn more about herself and even her family.  She also begins to learn more about her society, a society that is no longer content with different factions.  The day she finally becomes a Dauntless is the day society erupts into war.  I really, really loved this book.  Like read it in 24 hours loved it!

Insurgent by Veronica Roth (525 pages).  Book 2 in the Divergent series.  In this book, Tris and her love Tobias (her former instructor) are facing a new world.  The Erudite are poised to take over and destroy the factions.  For what reason, only their leader knows.  But even she is powerless against the Divergents (apparently, there are a lot more of them than people realized).  The factions splinter and find themselves allied in very strange ways, including with the factionless (those who don't fit in).  But they learn that the fences that surround them serve a greater purpose.  Sounds like their society was some sort of experiment.  Hopefully, book 3 goes into more detail about that!  Read this one in about 24 hours as well.

Allegiant by Veronica Roth (526 pages).  Book 3 in the Divergent series.  I hate it when authors change their style mid-series.  Tris has been the narrator for 2 books.  Now we switch between Tris and Tobias as narrators?!  Although, by the end, it made sense.  In this book, we finally find out what has been happening this whole time.  After Purity Wars nearly destroyed the country, it was determined that the "genetically damaged" could eventually be made "genetically pure" again.  Experimental cities were set up, Chicago being one of them.  As those in power outside the fence realized what was going on inside the fence, they wanted to use a serum to erase all memories.  Fortunately, Tris and her friends were too smart for them.  Eventually, Chicago became a new city, factionless and healing.  This is one of the few series I've read that I didn't have serious issues with at least one of the books.  I enjoyed all three!

So that was in for December.  5 books and 2,234 pages!  Not too bad.  As for 2013 as a whole, I know I had some slow months, but I feel pretty good.  60 books.  15,577 pages.  That's a lot of reading!