Tuesday, January 01, 2013

TOP 25 BOOKS READ IN 2012






This past year I read 138 books; not too bad but not as many as I had planned to read. Some were for reading groups, some were for research, some I read just to keep up with the unusually large amount of good novels published in 2012. This list is compiled from the ones that gave me the largest kick or pleasure or just plain awe.

I got an iPad for my birthday and navigated the changes necessary to read in a digital format. It turned out to be fine and an e-reader is especially good for reading those huge tomes that give me reader's elbow. Like most modern people, I am now hooked on being able to get a book in minutes without having to leave the house. 

My goal this year is to read 161 books. That is one more than my highest ever total books read in one year. Please, let's not have anyone I love getting sick, dying, or deciding to need me for large chunks of time. My mantra will be, "Leave me alone, I am reading." I can dream, can't I?


THE LIST


Among Others, Jo Walton
As Though She Were Sleeping, Elias Khoury
Childhood's End, Arthur C Clarke
The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test, Tom Wolfe
The Golden Mean, Annabel Lyon
Go Tell It on the Mountain, James Baldwin
Henderson The Rain King, Saul Bellow
Horse Heaven, Jane Smiley
How the Dead Dream, Lydia Millet*
The Inner Circle, T C Boyle
Last Night in Montreal, Emily St John Mandel
Lovers and Tyrants, Francine du Plessix Gray
NW, Zadie Smith*
The Orphan Master's Son, Adam Johnson
Our Tragic Universe, Scarlett Thomas
A Partial History of Lost Causes, Jennifer duBois
The Patagonian Hare, Claude Lanzmann
The Revised Fundamentals of Caregiving, Jonathan Evison
Stoner, John Williams
Telegraph Avenue, Michael Chabon
Tete-A-Tete, Hazel Rowley
Truman, David McCullough
White Teeth, Zadie Smith
Who Fears Death, Nnedi Okorafur
Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal?, Jeanette Winterson


* review coming soon. The rest of the list can be found reviewed on this blog.

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