My 2012 Selections

[Mandy Muffin]

Here are 12 books I liked enough to recommend that I read in 2012:

Defending Jacob, Landay

The Devil in the White City, Larson

The Art of Fielding, Harback

The Paris Wife, McClain

Gone Girl, Flynn

Sarah's Key,  DeRosnay

11/22/63, King

V is for Vengeance, Grafton

Save Me, Scottoline

Winter of the World, Follett

The Weird Sisters, Brown

Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, Grahame -Smith

[Ioruach]

I have only read one of the above books, Defending Jacob, and it would be on my list of 12, if I would have such a list.  

But I will use this post to get in a word about the best book I read all year and one of the best I have read in many years.  It is The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien.  It is often cited as the best book to come out of the Vietnam War and has been compared to All Quiet on the Western Front.  I am an old duffer and don’t usually admit these things, but passages in this book brought tears to my eyes.   The book is so good, not because of what it says about the war, but how it says  it.  Lyrical and beautiful prose.

[Grammie Sue]

Wow I am so out of touch.  I have not heard of any of those books except V is for Vengeance and Devil In The White City which I would love to read.  But that won't happen for a while.   Looks like a good list.  I recognize the authors of many of them.

[Mandy Muffin]

I think it would be great if people shared the best books they read last year.  One, two, five or twelve, doesn't matter.  I will admit that I would never have read two of the books had they not been featured by my local library: 

The Weird Sisters: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/17/books/17book.html?_r=0  I am an avid reader of Shakespeare, having a minor in English Lit from college and had just completed a reread of Hamlet.  I read a play a month.  This gem caught my eye and I thoroughly enjoyed the tale of three sisters who were named after Shakespeare characters dealing with a crisis caused by the cancer in their mother.  

Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter:  http://www.amazon.com/Abraham-Lincoln-Vampire-Seth-Grahame-Smith/dp... I don't usually read the vampire genre, although I delight in the occasional novel of this type if well done.  This tale will not disappoint as I had just finished the Bill O'Reilly, "Killing Lincoln" book and always am curious about another take on the life and times of this fellow Kentuckian.  What a joyride this tale is.  And there is a movie that I have not seen. 

[rapa]

Mandy, at the first of the year there will be a post asking for the best and worst book read during 2012.  It's currently on the BOOKOHOLIC ThinkBeDo site and will be transferred to this site when TBD closes on Dec. 31.  Am sure there will lots of books shared when the thread is moved. BOOKOHOLICS has traditionally done these best/worst lists at the first of a new year.

[Mandy Muffin]

Thank you Rapa, I had been moderating another site on the old EONS and had not kept current.

[rapa]

Of the 12 books you listed, Mandy, I've read 7.  Have never been able to relate to vampires! :)

[Mudqueen]

I liked the Weird Sisters, but like Rapa, can't really get into vampires.

[Mudqueen]

I will have to check out "the things they carried". I read Caleb's Crossing, The Paris Wife, The Orhardist, The Wild Child,Arcadia, Gold and The Chaparone, Unbroken, age of Miracles and Love Anthony, many others but those are the ones that stand out.

[Eaglewoman]

I have only read three, Defending Jacob,Sarahs Key and Abraham Lincoln Vampire hunter.The Paris wife is on one of book clubs list.

[Jick]

Thanks for the list.  I've read " Devil...." and 11/22/63  and liked them both. Almost downloaded "...Vampire Hunter" on Kindle this morning, maybe I still will before it goes off sale at midnight.

[Eaglewoman]

I did not like Lincoln the Vampire hunter and most of the book club didn't like it either.

[Mandy Muffin]

I think you have to be in the mood for a good vampire book.  I absolutely love it when a skilled writer takes an historical theme and puts the vampire slant on it. My last years readings included "Mozart's Blood" by Louise  Marley.  It was romp through the world of opera that thoroughly entertained me.  http://www.amazon.com/Mozarts-Blood-Louise-Marley/dp/B005IUS09A