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- _celebrian (
_celebrian) wrote,
Some Favorite Books from 2012
As usual, I don't think I could really narrow it all the way down to 5 favorites, so I'll do it in categories and waffle a bit about it anyway. ;-) In no particular order within categories.
Fiction
- 11/22/63 by Stephen King
- The Farseer Trilogy by Robin Hobb
- The Rose Garden by Susanna Kearsley (or maybe her The Winter Sea - I liked both a lot)
- The View From Mount Joy by Lorna Landvik
- A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin
Honorable Mentions:
- Sky Burial by Xinran
- Killed at the Whim of a Hat by Colin Cotterill
- The Book of Summers by Emylia Hall
- The Angel’s Game by Carlos Ruiz Zafon
- Interview with the Vampire and The Vampire Lestat by Anne Rice
- The Rook by Daniel O’Malley
- Alice Bliss by Laura Harrington
- Winter of the World by Ken Follett
- The Twelve by Justin Cronin
- Stephanie Plum series by Janet Evanovich [Not great literature, but a lot of fun! Especially since I lived in NJ. ;-D]
- Iron Druid Chronicles by Kevin Hearne, which I added in a bit late last year because I had just started the series. I've enjoyed all the books and the novella I've read and I look forward to finding time to read a couple of short stories too. If I hadn't talked about them last year, they'd probably be in the top 5 list, but I try to pick new things for that.
Non-Fiction
- Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand
- Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach
- Dewey: The Small-Town Library Cat Who Touched the world by Vicki Myron and Bret Witter
- Moonwalking with Einstein: The Art and Science of Remembering Everything by Joshua Foer
- Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking by Susan Cain
Honorable Mentions:
- Curious Behavior: Yawning, Laughing, Hiccuping, and Beyond by Robert R. Provine [This one is worth a look for the beginning of the chapter on farting, if nothing else. LOL]
- The Ledge: An Adventure Story of Friendship and Survival on Mount Rainier by Jim Davidson and Kevin Vaughan
- Washington: A Life by Ron Chernow
Young Adult
- Bartimaeus Trilogy by Jonathan Stoud
- The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster
- Okay for Now by Gary D. Schmidt
- Wonderstruck by Brian Selznick
- Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs
Honorable Mentions:
- The Outsiders by S E Hinton
- Godless by Pete Hautman
- War Horse by Michael Morpurgo
Classics
- The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas in collaboration with Auguste Maquet
- The History of Tom Jones, A Foundling by Henry Fielding
- The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby by Charles Dickens
- The Grand Sophy by Georgette Heyer (I hope this counts as classic - it was published in 1950)
- Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
Honorable Mentions:
As in other years, I didn't want to repeat a bunch, so I didn't include any Jane Austen, but I loved Persuasion and liked Emma just a tad less again this year.
- The Hobbit by JRR Tolkien [Also a repeat for me.]
- The Godfather by Mario Puzo [Also probably too new to be classic, but it felt "classic" to me.]
As always, I just need to stop myself because as I keep scanning my list I keep adding things. LOL