Top Ten books you read in 2012

Cafe Society
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My top ten:

  1. The Long Ships, Frans G. Bengtsson. Vikings! Hilarious book, first published in Sweden in the 1940’s.

  2. The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet, David Mitchell. Beautifully written historical fiction set in Japan at the turn of the 19th century.

  3. Guards, Guards!, Terry Pratchett. My first Pratchett! I read a few more in the Night Watch series this year, too.

  4. Julian Comstock: A Story of 22nd-Century America, Robert Charles Wilson. Folksy post-apocalyptic fiction.

  5. Freedom & Necessity, Steven Brust and Emma Bull. Historical, slightly fantastical novel set in England in 1849.

  6. Into Thin Air, Jon Krakauer. Fascinating account of the 1996 Everest Disaster.

  7. The Knife Man: The Extraordinary Life and Times of John Hunter, Father of Modern Surgery, Wendy Moore.

  8. Thus Was Adonis Murdered, Sarah Caudwell. Hilarious murder mystery/comedy of manners.

  9. Bangkok 8, John Burdett. Bizarre, darkly funny crime novel set in Bangkok, largely in the red-light district.

  10. China Mountain Zhang, Maureen F. McHugh. An elegant dystopian science fiction novel set in a future where China has become the dominant world power.

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That’s going on my list for this year. Thanks, KarlGauss!

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What a great idea for a thread!

Here are mine in no particular order…

The Swerve - Stephen Greenblatt

The Hydrogen Sonata - Iain Banks -

The Long Earth - Pratchett and Baxter

The Sisters Brothers - Patrick DeWitt

The Dog Stars - Peter Heller

This Book is Full of Spiders - David Wong

Angelmaker - Nick Harkaway

Blueprints of the Afterlife - Ryan Boudinot

Roadside Picnic - Arkady and Boris Strugatsky
and
The Disappearing Spoon - Sam Kean

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I’ve come across so many recommendations for** 2312**, by KSR, but can’t figure out why it only averages 3 stars on Amazon. Do you think this might be due to mainstream readers reading it and not quite appreciating it? Or is the book that flawed?

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I think it’s a great choice. I neglected to say above that in addition to revealing an aspect of ‘The War to End All Wars’ of which I was unaware, it’s also quite tragic - it focuses primarily on how those who dared question the sacrifice were vilified and punished; how families were torn apart. But tragic, as well, in the stories of senseless death and loss, each one personalized.

ETA: I am one-third through 11/22/63. Wow!

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Appointment in Samarra – John O’Hara – quintessential 1950’s middle class

The Snowman’s Children – Glenn Hirshberg – one of the more satisfying books in a newish genre that I haven’t seen a name for – books about adults remembering traumatic childhood events

Of Human Bondage – W. Somerset Maugham – waaaaaay better than the movie versions

The Revised Fundamentals of Caregiving – Jonathan Evison – road trip!

The Pilgrimage of Harold Fry – Rachel Joyce – another road trip!

Gone Girl – Gillian Flynn – nobody to like, but a fun read

The Absolutist – John Boyne – WWI and a personal aftermath – books about WWI are the saddest ever, even more so than other wars

San Miguel – T.C. Boyle – two families, 50 years apart, making a life in extreme circumstances

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Okay, I’m home now and have had a chance to look over things . . . in fact, I think I got the top 5 right (above). Here are the rest:

  1. The Avengers (Rich Cohen) - no, not that Avengers! This one is an extraordinary account of Jewish partisans in Latvia/Eastern Front during WWII. Truly thrilling and inspiring, how could I have known so very little about this group of (mostly unsung) heroes.

  2. Miracle at Philadelphia (Catherine Drinker Bowen) - as a Canadian who had little sense of the moment or its import, this story of the Constitutional Convention was particularly enthralling for me. It felt like I was eavesdropping on some of the greatest minds of the era.

  3. Ghost in the Wires (Kevin Mitnick) - the jaw-dropping tales of the world’s best known, and once ‘most wanted’, computer hacker. Mitnick might even be the hero he tries to depict himself as!

  4. Hedy’s Folly (Richard Rhodes) - Hedy Lamarr. 1930’s actress and sex pot, right? Hedy Lamarr. Inventor of multiplexed guided torpedo control? You bet! You think I’m joking, right? Not at all. At least now, far too late mind you, she’s finally getting recognition for the genius and patriot she was.

  5. Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors (James Hornfischer) - the incredible story of the incredible courage of the incredibly few told incredibly well. This chronicle of the ‘Battle off Samar’ has been described as the “US Navy’s finest hour”. Hornfischer did those heroes justice in this absolutely gripping (and inspiring) account.

And, one honourable mention: Operation Mincemeat, yet another work about deception and double-agents by the prolific Ben MacIntyre. This one’s about the well known but heretofore poorly detailed story of having a British officer’s corpse loaded with “top secret” documents (supposedly from an airplane that had crashed into the sea) find its way to the Nazis. Of course, all the documents were phony and had been designed to mislead the Germans regarding the imminent invasion of southern Europe (Sicily). One of those “you can’t make this stuff up” type of reads. Well written, suspenseful, and often quite humorous, it is a terrific book.

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I loved this book.

I highly recommend, should you ever happen to be in London, visiting the Hunterian collection. It contains some of Hunter’s rather gruesome artifacts - like his early attempts at Dr. Moreau-style human/animal graftings …

Also, I read an article somewhere that speculates that Dr. Hunter may have been responsible for arranging (or at least inspiring) a number of murders, for which he was never caught. The evidence is highly circumstantial, though - basically, that his “resurrection men” could not have found enough recently dead women to complete his monumental study of the development of the fetus in utero “naturally” …

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OK, I’m back. I see from my notes that I read 62 books this year, which is rather high for me. In my first pass through the list I noted 16 that I particularly enjoyed, but I’ve whittled those down to the Top Ten. In no particular order:

Elizabeth the Queen by Sally Bedell Smith - A good bio, exploring Elizabeth II’s public and private lives, by an American writer.

Full Dark, No Stars by Steven King - Collection of four short stories by an obscure Maine author. “A Good Marriage” was the best, I thought.

Home Town by Tracy Kidder - Nonfiction; an affectionate portrait of the people of mostly-idyllic Southampton, Mass.

The Secret State by Peter Hennessy - Fascinating account of how the British government planned and prepared for the Cold War and, God forbid, World War III.

The Good Father by Noah Hawley - Novel about a dad trying to discover why his estranged drifter son might have killed an Obamaesque candidate. Puzzling and chilling in all the right ways.

Locke & Key: Clockworks by Joe Hill, illustr. by Gabriel Rodriguez - Latest installment in the Lovecraft, Mass. graphic novel series - funny, scary and very well-drawn.

Stay Awake by Dan Chaon - A fine short story collection - some a little creepy, most not, but just about all worth a look - by an Ohio author I like.

On the Night Plain by J. Robert Lennon - Bleak, quiet novel about a hard-luck sheep-ranching family in the American West just after World War II.

Marina and Lee by Priscilla Johnson McMillan - Detailed, engrossing nonfiction about Lee Harvey Oswald, his young, naive Russian wife, and their troubled marriage, and how it led them both to Dallas in 1963.

Tool of the Trade by Joe Haldeman - A re-read of one of my favorite books, a sf/espionage novel of the Cold War era. A deep-cover Soviet mole is flushed out of hiding when his wife is kidnapped, and decides to change everything. Outstanding book.

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“The Night Circus,” “Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close,” “Memoirs of an Imaginary Friend,” “The Book Thief,” “City of Thieves” and “Gone Girl.”

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I have this on my shelf. Have read it multiple times. Good book by one of my favorite authors.

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Have you seen, or perhaps you have, the illustrated version? Many of the ‘illustrations’ are exquisite.

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I can see that this is going to be an expensive thread for me. :frowning:

But please, keep 'em comming … :wink:

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Going to have to track that down.

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Mine had a section of color photographs of the clocks - gorgeous steampunk creations - except they’re real!

on my TBR. My wishlist at PaperbackSwap is basically full now.

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Three Gillian Flynn novels, Sharp Objects, Gone Girl, and Dark Places were all good reads.

Sometimes I enjoy books made for young readers, and especially likedThe Knife of Never Letting Goand the rest of the Chaos Walking trilogy by Patrick Ness.

Also This World We Live In by Susan Pfeffer, and the other two books in the Last Survivors Trilogy were good post apocalypse fare. I liked them better than than Howie’s Wool books, even if they were meant for the younger set.

Perhaps I’m still just a youth at heart. :slight_smile:

The Hunger Games held my interest, but I had a hard slog with the second one and have the third on my kindle but haven’t read it yet.

And I read Stephen King’s The Long Walk twice in the last year, re-read IT and The Dead Zone, and listened to Under the Dome, which incidentally lasted on a road trip all the way from Spokane to the UP of Michigan, and partway down the Blue Ridge Parkway. I didn’t think it sucked as some here have said or I would have given up on it in South Dakota.

I read Dr. Oliver Sacks The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat, which was an interesting read.

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At Home -Bill Bryson

Strategos by Gordon Doherty. Historical military fictions set in Byzantine Empire. Good historic fiction, especially interesting because I know so little about Byzantine Empire.

Ishmael Toffee by Roger Smith. Dark, dark crime fiction set in South Africa. All of his books are really good but this novella really stood out for me. I can’t recommend his books enough. I devoured all of them this year.

Mountain Man by Keith Blackmore. Zombie fiction with a dark sense of humuor.

Game of Thrones series.

Earth Abides by George Stewart. Older classic PAW fiction.

Wool Omnibus by Hugh Howey. Dystopian fiction. Outstanding.

The Remaining by DJ Molles-Fast zombie fiction. His scenario is actually conceivable which makes it scarier.

That’s all that really stands out. I read lots of crap.:o

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I put this on my wishlist. I seem to remember that the TV mini-series based on this book was good.

I’d love to - if I ever get to go back to London I’ll definitely go see it.

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bup, my book club raced through The Reader several years back and we all really liked it. Have you seen the movie? Pretty good, but the book’s still better.

Rala, I have to say The Robots of Dawn is one of my favorite Asimov books, and perhaps his very best robot novel. I’ve read it three times over the years, and it got better every time.

Yellowval and Eleanor of Aquitaine, you’re right, Into Thin Air was fantastic. I was struck by the commercialization of climbing Mt. Everest, and how that led to disaster.

KarlGauss, I read Miracle at Philadelphia in college, and it’s still one of the best books about the Constitutional Convention. Check out Ron Chernow’s Alexander Hamilton for a big, very readable bio of one of the Convention’s key players.

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  1. Raymond Carver - Cathedral
  2. Charles Bukowski - Ham on Rye
  3. Elmore Leonard - Unknown Man No. 89
  4. Daniel Woodrell - Winter’s Bone
  5. Elizabeth Taylor - Blaming
  6. J. D. Salinger - Nine Stories
  7. Richard Yates - Revolutionary Road
  8. Stewart O’ Nan - Last Night at the Lobster
  9. Cormac McCarthy - The Road
  10. Sean Howe - Marvel Comics: The Untold Story

With honorable mentions for The Question, the 80’s DC comics series by Dennis O’Neil and Denys Cowan, and for the current Hawkeye comic by Matt Fraction and David Aja.