Best of the “Best” Book Lists 6
I love reading the end of the year “best” book lists that are appearing everywhere. I get lots of ideas of what to read next from these lists. I especially like it when I know the person whose list it is, and when it’s unlike most others that I see. This list, from my good friend Lillian Dabney, fits all those criteria. Here are her 2012 Top Books:
1. Les Miserables – Victor Hugo
2. David Copperfield – Charles Dickens
3. The Sisters Brothers – Patrick Dewitt
4. This Side of Brightness – Colum McCann
5. Winter Journal – Paul Auster
6. Galore – Michael Crummey
7. The Boy in the Striped Pajamas – John Boyne
8. A Supposedly Funny Thing I’ll Never Do Again – David Foster Wallace
9. The Razor’s Edge – William Somerset Maughm
10. The End of Your Life Book Club – Will Schwalbe
Those I can’t bear not to mention:
11. Snow Angels – Stewart O’ Nan
12. A Gay and Melancholy Sound – Merle Miller
13. A Few Short Sentences About Writing – Verlyn Klinkenborg
14. The Loss Library – Ivan Vladislavic
15. Under Heaven – Guy Gavriel Kay
And now, I’d love to hear about ten or so of your favorite books from this past year of reading.
Oh! I love The Razor’s Edge! So good! Here’s my list, in no
particular order, though The Book Thief is one of my new all time
favorites. The Book Thief – Markus Zusak The Snow Child – Eowyn
Ivey The Secret Garden – Frances Hodgson Burnett The Perks of Being
a Wallflower – Stephen Chbosky The Dovekeepers – Alice Hoffman The
Graduate – Charles Webb Heaven Lake – John Dalton Blue Asylum –
Kathy Hepinstall The Cloud Atlas – Liam Callanan (not the popular
current release) Defending Jacob – William Landay
Not one of these books is by a woman.
Because it’s that time of year, for no particular reason, and in no
particular order, I’ve decided to post the 10 favorite books I’ve
read this year– not all of them even new. Bring up the Bodies
(Mantel); Where’d You Go, Bernadette? (Semple);The Orchardist
(Coplin); The Fault in Our Stars (Green); The Orphan Master’s
Son(Johnson); Wild (Strayed); Why Read Moby Dick (Philbrick); The
Pursuit of Happiness (Kalman); The Night Circus (Morgenstern);and
Dancing at the Rascal Fair (Doig).
My 10 favorites from last year, some old and some new: The Thousand
Autumns of Jacob de Zoet by David Mitchell The Darkest Room by
Johan Theorin Sea of Poppies by Amitav Ghosh Caleb’s Crossing by
Geraldine Brooks Empire Falls by Richard Russo The Secret Keeper by
Kate Morton Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand by Helen Simonson Bring Up
the Bodies by Hilary Mantel Home by Marilynne Robinson Open by
Andre Agassi
My 10 favorites from 2012, in no particular order: Wonder by R. J.
Palacio, The End of Your Life Book Club by Will Schwalbe, The Fault
in Our Stars by John Green, Moonbird: a year on the wind with the
great survivor B95 by Phillip M. Hoose, The Eighty Dollar Champion
by Elizabeth Letts, Lament for a Son by Nicholas Wolterstorff,
Kayak Morning by Roger Rosenblatt, Visiting Tom by Michael Perry,
The Language of Flowers by Vanessa Diffenbaugh, The Photographer by
Emmanuel Guibert. Looking forward to what my favorites list for
2013 will be!
Dear Nancy, I love your Book Lust anthologies (and book lists in
general), but I’m late in coming to your website. Here are my
favorite books that I read in 2012: Nonfiction: 1. To Travel
Hopefully: Journal of a Death Not Foretold, Christopher Rush 2.
Leaving Alexandria: A Memoir of Faith and Doubt, Richard Holloway
3. An Exact Replica of a Figment of My Imagination, Elizabeth
McCracken 4. Moby-Duck: The True Story of 28,800 Bath Toys Lost at
Sea, Donovan Hohn 5. One Hundred Names for Love: A Stroke, A
Marriage, and the Language of Healing, Diane Ackerman Fiction: 1.
Hope: A Tragedy, Shalom Auslander 2. The Art of Fielding, Chad
Harbach 3. Bring Up the Bodies, Hilary Mantel 4. The Innocents,
Francesca Segal 5. Seating Arrangements, Maggie Shipstead Best
wishes, Rebecca Foster