2012 was a very good year for reading. I discovered new authors whose work I enjoyed: Tove Jansson, Richard Ford, Susanna Clarke, Colm Tóibín. The book club whose meetings I attend continued to give satisfaction. I reread a few favourite novels. And I discovered some new favourites. I also wrote short reviews of each book I read this past year and posted them on LibraryThing, a few of which I re-posted here on this blog. I’ll continue with that in the year ahead.
Stats from my 2012 reading list:
- 30 were borrowed from our public library
- 15 have Canadian authors
- 21 were chosen due to personal recommendations from friends
- 11 are by authors who appear more than once on the 2012 list
- 2 were being reread
- 3 were read aloud by my wife and me
- 22 are non-fiction
Books read in 2012 (88):
- Proust, Marcel. In Search of Lost Time: volume 2, Within a Budding Grove
- Baker, Nicholson. Vox
- Fish, Stanley. How to Write a Sentence and How to Read One
- Watson, Mark. Eleven
- Graff, Gerald and Birkenstein, Cathy. They Say / I Say: The Moves That Matter in Persuasive Writing
- Murakami, Haruki. Sputnik Sweetheart
- Nussbaum, Martha C. Poetic Justice: The Literary Imagination and Public Life
- Tóibín, Colm. Brooklyn
- Oatley, Keith. Such Stuff as Dreams: The Psychology of Fiction
- Roth, Philip. American Pastoral
- Smiley, Jane. 13 Ways of Looking at the Novel
- Stein, Sol. How to Grow a Novel: The Most Common Mistakes Writers Make and How to Overcome Them
- Clarke, Susanna. Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell
- Cossé, Laurence. A Novel Bookstore
- Egan, Jennifer. A Visit From the Goon Squad
- Austen, Jane. Sense and Sensibility
- Clarke, Susanna. The Ladies of Grace Adieu and other stories
- Spurling, Hilary. Matisse: the life
- Babbitt, Susan E. Impossible Dreams: Rationality, Integrity, and Moral Imagination
- Stock, Brian. Ethics Through Literature: Ascetic and Aesthetic Reading in Western Culture
- Morrison, Toni. Playing in the Dark: Whiteness and the Literary Imagination
- Morrison, Toni. Beloved
- Moore, Lisa. February
- Jansson, Tove. Fair Play
- Pym, Barbara. The Sweet Dove Died
- Lapeña, Shari. Happiness Economics
- Barnes, Julian. The Sense of an Ending
- MacLeod, Alexander (compiler), Pick, Alison (compiler), and Selecky, Sarah (compiler). The Journey Prize Stories 23
- Moore, Lorrie. A Gate at the Stairs
- Patchett, Ann. State of Wonder
- Jansson, Tove. The Summer Book
- Fish, Stanley. Save the World on Your Own Time
- Currie, Gregory. Narratives and Narrators: A Philosophy of Stories
- Goldie, Peter. On Personality
- Iyer, Lars. Dogma
- Tournier, Michel. Vendredi ou La Vie sauvage
- Yoshimoto, Banana. Asleep
- Grossman, Lev. The Magicians
- Poulin, Jacques. Mister Blue
- Shields, Carol. Jane Austen
- Grossman, Lev. The Magician King
- Stewart, Trenton Lee. The Extraordinary Education of Nicholas Benedict
- Sileika, Antanas. Underground
- Murakami, Haruki. The Elephant Vanishes
- Hedges, Peter. The Heights
- Rosoff, Meg. How I Live Now
- Hample, Zack. Watching Baseball Smarter
- Mandanna, Sarita. Tiger Hills
- Benioff, David. City of Thieves
- Donoghue, Emma. Room
- Calvino, Italo. Why Read The Classics?
- Mars-Jones, Adam. Noriko Smiling
- Lee, Harper. To Kill A Mockingbird
- Tyler, Anne. The Beginner’s Goodbye
- Jansson, Tove. A Winter Book
- Prose, Francine. My New American Life
- Cascardi, Anthony J. (ed.) Literature and the Question of Philosophy
- Brontë, Charlotte. Jane Eyre
- Perkins-Valdez, Dolen. Wench
- St. John Mandel, Emily. The Lola Quartet
- Brontë, Emily. Wuthering Heights
- Lamott, Anne. Bird By Bird
- Jansson, Tove. The True Deceiver
- Hough, Robert. Dr. Brinkley’s Tower
- Baker, Nicholson. The Way the World Works
- McEwan, Ian. Sweet Tooth
- Saunders, George. In Persuasion Nation
- Ford, Richard. The Sportswriter
- Henderson, Eleanor. Ten Thousand Saints
- Chabon, Michael. Telegraph Avenue
- Walter, Jess. Beautiful Ruins
- Strube, Cordelia. Milosz
- Fforde, Jasper. The Woman Who Died A Lot
- Christie, Michael (compiler), Kuitenbrouwer, Kathryn (compiler), and Winter, Kathleen (compiler). The Journey Prize Stories 24
- Munro, Alice. Dear Life
- Sloan, Robin. Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore: A Novel
Perrotta, Tom (ed.). The Best American Short Stories 2012 - Ellmann, Lucy. Mimi
- Goldie, Peter. The Mess Inside: Narrative, Emotion, and the Mind
- Moore, Lorrie. Self-Help
- Kermode, Frank. The Sense of an Ending: Studies in the Theory of Fiction with a New Epilogue
- Ford, Richard. Independence Day
- Morgenstern, Erin. The Night Circus
- McCann, Colum. Let the Great World Spin
- Ishiguro, Kazuo. Never Let Me Go
- DeWitt, Patrick. The Sisters Brothers
- Fitzgerald, Penelope. The Golden Child
- Jonasson, Jonas. The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared