I can't believe the run of really good, even excellent, books that I have read of late. When I post all my reads of 2012, with ratings, there will be a huge amount of 3's, 3.5's, and 4's. This is definitely the best year yet for outstanding books. Just since October 16 I've had top reads:
Joan Swan - Fever
Ken Follett - Winter of the World (one of my top 10 of all time)
Michael Zadoorian - The Leisure Seeker
Rayme Waters - The Angels' Share
J.R. Moehringer - The Tender Bar (review coming)
And this is not to mention these excellent books from earlier in the year:
Michael David Lukas - Oracle of Stamboul
Jodi Picoult - Lone Wolf
Jeffrey Archer - Sins of the Father
David Baldacci - The Innocent
Adina Senft - The Hidden Life
Chad Harbach - The Art of Fielding
Keith Raffel - A Fine and Dangerous Season
And don't even get me started on the old standbys:
Harlen Coben - Stay Close
Tom Rob Smith - Agent 6
Vince Flynn - Kill Shot
Steve Berry - The Columbus Affair
Alex Berenson - The Shadow Patrol
Sam Eastland - Archive 17
Daniel Silva - The Fallen Angel
W.E.B. Griffin - Covert Warriors
Dean Koontz - 77 Shadow Street
And how about these fine new finds:
Philip Kerr - Prague Fatale
William Landay - Defending Jacob
Steve Hamilton - The Lock Artist
Gillian Flynn - Gone Girl
Elisabeth Barrett - Deep Autumn Heat
Ellen Sussman - French Lessons (review coming)
That's 27 out of 70. That's a lot of top-notch reading. I can also assure you that there are many others of the remaining 43 that I would recommend - some fairly highly. And I couldn't be more pleased that over 25% of these top books are from local authors. This is the most satisfying part of the whole thing. Wait until you see the final list. It will blow you away. I will post that on January 1.
NEXT TIME: More reviews, I promise.
We've read a few of the same titles this past year. The Art of Fielding is on my Fav of 2012 list too. Glad Winter of the World gets high marks, I will definitely get to it next year!
ReplyDeleteI've only read 3 of those books, but have a couple more in my stacks. My mom loved The Tender Bar!
ReplyDeleteOn January 1, I will be posting all of the books that I read in 2012 - with ratings. I will be interested to see how your ratings match up with mine. And I am not surprised that your mom loved The Tender Bar.
ReplyDeleteI loved Tom Rob Smith's trilogy and I can't wait to read more by him.
ReplyDeleteI totally agree. Child 44 made Volume I (out of 4) of Fiction for the Non-Fiction Reader - books that I thought everybody would like, even those who typically read only non-fiction (I posted this list on February 19, 2011). I would definitely read anything he wrote.
ReplyDelete