Saturday, December 22, 2012

A list of 27 books that I feel fortunate to have read in 2012

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.

5 comments:

  1. 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!

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  2. I've only read 3 of those books, but have a couple more in my stacks. My mom loved The Tender Bar!

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  3. On 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.

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  4. I loved Tom Rob Smith's trilogy and I can't wait to read more by him.

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  5. I 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.

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