Books Read 2012
Here’s a reverse-chronological list of all the books I’ve read in 2012. My rating system is out of five stars, but it’s not a comparison system, so all of the five stars aren’t of the same value, all of the four stars aren’t the same, etc. It’s more a rating of my experience as I was reading the book. Did I absolutely love it and wish it wouldn’t end? Did I fear that it never would end? That being said, here’s my rough guideline; in practice, the line between 5s and 4s gets blurred a lot. 5: extraordinary; I will definitely read other books by this author. 4: very strong read, good writing style, really enjoyed and will seek out the author in future, but didn’t quite have the magic of a five-star experience. 3: a good read, possibly had one or two really strong areas, but the rest was average OR parts were great and other parts were just miserable. 2: there were some major flaws that affected my experience, but there were some good points as well. 1: I regret ever having even considered reading this book.
All titles are linked to the publisher’s page on the book, the Library Thing page for out-of-print selections, or the link I downloaded it from in the case of free ebooks. I want to pay more attention to imprints and editors, and this is a simple way for me to do so. :) Also, the original year of publication follows the author. In the case of translated works, I’ve gone with the year it was published in its original language; in the case of books originally published in English but in a different country, I’ve once again noted the earlier year. I also note the translators when relevant; I get this information by checking the book’s copyright page, and sometimes the translation is just accredited to the publisher. In those cases, I’ve marked the translator as ‘unknown.’ Finally, if I’ve discussed a book on the blog, that’s noted and linked in parentheses following the author. I use ‘thoughts’ to indicate at least a paragraph-worth of writing; ‘brief thoughts’ indicates a single sentence recommendation.
Quick note: in the latter half of 2012, I stopped keeping up with this list. That’s why it ends in August, even though I did continue to read! :)
-August-
- A Quiet Revolution by Leila Ahmed | 2011*****
- Adulthood Rites by Octavia Butler | **
- Already Pretty by Sally McGraw | **** (150)
- Gospel in the Global Village by Katharine Jefferts Schori | ****
- Mrs. Mallory: Detective in Residence by Hazel Holt | ***
- The Blue Fox by Sjon, trans. by Victoria Cribb | ****
- Why Read the Classics? by Italo Calvino, trans. by Martin McLaughlin | ***
- God’s Hotel by Victoria Sweet | 2012*****
- Dawn by Octavia Butler | ****
- Redemption in Indigo by Karen Lord | *****
- Fair Play by Tove Jansson, trans. by Thomas Teal | *****
- A Girl of the Limberlost by Gene Stratton-Porter | **
- The Forest Unseen by David George Haskell | ***** (140)
- The Great Arizona Orphan Abduction by Linda Gordon | *****
- The Following Story by Cees Nooteboom, trans. by Ina Rilke | ****
- Lizard by Banana Yoshimoto, trans. by Ann Sherrif | ****
- The Clutter Cure by Judi Culbertson | *****
- A Taste for Death by P.D. James | ****
- The Wasps, The Poet and the Women & The Frogs by Aristophanes, trans. by David Barrett | **
- The Glass Palace by Amitav Ghosh | *
- On Rereading by Patricia Meyer Spacks | ****
- Sites of Slavery by Salamishah Tillet | 2012*****
-July-
- The Final Solution by Michael Chabon | *** (130)
- Women and Gender in Islam by Leila Ahmed | ***** (thoughts)
- Helen by Maria Edgeworth |****
- The Changeling Sea by Patricia McKillip | *****
- Wanderlust and Lipstick: India by Beth Whitman | ***
- A Life of Style by Rebecca Moses | *
- The Power of Positive Dog Training by Pat Miller | *****
- The Sibyll in Her Grave by Sarah Caudwell |****
- The Brides of Rockroll Island by Margo Lanagan |*****
- Love Has No Age Limit by Patricia McConnell | ****
- The Virgin in the Ice by Ellis Peters |**** (120)
- Play Together, Stay Together by Patricia McConnell | ****
- The Queen’s Play by Dorothy Dunnett |****
- For Love of a Dog by Patricia McConnell | *****
- The Deepest Sense by Constance Classen | 2012***
-June-
- How to Dress for Success by Edith Head | **
- The Bell at Sealey Head by Patricia A. McKillip | *****
- Beauty by Robin McKinley | ****
- Alphabet of Thorn by Patricia A. McKillip | ***** (thoughts)
- Five Mile House by Karen Novak | **
- A Darker Place by Laurie King | 1999** (110)
-May-
- The Game of Kings by Dorothy Dunnett | ***** (thoughts)
- Frederica by Georgette Heyer | ****
- To Die For by Lucy Siegle |****
- The Secret Scripture by Sebastian Barry |***** (thoughts)
- Touchstone by Laurie King | 2007****
- The Hero and the Crown by Robin McKinley | ***
- Folly by Laurie King | 2001*****
- The Door in the Hedge by Robin McKinley | *****
- A Countess Below Stairs by Eva Ibbotson | **
- The Shortest Journey by Hazel Holt | **** (100)
- Death of an Expert Witness by P.D. James | 1977*****
- Cruel Sister by Deborah Grabien |**
- Every Secret Thing by Emma Cole |****
-April-
- The Case of the Gilded Fly by Edmund Crispin | ****
- Shades of Milk and Honey by Mary Robinette Kowal | **
- Style on a Shoestring by Andy Paige | 2009**
- The Haunting of Maddy Clare by Simone St. James | 2012**
- Overdressed by Elizabeth Cline | 2012*
- Michael Busselle’s Guide to Travel & Vacation Photography by Michael Busselle | 2003****
- Parnassus on Wheels by Christopher Morley | 1917***** (90)
- Betsey Brown by Ntozake Shange | 1985****
- The Language of the Night by Ursula K. Le Guin | 1979****
- The Listener by Shira Nayman | 2009****
- Armadale by Wilkie Collins | 1866*****
- Dog Sense by John Bradshaw | 2011*****
- Trip of the Tongue by Elizabeth Little | 2012**** (thoughts)
- Bruised Hibiscus by Elizabeth Nunez | 2000****
- The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey | 2012****
- Focus on Photographing People by Haje Jan Kamps | 2011** (brief thoughts)
- Changing Lives by Tricia Tunstall | 2012**** (80)
- Focus on Composing Photos by Peter Ensenberger | 2011**** (brief thoughts)
- The Secret History by Donna Tartt | 1992**** (brief thoughts)
- Zeitoun by Dave Eggers | 2010*** (brief thoughts)
- Style by Kate Spade | 2004**
-March-
- Pedro Paramo by Juan Rulfo, trans. by Margaret Sayers Peden | 1955*****
- Legends of the Plumed Serpent by Neil Baldwin | 1998**** (brief thoughts)
- Is That a Fish in Your Ear? by David Bellos | 2011*****
- Monkey Beach by Eden Robinson | 2000**** (thoughts)
- Color by Victoria Finlay | 2003*****
- Lonely Planet Urban Photography by Richard I’Anson | 2006**** (70) (brief thoughts)
- Fictions by Jorge Luis Borges, trans. by Anthony Kerrigan | 1944**** (brief thoughts)
- Digital Travel by David D. Busch | 2006**
- The Mindful Traveler by Jim Currie | 2000** (brief thoughts)
- To ‘Joy My Freedom by Tera W. Hunter | 1998*****
- Never in a Hurry by Naomi Shihab Nye | 1996*****
- Paradise by Toni Morrison | 1999*****
- The Odyssey by Homer, trans. by Robert Fagles | c 8th century BCE***** (brief thoughts)
- The Invisible Heart by Nancy Folbre | 2001***** (thoughts)
- Peony by Pearl S. Buck | 1948**** (thoughts)
- The City & the City by China Miéville | 2009***** (60) (thoughts)
- Learning to See Creatively by Bryan Peterson | 1988*** (brief thoughts)
- Death of a Travelling Man by M.C. Beaton | 1993***
- Globejotting by Dave Fox | 2011***
- The Tunnel by Ernesto Sabato, trans. by Margaret Sayers Peden | 1948**** (thoughts)
- Legacy Of The Prophet by Anthony Shadid | 2001**** (thoughts)
- Walking a Literary Labryinth by Nancy M. Malone | 2003*** (brief thoughts)
- Unnatural Causes by P.D. James | 1967**** (brief thoughts)
- Emily Fox-Seton by Frances Hodgson Burnett | 1901**** (thoughts)
- Fury by Salman Rushdie | 2002*** (brief thoughts)
- Frida by Hayden Herrera | 1983**** (50)
-February-
- The Perfectly Imperfect Home by Deborah Needleman & Virginia Johnson | 2011**** (thoughts)
- American Force by Richard Betts | 2011****
- The Secret History of Moscow by Ekaterina Sedia | 2007** (thoughts)
- No One Will See Me Cry by Cristina Rivera-Garza, trans. by | 1999***** (thoughts)
- The Squatter and the Don by María Ruiz de Burton | 1885** (thoughts)
- Beautiful Thing by Sonia Faleiro | 2010*** (thoughts)
- Jazz Cosmopolitanism in Accra by Steven Feld | 2012***** (thoughts)
- The Kingdom of the Gods by N.K. Jemisin | 2011*****
- The Princess of Cleves by Madame de La Fayette, trans. by unknown | 1678*** (thoughts)
- The Secret River by Kate Grenville | 2005**** (40) (thoughts)
- Longitude by Dava Sobel | 1995** (thoughts)
- The Alchemy of Race and Rights by Patricia J. Williams | 1992**** (thoughts)
- The Last Chronicle of Barset by Anthony Trollope | 1867***** (thoughts)
- Quirkyalone by Sasha Cagen | 2004*** (thoughts)
- Being Wrong by Kathryn Schulz | 2010***** (thoughts)
- Emily Climbs by L.M. Montgomery | 1925**** (brief thoughts)
- Prospero’s Daughter by Elizabeth Nunez | 2006***** (thoughts)
- The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin | 1969*** (thoughts)
- Life and Death in the Templo Mayor by Eduardo Matos Moctezuma, trans. by Bernard & Thelma Ortzi de Montellano | 1995** (thoughts)
- The River of Lost Footsteps by Thant Myint-U | 2008**** (30) (thoughts)
- Treasures in Heaven by Kathleen Alcala | 2000*** (thoughts)
- The Morville Hours by Katherine Swift | 2009***** (thoughts)
- Mariana by Susanna Kearsley | 1993**** (thoughts)
- Eucalyptus by Murray Bail | 1998** (brief thoughts)
- The Golden Scales by Parker Bilal | 2012**** (thoughts)
- Leaving Church by Barbara Brown Taylor | 2006***** (brief thoughts)
- The Heart is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers | 1940**** (brief thoughts)
- The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton | 1920**** (brief thoughts)
- Holding Our World Together by Brenda J. Child | 2012**** (thoughts)
- Feminism Is for Everybody by bell hooks | 2000**** (20) (brief thoughts)
- The Broken Kingdoms by N. K. Jemisin | 2010****
- The Memory Chalet by Tony Judt | 2010** (brief thoughts)
- Empires of the Indus by Alice Albinia | 2008***** (thoughts)
- Tear This Heart Out by Angeles Mastretta, trans. by Margaret Sayers Peden | 1985*** (thoughts)
- The Mind’s Eye by Oliver Sacks | 2010***** (thoughts)
- The Theban Plays by Sophocles, trans. by Robert Fagles | c 400s BCE**** (thoughts)
-January-
- Fledgling by Octavia Butler | 2005***** (brief thoughts)
- Minaret by Leila Aboulela | 2005***** (thoughts)
- A New Time for Mexico by Carlos Fuentes, trans. by author & Marina Gutman Castaneda | 1997*** (thoughts)
- An Altar in the World by Barbara Brown Taylor | 2009***** (10) (thoughts)
- Death of a Glutton by M.C. Beaton | 1993*** (brief thoughts)
- Mansfield Park by Jane Austen |1814***** (thoughts)
- Shaming the Devil by Alan Jacobs | 2004**** (brief thoughts)
- Spies of the Balkans by Alan Furst | 2010***** (brief thoughts)
- The Dissent Papers by Hannah Gurman | 2012***** (thoughts)
- Cart and Cwidder by Diana Wynne Jones | 1975**** (brief thoughts)
- Marriage: a History by Stephanie Coontz | 2006**** (brief thoughts)
- Sweet Danger by Margery Allingham | 1933**** (thoughts)
- Kitchen by Banana Yoshimoto, trans. by Megan Backus | 1987***** (thoughts)




