Tuesday, January 15, 2013

2012 Books

It's high time I retired the 2012 books from the sidebar, don't you think?

Okay, I promise I am not doing this on purpose...


2012 = 23 books

Weird. Last year I even commented that I would try to deliberately end with a different total for 2012. Must have forgotten, because there it is again: 23 books. I guess it is meant to be.

I love Gary Schmidt. His two books were my favorites of the year. Fantastic writing, perfect voice, compelling stories and great characters. I had fun reading the Uglies series with Emma; perfectly good quick fluff. We read When You Reach Me together too and I liked that one even more. Ben and I read The Westing Game together...which is one I read sometime in grade school and remember liking it then, and it totally held up for reading as an adult. I might like it even better now because I get a lot of jokes that were over my head then. Killing Lincoln was fascinating, so much I never knew about the Lincoln assassination, but told in a really readable way. The Poisonwood Bible was interesting too, it got a little long, but I forgave it because I learned so much and it made me think.

I noticed I got a lot of questions last year about which ones I didn't like, so here it goes: Joy for Beginners, The American Heiress, and The Maze Runner. There are others on the list that were just okay/kind of blah, but these three in particular were real stinkers. The kind of book you finish and feel cheated...you've wasted your time and gotten dumber for having read them.

5 comments:

Unknown said...

Adding some to my goodreads now.

I also hated The Maze Runner. I don't get why it is so popular.

Sharlene, Mom, Grammy said...

Very impressive list. Each time I read your list, I tell myself that I should keep a list, too, and then I don't. :) But I love reading.

Several on your list I have read. I read the The Poisonwood Bible so long ago, I've forgotten what it's about. I enjoyed C.S. Lewis' Screwtape Letters - interesting.

Along with the heavy, more serious books, I like a short, light read once in a while. I look at all Jason Wright's books that way -- meaningful, but easy to read. I'm reading The 13th Day of Christmas by Jason and really enjoying the writing style for this one--light and easy reading but with some humor and seriousness.

I love to read----thanks for the report on your books. If I were to choose just one from your list, which one would you recommend? What is it about Gary Schmidt's books that you like them so well?

I guess I should have just called you. :)

Dan S. said...

I re-read the Westing Game a few years ago and agree that it totally held up; I liked it so much I gave a copy to Noe for Christmas this year, and she's already read it!

joelb said...

The 23 Books Your Read in Heaven...

i always appreciate these rundowns. you should talk with my DW sometime about Poisonwood Bible.

btw, maybe you should have tried 'Joy for Experts'. i mean that's where you're at, right?

joelb said...

ps, though you probably remember reading it in HS english class, the Yeats poem from which 'Things Fall Apart' drew its title is worth a rereading.

http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Second_Coming_(Yeats)