2012 in Books

Image source: 

http://sheisdallas.com/growing-young-readers-with-teenya-blogs/girl-reading/

The year in books! Had less time to read this year, compared to previous years. (Am kinda looking forward to retirement already, haha! Because I think that's the only time I'll be able to polish off my TBR pile)

I noticed that this year, I gravitated more towards "light" and "fluffy" novels as opposed to the heavy books I read in previous years. I should remedy this surfeit by choosing what to read more wisely this year.

1. Seppuku: A History of Samurai Suicide by Andrew Rankin
2. Untangling My Chopsticks by Victoria Riccardi
3. Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman by Haruki Murakami
4. To Dance with Kings by Rosalind Laker
5. The Ritual by Adam Nevill  (Scariest book I've ever read!!! Aaaaaargh!!!)
6. A Countess Below Stairs by Eva Ibbotson (Thank you Dom for lending it!)
7. Leave Me Alone, I'm Reading by Maureen Corrigan
8. Apologia Pro Vita Sua by John Henry Cardinal Newman
9. Ms. Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs (A particularly scary Y.A. book)
10. A Feast for Crows by George R.R. Martin
11. The House of Silk by Anthony Horowitz
12. The Boticelli Secret by Marina Fiorato
13. A Walk With Jane Austen by Lori Smith
14. Prague: A Novel by Arthur Phillips (Tried to answer the question: "Why do we long to live somewhere, sometime else?")
15. Morning Star by H. Rider Haggard (My first e-book!)
16. The Gourmet by Muriel Barbery
17. The Secret Diaries of Charlotte Bronte by Syrie James
18. Iceland by Betsy Tobin
19. The Egyptologist by Arthur Phillips (A well-written mystery!)
20. Daniel Deronda by George Eliot
21. Other Kingdoms by Richard Matheson
22. Batman: Black & White (thanks Nicole for lending it!)
23. Constantinople 1453: A Place Called Armageddon by C.C.Humphreys
24. Dialogues with Silence by Thomas Merton
25. The Prague Cemetery by Umberto Eco (MOST disappointing book I read this year!! Grr)
26. Unholy Night by Seth Grahame-Smith
27. Caleb's Crossing by Geraldine Brooks
28. You Say More Than You Think by Janine Driver (very insightful book on deciphering body language... and very useful for my line of work!)
29. Life of Pi by Yann Martel
30. The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien

The books that really stayed with me (as in, I found myself thinking about them weeks after reading them!) were:

Life of Pi - Can't wait for the movie! Who else has read this? There are two possible outcomes and I would REALLY appreciate it if you gave me your thoughts as to which ending you think really happened!

Caleb's Crossing - Geraldine Brooks does it again! One of the best historical fiction authors out there. She wrote this gorgeous novel about the first Native American graduates of Harvard.

Daniel Deronda - It is a very wise and moving love story!

Not included in the list were the books I started but for unfathomable reasons didn't get to finish... hopefully they'll make it to next year's book list! :)

Previous Years:
2011 (Total: 62 titles read)
2010 (53)
2009 (102)
2008 (66)
2007 (the last quarter = 29)