If you read this blog you already know that I have been cataloging
the books I read in 2012. I don’t
necessarily keep up with books released in any given year, so it’s hard for me
to do a best of 2012. I don’t even know
if I read 5 books that came out in 2012.
So this list is more of a summary of the stuff I have already
written. Here’s the Top 5 Books I Read
in 2012…
5) The Last Hero: A Life of Henry Aaron by Howard Bryant
It’s not a
hidden fact that I am a huge baseball fan, so that probably has something to do
with my love of this book, but it is about so much more then baseball. In a society that has come to expect our
heroes to tweet and comment on everything, here is a story about a man that was
asked to make strides for his race and did it without great fanfare or
publicity. His reluctance to speak out
certainly has hurt his legacy. As the
book shows, Willie Mays will always be considered the better ball player even
though in most areas Aaron has the better stats. Bryant does a great job showcasing Aaron as
arguably the greatest baseball player ever, a reluctant hero, and a great
American.
4) Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins
It’s been
pretty documented how reluctant I was to read the Hunger Game books. I still contend that the frame work was
stolen from other stories. But I quickly
fell in love with the characters Collins created and the subtlety and intensity
of the relationships they have with each other.
Mockingjay was probably my favorite of the three. Collins wasn’t afraid to pull any punches and
refuses to leave us with a “walk off into the sunset” happy ending. She created a world where there are
consequences for one’s actions and sticks to that theme to the very end. None of the characters will be the same after
the choices they made or the horrors that were forced upon them and, in my
mind, that makes this a great novel.
3) The Strain by Guillermo del Toro and Chuck Hogan
This book
is probably closer to a guilty pleasure then a great piece of literature, but I
loved it none the less. It was a great
spin on the vampire story, staying away from the tortured soul cliché and just
being a wonderful horror story. It has
great characters and solid story telling, all that you can ask for in a
book. If you read vampire books for the
romance, you should probably stay away, but if you enjoy a well told horror
story this is a must read.
2) The Visible Man by Chuck Klosterman
Chuck
Klosterman is one of my favorite authors, so it should be no surprise this book
made my best of the year list. Normally
an essayist, Klosterman didn’t seem out of place at all writing this poignant
novel. Much like his essays, The Visible
Man comments on our society and culture, but does so in a more subtle way. It’s also an exciting thriller about a guy
with an invisibility suit. The book is a
bit darker then one would expect from Klosterman but that only gives the themes
he’s exploring more weight. This is a
novel that should probably be read multiple times and is so well written and
easy to get through that it won’t be much of a chore.
1)Last Night In Twisted River – John Irving
I haven’t
read a ton of Irving and I haven’t
gotten around to any of his “classics” yet, but this book blew my mind. I was enthralled from page one and couldn’t
put the book down for a second. It’s by
far the most personal of Irving’s
novels and that is saying a lot since he always seems to pull from his personal
experiences and trials. As would be
expected, the characters are beautifully drawn, the narrative is engrossing,
and the prose is perfectly constructed.
Even if most of the themes and images are repetitive from other Irving
works, this is an amazing and unheralded piece of fiction.
Honorable Mentions: Orphan Master’s Son by Adam Johnson; The
Devil’s Star by Jo Nesbo; The Art of Fielding by Chad Harbach; Everyone Loves
Our Town: An Oral History of Grunge by mark Yarm
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