2012 BOOK LIST

                                                                           2012 Book List

1.        1.  The 50 Funniest American Writers According to Andy Borowitz.    Some funny, some not so.

2.      2.   The Hours      Michael Cunningham     Pulitzer winner.    Deserved it, but not my cup of tea.

3.       3.   Making Shapely Fiction    Jerome Stern    Useful ideas for writers.

4.      4,  The Harvest     David Krygelski     Don’t bother.

5.      5.  A Dance With Dragons     George R.R. Martin    Slower, I felt, than the others in this series, but once invested in the story, one has to stay with it. 

6.      6.  11/22/63     Steven King.    A go back in time thriller.  Worth reading.

7.      7.  God is Not Great    Christopher Hitchens.    Documents what I have believed for a very long time…religion poisons everything. (which just happens to be the book’s subtitle!)

8.      8.  The Girl on the Boat     P.G. Wodehouse    Typical Wodehouse romantic romp through comical complications.  Good stuff.

9.      9.  An Owner’s Guide to Cocker Spaniels      Judy  Iby   Confirms that my two are typical of the breed, happy, energetic, people pleasers.

1         10.  The Art of Fielding: A Novel     Chad Harbach   Baseball and complex love stories on a small college campus.  Solid, appealing characters.  Good read.

1   11.  Better than Sex  Confessions of a political Junkie     Hunter S. Thompson     Good stuff Re: The Bush 1 vs. Clinton campaign and follow up.  

               12.  The Sense of an Ending    Julian Barnes     Intriguing tale that leaves the reader with more questions than answers.   There is a sense of an ending, not an actual one.

1.  13.   Los Elefantes Pueden Recordar  (Elephants Can Remember)  Agatha Christie    Read in Spanish.   Hercule Poirot solves an old mystery surrounding a seeming double suicide.

14..   Why be happy when you could be normal?      Jeanette Winter    Life and times of an adopted woman on a journey of self discovery and a search for her birth mom.  Beautifully written.

1   15.  The Passage of Power    Robert Caro    Fourth of a five book series on LBJ and his times.   Fascinating political stuff surrounding the JFK assassination.

1     16.  The Great Leader   Jim Harrison     Retired cop in rural Michigan sets out to put an end to a sexual predator cult leader.   Lots of human insights – typical Harrison – along the way.  Good stuff. 

             17.  Blueprints of the Afterlife      Ryan Boudinot    A complex futuristic novel in which I was never able to grasp the big picture  or even all the characters relationship to each other, but each section was so compellingly written that I pressed on to the end. 

1          18.  Over Time   Frank Deford    Entertaining memoir, especially for people over sixty.  Many happy sports memories and insights for we old guys.

1.         19.   Say Her Name    Francisco Goldman   Well written account of one man’s sorrow after the death of his young wife.  Dreary and tedious at times, though.  Not my cup-of-tea.

2.           20.   Beastly Things   Donna Leon    Inspector Brunetti  gets the job done without a lot of fuss.  Good stuff.

2.  21   Franny and Zooey      J.D. Salinger    Worthy of its “Classic” status.

2.       22.  The Gold Bat      P. G. Wodehouse    Not one of P.G.’s best but still worth a read.

2        23.  Listening to the Light     Jim Pym    Quakers are on to something very Buddhist like.  Jim elaborates and explains the difference.

2.       24.    Heart of the Hunter   Deon Meyer    Complex thriller set in modern day South Africa.  This is a well written page turner

2.      25.   Second Violin    John Lawton     A mystery wrapped in an historical novel.  Engagingly written but lacking the Socko ending I was looking for.

2       26.  Needful Things     Steven King      Old Steve is always so READABLE !

2       27.  Walking to Hollywood     Bill Self     Interesting read.  I have no idea what about, but nevertheless interesting.   I suspect it may have all been over-my-head.  Either that or so esoterically plotted it seemed to have none.

2.       28.  Skipping Christmas     John Grisham    Nice holiday tale.   It would make a good movie of the week on one of the mushy cable channels.

2.      29.   Drawing Conclusions     Donna Leon      Inspector Brunnetti unravels two mysteries, one that was a crime, one that wasn’t.   Both go unpunished.

Computer ate my list.  Had to reestablish from here on off of my Goodread’s list…so no reviews just stars.

3
    30.  The Lamorna Wink    Martha Grimes   4 stars.

3  31.  Crossing to Safety    Wallace  Stegner   4 stars

3.   32.  Las Brujas Del Pantano   Novella read in Spanish  2 stars (The witches of the Swamp)

3.   33.  Un collar De Piel De Serpiente  Novella read in Spanish 3 stars  (The Snakeskin Necklace)

3.   34.  Banker   Dick Francis   4 stars

3.   35.  The Coroner’s Lunch   Colin Coterill   3 stars

3.   36.  Wolf Hall   Hillary Mantell   3 stars   (Others give it 5.  The book’s a Pulitzer winner.)

3.   37.  The Making of Mary   P.G. Wodehouse   2 stars

3.   38.  Gone    Mo Hyder    3 stars

3.   39.  The Hot country   Robert Olen Butler   4 stars

4.   40.  Return of the Thin Man (After the Thin man is its movie title.) Dashiel Hammett  3 stars

4     41.The Indiscretions of Archie  P. G. Wodehouse  4 stars

Read halfway and abandoned 

The Volcano Lover   Susan Sontag   Just couldn’t stay with it.

No Barriers  Unlocking the Zen Koan  Thomas cleary   Interesting but very difficult for my Western rational mind.