Books of 2012
Jan. 2nd, 2013 11:27 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
pen_gruntBooks I've read in 2012: I feel a little bad, I usually aim for about 50 books a year and I missed it by one. The past few months have been very slow reading and I think maybe I missed listing some. So I am about a third of the way through My Life in France (Julia Child) and exactly 305 pages (about a third) into Les Miserables (Victor Hugo). Those can count for 2013.
Favorites are starred. The English Patient can go die in a fire. Oh wait. Swamplandia! was also disappointing.
To Green Angel Tower (Memory, Sorrow and Thorn book 3) -- Tad Williams
2012 Montezuma's Revenge -- V. Mark Covington
The Pearl -- John Steinbeck
Swamplandia! -- Karen Russell
*11/22/63 -- Stephen King
*Homemade Sin -- V. Mark Covington
The Lightning Thief (Percy Jackson and the Olympians) -- Rick Riordan
Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children -- Ransom Riggs
Beauty And The Beast -- Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve
The Magicians -- Lev Grossman
The Magician King -- Lev Grossman
The Sea Monsters (Percy Jackson and the Olympians) -- Rick Riordan
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks -- Rebecca Skloot
The Curse of the Titans (Percy Jackson and the Olympians) -- Rick Riordan
The English Patient -- Michael Ondaatje
The Fellowship of the Rings (LOTR Book 1) -- J.R.R. Tolkein (reread)
The Two Towers (LOTR Book 2) -- J.R.R. Tolkein (reread)
The Return of the King (LOTR Book 3) -- J.R.R. Tolkein (reread)
The Battle of the Labyrinth (Percy Jackson and the Olympians) -- Rick Riordan
A History of the World in 100 Objects -- Neil MacGregor
The Only Travel Guide You'll Ever Need -- Dave Barry
*The Windup Bird Chronicle -- Haruki Murakami
No Country For Old Men -- Cormac McCarthy
Anna Dressed In Blood -- Kendare Blake
The Omnivore's Dilemma -- Michael Pollan
The Last Olympian (Percy Jackson and the Olympians) -- Rick Riordan
*The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making -- Catherynne Valente
Matchless -- Gregory Maguire
The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ -- Phillip Pullman
Shutter Island -- Dennis Lehane
*The Graveyard Book -- Neil Gaiman
Why Do Men Have Nipples -- Mark Leyner and William Goldberg
Santaland Diaries -- David Sedaris
The Importance of Being Earnest -- Oscar Wilde
The Pale King -- David Foster Wallace
*Persepolis -- Marjane Satrapi
Dress your Family in Corduroy and Denim -- David Sedaris
*The Orphan's Tales: In The Night Garden -- Catherynne Valente
The Orphan's Tales: In the City of Coin and Spice -- Catherynne Valente
Slaughterhouse Five -- Kurt Vonnegut
Dead Reckoning -- Charlaine Harris
In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto -- Michael Pollen
Official Book Club Selection -- Kathy Griffin
A Little Princess -- Frances Hodgson Burnett
The Wind in the Willows -- Kenneth Grahame
Uncle Tom's Cabin -- Harriet Beecher Stowe
Fevre Dream -- George R. R. Martin
Oh Myyyy (There Goes the Internet) -- George Takei
Old Man's War -- John Scalzi
So let's talk about Victor Hugo and Les Miserables. I love how one of his characters robs someone on the field after the battle of Waterloo--the incident is only a paragraph long--and yet it justifies giving a TOTAL chapters-and-chapters-long recount of the battle of Waterloo. Oh Victor. Must you? I mean, I know the battle of Waterloo is a big historical event, but it has NO place in your story--or, at least, not at that great length. FYI: Victor Hugo says Napoleon lost because God wanted him to lose because he was getting too big for his britches, basically.
Also: Victor Hugo keeps referring to weakness as THE virtue of women. He is a bit tiresome. But it is a novel of the times.
It sounds like a really irksome novel but mostly it's not. It just gets stuck in the mire sometimes.
Favorites are starred. The English Patient can go die in a fire. Oh wait. Swamplandia! was also disappointing.
To Green Angel Tower (Memory, Sorrow and Thorn book 3) -- Tad Williams
2012 Montezuma's Revenge -- V. Mark Covington
The Pearl -- John Steinbeck
Swamplandia! -- Karen Russell
*11/22/63 -- Stephen King
*Homemade Sin -- V. Mark Covington
The Lightning Thief (Percy Jackson and the Olympians) -- Rick Riordan
Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children -- Ransom Riggs
Beauty And The Beast -- Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve
The Magicians -- Lev Grossman
The Magician King -- Lev Grossman
The Sea Monsters (Percy Jackson and the Olympians) -- Rick Riordan
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks -- Rebecca Skloot
The Curse of the Titans (Percy Jackson and the Olympians) -- Rick Riordan
The English Patient -- Michael Ondaatje
The Fellowship of the Rings (LOTR Book 1) -- J.R.R. Tolkein (reread)
The Two Towers (LOTR Book 2) -- J.R.R. Tolkein (reread)
The Return of the King (LOTR Book 3) -- J.R.R. Tolkein (reread)
The Battle of the Labyrinth (Percy Jackson and the Olympians) -- Rick Riordan
A History of the World in 100 Objects -- Neil MacGregor
The Only Travel Guide You'll Ever Need -- Dave Barry
*The Windup Bird Chronicle -- Haruki Murakami
No Country For Old Men -- Cormac McCarthy
Anna Dressed In Blood -- Kendare Blake
The Omnivore's Dilemma -- Michael Pollan
The Last Olympian (Percy Jackson and the Olympians) -- Rick Riordan
*The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making -- Catherynne Valente
Matchless -- Gregory Maguire
The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ -- Phillip Pullman
Shutter Island -- Dennis Lehane
*The Graveyard Book -- Neil Gaiman
Why Do Men Have Nipples -- Mark Leyner and William Goldberg
Santaland Diaries -- David Sedaris
The Importance of Being Earnest -- Oscar Wilde
The Pale King -- David Foster Wallace
*Persepolis -- Marjane Satrapi
Dress your Family in Corduroy and Denim -- David Sedaris
*The Orphan's Tales: In The Night Garden -- Catherynne Valente
The Orphan's Tales: In the City of Coin and Spice -- Catherynne Valente
Slaughterhouse Five -- Kurt Vonnegut
Dead Reckoning -- Charlaine Harris
In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto -- Michael Pollen
Official Book Club Selection -- Kathy Griffin
A Little Princess -- Frances Hodgson Burnett
The Wind in the Willows -- Kenneth Grahame
Uncle Tom's Cabin -- Harriet Beecher Stowe
Fevre Dream -- George R. R. Martin
Oh Myyyy (There Goes the Internet) -- George Takei
Old Man's War -- John Scalzi
So let's talk about Victor Hugo and Les Miserables. I love how one of his characters robs someone on the field after the battle of Waterloo--the incident is only a paragraph long--and yet it justifies giving a TOTAL chapters-and-chapters-long recount of the battle of Waterloo. Oh Victor. Must you? I mean, I know the battle of Waterloo is a big historical event, but it has NO place in your story--or, at least, not at that great length. FYI: Victor Hugo says Napoleon lost because God wanted him to lose because he was getting too big for his britches, basically.
Also: Victor Hugo keeps referring to weakness as THE virtue of women. He is a bit tiresome. But it is a novel of the times.
It sounds like a really irksome novel but mostly it's not. It just gets stuck in the mire sometimes.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2013-01-02 11:31 pm (UTC)I am so excited to discuss them, I cannot even tell you
(Also, I read all of the Percy Jackson books last week. They were good!)
(also also, I read the Hunchback of Notre Dame and I see no reason to ever pick up another Hugo book unless I decide I want to be suicidal.)
(also also also, re: "FYI: Victor Hugo says Napoleon lost because God wanted him to lose because he was getting too big for his britches, basically." - accountants have a saying for this: "pigs get fat, hogs get slaughtered." Pushing too far will apparently draw the ire of both G-d and the IRS.)
no subject
Date: 2013-01-03 04:33 pm (UTC)Percy Jackson: Fun books! I kept inserting them in between Real Adult Books so I didn't feel like I was just reading kids books all the time.
Hugo: Yeah, Hunchback had always been on my "I should read that" list and I think that I can just...not do that and feel okay about it.
The stupid thing about Hugo's Napoleon feelings was that he detailed all these tactical errors that Napoleon made and then was like--oh, but it wasn't really HIM, it was FATE! Dude, whatever.