Thursday, June 14, 2012

Books of the Year

We're half way through the year and so far its been a really great reading year for me. (Unlike last year which was a bit sparse.) I've read 32 books, which is quite a bit above my normal average and most of them have been really rather good. Here's the 11 books that got As in my little notebook in chronological order: 

January: Arguably - Christopher Hitchens 

February: Platform - Michel Houllebecq; Slaughter's Hound - Declan Burke

March: The Complete Essays of George Orwell; The Art of Fielding - Chad 
Harbach; The Red Queen - Matt Ridley

April: Vanished Kingdoms - Norman Davies; The Nameless Dead - Brian McGilloway

May: Bring Up The Bodies - Hilary Mantel; Manhunt - Peter Bergen

June: 2312 - Kim Stanley Robinson

26 comments:

Sean Patrick Reardon said...

Somehow, I missed Declan's book, but did some recon, and now want to read it! Thanks for the tip-off.

seana said...

Nice list. Haven't read a single thing on it.

I think the rest of us have to wait till August to read Declan's book, Sean. But you can preorder it from Book Depository. Amazon shows it, but without a pre-rder option.

verymessi said...

Kim Stanley Robinson is a great writer. I read the Mars trilogy a few years ago...Will put 3212 on the list.

seana said...

I hear nothing but good things about 3212 in my neck of the woods.

adrian mckinty said...

Sean

It will be out very soon.

adrian mckinty said...

Seana

Thank you for the tip!

adrian mckinty said...

Verymessi

Its a very good book but his Greenie Political Correctness leads him into some odd logic: they can terraform Mars and Venus (!) but they cant fix global warming on Earth with innovative solutions.

adrian mckinty said...

Seana

In your neck of the woods it will be huge.

seana said...

I think mhy neck of the woods would take this as a backhanded compliment.

adrian mckinty said...

Seana

Perhaps.

seana said...

Well, my neck of the woods probably wouldn't care.

Brian Lindenmuth said...

Looking forward to Declan's.

Though you didn't necessarily ask...

Here are my top 10 books of the year so far. Read in 2012 not limited to those published in 2012.


El Gavilan by Craig McDonald
Everything I Tell You is a Lie by Fingers Murphy
Growing Up Dead in Texas by Stephen Graham Jones
Immobility by Brian Evenson
Jonah Man by Christopher Narozony
Raise a Holler by Jason Stuart
Tarantula by Thierry Jonquet
You Killed Wesley Payne by Sean Beaudoin
Zombie Bake Off by Stephen Graham Jones
Zoo City by Lauren Beukes

adrian mckinty said...

Brian


Ahhh, Brian's book is the on list! He said he's sending me a copy but so far no show...

Please dont tell me anything about it, but I'm glad Evenson's written another good one!

adrian mckinty said...

Brian


Ahhh, Brian's book is the on list! He said he's sending me a copy but so far no show...

Please dont tell me anything about it, but I'm glad Evenson's written another good one!

Craig said...

It's 2312, innit?

adrian mckinty said...

Craig

Whoops. Yeah course it is. Cos its set exactly 300 years in the future. I'll change it. I'll also try and post a review of it next week but I'm still processing it if you know what I mean.

seana said...

For obvious reasons, I am not the hugest participant in Amazon, but I thought you might be interested to know that I got an email from them today saying that if I liked Fifty Grand, I might also like some other books. The first one was The Cold,Cold Ground, followed by a lot of the other ones, including the kids' ones.

I hope this means that a lot of other people are getting the same email.

Fifty Grand was an excellent book, by the way. You tend to give it a bit of short shrift, but there is a lot in it.

BigSean said...

I am thrilled by your number one selection which my wife gave me for my birthday and laughed herself silly reading Why Women Aren't Funny. I am circulating an honorific adjective after the contentious one : Hitchensian. And the first guy I thought of to apply it to happened to bring me two books by Brendan O'Carroll last time we met, the first of which Mammy had me in spasms within 5 minutes. Great Dublin stuff.

adrian mckinty said...

Seana

I did not get this email. Amazon's engines are wildly inconsistent. I dont know what they do over there, but its better than a poke in the eye isnt it?

adrian mckinty said...

Big Sean

What about Hitchian? I dont know I just think it scans a little better...

Glenna said...

Books and I aren't getting along at the moment, nothing seems to keep my interest lately, but my favorite I've read this year I think is Dennis LeHane's The Given Day.

I'm also wishing Laurie R King would write another stand alone and really looking forward to Declan's new one.

seana said...

Glenna, you're making me think I should give The Given Day a try. I wasn't all that happy with his last Kensey/Gennaro novel, but I have a feeling he bowed to fan or maybe publisher pressure on that one.

Glenna said...

Seana, I'm with you on Moonlight Mile. I think you'll like The Given Day though, it's The best one of his I've read

seana said...

Yey! I've always liked him, and even Moonlight Mile I was willing to give the slight benefit of the doubt.

Rob James said...

I've read the grand total of one book for pleasure this year and that was A Visit from the Goon Squad which was brilliant.

I missed the Brian McGilloway book entirely; bookdepository here I come.

Rob James said...

I've read the grand total of one book for pleasure this year and that was A Visit from the Goon Squad which was brilliant.

I missed the Brian McGilloway book entirely; bookdepository here I come.