2012 reading roundup

This is my fifth year doing a year end reading roundup and I've decided to do something different this time around. First I'll list the 67 books I read this year with links to their pages on Amazon. Next, I've participated in Jamie, the Perpetual Page-Turner's 2012 End of Year Book Survey. At the bottom of her page you can find hundreds of links to others who've participated in her year end survey so if you're looking for more reading suggestions, definitely check that out. I've linked to the books' pages on Goodreads and if the author has a website I've linked to that as well. And finally, I've created an infographic of the books I read using Piktochart. I'm very excited about my infographic and I hope you enjoy it as much as I enjoyed making it. I'd love to hear your feedback on my infographic, and hear what books you enjoyed reading in 2012! 

Here is the list of books I read, in reverse order, newest to oldest read.

1.    Monsters of Templeton

2.    The Light Between Oceans

3.    Beauty Queens

4.    Cloud Atlas

5.    Caleb's Crossing

6.    The Trafficked

7.    The End of Your Life Book Club

8.    The Frozen Heart

9.    Await Your Reply

10.  That Old Cape Magic

11.  Sharp Objects

12.  Running Blind

13.  Nine Dragons

14.  Cutting for Stone

15.  Let's Pretend This Never Happened: A Mostly True Memoir

16.  Joy for Beginners

17.  A Wanted Man

18.  V Is for Vengeance

19.  The Fallen Angel

20.  The 100 Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared

21.  The Grief of Others

22.  Salmon Fishing In The Yemen

23.  Tripwire

24.  Gone Girl

25.  Alone in Berlin

26.  Putting Makeup on Dead People

27.  Ready Player One

28.  The Unfinished Work of Elizabeth D.

29.  Every Precious Thing

30.  How I Live Now

31.  The World Without You

32.  The Stonecutter

33.  The Lifeboat

34.  Echo Burning

35.  The Secret Speech

36.  Real Life & Liars

37.  Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail

38.  Suite Francaise

39.  The Expats

40.  Learning To Swim

41.  בלבב פנימה

42.  The Lake of Dreams

43.  Enlightenment

44.  What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank

45.  Domestic Violets

46.  Buried Prey

47.  The Angel's Game

48.  Defending Jacob

49.  The Hare with Amber Eyes: A Hidden Inheritance

50.  The Snowman

51.  The Giver

52.  The Secret Lives of Baba Segi's Wives

53.  The Descendants

54.  Fifty Shades of Grey

55.  Adam & Eve

56.  The Postmistress

57.  The Keeper of Lost Causes

58.  Rage

59.  Falling Together

60.  One Day

61.  The Shadow of the Wind

62.  This Is Where I Leave You

63.  The Night Circus

64.  Bastard Out of Carolina

65.  Great House

66.  The Family Fang

67.  אשה בורחת מבשורה Best In Books 2012 1. Best Book You Read In 2012? (You can break it down by genre if you want) I’m going to have to go with Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese. It’s an epic novel  about two orphaned brothers growing up in Ethiopia. The writing, characters, and  story are wonderful. 2. Book You Were Excited About & Thought You Were Going To Love More  But Didn’t? I really enjoy Sue Grafton’s alphabet series featuring Kinsey Millhone but V is for Vengeance is definitely one of Grafton's most disappointing books. The characters were not at all believable, there were too many storylines and minor characters to keep track of, and the ending wasn't satisfying at all. 3. Most surprising (in a good way!) book of 2012? I expected The End of Your Life Book Club by Will Schwalbe to be a depressing tale about his mother dying but it was anything but depressing. I really need to check out his list of books and add some to my wishlist. 4. Book you recommended to people most in 2012? Once again, Cutting for Stone. See no. 1 above. 5. Best series you discovered in 2012? I didn’t discover any new series but I did read several books from Lee Child’s Jack Reacher series which I hadn’t read yet. I love the Reacher books and I’m still debating whether I want to see the movie. 6. Favorite new authors you discovered in 2012? Obviously Abraham Verghese (see no. 1 and 4 above) but also Carlos Ruiz Zafon, a Spanish author and Erin Morgenstern. 7. Best book that was out of your comfort zone or was a new genre for you? I don’t usually read short stories but I enjoyed Nathan Englander’s What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank. 8. Most thrilling, unputdownable book in 2012? Defending Jacob by William Landay had me turning the pages to see where it wound up. I had a literal gasp out loud moment before I got to the end. 9. Book You Read In 2012 That You Are Most Likely To Re-Read Next Year: I rarely re-read books but if I did I would pick up Jenny Lawson’s (aka The Bloggess) Let's Pretend This Never Happened again. She is laugh out loud funny. 10. Favorite cover of a book you read in 2012? Most definitely Libba Bray’s Beauty Queens. No explanation necessary. 11. Most memorable character in 2012? Tom Sherbourne of M.L. Stedman’s The Light Between Oceans is an emotionally wounded WWI vet struggling between doing what he knows is right and keeping his fragile wife happy. 12. Most beautifully written book read in 2012? Definitely Cutting for Stone (see no. 1, 4, and 6 above). 13. Book that had the greatest impact on you in 2012? The World Without You by Joshua Henkin, about a fractured family coming together to memorialize their dead son and brother who was killed in Iraq. 14. Book you can’t believe you waited UNTIL 2012 to finally read? I read The Giver, by Lois Lowry because my daughter and her friend kept going on about how boring and awful it was. And I LOVED it. 15. Favorite Passage/Quote From A Book You Read In 2012? “Going outside is highly overrated.”~ Ernest Cline, Ready Player One.  I couldn’t agree with him more. 16. Shortest & Longest Book You Read In 2012? It’s hard to tell when most of your reading is done on a Kindle, but I think the shortest book may have been The Giver and the longest was The Frozen Heart by Almudena Grandes. 17. Book That Had A Scene In It That Had You Reeling And Dying To Talk To Somebody About It? (a WTF moment, an epic revelation, a steamy kiss,  etc. etc.) Be careful of spoilers! Although I didn’t really like this book, I’d have to say Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn had me urging my friends to finish it so we could discuss the ending. 18. Favorite Relationship From A Book You Read In 2012 (be it romantic,   friendship, etc.) The friendship that develops between Daniel Sempere, the young protagonist of Carlos Ruiz Zafon’s The Shadow of the Wind and the down on his luck Fermín Romero de Torres is both heartwarming and heartbreaking. 19. Favorite Book You Read in 2012 From An Author You Read Previously Once again, Geraldine Brooks does a wonderful job bringing history to life with Caleb’s Crossing, which takes place in 1665 New England and explores the relationship of the Native Americans to the new Americans. 20. Best Book You Read That You Read Based SOLELY On A Recommendation From Somebody Else: The Hare with Amber Eyes by Edmund de Waal was recommended by a co-worker and though it wasn’t something I would’ve ever chosen to read on my own, it was very interesting.  Looking Ahead… 1. One Book You Didn’t Get To In 2012 But Will Be Your Number 1 Priority in 2013? I’ve already started John Green’s The Fault in Our Stars and so far, it’s great. 2. Book You Are Most Anticipating For 2013? Really? Just one? Here are a few that are on my wishlist already: A Thousand Pardons by Jonathan Dee, Calling Me Home by Julie Kibler,  The Lost Art of Mixing by Erica Bauermeister, The Interestings by Meg Wolitzer, and What the Family Needed by Steven Amsterdam. 3. One Thing You Hope To Accomplish Or Do In Your Reading/Blogging In 2013? I would love to blog about the books I read but the truth is I never have the patience for it. So I guess I just have to say, read more books. (And possibly read/listen to Moby Dick)