Monday, 31 December 2012

Top ten books of 2012


Never until this year have I kept track of what I'm reading - thank Goodreads for that - and I'm not a Top Ten sort of person - but yesterday my younger son sent me his Top Ten and it was easy enough to select, from the 127 read so far, the twenty I'd awarded five stars.   Duplicates of all but one author were eliminated, as were books read for the second time (Angla Carter's 'Love', Iain Banks 'Espedair Street', Ian Rankin).
All were memorable except for Sarah Moss's 'Waking' which, from my review, I was impressed with at the time but cannot now recall -   obviously I need to re-read that one.
What is left is in no particular order, but is surprising insofar as there are not that many crime fiction there - most of them fell into the four star category, which totalled forty-seven.
Denise Mina                Garnethill
Louise Welsh              The Bullet Trick
Angela Carter              Heroes and villains
Jose Carlos Somoza    The Art of murder
Michael Robotham      Shatter
Sarah Hall                   How to paint a dead man
Cormac McCarthy      No country for old men
Stuart MacBride         Birthdays for the dead
Cormac McCarthy      Blood Meridian
Douglas Coupland      Eleanor Rigby

Ian Rankin                  The St. Leonard’s years
 Emma Donoghue       The room
Louise Welsh              Tamburlaine must die
Angela Carter              Love
Ian Ayris                     Abide with me
Iain Banks                   Espedair Street
Louise Welsh              The Cutting room
Susie Nott=Bower      The Making of her
Sarah Hall                   Haweswater
            Sarah Moss                 Night Waking

2 comments:

  1. I haven't read any of them - although I am familiar with some of the authors. I don't think I could list my top ten for this year - but I could tell you a few I disliked!

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    1. Have to say I was pleasantly surprised that more than half were four star or above, and only four were one stars (and two would have had none if that had been possible for me also to have reviewed them)

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