Books of the year 2012, and Happy New Year!

So I got caught up in New Year's yesterday, and didn't get this post done as I'd planned. I was also busy reading my final book for 2012, Think of a Number by John Verdon.

Think of  Number - John Verdon-  A good mystery, the puzzle was great.  The characters were interesting and well-defined.  The only problem was the writing, which improved as the book went on. I liked the main character, Dave Gurney, but thought some of his psychological awareness at first was slightly manipulated.  By the end of the book this was worked out and I ended up really enjoying this first mystery.   His wife Madeleine was fascinating and very well-drawn. Dave is  a retired detective, a cerebral intelligent detective whose greatest strengths are his logic and ability to put facts together quickly.  It was fun watching him guess how the letters were done.   I guessed the reveal before it happened, though this only added to the enjoyment (it was only a little before it was revealed, though I had my suspicions for a while). I will be seeking out the second one, after April 1 when the Double Dog Dare is over.

2012 in Review
So I ended up reading 71 books in total.  Not a great year, though given my personal life last year, I am satisfied to get that many read. I had set the goal of 100 books to be read, which now looks like a perpetual goal, one I want to achieve every year.   Last year was closest, at 97 books read.

Mysteries: 28
Science Fiction: 9
Fantasy: 8
horror: 4
YA: 5
Graphic Novels:2
Childrens: 7
Poetry:2
Non-fiction: 2
Fiction: 3
classics: 1

Male 31 *
Female 41*
Looking at those numbers, I can see I continue my trend of reading 3:1 mysteries to anything else, which is why my goal is to read 50 mysteries a year. Science fiction took a lovely jump thanks to Carl's wonderful Sci-Fi experience, which I am joining again this year. Horror dropped as well, as most of the sf I read was dystopian fiction which satisfied my craving for end of the world disaster novels (mirroring my psychological state last year).  I am still interested in dystopian fiction very much, I enjoyed all the books I read in this genre so much.

I am sad that  classics dropped even lower.  I only finished one of the three I started - North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell.  I am reading Les Miserables slowly, and have started Moby Dick as well.  So one of my goals  will be to increase my classics this year. 

I read slightly more female than male writers.  *Per Wahloo and Maj Sjowall counted for one each, as a husband and wife writing team. 

For fun I have broken this down for the first time into authors nationalities, where in the world was I reading this past year?

Canada: 5
US: 34
UK: 26
Norway: 2
Sweden: 2
Iceland: 1
Ireland: 1
Australia: 1

Normally I have books from France, South Africa, and more from Iceland and Sweden on my list.  For simplicity's sake I took all the Great Britain Isles together, but on the whole it would be slightly more in favour of England to Scotland.  Again, Sweden got two votes, for Per Wahloo and Maj Sjowall. I need to radically increase my books read from other countries!  And my own nation.

So overall, I didn't read as widely as I wanted to, nor in as much as I aimed for.  I failed at almost every challenge I joined, though that hasn't stopped me from enlisting in a few already this year!  Most of all, I enjoyed so many of the books I read this year.  It was very difficult to get my books of the year in order, but finally, here they are, my

Books of the Year - 2012 - 
  Dark Matter - Michelle Paver
A Room Full of Bones - Elly Griffiths
Among Others - Jo Walton
Moving Mars - Greg Bear
White Pine - Mary Oliver
Seraphina - Rachel Hartmann
Sovereign - C.J Sansom
Bury Your Dead - Louise Penny
The Black House - Peter May
 Roseanna - Maj Sjowall and Per Wahloo
Life As We Knew It - Susan Beth Pfeiffer
Divergent - Veronica Roth

Honourable mentions to: The Name of the Star by Maureen Johnson,  Lucifer's Hammer - Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle, The Hunger Games - Suzanne Collins
Reviews will follow of the four I didn't manage to review, which I certainly want to.  They were each marvelous reads, thrilling, and I could have sworn I did review two of them.......

Happy New Year, Gentle Readers.  I hope many pleasurable hours of reading are ahead of you, and many delightful new books to discover, for 2013.

science fiction disaster novels

I have come to the conclusion that the reason I am reading so many disaster novels   - end of the world science fiction, apocalyptic it is called, is because my own life is crumbling and it makes me feel better when I read about other characters facing the end of their world too.  I know it's just divorce I am going through, and it's not the end of everything, it just seems like so much is changing and so little I can hang on to.  So as much as I have so many plans to read books- and dear Reader, every week I make  a new mental list of what I'd like to read shortly! - I find that my attention is drawn to books  I come across, featuring ecological disasters, mostly.  So I'd like to ask you: do you have a favourite dystopian novel that you could recommend? It's not a genre I usually read in, so I don't know much about this area.

Please don't recommend The Road by Cormac McCarthy.  That is too grim for me, too dark.


Books I have read this year so far that fall into this category: reviews:
Where Late the Birds Sang - Kate Wilhelm - beautiful end of the world cloning story,  in which fertility goes wrong, and cloning seems to be the answer to mankind's survival.  This was quite an intense read, and clear about what cloning could mean - it was frightening, and also smart,as it made me think about what cost human survival?  When does being alike become dangerous?  When does being alone become a strength?  Books feature, too, as a way to show how to survive when all communication is gone.


Life As We Knew It -  Susan Beth Pfeifer.  Gosh, simply wonderful.  Gripping, real, what happens if an asteroid should hit the moon and knock it off-course just a little.  I will always remember the image of the moon being so close in the sky, in this book, hanging there in the middle of the day.  And what happens that first year after the tsunamis, flooding, natural destruction as the moon pulls on the tides and waters of the earth.  It's about one family and how they cope through the eyes of a 16 year old girl, and I dare you to put it down while reading it.

Lucifer's Hammer - Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle, - read earlier this year, review here.

I am currently reading Flood by Stephen Baxter, set in 2016, and featuring rising water tides all over the world.  I have just started it, and it's gripping.  It's set in London England, and when it actually mentioned Grays (where my soon to be ex's family is from), and Lakeside Gardens, the big shopping mall around the corner from their house, I got all excited. 

I just bought I am Legend by Richard Matheson.  I've watched all the versions of the movies of this book!  Time I read the novel, I think.  I also just picked up a second-hand copy of The Postman by David Brin.  Yes that science fiction novel that became the Kevin Costner movie - I believe the book is better than the movie, I certainly hope so!

It's not like I am only reading these, I am able to read the occasional mystery and lots of fantasy in between, and more horror than usual (I will be posting on this soon, too).   I am anxiously awaiting the next installment of Justin Cronin's series, out in October - dystopian vampire novel, love it! Dystopian because of the virus that caused the vampires.......

Books I've read in the past, some many years ago:
On The Beach - Nevil Shute
A Canticle for Leibowitz - Walter M Miller Jr
Swan Song - Robert R McCammon (own it, due for a reread, one of my favourites)
 Dies the Fire - SM Stirling
Day of the Triffids - John Wyndham
The Plague Tales - Ann Benson
and, of course:
The Stand - Stephen King (have reread and due for another read soon)

So do you have a favourite  science fiction end of the world novel, Gentle Readers? Please let me know if you  recommend some titles.