2012 book list

My book count was pretty dismal this year.  I read a total of 16 books this past year and it's really not a list worth posting, but I'm keeping with tradition and have a few that I would love to suggest to my fellow reading friends.  I blame my low volume on a mid-summer move (which took at least three months) and the opening of my etsy shop (which took another three months and all my free evening time) which were both very good things if I reflect on my year, so no loss.

Sailing Alone Around the Room: New and Selected Poems - Billy Collins
Catching Fire - Suzanne Collins
Mockingjay - Suzanne Collins
The Hundred-Foot Journey - Richard C. Morais
Midwives - Chris Bohjalian
Wildwood - Colin Meloy (ill. Carson Ellis)
Jane Eyre - Charlotte Brontë
Creative, Confident Children: Making the Most of the Preschool Years - Maxine Hancock
Blood, Bones and Butter: The Inadvertent Education of a Reluctant Chef - Gabrielle Hamilton
The House of the Scorpion - Nancy Farmer
Little Bee - Chris Cleave
Interpreter of Maladies - Jhumpa Lahiri (2nd reading) (short stories)
Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns) - Mindy Kaling
The Uncommon Reader - Alan Bennett
Late Nights on Air - Elizabeth Hay
Bringing Up Bébé (One American Mother Discovers the Wisdom of French Parenting) - Pamela Druckerman

I read way over my quota of non-fiction this year, and would highly recommend Maxine Hancock's parenting book and Bringing Up Bébé to my mama friends.  If you can bear poetry at all, Billy Collins is seriously great fun.  We dog-eared that book every other page and read them aloud to each other.  Late Nights on Air, Midwives, The House of the Scorpion, and the Hunger Games trilogy are all great reads - just plain, well written stories.  Blood, Bones and Butter and The Hundred-Foot Journey were both really appealing to me because I love a good foody book to get me feeling inspired to cook better and eat well.  And my classics pick this year, Jane Eyre, was a bit of slogger, but got a star in the end afterall.

I've already started reading the novel Secret Daughter to kick off the new year, but today, in bits and pieces, I started and completed my first book for 2013's list - a very special gift from my mom of a printed collection of her own poetry and photography.  I loved every page and will return to it over and over.

Here's to another year of great reading!