Top Books 2012

Every January, like lots of other folks, I make a list of my favorite books from the last year - not necessarily books published within the year, but any and all that I read and loved. A pattern always emerges. These aren't merely good books; these were the narratives of my thought, emotion, and memory in 2012:

When I Was a Child I Read Books by Marilynne Robinson (nonfiction/essay)

Robinson’s three novels are amongst the most moving I’ve read. So when I heard this essay collection was being published in Spring 2012, I jumped on the chance to review it for The Other Journal. (That review is here.) My high expectations were exceeded. The prose is denser than in her fiction, and her weighty meanings require slow, attentive work to parse out, but it's worth the effort. As always, Robinson challenges many of my preconceived notions. This is a good kind of unsettlement. 

Run by Ann Patchett (fiction/novel)

“My word, that woman can write!” says a friend to whom I recommended Patchett. Indeed. Bel Canto and State of Wonder may be more gripping of plot; read Run for the characters. Patchett’s M.O. is to create the unlikeliest of scenarios, drop her characters in, and imagine what they might do. In this novel, she works wonders in hearts and relationships in a short matter of days, against the chill quiet of a traffic-stopping snowfall, within the difficult diversity and warm potentiality of a family. Here is family in some of its most unlikely iterations: adopted, pretended, begrudging, forgiving. Here is encouragement to relate more empathetically.

Drowned Ammett by Diana Wynne Jones (fiction/middle grades)

I have the lurking suspicion I’ve already read what will always be my favorite DWJ novels, the Chrestomanci sextet. Drowned Ammett is the second in another series, Jones's Dalemark Quartet. And while the Chrestomanci books have charmed me with their barely-constrained whimsy, Drowned Ammett's young protagonist Mitt easily ranks amongst my favorite-ever book characters. His selfishness is never far behind his learning and growth. His kindness is complicated. He is real. And the final scenes sailing through the Holy Isles? Jones renders the magic of coast and sea in a heightened beauty that rivals C.S. Lewis’s Voyage of the Dawn Treader. I gave a full review here. I’ll be rereading this one for sure.

Framed by Frank Cottrell Boyce (fiction/middle grades)

I've mentioned this unexpected read before. In his other books and screenplays, Boyce’s worldview tends to grate uncomfortably against my own; his conclusions often suggest an individually-determined morality that leave his young protagonists a little wanting in the Consider-Others department. But in this book, Boyce’s capacity to weave humor with deeper life lessons makes for not only a thoroughly enjoyable, but also a surprisingly moving read. Plus, there are Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - as well as fine art and a little WWII history and the Welsh countryside. I recommend it. (Interestingly, Boyce helped author a characteristically playful and irreverent Olympics opening ceremonies last summer.)

Teaching a Stone to Talk by Annie Dillard (nonfiction/essay)

This book was already on my to-read list when I discovered it in our library sale corner for one dollar. One dollar! Each essay is astounding, stunning, or simply a deep rumble of truth. Not surprising; this is Dillard. She had me at the Author's Note, where she clarifies that “this is not a collection of occasional pieces, such as a writer brings out to supplement his real work; instead this is my real work, such as it is.” Amen to that. Her essay “An Expedition to the Pole,” alone, is worth getting your hands on this book. It's an intensely-felt mashup of polar exploration history and awkward church moments. Dillard comprehends the human experience on so many levels, and in these essays, she translates it perfectly, if not a little strangely and unexpectedly, to the page.

What did you read this year? Which books do you recommend? Did they compel or discomfit or embarrass or please you? What's next on your list?

Past Rabbit Hole Top Reads are here:

2011

2010

2009