2012 Greatest Hits.

2012 was a good year for books. Some favorite authors published, I found some new authors, and I am once again grateful for the public library because there is no way I could buy all the books I read.

Without further ado, my top 10 for 2012.

Gone Girl, Gillian Flynn

There is an unfair responsibility that comes with being an only child- you grow up knowing you aren't allowed to disappoint, you're not even allowed to die. There isn't a replacement toddling around; you're it. It makes you desperate to be flawless, and it also makes you drunk with the power. In such ways despots are made.

Gone Girl is one of those books where you are constantly yelling, "No fucking way!" One of the readers in my online book group referred to the husband as a "twit" and I was super-confused because he was a murderer. Briefly: On the eve of her five year wedding anniversary, Amy Dunne disappears. All signs point to her evasive, affair-having husband Nick. But did Nick do it? Now, I can be a treacherous bitch, but Amy Dunne is the most diabolical character I've ever seen in print. Hands down, pure evil. Of course I immediately read Flynn's other two novels, Sharp Objects and Dark Places- both ingeniously plotted and psychologically twisted. I wouldn't mind seeing all three of these novels as movies.

Broken Harbor, Tana French

People you knew when you were teenagers, the ones who saw your stupidest haircut and the most embarrassing things you've done in your life, and they still cared about you after all that: they're not replaceable, you know?

Broken Harbor is number four in the Irish Murder Squad series. You should definitely read the first three (In the Woods, The Likeness and Faithful Place) but each novel does stand alone because it's based around a different character. Broken Harbor features Detective Scorcher Kennedy investigating the Spain family. Pat Spain, a victim of the Irish recession, killed his two children and himself and attempted to kill his wife, Jenny. All is not what it seems in the deserted housing estate outside of Dublin, however. Not only the murders or Pat Spain's obsessions with rodents; for Kennedy Broken Harbor recalls a devastating childhood he'd been happy to ignore.

Heading Out to Wonderful, Robert Goolrick

If your heart is broken and there is no visible wound, no sign of sickness, what else is there to do but go on, act the way you're supposed to, do what has to be done? No use to say it hurts. Everybody knows that already, everybody can see it, and they know as well that they could never in a million years touch or soothe the place where the hurt begins.

I wrote about this amazing book in my second post. Elegant prose, excellent, old-fashioned story-telling, at turns lovely and shocking. Robert Goolrick is an interesting dude, too. Check out his website for some interviews. The essay What Happened to You? is fascinating and unexpectedly moving.

A Working Theory of Love, Scott Hutchins

It's like, there's me and then there's this animal that's like in me. And I'm just living my life, walking around, going to work, but I know this animal can take over. Just for a second. But I get that feeling a lot- that I might say or do anything.

I was fortunate enough to meet Scott Hutchins and hear him read from A Working Theory of Love. Nice guy, fantastic-odd- love story. The novel opens with a pitch perfect description of living alone. Although written from the point of view of a man, Neill Bassett, I felt he was describing me exactly when I lived alone (I was, um, not tidy.) Hailed as a thoroughly modern love story, Working Theory has something for everyone: artificial intelligence, a mid-life crisis and the perils of love, grief and surviving adulthood.

The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, Rachel Joyce

People were buying milk, or filling their cars with petrol, or even posting letters. And what no one else knew was the appalling weight of the thing they were carrying inside. The inhuman effort it took sometimes to be normal, and a part of things that appeared both easy and everyday. The loneliness of that.

Everything Harold Fry does annoys his wife. They sleep in separate bedrooms and he can't even butter his toast to her satisfaction. One morning he receives a letter from a long lost friend. She's dying from cancer. Thus begins his pilgrimage to save Queenie Hennessey. Armed with a light jacket, yachting shoes and a profound belief that while he walks Queenie will live, Harold embarks on a 600 mile trip from Kingsbridge to Berwick-upon-Tweed. Along the way he meets a compelling cast of characters, all carrying their own memories and regrets. I was charmed by this book and it reminded me of one of my favorite quotes, attributed to Plato, Philo of Alexandria and/or Ian Maclaren:

Be kind, everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle.

Flight Behavior, Barbara Kingsolver

A certain feeling comes from throwing your good life away and it is one part rapture.

I received an advance reading copy (ARC) of this at the American Library Association annual conference. I *attempted* to save it for my summer vacation. Instead I read it on the plane ride home (I had a lot of time in the Denver airport.) In reading reviews, so many people said it's nothing like The Poisonwood Bible. It's time to get over this Poisonwood thing, people. It's an awesome book, but you can't expect an author to rewrite the same freaking book. Kingsolver could write a car manual and I'm sure I'd read it and love it. Flight Behavior, like Prodigal Summer, deals with the environment. Instead of ecology as a science, Flight Behavior confronts ecology as a political movement. However, Kingsolver wasn't afraid to include issues of faith, miracles and what nature means to each of us. Twenty-seven year old Dellarobia Turnbow is on her way to cheat on her husband instead discovers a valley filled with monarch butterflies. Butterflies that are definitely not supposed to be on an Appalachian mountaintop. What happens changes not only Dellarobia's life, but the lives of the people in her town, the town itself and the wider world.

Siberian Education: Growing Up in a Criminal Underworld, Nicolai Lilin

First of all, you had to respect all living creatures- a category which did not include policemen, people connected with the government, bankers, loan sharks, and all those who had the power of money in their hands and exploited ordinary people.

There is question about how "biographical" this novel is. I don't care, I liked it, extravagant violence and all. The author of Trainspotting, Irvine Welsh called it, "Marvelous and illuminating...Forces us to reassess our notions of good and evil." Born in an area between Ukraine and Moldova called Transnistria (which I had to look up because I didn't believe it existed. It does) Lilin grew up among a tightly knit group of exiled Siberian criminals. Living by their own set of rules, outside of and against the government, these "honest criminals" valued respect and ritual above all else. Frankly, they all (even the children) seemed a lot more put together, truthful and organized than the U.S. government. His second book, Sniper, is also just as compelling (if not even more unbelievable.) But again, combine tattoos, gratuitous violence and biography and I'm sold.

Little Star, John Ajvide Lindqvist

It is impossible to say why we love something or someone. We can come up with reasons if we have to, but the important part happens in the dark, beyond our control. We just know when it is there. And when it goes away.

I wrote about this book in another post, so I won't repeat myself. Suffice to say that I couldn't put it down and read it in two sittings. And it made me (more) afraid of teenage girls.

The Night Circus, Erin Morgenstern

You may tell a tale that takes up residence in someone's soul, becomes their blood and self and purpose. That tale will move them and drive them and who knows what they might do because of it, because of your words. That is your role, your gift.

I confess, I picked up this book because I liked the cover. Isn't that a great cover? I also have an abiding interest in circus fiction (Geek Love, Katherine Dunn, A Son of the Circus, John Irving.) Because of course I do. The Night Circus arrives with its black and white striped tents and arresting cast of performers without warning. The circus itself is more of a character than an actual location. Two young magicians, trained since childhood for a harrowing competition instead fall in love. A love so intense that lights flicker and rooms grow warm when they are together. Extravagant and romantic, The Night Circus asks of its performers the ultimate sacrifice for their art.

Bereft, Chris Womersley

When everything else is in ruins, family is all we have. And God, of course.

My online book group has several people from Australia in it (And boy, they get screwed with Kindle books. Spendy!) Thanks to them I've discovered a bunch of new authors, but Chris Womersley is my hands down favorite. I especially enjoy all of the little Australian details: something smells like a "sodden wombat" and a little girl saves a rock because it's shaped like a kangaroo. Moody and atmospheric (almost gothic,) with a location (Flint, New South Wales) that is a character in itself, Bereft tells the story of Quinn Walker's search for redemption. Returning from the Great War, Walker arrives to find his country being ravaged by Spanish Influenza, including his mother. But he has bigger problems: A decade earlier, he was discovered covered in blood, holding a knife over the dead body of his beloved sister. With the help of a mysterious orphan girl, Sadie Fox, Walker searches for justice in a town that already has him convicted. It's a tough book to read, but completely worth it simply for the beautiful writing.

Onward to 2013!