Category Archives: Monthly Lists

What makes a great book?  At first glance, that’s an incredibly loaded question.  There is a huge subjective element, and the factor of reading the right book at the right time is certainly not one to be discounted.  Further, there is the element of comparing apples to oranges – how does a non-fiction rate against a graphic novel?

Still despite these challenges, there tend to be certain books that stand out each year.  These are books that even if the genre is not quite your cup of tea, you may still be able to appreciate them for what they are.  At the end of the year many people and organizations feel the need to publish the “best of the year” book lists, and I find this is the perfect opportunity to see what books are making multiple appearances.

With that in mind, I close the 2012 monthly book lists with an assembly of this information, for your reading pleasure.

Links:

• Goodreads Choice Awards:  http://www.goodreads.com/choiceawards/best-books-2012
• NYTimes (10 Best):  http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/09/books/review/10-best-books-of-2012.html
• NYTimes (100 Notable): http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/02/books/review/100-notable-books-of-2012.html?ref=review
• Washington Post:  http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/best-books-of-2012/2012/11/16/e2d9c2f8-2f3d-11e2-ac4a-33b8b41fb531_gallery.html
• HoPo: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/10/16/best-books-2012_n_1952748.html#slide=more255755
• Slate:  http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/books/2012/11/best_books_2012_slate_staff_picks_their_favorites.html
• Oprah:  http://www.oprah.com/book-list/The-Best-Books-of-2012
• BookRiot:  http://bookriot.com/2012/12/05/book-riots-best-books-of-2012/

Personal Favorites:

• The Starboard Sea
• Behind the Beautiful Forevers

Ones I haven’t Gotten to Yet

• Building
• The Fault in Our Stars
• Beautiful Ruins
• Arcadia
• The Casual Vacancy

Elementary my dear Watson!  While Mr. Sherlock Holmes has always been a popular character, there is a lot of attention on the slender sleuth these days so it seemed appropriate for October’s list to be Sherlock Holmes inspired.  The rogue detective has been making appearances in a new series of movies (played by Robert Downey Jr in Sherlock Holmes, and Sherlock Holmes 2:  A Game of Shadows), as well as TV shows (played by Bennedict Cumberbatch in Sherlock, in the new CBS Series Elementary with ??? and Lucy Liu, and of course he was the inspiration for medical detection series, House).

And of course there are the books.  Despite a host of terrible spin-offs (I will admit, I attempted reading Sherlock Holmes and the Pirates.  I did not finish it), there are some great reads.  And lets not overlook the original series!  Check out:
* The Originals:  Four books and a collection of short stories by Arthur Conan Doyle
- A Study in Scarlet
- The Sign of the Four
- Hound of the Baskervilles
- Valley of Fear
* The House of Silk
* The Sherlockian

Note – see NY Time article:  http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/12/science/seeing-and-thinking-like-sherlock-holmes.html

* Mastermind:  How to Think like Sherlock Holmes

* The Scientific Sherlock Holmes

Note:  The other inspirations are far too numerous to include here, but I will mention it was a Sherlock quote that inspired the title for “The Curious Case of the Dog in the Night” as well as one of my childhood favorites, the Great Mouse Detective!

Note:  If you find yourself in London, check out the Sherlock Holmes Pub at 221b Baker Street (obviously).

With the start of September, I can’t help but think of back to school, and so this month I am suggesting the books from Cornell’s new student reading project.

• 2001:  Guns Germs and Steel, by Jared Diamond
• 2002:  Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley
• 2003:  Antigone, by Sophocles
• 2004:  The Trial, by Franz Kafka
• 2005:  Things Fall Apart, by Chinua Achebe
• 2006:  The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald
• 2007:  The Pickup, by Nadine Gordimer
• 2008:  Lincoln at Gettysburg, by Garry Wills
• 2009:  The Grapes of Wrath, by John Steinbeck
• 2010:  Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, by Philip Dick
• 2011:  Homer & Langley,  by E.L. Doctorow
• 2012:  The Life Before Us, by Romain Gary
• Link:  http://reading.cornell.edu/

August is a month for vacations. For some people that means the beach, and for others that means travel.  To balance these two, I am presenting a list of international fiction – these could either inspire a new destination, or just provide some reading for those people taking a more relaxing vacation.  Or this could be something to read on your stay-cation!

• The Elegance of the Hedgehog (by French novelist Muriel Barbery)
• Cutting for Stone (by Ethiopian-born author Abraham Verghese)
• Pigeon English (by English novelist Stephen Kelman)
• Tales From the Town of Widows (by Colombian-born James Cañón)
• The Keeper of Lost Causes (by Danish author Jussi Henry Alder-Olsen)
• Inspector O Series (Set in North Korea, by James Church – a pseudonym for the mysterious author)
• 100 Years of Solitude (by Colombian novelist Gabriel García Márquez)
• The Shadow of the Wind trilogy (by Spanish author Carlos Ruiz Zafon)
• The Yacoubian Building (by Egyptian author Alaa Al Aswany)

July:  Cemetery of Forgotten Books Trilogy
For July’s list, I have decided to suggest the Cemetery of Forgotten Books Trilogy, by Carlos Ruiz Zafon.  I first came across the Shadow of the Wind when I found it laying around the house I was staying in.  I idly picked up the book and was soon absorbed in the story – I spent the better part of my three-day-weekend happily curled up reading while it rained outside.  From there I was delighted to find a sequel – the Angels Game.  This spring I was excited to hear a third book was out – the Prisoner of Heaven, but that the English translation was not expected until summer.  I filed the fact away in the back of my mind, and was pleasantly surprised to see the book on the “New” shelf at my local library!

I still think the first (The Shadow of the Wind) is the best, but after reading it you will be desperate for more, and unable to resist reading the other two.

* The Shadow of the Wind
* The Angel’s Game
* The Prisoner of Heaven

With graduations and summer beginning, I was inspired this month to suggest a lost-generation-themed reading list.  Summer is a time for relaxing, but with this economy I am afraid may recent grads will be job-hunting rather then celebrating.  While escape to Paris may not be feasible, hopefully an escape into a book will be.

According to Wikipedia, the term Lost Generation comes from a car mechanic: The term originated with Gertrude Stein who, after being unimpressed by the skills of a young car mechanic, asked the garage owner where the young man had been trained. The garage owner told her that while young men were easy to train, it was those in their mid-twenties to thirties, the men who had been through World War I, whom he considered a “lost generation” — une génération perdue.

This group included T.S. Eliot, John Dos Passos, Waldo Pierce, Alan Seeger and Erich Maria Remarque, but I am focusing my list on two of my favorite authors, and with that in mind, I propose the following books:

F. Scott Fitzgerald

• This Side of Paradise (1920)
• The Beautiful and Damned (1922)
• The Great Gatsby (1925)
• Tender is the Night (1934)
• The Last Tycoon (unfinished – published posthumously in 1941)
• Various short stories

Ernest Hemingway

• The Sun Also Rises (1926)
• A Farewell to Arms (1929)
• To Have and Have Not (1937)
• For Whom the Bell Tolls (1940)
• The Old Man and the Sea (1951)
• A Moveable Feast (published posthumously in 1964)

Also check out: The Paris Wife, by Paula McLean, a historical fiction of Hemingway’s first wife (he had four in total).

Its getting hot outside, and Summer is just around the corner.  For the youth of our  nation, that means one important thing – summer vacation.  I thought I would take this month to list some Young Adult Series.  Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys were before my time, the Goosebumps series was not my thing, but I read The Baby-Sitters Club and Encyclopedia Brown (Real name – Leroy, I think?  Do they even make encyclopedia’s anymore?  kids of tomorrow may not get the name) like there was no tomorrow.

There seems to have been an explosion of series recently, perhaps fueled by hopeful movie deals, or maybe its just the new thing.  But just because these were written for a younger audience doesn’t mean adults can’t enjoy them!   if you are looking for some light reading, or want to know what the kids are up to, consider checking out the following (and do so quickly before bored kids fill up the library!):

• A Series of Unfortunate Events, by Lemony Snicket
• Harry Potter Series, by J. K. Rowling
• Twilight Series, by Stephanie Myer
• The Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins