Books of 2012

This is the first year I completely migrated to e-books and also started using Goodreads as my recommendation engine. I declare both a success.

1. Freedom, Daniel Suarez




• Second book of the duology started with Daemon which I already raved about once. Still highly recommend as it's well written, very well thought out and beats the pants off Stephenson's Reamde. This is exactly what a techno-thriller should read like.





2. Replay, Ken Grimwood




• What would you do if you had a chance to relive a large portion of your life over and over again? So many more chances to screw up in new and innovative ways but you might get it right few times too. I liked the book even though I am never a fan of open endings. Keep in mind that this predates the Groundhog Day.





3. The Cider House Rules, John Irving




• I really liked the movie, which unusually I saw first. The book is also very good and gives a lot more background on some of the characters and adds few plot lines eliminated for the movie. Recommend both.





4. Song of the Fallen (Counterpoint, Crescendo), Rachel Haimowitz




• Very unexceptional fantasy.





5. Lord John and the Scottish Prisoner (Lord John Grey, #3) , Diana Gabaldon




• Third book in a Lord John series, a companion to Gabaldon's Outlander series. It even prominently features Jamie Fraser. I like Lord John books and this one was quite good. Unfortunately I am not nearly as fond of the Outlander series (learn from other people's mistakes and don't read past the Outlander itself) and since they seem to depend on each other more as the series progresses it might start getting confusing.





6. The Handmaid's Tale, Margaret Atwood




• Chilling account of a woman's life in a dystopian post-American Christian Right ruled society. The first person narrative is told in such a matter of fact way that the horror sort of creeps on you slowly but inexorably. It does have a "happy ending" if not for the main character herself then for the society in general. Unfortunately, twenty six years after being written this book is still very much relevant for anybody who's ever listened to our rights's rhetorics.





7. The Girl with a Dragon Tattoo, Stieg Larsson




• Read it because I wanted to see what all the hoopla was about. Also, Lena said it wasn't bad. Not exactly bad but didn't leave me wanting to read other books in the series either.





8. Oryx and Crake: A Novel, Margaret Atwood




• More dystopian post-apocalyptic future where the apocalypse was brought on by uncontrolled and unchecked genetic meddling by large corporations. Another cautionary tale.





9. Glimpses, Lynn Flewelling




• Collection of short stories from Nightrunner universe, only relevant for those who read it.





10. The Separation, Christopher Priest




• Hodgepodge of alternate history, overlapping parallel dimensions (never identified as such but that's what they looked like), and two twin brothers at the brink of alternative WWII. Interesting ideas but not particularly well executed and the book never seemed to get to any point. Disappointing.





11. The Algebraist, Iain M. Banks




• Hard sci-fi. Space opera-style on a galactic scale. Very good if you like that sort of thing.





12. In the Garden of Iden, Kage Baker




• A very good if not entirely unique sci-fi idea wasted on some lame love story. It's the first in The Company series, where The Company's goal is to preserve or recover lost art and extinct species of flora and fauna. I haven't read any of the subsequent books, they might be taking and developing the idea farther and better since there is a lot of potential. Reminded me a bit of Poul Anderson's Time Patrol. I do plan to read more of this series.





13. The God Eaters, Jesse Hajicek



14. Mistborn Series (The Final Empire, The Well of Ascension, The Hero of Ages), Brandon Sanderson




• At first glance it's your typical The Farm Boy with a Secret (except that she is a girl and there is no farm) coupled with The Overwhelming Ancient Evil but there is a twist. And it's engrossing and well written. I picked it up because Sanderson is the guy finishing off Jordan's Wheel of Time (btw, the last book is coming out on the 8th!) but he does stand quite well on his own and his own style differs from Jordan's.





15. The Hunger Games, Suzanne Collins




• I didn't have very high expectations and it fully lived up to them. Second and especially third books were even less impressive, too derivative and convoluted in places. But it's a quick and easy read.





16. Shades of Milk and Honey, Mary Robinette Kowal




• Lovely cross between Regency romances and fantasy. It's not Jane Austin, the language, the atmosphere and the complexity of the plot is lacking somewhat but still a very pleasant and fun book.





17. Catching Fire, Suzanne Collins


18. Mockingjay, Suzanne Collins



19. Kiss Me Twice, Mary Robinette Kowal




• Short story.





20. Cotillion, Georgette Heyer




• Regency romance written in the early 20th century. Once again, it's not Jane Austin (and I am not a big fan of hers anyway). I loved it. It was clever and funny and just delightful. My favourite of hers so far and there are few more to come down the list.





21. Fever Series (Darkfever, Bloodfever, Faefever, Dreamfever, Shadowfever), Karen Marie Moning




• Bad elves, mysterious tall, dark and handsome men, The Farm Boy with a Secret California bimbo with mysterious suddenly uncovered abilities that can save the world, spiced up with lots of sex and violence. How can anything go wrong with this recipe? Don't know but I stuck with it out of sheer bloody mindedness. Compressing all of this into a trilogy would make the whole a lot less annoying.





22. The Road to Mars, Eric Idle




• It wasn't nearly as funny or clever as it was supposed to be. Douglas Adams you are not. I miss Marvin.





23. The Help, Kathryn Stockett




• Do not judge this book by its movie. Movie was unwatchable, at least the first ten minutes, which were all I managed to handle, while book was a very pleasant surprise. Well written, well paced, funny and sad in all the right places. Recommend.





24. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, Mark Haddon




• Written from a very unusual perspective of an autistic boy investigating brutal murder of his neighbor's dog. I don't know if his self awareness is entirely plausible but it made for an interesting and engrossing read.





25. Doomsday Book, Connie Willis




• First in the Oxford Time Travel series, which also includes exceptionally good To Say Nothing of the Dog (see last year's installment) and coming up later Blackout/All Clear. Domesday Book was a record of census conducted by William the Conqueror in the 11th century for the purpose of taxation. Doomsday Book is a story of two plagues, the original Black Plague and a fictional future epidemic in Oxford, England. Very well written and researched. It's not nearly as lighthearted as To Say Nothing of the Dog (the plague, you know). My one complaint is that main plot advancing device would be completely eliminated by the introduction of cell phones which were totally in existence by the time the book was published and therefor should have been accounted for. However, suspend your disbelief and read the book, it's worth that little effort.





26. Fire Watch, Connie Willis




• Short story set in the Oxford Time Travel universe. Nice glimpse into the workings of the fire watch in St. Paul's Cathedral during London Blitz and it also ties into the Blackout/All Clear.





27. Дядя Ваня, А. П. Чехов




• So, Lena got these free tickets in July to see Sydney Theatre Company's production of Uncle Vanya, featuring, among others, Cate Blanchett and Hugo Weaving (that's Galadriel and Elrond, in case you didn't know). Since she already knew from our visit to Philharmonic that I don't snore when sleeping in public places she invited me along. The play was everything I expected: boring and irritating, on top of which it was overacted, overwrought and overlong. I read the original play when I got home just to evaluate the translation. I had doubts about few 'funny' spots, like this one:
  
  
  Елена Андреевна. А хорошая сегодня погода... Не жарко...
  Пауза.
  Войницкий. В такую погоду хорошо повеситься...
  
  
  Translation turned out to be quite faithful, I just wasn't giving Chekhov enough credit. My favorite was actually this bit:
  
  Мужики однообразны очень, неразвиты, грязно живут, а с интеллигенцией
  трудно ладить. Она утомляет. Все они, наши добрые знакомые, мелко
  мыслят, мелко чувствуют и не видят дальше своего носа —
  просто-напросто глупы. А те, которые поумнее и покрупнее, истеричны,
  заедены анализом, рефлексом...
  
  
  Так что теперь я о пьесах Чехова знаю больше, чем "три сестры сидящие в вишневом саду и ноющие: "В Москву, в Москву, в Москву".





28. Perdido Street Station, China Mieville




• Very complex and intricate world and character building. Enough adjectives, metaphors, similes and other useless words for three books. Boring.





29. Kill Decision, Daniel Suarez




• Disappointingly not as good as his first two books. This is just a fairly conventional thriller. It's ok but nothing to rave about.





30. Call Me by Your Name, Andre Aciman




• A coming of age story set on Italian Riviera. Superbly written, capturing that heavy lazy summer feel and making you wish you could be there, lying on the beach, by the pool, riding along with Elio. It's my favorite thing when a book can block the real world around and fill it with new smells and sounds. It's something movies never accomplish with me, funnily enough. I was very glad, however, that I didn't like peaches already. People shouldn't do such things to innocent fruits (or apple pies for that matter)!





31. The Yiddish Policemen's Union, Michael Chabon




• I like the idea of moving all Jews to Madagascar way better but that's a different story. Nice alternative history in an unusual setting with some interesting ideas, as long as you don't mind a generous sprinkling of murder mystery cliches.





32. The Perks of Being a Wallflower, Stephen Chbosky




• Goodreads recommendation engine at work. I wouldn't have thought of reading this on my own and would have missed an unexpectedly good book. Another coming of age story, this time we get to visit US high school in the 90s. I did anticipate the twist, Charlie's behavior was very telling if one knew what to look for. The book's intended audience is "young adults" but if you still remember that feeling of helpless inability to fit into your reality and looking at the world from outside in, you might enjoy Charlie's journey through his freshman year.





33. Storm Front, Jim Butcher




• I liked Codex Alera better, despite its classic Farm Boy setup. Dresden I kept wanting to knock on his head because I have a problem with certain types of idiotic behavior and constant whining. Plus the writing wasn't stellar. I'll give this series another chance in hopes that it will improve with repetition.





34. The Eyre Affair, Jasper Fforde




• First in the Thursday Next series. Didn't blow me away but was quite amusing and original. Didn't care much for the love story, Thursday's not Jane's, obviously. Will read some more.





35. PsyCop Series, Jordan Castillo Price




• Cops with paranormal abilities, or, specifically, one cop who can see dead people :) The first few installments were better than the later ones, professional investigators should investigate crimes against other people, completely unconnected to themselves, in my opinion. Don't care much for conspiracy theories in action either. But it was a fun read nonetheless.





36. The Magister Trilogy, C.S. Friedman (Feast of Souls, Wings of Wrath, Legacy of Kings)




• Coldfire trilogy was better in my opinion and if you haven't read it yet do start there. That said, The Magister Trilogy was well written and filled with all the good stuff: magic, dragons, quests and lots of angsts. Friedman doesn't much care for formulas of the genre and I like her for that.





37. The Administration Series, Manna Francis




• Another book I would have never known to pick up on my own. It is a flavor of sci-fi, including totalitarian dystopian society where brutal Administration governs using all the usual tools of the police state, including legal torture of suspected criminals (political opposition included in the definition) and crime witnesses, balanced out somewhat by the Corporations that completely control their workforce, and as a matter of course employ industrial espionage and assassinations to grow their profits. I should read blurbs and reviews more carefully because the BDSM aspect completely escaped my notice until it was too late and I couldn't put the book down. Oh, well, you live and learn to view your recs with a more critical eye.





38. Blackout, Connie Willis


39. All Clear, Connie Willis




• Part of the Oxford Time Travel series concentrating on the London Blitz. This duology transcends sci-fi and enters the realm of literature that everybody should read just because it's that good.





40. Time Out, Connie Willis




• Fairly mediocre short story, not really on par with any of her other work. Don't know why it was ever written, maybe for some anthology or other.





41. The Casual Vacancy, J.K. Rowling




• From my earlier review: well written, better written, in fact, than Harry Potter books were, but the topic and how it was presented and treated was banal, preachy, moralizing, formulaic and boring. It certainly takes real skill to create so many unsympathetic characters you can't find one to care for, or hate, even, but I don't think that's usually the goal of a work of fiction.





42. The Lord of the White Hell (Book 1 and 2), Ginn Hale




• Big bad evil being controlled by big evil state religion to take over the state. Interesting world building. Nice fantasy story.





43. Friday's Child, Georgette Heyer




• I didn't enjoy it as much as Cotillion, but it had its moments. Light and fluffy romance with a guarantee of a happy end. One needs these occasionally.





44. Life of Pi, Yann Martel




• I didn't realize they made it into a movie. Can't imagine why anybody would and how it could ever be watchable. It works as a book, though it didn't live up to the promise and didn't make me believe in any god. Don't see why it would. You want something deep and philosophical? Read Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. I liked the part about India, before they got on the boat, after that it became a bit bizarre up until the twist in the last chapter. I do know which story I would choose.





45. Almost Like Being in Love, Steve Kluger




• He almost made me care about football games and baseball averages. Well, no, not really, but at least I didn't find them irritating or detracting in any way from the story. Quirky, funny and fun. Epistolary novel made up of things like letters and e-mails, school essays and newspaper clippings.





46. Captain Vorpatril's Alliance, Lois McMaster Bujold




• Latest in the Vorkosigan saga centered on Mile's cousin Ivan with but a cameo from Miles himself. It wasn't bad, better than Cryoburn, but not as good as the early installments. Inspired me to reread the first few books.





47. Zero at the Bone, Jane Seville




• Assassin with a heart of gold would usually fall into the fantasy genre, but this in fact is a romantic adventure or thriller. Another Goodreads rec, a bit on a mushy side, still fun.





48. A Civil Contract, Georgette Heyer




• So far my least favorite of Heyer's books. I still liked the way she treated the era and her character descriptions and the atmosphere.





49. Glamour in Glass, Mary Robinette Kowal




• Sequel to The Shades of Milk and Honey. Her take on Regency romance in addition to the fantasy twist is also a lot more action packed than usual for the genre. This time the adventure is set in Belgium during the return of Napoleon. A bit campy but fun.





50. Spin, Robert Charles Wilson




• I really liked the ideas in Spin, very unusual, and the characters, except Diane who was just plain irritating. I am a bit reluctant to read the sequels because I am afraid Wilson will not be able to sustain the level of intricacy and plausibility and will fail when trying to explain or describe the Hypotheticals and their goals and that would spoil the whole story for me. Sort of like what Simmons did with his sequels to Hyperion.





51. Cloud Atlas, David Mitchell




• First off, I did like the movie. That said, the book was infinitely better. I really liked the composition of stories and how they built on each other and how they were all told using different literary styles and genres, something that got a bit lost in the movie. And each individual story was well written and stood on its own as well as being a part of the whole. Very well done.





52. Черный Город, Борис Акунин




• Oh, no, he didn't! There is another one coming, right? It does seem like Akunin got tired of the whole deal and he didn't stay true to the character, Fandorin was all scattered and all over the place in this one. Not on par with previous books.





53. Strange Fortune, Josh Lanyon




• Big bad evil, magic, adventure, love... yes, just another fantasy story. Can't have enough of those.





54. The Last Samurai, Helen DeWitt




• It's not an easy light read, you have to work at this book but it's worth every effort expanded on it. A stream of conscience in places, convoluted and strange, a glimpse into the minds of two brilliant people, mother and son, and their separate but inseparable quests.





55. Venetia, Georgette Heyer




• What every man needs to set him straight is a love of a good woman, especially when the woman knows exactly what she wants and is not afraid to get it.





56. Old Man's War, John Scalzi




• Not sure this idea of sending 75-year-olds to fight with aliens would work in actuality but then, who reads sci-fi for realism? It's a good story and that's what counts and there is more waiting where this came from on my to-read list.





57. World War Z, Max Brooks




• I've been trying to expand my horizons in the literary genres and while one could argue that zombie apocalypse is not really far enough from my usual fare of sci-fi and fantasy I'll have you know that I find real world horrible enough already and therefor avoid horror in my entertainment choices. This was fun in a sick and unusual way. I even managed not to get too worked up by the sheer unfeasibility of the whole scenario. The movie with Brad Pitt is not looking very promising unfortunately.





58. Last Days of Summer, Steve Kluger




• Written in similar style to Almost Being in Love but covering a very different topic. Brilliantly written and hilariously funny, the story of a 12-year-old Jewish kid from Brooklyn forming a very unlikely friendship with Giants' (NY Giants at the time) 3rd baseman is one of those gems you somehow accidentally stumble upon and then are forever grateful for. And that's from a person who thinks baseball is a step down from getting my teeth drilled.





59. Ghostwritten, David Mitchell




• Nine mostly independent but interconnected stories. Wait, what does that remind me of...? Well, this book came before Cloud Atlas, in fact, Mitchell reused some of the characters from Ghostwritten in Cloud Atlas. I was somewhat puzzled by the concluding story, not sure how it slotted in with the progression of everything, it stuck out for me and didn't fit. But the rest of this very intricate and complex collage of disparate snapshots of times, places, people and situations is beautiful and engrossing.





60. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, Mary Ann Shaffer, Annie Barrows




• Another wonderful epistolary novel, this time taking place in Britain shortly after the end of WWII and in a sort of meandering way telling a story of the only occupied portion of Britain - one of the Channel Islands. It was short and sweet and absolutely enchanting, filled with nutty but endearing characters. Sadly Mary Ann Shaffer became very ill before she was able to complete the book and she didn't live to see it published.