2012 was the year I rediscovered inter-library loans. I whittled books off my Wish List at , thanks to Oregon libraries.  I also read more Kindle books this year than ever before. My bookshelves are patiently waiting for me to notice them. The lists are in order of my favorites. The ones I especially liked have an asterisk in front of them. You are welcome to ask questions or make comments or suggest titles for 2013.

Happy reading!

 

Biography

* Bonhoeffer, Eric Metaxas (2011)

Children’s Books

* Thoughts to Make Your Heart Sing, Sally Lloyd-Jones, (2012)
Two are Better Than One, Carol Ryrie Brink (1968)
The Giraffe That Walked to Paris, Nancy Milton (1992)
Baby Island, Carol Ryrie Brink (1937)
Trudel’s Siege, Louisa May Alcott (1848)
Fantastic Mr. Fox, Roald Dahl (1970)

Christian

Life Together, Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1938)
Prayers: A Personal Selection, Michael York and Michael Hoppe (2010)

Classics

* Les Miserables, Victor Hugo (1862)
Jill the Reckless, P.G. Wodehouse (1920)
An Eye For An Eye, Anthony Trollope (1878)
Piccadilly Jim, P.G. Wodehouse (1917)
A Room with a View, E.M. Forster (1908)

Cultural Studies

Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell (2008)
Alone Together, Sherry Turkle (2011)
Distracted, Maggie Jackson (2008)
Blink, Malcolm Gladwell (2005)
What the Dog Saw, Malcolm Gladwell (2010)
The Secret Knowledge, David Mamet (2011)

Fantasy

* To Say Nothing of the Dog, Connie Willis (1997)

Fiction

* City of Tranquil Light, Bo Caldwell (2010)
Olivia in India, O. Douglas (1912)
Buffalo Coat Buffalo Coat, Carol Ryrie Brink (1944)
The Distant Land of My Father, Bo Caldwell (2002)
A Christmas Memory, Truman Capote (1956)
Cold Comfort Farm, Stella Gibbons (1932)
Chasing Mona Lisa, Tricia Goyer and Mike Yorkey (2012)
Strangers in the Forest, Carol Ryrie Brink (1959)
Arrow of God, Chinua Achebe (1964)
The House at Tyneford, Natasha Solomons (2011)
The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey, Walter Mosley (2010)

History

For All the Tea in China, Sara Rose (2010)
Practicing History, Barbara Tuchman (1982)

Memoir

* Surprised by Oxford, Carolyn Weber (2011)
* A Homemade Life, Molly Wizenberg (2009)
* My Reading Life, Pat Conroy (2010)
The Invisible Child, Katherine Paterson (2001)
My Family and Other Animals, Gerald Durrell (1956)
How Parking Enforcement Stole My Soul, Ben Friedrich (2012)
The Heart of a Soldier, Capt. Kate Blaise w/ Dana White (2005)
A Chain of Hands, Carol Ryrie Brink (1981)

Mystery

The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie, Alan Bradley (2009)
Shoofly Pie, Tim Downs (2003)
A Red Herring Without Mustard, Alan Bradley (2011)

Non Fiction

Simplify, Joshua Becker (2010)
The Book Whisperer, Donalyn Miller (2009)

Poetry

Kitchen Sonnets, Ethel Romig Fuller (1931)
Skylines, Ethel Romig Fuller (1952)

Travel

* China Road, Rob Gifford (2007)
American Places, Wallace and Page Stegner (1993)
The Boat Who Wouldn’t Float, Farley Mowatt (1969)