Best Books I Read in 2012

Despite one of the busiest years in recent memories, I'm surprised by how many books I conquered in the last twelve months.  My reading schedule was sporadic at best, but I managed to cover a wide variety of genres and authors.  I utterly botched my goal of doing a blog review for each one, but here's an overview of my book shelf from 2012.

Top Picks

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson (crime thriller)

Have been egged on for years that I should read this and finally did.  What was I waiting for?!?!  Decimated a whole weekend with this companion.  I can't find a single thing wrong with it - if you love crime fiction, you need to read this immediately.  Don't let people say the first 100 pages are boring - they don't know what patience is.   

Have prudently put off buying the other two books in the trilogy, for the temptation to consume them in one sitting would be far too great.  Am eying upcoming weekends for clearance though, lol.   

The Snowman by Jo Nesbø (crime thriller) 

Apparently the new crime writers are all from Scandinavian countries.  Wow, I honestly have all praise for this Norwegian mystery.  This is the 7th installment of a 9-book series, but detective Harry Hole is immediately accessible and fascinating.

If you like books about gruff detectives and clever serial killers, and descriptive violence doesn't put you off, you'll enjoy curling up on your couch with this one.  But maybe with the lights on.  Can't wait to explore the rest of the series. 
 
The Hunger Games trilogy by Suzanne Collins (YA dystopian fiction) 

I went directly from the movie theater to pick up the first book in the afternoon and finished it later at 2am.  I really wish these books had been around when I was a kid - I would have been all over them.  Easy reads geared at middle-schoolers, but nonetheless entertaining and raise some interesting issues about our future.  Eagerly waiting for the second movie to come out this spring!  

Different Seasons by Stephen King (short stories)

Several years ago, I read "Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption" because I always loved the movie, but for some reason, I never explored the other three tales until now.

"The Body" you're probably familiar with because of the movie Standby Me - it was comfy enough coming-of-age tale. "The Breathing Method" has the same groove as telling good ghost stories around a campfire.

But I was absolutely gripped by "The Apt Pupil."  A young kid discovers a hidden Nazi in his small town - the story descends from there.  At every turn, your mind keeps asking, "is he really going there???"  King knows how to spin a yarn that immediately sinks its hooks into you without letting go.  Twisted plots, characters of dubious intention, a touch of the paranormal: you. just. can't. put. the. damn. book. down.  

Full Dark, No Stars  by Stephen King (short stories)

As much as I enjoyed Different Seasons, you can tell King has come a long way since 1982.  His latest collection of short stories covers his usual gamut of the terrible, supernatural, and the downright disturbing. But if you like gothic fiction, that's exactly what you crave from King.  

I was completely captivated by each story and while I read this while traveling, it's no airplane read.  I wish more (mainstream) authors would explore short stories and novellas, or maybe they just know that King would blow all of them out of the water. 


The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot (true story)
  
Amazing story right here - found it while looking for popular books to feature in a literature class this summer.  Chronicles how one woman's cancer cells, taken unknowingly, have led to as many medical breakthroughs as they raise ethical issues about patient consent.  Not usually partial to nonfiction, but this reads like an episode of CSI or Criminal Minds.

 
Outliers: The Story of Success by Malcolm Gladwell (cultural/sociology)

Another book introduced to me at work.  This is a fantastic read and really generates a lot of discussion - highly recommend to anyone.  Definitely need to check out his other books. 

Honorable Mentions

Garment of Shadows by Laurie R. King (detective fiction)

The twelfth edition in her Mary Russell series, this book was on target - I was neither delighted nor disappointed.  This is hands down my favorite book series (continuation of Sherlock Holmes but from his new partner Mary's point of view), but the last few editions haven't captivated my attention.  

I can see perfectly what the author is doing - playing around with the narrative and format to bring new options to readers.  They just don't have me on the edge of my seat like some earlier ones.  But that's ok - I'll gladly spend an afternoon with Ms. Russell and I impatiently wait to read her next adventure.  

 
The Help by Kathryn Stockett (fiction)

This book is much richer than the movie (no surprise).  It was a pretty decent read, though it's not one that I would return to again and again.  When you hear the book described - a fictional story about black maids in the 60s as told by a modern white woman - it's easy to misjudge it completely.  Read it first and then form an opinion.  


  
 
50 Shades of Grey by E.L. James (erotica, barely)

Yeah yeah, I hopped on the bandwagon.  Remember that my husband was away for most of this year ... eh hem.  Did I read the whole thing?  Yes.  Did it maybe aid with some stress relief?  <cough>  Was I motivated to read the other books?  No.  There's better stuff out there, just saying.  


 
 

Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury (dystopian sci-fi)

One of those mandatory English major novels that I'm embarrassed I've never read (to be fair, it was never assigned).  Overall ok, not my favorite, but certainly glad I read it because the story is much deeper than the snippets of cultural references you get.



The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business by Charles Duhigg / The Willpower Instinct: How Self-Control Works, Why It Matters, and What You Can Do to Get More of It by Kelly McGonigal (sociological, self-help) 

Both books offer intriguing insights about what motivates us and how we get stuck in a groove.  Both are worth a read (though I liked McGonigal's book better) - really helps you start looking at your own unique habits to see which ones are helping you and which ones need to be redirected.  There's no secret to making or undoing habits - it's trial and error - but you have to be aware of what your habits are in the first place to make any changes.  

Let's Pretend This Never Happened: A Mostly True Memoir by Jenny Lawson

 

Recommended by a friend, this is one of the weirdest books I've ever read.  Jenny Lawson is now a famous blogger, but her childhood and early marriage are one long potty joke.  Seriously, this book will crack you up as it explores the unusual twists and turns of Lawson's mind.  Only recommend if you can handle heavy doses of gross, swearing, disturbing, and hilarious.  

 

 A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle (YA sci-fi)

I read it because my work book club picked fantasy and I wanted to revisit this because I never really understood it as a kid.  I still didn't like it.




A Discovery of Witches / Shadow of Night by Deborah Harkness (magical fiction)

Whereas I absolutely adored the first book, the second book was almost a complete miss for me.  Was it the 16th century setting that put me off because it's not an era I'm fond of or familiar with?  Might the explosion of characters and historical references been hard to keep track of?  Could my expectations have been misled, as the first book had more DaVinci Code-esque pacing whereas the second was pretty static? 

I wait patiently for the third installment.  I do want to know where the story goes and how it might possibly wrap up, but if I have to slog through another 600-pages of blah, I will be sad indeed.  

What were your top reads last year?

Outliers: The Story of Success by Malcolm Gladwell (review)

Do you believe in the idea of the self-made man or woman or do you acknowledge that we are all products of hundreds of influences, from our parents, teachers, and friends to innate abilities, the culture we're born to, and our ability to seize an opportunity?  Outliers: The Story of Success is a fascinating book by Malcolm Gladwell that explores how the world around us is just as important to our success as individual traits. 

I got introduced to this book at work.  My coworker had found the book somewhat depressing, in that her interpretation was that it argued that uber successful people - like a Steve Jobs, the Beatles, or Bill Gates - are rare anomalies in our culture, folks who just happened to be at the right place at the right time.  I've never looked kindly on the idea that success is a matter of luck, so I was intrigued.

Turns out the book takes a different approach - it argues that we incorrectly define success as the result of someone's individual traits and efforts while ignoring the many influences that shape that person. 

In an interview included at the back of the book, Gladwell says, "What I came to realize in writing Outliers is that we've been far too focused on the individual - on describing the characteristics and habits and personality traits of those who get furthest ahead in the world.  And that's the problem, because in order to understand outliers I think you have to look around them - at their culture, community, family, and generation.  We've been looking at tall trees, and I think we should be looking at the forest." 

The argument is that no man or woman is an island - success isn't forged from a person's singular will and drive.  Instead, it is a complex, fluid combination of factors, some that you have control over, some that are a byproduct of your culture and time period.  "Ability, opportunity, and utterly arbitrary advantage" drive our achievements, whether we want to acknowledge that or not.

The common yet incorrect notion that success is achieved by individual efforts alone

This was an intriguing idea to me.  I've always been curious about influences such the validity of birth order (I fit the description of an oldest child to a T), your personality profile (like Myers-Brigg, I am totally an extrovert), or even something as unscientific as astrology signs (again, perfect example of an Aries).  But I'd never really wanted to acknowledge how the sum of my life is a collaborative effort and any resulting success is owed to those factors.

Gladwell provides many examples of how a person's skills and experiences + their ability to recognize an opportunity can catapult them to astronomical good fortune.  What's important to recognize is that the outliers of any given time, like a Mark Zuckerberg, logged in many hours to get to where they're at.  Personality traits and culture opportunities aside, hard work is still at the heart of success.

Interestingly, 10,000 hours of time dedicated to honing a skill allows you to call yourself an expert.  The number is borrowed from computer programming, but it serves as a benchmark for any skill you need to develop.

The Beatles are a great example.  You could write a whole book about how each of the four members were really gifted musicians and how they spent their childhood developing their individual proficiencies.  But singularly gifted musicians do not a successful band make.
  
Gladwell points to their time spent in Hamburg, Germany where the band took a low-paying, lack luster gig where they played for 8 hours a day, 7 days a week.  They ended up playing live 1,200 times before their success blew up in Liverpool.  All of that practice resulted in fine tuning their style, memorizing all their music plus covers, and developing the stamina for perform live.  

 
The key here is that the Fab Four not only were a mixture of individual talents, but together they recognized the value of their performances in Hamburg.  Because they saw the benefit of hours on end of practicing, they could take advantage of it.

And that's the key takeaway from the book - you need to recognize your own strengths and when an opportunity comes along to develop them further.  

"It is not the brightest who succeed ... nor is success simply the sum of the decisions and efforts we make on our own behalf.  It is, rather, a gift.  Outliers are those who have been given opportunities - and who have had the strength and presence of mind to seize them" (pg 267).

I think about my own life and find this to be true.  An average college professor teaches 6 courses a year.  When I lived in Cedar Falls, I taught 30 courses in two years - unintentionally cramming five years of teaching experience into less than half the normal time.  

Before that in college, I was a marching assistant in marching band, meaning that I taught drill and marching fundamentals to my section.  I was also in a greek organization and for two years I was responsible for the education of new members.  In high school, I helped with Sunday School, was a teaching assistant to a grade-school band, and spent a semester helping in a special ed classroom.  And hats off to all of the wonderful teachers I had along the way that encouraged me to grow and served as role models.

I joke that being a teacher is part of my personality.  While that's true to some extent - I like talking in front of people, I gravitate to leadership roles, and I'm a passionate learner - I've also amassed a huge volume of teaching experiences in a condensed time frame.  

And it wasn't by accident - I always knew I wanted to be a teacher in some form, so I was always looking for opportunities to try it out.  It doesn't mean I'm a better teacher than other folks my age, only that I'm a more practiced teacher.  I'm more experienced and comfortable because of the exposure I've had. 

 
I could outline the same thing when it comes to my love of writing and literature - how my parents swear I could read at an early age, the availability of books in our house, how my hometown had an excellent library, that I had fantastic English teachers at every step of the way, and how I was always writing creative stories as a kid.  

But it was me who decided to turn this love into a degree, strategically picked classes, joined professional organizations, took an editing job at my college newspaper, tutored in a writing center, volunteered to edit a department publication, and went to a ton of conferences to test out my own research. 

I hope I don't sound egotistical looking at my path to success, which is moderate in my own eyes given my 28 years.  Will I ever be famous as Bill Gates or Lady Gaga?  No, and that's ok.  We can't all be outliers (not to mention that kind of fame has a lot of downsides).  But we can take an inventory of our own strengths and be vigilant for opportunities to move us forward.

"It is impossible for a hockey player, or Bill Joy, or Robert Oppenheimer, or any other outlier for that matter, to look down from their lofty perch and say with truthfulness, 'I did this, all by myself.'  Superstar lawyers and math whizzes and software entrepreneurs appear at first blush to lie outside ordinary experience.  But they don't.  They are products of history and community, of opportunity and legacy.  Their success is not exceptional or mysterious.  It is grounded in a web of advantages and inheritances, some deserved, some not, some earned, some just plain lucky - but all critical to making them who they are.  The outlier, in the end, is not an outlier at all" (pg 285). 

I truly enjoyed reading this book - clearly from the length of my review, it was thought-provoking.  Not in a controversial sense, but in that it encouraged me to look at my life and acknowledge the many shaping influences to my achievements, whether I had control over them or not.  It also prompted me to revisit how I personally define success: in life, relationships, my jobs, our finances, ect.  Definitely something to mull over.

I would recommend this book to anyone, but particularly those in career-oriented fields, those at the bottom of the corporate ladder, and anyone who enjoy sociology or behavior sciences.  The book is written in a clear writing style, is well organized, and cites all of its research.  I'll definitely be checking out Gladwell's other books in the near future.

How do you define success in your life?  Can you see how particular moments, key people, and personal qualities have helped you get to where you are?

Fifty Shades of Grey - Didn't Have Me Tied Down

Warning - I'm going to talk about sexuality.  Knowing full well my mothers and friends read this, I'm giving you the chance to click that red X in the corner lest the idea of me broaching the topic of erotica, sexuality, and the social impact of literature gets your panties in a twist ... and not in a good way.

For the rest of you still hanging out, thanks for being curious :)

Fifty Shades of Grey by EL James is taking over the bedrooms of bored women across the nation, or so the headlines have been screaming.  The book charts the complex relationship of Anastasia Steel (literature student) and Christian Grey (wealthy entrepreneur).  It's the classic story of unworldly, slightly clumsy, doesn't-know-she's-hot girl meets experienced, dark, I'm-in-need-a-therapist hot guy.

The twist, if you're not aware, is that instead of your run-of-the-mill romance novel steamy scenes, EL James lets her readers explore a slightly darker gamut of sexual expression in the world of dominant/submissive, accompanied by some light bondage, a touch of flogging (not in the Spanish Inquisition sense), and a few spankings.  That would be BDSM (bondage, discipline, dominance, submission, sadism, masochism) and all of the ensuing combinations.

I'll kick off my review with this statement - sexuality is not fixed or binary, it is highly personal, and as long as you and your partner set the boundaries and are honest with each other, what you do with and to each other is your own damn business.

If you think erotica is porn, well, I'm surprised you're still reading this.  I could devote another post to explaining the difference, but porn is visual and leaves nothing to the imagination.  Erotica is sensual and requires imagination on the reader's part.  The difference is profound - porn is a 10-minute quickie whereas erotica is a drawn-out seduction. 

Back to Fifty Shades.  This book started out as online fan fiction for Twilight.  Oh yes, the main characters were once Bella and Edward.  The influence is easily discernible, which may put you off or pull you in.  

(source)

To her credit, James readily admits she's a novice writer.  Which makes it easier for me to gently agree with her.  This is not a wonderfully written book.  A chunk of my editor brain was having fun mentally taking a red pen to the text as I read.  This sentiment applies both to the relationship portions of the book and the "I might blush here" sections.

I also easily tired of our narrator, Ana.  She's young, innocent, exploring her sexuality for the first time (she starts out as a virgin), and is written accordingly.  She can't bring herself to talk about her or Christian's body directly; instead she refers to down there, his erection, or the apex of my thighs.  She constantly says holy shit! when something arousing happens, which gets annoying because it seems so juvenile.

Despite my literary beef with the execution, it distresses me that the media sharks out there have dubbed this work mommy porn  <shudders>  There are so many things wrong with that term - it's sexist, disparaging, and dismissive.

(source)

Granted, this very heterosexual, very white book is not going to cut across all demographics, but to throw such a label on it is repulsive because it seeks to shame any woman (or curious guy) from picking it up.  On that premise, I defend the book for making sexuality more approachable, even if you've innocuously downloaded it on your Kindle or Nook and no one sees the cover (which in print form is also deliberately unremarkable). 

To be honest, this is Introductory Erotica.  Unlike most of the user-submitted stuff you can troll for online, Fifty Shades at least had some quality control, but there's better stuff out there.  If you've never tasted this taboo genre before or are already a closet Harlequin reader, I endorse this for you.  But if your sexuality is more robust, this will leave you unsatisfied.

A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness (review)

Witches and vampires and daemons, oh my!

A Discovery of Witches is a wonderful book by Deborah Harkness.  It's a delightful blend of Harry Potter-esque magical realism, a nail-biting plot from Dan Brown, the lush historical details in The Historian, the science behind the movie Underworld, and (according to trusted friends) the sexiness of Twilight.  I was so in love with the story that I polished off this 575+ page novel in two sittings!

I honestly can't do the plot justice in a paragraph, so here's the inside book cover flap:  

Deep in the heart of Oxford's Bodleian Library, scholar Diana Bishop requests a manuscript called Ashmole 782 in the course of her research. Coming from an old and distinguished line of witches, Diana sense that the ancient book might be bound up with magic - but she herself wants nothing to do with sorcery; and after making a few notes on its curious images, she banishes it quickly back to the stacks. But what she doesn't know is that the old alchemical text has set a fantastical underworld stirring. Soon, a distracting horde of daemons, witches, and vampires descends upon the Bodleian's reading rooms. One of these creatures is Matthew Clairmont, an enigmatic and eminent geneticist, a practitioner of yoga, and wine connoisseur - and also a vampire with a keen interest in Ashmole 782.

What follows is a lively story that snakes it way through alchemy, genetics, witchcraft, wolf behavior, history, magic, legends come to life, ancient brotherhoods, secret texts, iconic cities, famous libraries, and castles.

If none of that interests you, this is not the book for you.



(source)

What I love about this book is how adult it is.  This is not some YA novel with simplistic writing that grown-ups are picking up.  This is a book with characters who have PhDs,  engage in discussions about academic, magical, and scientific discourse, and are open about sensuality (fair warning - this is not True Blood, nothing R- or X-rated here).

I didn't feel like I was consuming literary junk food when I read this book.  It is smartly written, doesn't back away from gritty scenes, drives the narrative with a lively tone, never dumbs down or mutes its characters, and keeps you on your toes without any cheap tricks.

 

Colorful, thoughtfully developed, and engaging characters abound in a plot that with a less skilled writer would have descended into a catchy airplane read but nothing more.  I, unsurprisingly, was captivated by Diana, educated and feminist but complicated.  She is quite the opposite of Meg from A Wrinkle in Time and I can't say enough about how I need strong women in my books.  

I'm very excited that this book is part of a trilogy.  The plot is expansive enough that it will need the extra breathing room to fully flesh itself out.  I might have to be one of those crazy people who pre-orders the next installment this summer!

Do you dig books with mythical creatures like vampires, werewolves, witches, and talking animals?    

A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle (review)

Do you remember the Murry children from A Wrinkle in Time?  The creation of Madeleine L'Engle, Meg and Charles Wallace are descendants of the Pevensie siblings from The Chronicles of Narnia but ancestors of Harry, Ron, and Hermione.

I read this as a kid but failed to connect with it. I picked it up again when my book club at work turned to the fantasy genre.  Unfortunately, my adult reaction was no different than my preteen self. 

This is the cover I remember

Lowlights
My entire objection to the book is tied up in the main character, Meg. Great pains are taken to emphasis that Meg is the black sheep of her family, incompetent at school, full of unbridled angst, and mousy to boot.

Told from Meg's viewpoint, the story is full of outbursts, tearful declarations, and constant frustrations. This goes far beyond what we would expect from a gangly teenager girl.  Meg isn't just made to feel unattractive - she has an unattractive personality.

What irks me about Meg is that L'Engle left her without any gifts. She is thoroughly unlikeable and untalented.  Daughter of two scientists, sister of a child prodigy, and friend to a math whiz * (reader correction below), Meg doesn't have anything to bring to the table.

I nearly threw the book at the end when Meg saves her brother with her love.  Yes, the girl who fails her classes, wanders around clumsily, and constantly complains saves the day with her love.

I know, I know, it was the 60s.  It was unusual to have a female main character in a sci-fi book.  But still, sigh.  It reinforces that girls are only tagalongs with domestic gifts in adventure stories.

 
Highlights
Despite my objections, I'm glad this book exists.  It's very alternative to something like Narnia or LOTR, even though it similarly mixes religion, fantasy, and science freely.  In fact, that's precisely why it was on the list of the 100 Most Frequently Challenge Books during the 1990s.  That's an automatic plus in my book.

Depictions of women aside, the master theme of the book is the dangers of conformity.  It shows that a world that has removed the individual for simplicity's sake is one full of people easy to control.  

Favorite Quotes

"Just because we don't understand doesn't mean that the explanation doesn't exist."

"You're given the form, but you have to write the sonnet yourself. What you say is completely up to you."

Do you remember reading this book?  What did you think?