Tuesday, December 18, 2012

Top Ten Tuesday: Best Reads of 2012


Top Ten Tuesday is an original bookish meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. Each week a new top ten topic is posted for followers to write about. This week we are asked to list our ten reads of 2012.  I can't do just ten.  So...I'm going to do ten mysteries and ten of everything else.

So far this year, I've read 159 books.  I'll probably squeeze in another five or so (depending on how all the holidaying goes).  But here's the best of the best so far (no rereads):

Mysteries:

Some Danger Involved by Will Thomas  5 stars 
Titanic 2012 by Bill Walker  5 stars 
The Morning After Death by Nicholas Blake  4 stars

The Fifth Man by Manning Coles  4 stars 
The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammet  4 stars 

The So Blue Marble by Dorothy B. Hughes  4 stars
A Good Death by Elizabeth Ironside 4 stars   
The Bat by Mary Roberts Rinehart  4 stars
Such Friends Are Dangerous by Walter Tyrer  4 stars  

The Three Evangelists by Fred Vargas  4 stars 
  

Everything Else: 

From Sawdust to Stardust: The Biography of DeForest Kelley, Star Trek's Dr. McCoy by Terry Lee Rioux  5 stars
The White Forest by Adam McOmber  4 1/2 stars 
A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens 4 stars
Star Trek & Philosophy: The Wrath of Kant by Jason T Eberl & Kevin S Decker, eds  4 stars 
The Ink Dark Moon: Love Poems by Onon no Komachi & Izumi Shikibu, Women of the Ancient Court of Japan trans by Jane Hirshfield w/Mariko Aratan  4 stars

The Inn at Lake Devine by Elinor Lipman  4 stars   
Imagined London: A Tour of the World's Greatest Fictional City by Anna Quindlen  4 stars 
Prayers to Broken Stones by Dan Simmons  4 stars
Dracula by Bram Stoker  4 stars
 


Special mention to India Black & the Rajah's Ruby by Carol K. Carr, a 4 star short story!!    
 

5 comments:

Louise said...

I have Imagined London planned for my next book! I had a look at your review. I haven't been to London either, but am going next year, and looking forward to learning more about it before I go. I'd love to get A Tale of Two Cities read too as I'm going to both Paris and London and want to do some cross channel reading.

Debbie Rodgers @Exurbanis said...

That Will Thomas' Barker and Llewelyn series is really excellent. I read The Limehouse Text a couple of years ago. Great mystery and great story-telling.

Yvette said...

Bev, I read IMAGINED LONDON a while back and liked it very much as well. I read THE INN AT LAKE DEVINE and wasn't quite as taken with that. I mean, it was okay, only I found it a bit predictable.

I also read SOME DANGER INVOLVED but to tell the truth all I remember is that I enjoyed it.

Of all the books you list, I have to say that DRACULA is my favorite. I absolutely LOVED that book and wish I hadn't waited so long to read it.

I can't believe you read 159 books and I've only managed fifty or so (the 'or so' is mainly my rereads which I rarely bother to list) this year.

I'm hoping to do better next year. I will try and use you as an example, Bev. :)

Merry Christmas to you and your family, m'dear. (Is that you on Pinterest???)

Marce said...

I loved Bill Walkers first book.

I thought I would love Dracula but I didn't.

I have a classic as my favourite, Rebecca.

Ryan said...

Love Dracula and The Bat. I'm going to have to take a look at a few of these others.