Monday, September 10, 2012

2012 Summer Reading

Summer 2012 reading

One of my gauges of a summer are the number and quality of books I've been able to read.  The summer of 2012 was an outstanding one for the quantity of books, maybe the quality was a bit down.

A Walk Across the Sun
   A debut novel, set mainly in India.  Enjoyed the read.
 TheWidower's Tale Jullia Glass
  My daughter's recommendation.  May not have read it otherwise; but enjoyed the story.

 Three Seconds Anders Roslund and Borge Hellstrom
  A Swedish novel, well crafted, a thriller

 Blood Safari Deon Meyer
  OK

 Blackout John Lawton
     Set in England during Battle of Britain.  Mystery novel in a historical context
.
 The Black Echo Michael Connelly
  Michael Connelly

 Swamplandia Karen Russell
  A finalist of Pulitzer prize in literature; but not sure why.  Started well, but disappointed in last half.

 Cutting for Stone Abraham Verghese
   Liked this novel a lot,

Catching Fire  Suzanna Collins
  The second book of the Mockingjay series.  The second book

Killing the Blues  Michael Brandman
   I like the Jessie Stone character created by the Robert S. Parker

 Agent 6  Tom Rob Smith
   Mystery set in cold-war Russia.  Liked the character and the setting

Siro  David Ignatius
   Ignatius writes tight, well crafted novels with international settings and intrique.

The Increment  David Ignatius
  See above

The Litigators  John Grisham
   Grisham weaves a good story.

Nightwoods Charles Frazier
   A different novel than I expected from Frazier, liked the novel

Buried Prey  John Sandford
  Sandford is one of my guilty pleasures, enjoy all of the "prey" series.

The Blind Spy  Alex Dryden
   International thriller/spy book.  a quick read

Steve Jobs Walter Isaacson
   A biographical revealing that I generally found interesting.

Boomerang Michael Lewis
   Michael Lewis writes in a clear understand fashion of complex topics; this time it's the European Monetary crisis that some European countries find themselves.  A bit scary.

In the Garden of Beasts  Erik Larson
  Non-fiction focusing on two people from Germany as the rise of Hitler and Nazis.  The American ambassador to Germany and his daughter.  Fascinating.

#3 Saxon Tales  Bernard Cromwell
  Another guilty pleasure,  I'm reading two of Cromwell series of historical novels.

The Tiger's Wife  Tea Obrent
  Not what I was expecting at all, really two stories in one

SUPERFreakonomics  Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner
  Loved reading about their theories of micro-economics and the illustrations enhanced the text.

Maphead  Ken Jennings
  If you love Geography, you'll appreciate this book by someone else who loves geography.  Ken Jennings is the all time money winner from game show, Jeopardy.  Thanks, Theresa for suggesting the book.

The Entitled Frank DeFord
  I don't read many sports novel.  But I admire the articles of DeFord, so took a chance.  A good read, and more than a sports novel.

The Snowman  Jo Nesbit
  This one kept me guessing

Cloud Atlas  David Mitchell
 One of the most unique books I've read.  Took me a while to get into it (two years), but finally kept at it until I was hooked.  They're making a movie of this?   Thanks, Brad.

The Orchardist  Amanda Coplin
   A well crafted, well written novel.  Heard about the book on PBS, but part of the intrique was the story was set in Central Washington and included towns and areas that I've visited often.

Actually, had a lot of other books on my "read list", that still remain there.  Waiting for the next holiday/vacation!

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