The Books of 2012

by Charlotte Reads Classics

Perhaps a post I should have written before my 2013 reads but here are the results of another year successfully recorded. In 2012 I read 85 books.

My particular top ten favourite reads and recommendations this year are:

Here is how the year went for me:

January

  • Great Expectations, Charles Dickens
  • Middlesex, Jeffrey Eugenides
  • The Pursuit of Love, Nancy Mitford
  • Love in a Cold Climate, Nancy Mitford
  • Don’t Tell Alfred, Nancy Mitford

February

  • The Blessing, Nancy Mitford
  • Atonement, Ian McEwan
  • The Report, Jessica Francis Kane
  • The Man of Property, John Galsworthy
  • A Man of Parts, David Lodge

March

  • The Dead Secret, Wilkie Collins
  • Ann Veronica, H. G. Wells
  • The Giant, O’Brien, Hilary Mantel
  • The Sense of an Ending, Julian Barnes
  • Pure, Andrew Miller
  • The Hunger Games, Suzanne Collins
  • Catching Fire, Suzanne Collins
  • Mockingjay, Suzanne Collins

April

  • Little Dorrit, Charles Dickens
  • The Woman in White, Wilkie Collins
  • The Moonstone, Wilkie Collins
  • I Capture the Castle, Dodie Smith
  • We Have Always Lived in the Castle, Shirley Jackson
  • Conference at Cold Comfort Farm, Stella Gibbons
  • The Old Man and the Sea, Ernest Hemingway
  • Men Without Women, Ernest Hemingway
  • Fiesta: The Sun Also Rises, Ernest Hemingway
  • The Light Between Oceans, M. L. Stedman

May

  • As I Lay Dying, William Faulkner
  • Wolf Hall, Hilary Mantel
  • Bring Up the Bodies, Hilary Mantel
  • Birdsong, Sebastian Faulks
  • A Farewell to Arms, Ernest Hemingway
  • All Quiet on the Western Front, Erich Maria Remarque
  • The Stranger’s Child, Alan Hollinghurst

June

  • Goodbye To All That, Robert Graves
  • Monsieur Pain, Roberto Bolano
  • My Dear I Wanted to Tell You, Louisa Young
  • Regeneration, Pat Barker
  • Ulysses, James Joyce
  • The Odyssey, Homer
  • Mrs Bridge, Evan S. Connell
  • Revolutionary Road, Richard Yates
  • Boy: Tales From Childhood, Roald Dahl

July

  • The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared, Jonas Jonasson
  • A Tale of Two Cities, Charles Dickens
  • The Enchanter, Lila Azam Zangeneh
  • A Severed Head, Iris Murdoch
  • This is Life, Dan Rhodes
  • Before the Frost, Henning Mankell
  • Let’s Pretend This Never Happened, Jenny Lawson
  • Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit, Jeanette Winterson
  • Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal?, Jeanette Winterson
  • Chocolat, Joanne Harris
  • The Lollipop Shoes, Joanne Harris
  • Peaches for Monsieur le Curé, Joanne Harris
  • French Women Don’t Get Fat, Mireille Guiliano
  • The Secret History, Donna Tartt
  • The Thirteenth Tale, Diane Setterfield

August

  • Jules et Jim, Henri-Pierre Roche
  • Danny the Champion of the World, Roald Dahl
  • Fantastic Mr. Fox, Roald Dahl
  • Shakespeare, Bill Bryson
  • The Devil’s Star, Jo Nesbo
  • The Redeemer, Jo Nesbo
  • The Snowman, Jo Nesbo
  • The Leopard, Jo Nesbo
  • Fire in the Blood, Irène Némirovsky

September

  • John Saturnall’s Feast, Lawrence Norfolk
  • A Change of Climate, Hilary Mantel
  • NW, Zadie Smith
  • The Greatcoat, Helen Dunmore
  • On Chesil Beach, Ian McEwan
  • Parade’s End, Ford Madox Ford
  • The Casual Vacancy, J. K. Rowling

October

  • Anna Karenina, Leo Tolstoy
  • Toby’s Room, Pat Barker
  • Life Class, Pat Barker
  • Restoration, Rose Tremain
  • Stardust, Neil Gaiman

November

  • Wuthering Heights, Emily Brontë
  • The Quincunx, Charles Palliser
  • The Quickening Maze, Adam Foulds

December

  • Clarissa, Samuel Richardson
  • Quiet, Susan Cain