I love lists, reading them and making them. My descriptions are either short or else nonexistent, if I think the title covers it or the book is well-known, but I’d be happy to expound on any title.
Best of 2012 in no order:
- Children of the Sun: A Narrative of Decadence in England after 1918, by Martin Green.
Tender is the Night, by F. Scott Fitzgerald
A Compass Error, by Sybille Bedford: the account of how a thoughtless moment can alter a life.
A Moveable Feast, by Ernest Hemingway
Chronicle in Stone, by Ismail Kadare: WWII in Albania, as seen through the eyes of a boy.
Under Gemini, by Isabel Bolton: a memoir of growing up with a twin at the end of the 19th century.
The Wages Of Guilt: Memories Of War In Germany And Japan, by Ian Buruma.
The Hare With Amber Eyes: A Family's Century of Art and Loss, by Edmund de Waal
Worst of 2012: I’m not including books where I should have known better or where my expectations weren’t high (those Georgette Heyers!), only ones where I expected much, much more.
- Catherine the Great: Portrait of a Woman, by Robert K. Massie
Cloud Atlas, by David Mitchell
On Chesil Beach, by Ian McEwan
Uncommon Arrangements: Seven Portraits of Married Life in London Literary Circles 1910-1939, by Katie Roiphe
Death Comes to Pemberley, by P.D. James
The Sisters: The Saga of the Mitford Family, by Mary S. Lovell
Remains of the Day, by Kazuo Ishiguro
The Shadow of the Wind, by Carlos Ruiz Zafón
I see a few of my worst made some best lists. That’s a horse race for you.