Books I Read in 2012

• I don't rate books in these posts by quality, really, but just as me recommending things to people, so keep that in mind.
• 
  
• *** = GO READ THIS RIGHT NOW
• **  = I would hand this book to you
• *   = I would not tell you to put this book down
•     = Don't bother
• 
  
•    172 Hours on the Moon
•  **A Long Way Down, by Nick Hornby
•  **A Monster Calls, by Patrick Ness
•    All The King's Men
•  **All The Right Stuff, by Walter Dean Meyers
•   *Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe
•  **As You Like It, by William Shakespeare
•   *Assassin King, The (I loved the first 3 books in this series a lot, this one less so)
•    Bewitching
•  **Birth Order Book, The, by Kevin Leman (NF)
•   *Book of Blood and Shadow, The
•   *Children and the Wolves, The (This is not a pleasant book to read by any stretch of the imagination, but that doesn't mean it's bad)
•  **Chopsticks,  by Jessica Anthony
•  **Cinder, by Marissa Meyer
•  **Deadly Pink, by Viviane Vande Velde
•   *Dreamsleeves
•   *Fame, Glory, and Other Things on My To-Do List
•   *Fault in Our Stars, The
•   *Glimmer
• ***God is Not One, by Stephen Prothero (NF)
•  **Great Gatsby, The, by F. Scott Fitzgerald
•  **Hacking Harvard, by Robin Wasserman
•   *Keeping The Castle
• ***Letter Q, The, edited by Sarah Moon (NF)
•    Lexapros and Cons
• ***Lies of Locke Lamora, The, by Scott Lynch
•  **List, The, by Siobhan Vivian
•  **Marly's Ghost, by David Levithan
•  **Miseducation of Cameron Post, The, by Emily M. Danforth
•  **My Name is Mina, by David Almond
•  **Nevermore, a novel by my boyfriend which I love a lot even though he hates it
•   *Of Mice and Men
•   *Old Man and the Sea, The
•  **Pirate Cinema, by Cory Doctorow
•    Pure
• ***Ready Player One, by Ernest Cline
•  **Romeo and Juliet, by William Shakespeare
•  **SchoolGirls, by Peggy Orenstein (NF)
•  **Universe in a Single Atom, The, by The Dalai Lama (NF)
•   *Unwind
•   *What Boys Really Want
•  **Wonderstruck, by Brian Selznick
•   *Zeitoun, by Dave Eggers

GOD IS NOT ONE:

If you're at all interested in religion, read this. A lot of books now try to emphasize the similarities between religions in order to try and create harmony between them--the "different paths up the same mountain" approach. This book looks at religions as completely separate mountains, with totally different goals--of course Christianity is the only pathway to salvation, because other religions don't care about salvation. I love it a lot.

THE LETTER Q:

This is a book of letters by LGBT authors to their younger selves. And it is amazing whether you're LGBT or not. I haven't cried this much while reading a book since Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, and this was for much more meaningful reasons than the death of a fictional redhead. IT'S JUST SO FRIGGING HOPEFUL.

THE LIES OF LOCKE LAMORA:

From Amazon: "In this stunning debut, author Scott Lynch delivers the wonderfully thrilling tale of an audacious criminal and his band of confidence tricksters. Set in a fantastic city pulsing with the lives of decadent nobles and daring thieves, here is a story of adventure, loyalty, and survival that is one part Robin Hood, one part Ocean’s Eleven, and entirely enthralling.…

An orphan’s life is harsh–and often short–in the island city of Camorr, built on the ruins of a mysterious alien race. But born with a quick wit and a gift for thieving, Locke Lamora has dodged both death and slavery, only to fall into the hands of an eyeless priest known as Chains–a man who is neither blind nor a priest. A con artist of extraordinary talent, Chains passes his skills on to his carefully selected “family” of orphans–a group known as the Gentlemen Bastards. Under his tutelage, Locke grows to lead the Bastards, delightedly pulling off one outrageous confidence game after another. Soon he is infamous as the Thorn of Camorr, and no wealthy noble is safe from his sting."

DEAR GOD I ADORED THIS BOOK SO MUCH. IT IS EVERYTHING I LOVE.

Basically it just fits the criteria of "I will pull this off the shelf and follow you around, jabbering incessantly, until you agree to read it." The Gentlemen Bastards are amazing.

READY PLAYER ONE:

In which you get to live out all of your nerdy pop culture fantasies while accompanying Wade on his quest to win $200 billion through the world's biggest and greatest MMORPG ever. And when I say "all of your nerdy pop culture fantasies," I really do mean basically all of them.

After finishing this book I went home and spent a full hour relating the entire plot to my dad I was just that excited.