10 Books I Read in 2012

At the end of last year I wrote a post titled 10 Books I Read in 2011. This post does the same thing for 2012.

In 2012 I read 90 books (61 fiction and 29 nonfiction). From that group I selected 10 good ones that I liked and can recommend to other readers. I have included a comment with each entry.

My opinion of what’s “good” is subjective. The criteria I use to judge a book include great writing, an interesting subject, professional editing, a compelling storyline, and, mainly for fiction, a lead character I can identify with and perhaps learn something from. Books with a local (Northwest) setting have a slight advantage.

The list:

• Matthew Algeo, Harry Truman’s Excellent Adventure (N, c. 2009) – A 1953 road trip from Missouri to Washington to New York City and back in a new black Chrysler. Author retraces the route, interviews people the Trumans met, visits the places where they stopped, and provides historical background. No former President could do this now although, even then, the trip got a lot of publicity.
• David Anthony, Something for Nothing (F, c. 2011) – Set in the San Francisco Bay area in 1974. Martin Anderson owns a failing plane-leasing business and a racehorse and wants to be somebody even if crime is the easiest path to his goal. In between his crass thoughts about how he is perceived by others, there’s some good action: smuggling, boating, murder. Good period piece.
• Lisa Brackmann, Rock Paper Tiger (F, c. 2010) – A woman medic in Iraq who went along with prisoner torture is pursued by American security in China after her Chinese artist friend is suspected of treason. As she tries to protect him, there is an almost endless sequence of in-country travel with the direction coming via an online game. A debut novel.
• Chris Bohjalian, The Sandcastle Girls (F, c. 2012) – A modern woman writes about how grandparents—a Boston nurse and an Armenian engineer—fell in love during WWI. Set in Aleppo (now Syria) against the backdrop of the massacre of 1.5 million Armenians. Captures the horror of the slaughter and the atmosphere of the city.
• T. C. Boyle, San Miguel (F, c. 2012) – Boyle takes us back to the channel islands off Santa Barbara (When the Killing Stops is also set there), this time with families who lived there in the 1880s and in the 1930/40s. Both raise sheep. Told from the woman’s POV. You’ll get tired of mutton. The historical backdrop is dead on to what the families would have learned from outside visitors. Easy reading—many short, titled vignettes.
• Ivan Doig, The Bartender’s Tale (F, c. 2012) – Set in 1960 Gros Ventre, Montana. A 12-year-old boy tells the story of Tom Harry, his dad, the best known and liked bartender in the state. Highlights: trip to Ft. Peck dam (Tom tended bar there), women from his past, a mysterious mother, the hearing vent, Democratic politics.
• Steve Edwards, Breaking into the Backcountry (N, c. 2010) – A memoir of caretaking a remote homestead on Oregon’s Rogue River in 2001. The writing puts you there: heat, river, critters, trips to town, guests. In between these sketches, the author muses on the why of existence. Interesting: 10 years to write and publish.
• Charles Frazier, Nightwoods (F, c. 2011) – Set in the mountains of North Carolina in the early 1960s. A caretaker at an old lodge tries to care for her murdered sister’s problem twins. Beautiful prose and nature descriptions. Story trickles out slowly. Climax is in the woods a la Cold Mountain. Meticulous period research.
• Lou Ureneck, Cabin (N, c. 2011) – With his brother and others Ureneck builds a cabin in the hills of western Maine. Construction was a slow process with a lot of commuting. Building the cabin is well described, but given equal billing is a childhood spent growing up poor in rural New Jersey, including time spent fishing and hunting. Ureneck is a nature author.
• David Vann, Last Day on Earth (N, c. 2011) – If you want to read a book about a mass shooting at a school, try this one. A mostly sympathetic portrait of Steve Kazmierczak, who shot five people plus himself at Northern Illinois University in February 2008. He was smart, a good writer, and obsessed with sex. He was also mentally ill and didn’t take his meds, exactly the kind of person to keep away from guns.