Books Read in 2012

Another year has gone by and so here is another brief report on the books I read last year. 
With my discovery of audiobooks the grand total really jumped up.  And I sure read a lot of young adult/children's books this year, too.  They are usually just so darn compelling from page one that I devour them.  Or so sweet that I cannot resist taking the time to read them.

The best print adult book I read was probably Drop Dead Healthy:  One Man's Humble Quest for Bodily Perfection by A.J. Jacobs or Montana in Maps.  I think that A.J. Jacobs is quite hilarious and I enjoy his life-as-an-experiment attitude.  This book is such a wonderful look at how much health advice there is out there and how worrying too much about being healthy is actually un-healthy.  Montana in Maps taught me a lot about my state, even if was a bit dated, and had super interesting maps and charts.  I also can't say enough good about Better Off: Flipping the Switch on Technology.  It was so inspiring.  And while we're on the subject of non-fiction I'd also add that the topic of post-mortum photography and its historical significance were among the most intriguing and new-to-me subjects which I read on rather extensively last year. 

The best print YA/Children's book I read was The Butter Battle Book by Dr. Seuss.  As a child I never read this one, but I was very impressed by it as an adult.  I also read the entirety of The Giver series by Lowis Lowry and thought it was pretty darn great--book one and four particularly.

The best audiobook, which includes both adult and YA books, was probably Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury.  I have a special liking for dystopian novels and this one with all its book burning was particularly resonant with my little Librarian soul.  I also was absolutely swept away with the heart-wrenching drama and beautiful language of O Pioneers! by Willa Cather.  I'd never read anything by her before, but she is on my to-read list in 2013.   I'm also inclined to mention Watership Down by Richard Adams which I'd read as a girl and found just as good as I remembered.  As far as non-fiction goes I'd recommend Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach which was a simply fascinating look at something I knew virtually nothing about.  My Dad suggest it to me, I think.

My least favorites were Cowboy Slang by Edgar R. Potter & Ron Scofield and  The Heritage of Lancaster County trilogy by Beverly Lewis which, though I usually enjoy the simple, somewhat predictable, happy-in-the-end Amish themed fiction, I found silly, dull, and quite unbelievable. 

 The totals are:
53 Adult Books  (22%)
127 YA/Children's Books (52.7%)
61 Audiobooks (25.3 %)
241 Total

Books Read in 2012 (Yes, I count children's books!) *indicates an audiobook

• Confessions of an Economic Hitman (John Perkins)*
• Son (Lowis Lowry)
• Fever 1793 (Laurie Halse Anderson)*
• The Friendly Beasts (Tomie dePaola)
• The Boy Who Ran Away (Irene Elmer & Sally Mathews)
• If Not For The Cat (Jack Prelutsky & Ted Rand)
• Mary's Story (M.M. Brem & Sally Mathews)
• Peace (Lois Kaufman & Barbara Paulding)
• Frog Went A-Courtin' (John Langstaff & Feodor Rojankovsky)
• You're Invited: A Phonics Practice Reader
• The Giving Tree (Shel Silverstein)
• Better Off: Flipping the Switch on Technology (Eric Brende)
• Crossed (Ally Condie)*
• Creative Drawing: Point and Line (Ernst Rottger & Dieter Klante)
• Being a Christian (John R. W. Stott)
• Matched (Ally Condie)*
• The Spirituality of Wine (Tom Harpur)
• Love Thyself: The Message from Water III (Masaru Emoto)
• Creating Moments of Joy: For the Person With Alzheimer's or Dementia (Jolene Brackey)
• America Dances: Historical Photographs From the Library of Congress (Anjelina Keating)
• The Call of the Wild (Jack London)*
• Fasting for Spiritual Breakthrough: A Guide to Nine Biblical Fasts (Elmore Towns)*
• White Fang (Jack London)*
• The Summer of the Monekeys (Wilson Rawls)
• Round About: The Alice and Jerry Books (Mabel O'Donnell, Alice Carety, Florence Hoopes, & Margaret Hoopes)
• Cancel My Subscription: The Worst of NPR (Moe Moskowitz & the Punsters)*
• I Shall Not Be Moved (Maya Angelou)
• Sarah (Orson Scott Card)*
• Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children (Ransom Riggs)
• Ashanti to Zulu: African Traditions (Margaret Musgrove, Leo Dillon, & Diane Dillon)
• The Twits (Roald Dahl & Quentin Blake)
• Ann Frank Remembered: The Story of the Woman Who Helped Hide the Frank Family (Miep Gies & Alison Leslie Gold)*
• The Body Beautiful: Common Sense Ideas on Health and Beauty Without Medicine (Nannette Magruder Pratt)*
• Pics and Quotes of Yellowstone (Bill & Doris Whithorn)
• Messages from Water: Volume 2 (Masaru Emoto)
• Snowflake Bentley (Jacqueline Briggs Martin & Mary Azarian)
• Always Room for One More (Sorche Nic Leodhas & Nonny Hogrogian)
• Dave the Potter: Artist, Poet, Slave (Laban Carrick Hill & Bryan Collier)
• Pancakes, Pancakes! (Eric Carle)
• Mahjong All Day Long (Ginnie Lo & Beth Lo)
• The Tiny Seed (Eric Carle)
• More Than Anything Else (Marie Bradby & Chris K. Soentpiet)
• Where the Wild Things Are (Maurice Sendak)
• The Library Policeman: Three Past Midnight (Stephen King)*
• Jeanette Rankin: Bright Star in the Big Sky (Mary Barmeyer O'Brien)
• Aaron's Hair (Robert Munsch, Alan Daniel, and Lea Daniel)
• The Hidden Messages in Water (Masaru Emoto)
• The Witches (Roald Dahl)
• All The World (Liz Garton Scanlon & Marla Frazee)
• Battle Royale (Koushun Takami)
• O Pioneers! (Willa Cather)*
• Rachel Carson and Her Book That Changed The World (Laurie Lawlor & Laura Bringessner)
• Olivia (Ian Falconer)
• My Creation Bible (Ken Ham & Jonathan Taylor)
• The Story of Ruby Bridges (Robert Coles & George Ford)
• Phenomenal Woman: Four Poems Celebrating Women (Maya Angelou)
• Girls to the Rescue: The Royal Joust (Bruce Lansky)
• Fun Facts About Pets (Seymour Simon)
• Farmer Duck (Martin Waddell & Helen Oxenbury)
• Sunshine (Jan Ormerod)
• Sheila Rae, The Brave (Kevin Henkes)
• Don't Forget to Write (Martina Selway)
• Free Fall (David Wiesner)
• Books are for Eating (Sheey Walton & Nadine Bernard Westcott)
• Lives of Musicians: Good Times, Bad Times (and What the Neighbors Thought) (Kathleen Krull)*
• Atomic Postcards: Radioactive Messages from the Cold War (John O'Brian & Jeremy Borsos)
• The Story of My Life (Helen Keller)*
• Drop Dead Healthy: One Man's Humble Quest for Bodily Perfection (A.J. Jacobs)
• The Reason for the Pelican (John Ciardi & Madeleine Gekiere)
• Salt Boy (Mary Perrine & Leonard Weisgard)
• Aesop's Fables (Beverley Naidoo & Piet Grobler)
• The Tale of Peter Rabbit (Peatrix Potter)
• The Girl Who Loved Wild Horses (Paul Goble)
• Interrupting Chicken (David Ezra Stein)
• The Three Little Aliens and the Big, Bad Robot (Margaret McNamara & Mark Fearing)
• Fish for Supper (M.B. Goffstein)
• At Night (Jonathan Bean)
• Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus (Mo Willems)
• The House in the Night (Susan Marie Swanson & Beth Krommes)
• The Amazing Bone (William Steig)
• The Man (Jack Jasper & Rick Newby)
• Animals Charles Darwin Saw: An Around-the-World Adventure (Sandra Markle & Zina Saunders)
• Montana in Maps (Nicholas Helburn, M.J. Edie, & Gordon Lightfoot)
• The Seed That Peacock Planted (Juliet Kepes)
• I Know Here (Laurel Croza & Matt James)
• Knuffle Bunny: A Cautionary Tale (Mo Willems)
• I Like Me (Nancy Carlson)
• Woody's 20 Grow Big Songs (Woodie Guthrie & Marjorie Mazia Guthrie)
• Lon Po Po: A Red Riding Hood Story from China (Ed Young)
• A Tree is Nice (Janice May Udry & Marc Simont)
• Germs! An Epic Tale on a Tiny Scale (Martin Howard & Colin Stimpson)
• Raising with the Moon: The Complete Guide to Gardening and Living by the Signs of the Moon (Jack R. Pyle & Taylor Reese)
• Messenger (Lois Lowry)*
• Guardians of Being (Eckhart Tolle & Patrick McDonnell)
• The Other Side of the World (Laura Bannon)
• Angels in the Vineyards (Jessel Miller)
• The Rooster Grows: A Book of American Rhymes and Jingles (Maud & Miska Petersham)
• Gathering Blue (Lowis Lowry)*
• The Tall Book of Mother Goose (Feodor Rojankovsky, ill.)
• Whale Snow (Debby Dahl Edwardson & Annie Patterson)
• The Funny Little Woman (Arlene Mosel & Blair Lent)
• Little Bird (Germano Zullo & Albertine)
• The Boy in the Suitcase (Lene Kaaberbol & Agnete Friis)*
• Junichi: A Boy of Japan (G. Warren Schloat, Jr.)
• We the People: September 11 (Mary Englar)
• To Everything There is a Season (Jude Daly)
• Father, We Thank Thee: Simple and Beautiful Prayers for Young Children (Arthur Wortman & Sue Tague)
• Prayer for a Child (Rachel Field & Elizabeth Orton Jonse)
• The Far Side Observer (Gary Larson)
• Moses: When Harriet Tubman Led Her People to Freedom (Carole Boston Weatherford & Kadir Nelson)
• The Range Eternal (Louise Erdrich, Steve Johnson, & Lou Fancher)
• Press Here (Herve Tullet)
• The Clear Light of Day: A Novel (Penelope Wilcock)
• The Story of Beautiful Girl (Rachel Simon)*
• The Dust Bowl Through the Lens: How Photography Revealed and Helped Remedy a National Disaster (Martin W. Sandler)
• Wife No. 19, or The Story of A Life in Bondage, Being a Complete Expose' of Mormonism and Revealing the Sorrows, Sacrifices and Sufferings of Women in Polygamy (Ann Eliza Young)
• Goonight Moon (Margaret Wise Brown & Clement Hurd)
• The Langoliers: One Past Midnight (Stephen King)*
• Goodnight Bush: A Parody (Erich Origen & Gan Golan)
• Listen to the Wind: The Story of Dr. Greg and the Three Cups of Tea (Greg Mortenson & Susan L. Roth)
• Nasreen's Secret School: A True Story from Afghanistan (Jeanette Winter)
• Going Along the Emigrant Trails (Barbara Fifer)
• Loons: Diving Birds of the North (Donna Love & Joyce Mihran Turley)
• Are You There God? Its Me, Margaret. (Judy Blume)*
• The Cookie Thief: A Semi Sweet Taile About a Crime We Too Often Commit (Kirk Weisler)
• The Worst Hard Time : The Untold Story of Those Who Survived the Great American Dust Bowl (Timothy Egan)*
• Early Medical Photography in America: 1839-1883 (Stanley B. Burns, MD)
• Sleeping Beauty II: Grief, Bereavement and the Family in Memorial Photograophy - American and European Traditions (Stanley B. Burns, MD, & Elizabeth Burns)
• Can We Save the Tiger? (Martin Jenkins & Vicky White)
• Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers (Mary Roach)*
• Edward Weston's Book of Nudes (Brett Abbott, ed.)
• The Giver (Lois Lowry)
• Secrets of the Garden: Food Chains and the Food Web in Our Backyard (Kathleen Weidner Zoehfel & Priscilla Lamon)
• Think No Evil: Inside the Story of the Amish Schoolhouse Shooting...and Beyond (Jonas Beiler & Shawn Smucker)*
• When She Woke (Hillary Jordan)*
• Six By Seuss: A Treasury of Dr. Seuss Classics (Dr. Seuss)
• Caleb's Story (Patricia MacLachlan)*
• Masterpieces of Medical Photography: Selections from the Burns Archives (Joel-Peter Witkin, ed.)
• Skylark (Patricia MacLachlan)*
• 1984 (George Orwell)
• Sarah, Plain and Tall (Patricia MacLachlan)
• Sleeping Beauty III Memorial Photography: The Children (Stanley B, Burns, MD)
• The 19th Wife (David Ebershoff)*
• Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl (Anne Frank)
• Heaven is for Real: A Little Boy's Astounding Story of His Trip to Heaven and Back (Todd Burpo & Lynn Vincent)
• The Family of Man (Edward Steichen)
• Sleeping Beauty: Memorial Photography in Amerca (Stanley B Burns, MD)
• Lily's Wedding Quilt (Kelly Long)*
• Thidwick The Big Hearted Moose (Dr. Seuss)
• A Little Bitty Man and Other Poems for the Very Young (Halfdan Rasmussen & Kevin Hawkes)
• Six Crows (Leo Lionni)
• An Extraordinary Egg (Leo Lionni)
• A Busy Year (Leo Lionni)
• Song of the Wild Violets (Peggy Thompson)
• The Dark at the Top of the Stairs (Sam McBratney & Ivan Bates)
• Bless This Mouse (Lois Lowry)*
• Under the Banner of Heaven (Jon Krakauer)*
• One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish (Dr. Seuss)
• Sarah's Garden (Kelly Long)*
• Anne Frank Beyond the Diary: A Photographic Remembrance (Ruud van der Rol & Rian Verhoeven)
• Food Rules: An Eater's Manual (Michael Pollan)
• Night: A New Translation by Marion Wiesel (Elie Wiesel)
• Living Well With Autoimmune Disease: What Your Doctor Doesn't Tell You...That You Need to Know (Mary J. Shomon)
• Anne Frank: The Authorized Graphic Biography (Sid Jacobson & Ernie Colon)
• Oh, The Places You'll Go! (Dr. Seuss)
• The Boy in the Striped Pajamas (John Boyne)
• Annexed (Sharon Dogar)*
• Passage to Freedom: The Sugihara Story (Ken Mochizuki & Dom Lee)
• Cowboy Slang (Edgar R. Potter & Ron Scofield)
• Sermon on the Mount: Methodist Centennial Revised Standard Version
• The War of the Worlds (H.G. Wells)*
• After (Amy Efaw)*
• The Reckoning (Beverly Lewis)*
• The Confesssion (Beverly Lewis)*
• The Shunning (Beverly Lewis)*
• M is for Montana (Gayle Corbett Shirley & Constance Rummel Bergum)
• Hot Water and Healthy Living: The Science of Hot Water Immersion: How It Promotes Healthy Bodies, Hearts, Minds, and Lifestyles (Jonathan B. Smith)
• Song of the Swallows (Leo Politi)
• Lost in My Own Backyard: A Walk in Yellowstone National Park (Tim Cahill)*
• The Lakota Way: Native American Wisdom on Ethics and Character (Joseph M. Marshall, III)*
• Brave New World (Aldous Huxley)*
• Extras (Scott Westerfeld)
• Garden of the Spirit Bear: Life in the Great Northern Rainforest (Dorothy Hinshaw Patent & Deborah Milton)
• Law Enforcement Dogs (Phyllis Raybin Emert)
• The Running Man (Stephen King writing as Richard Bachman)*
• SkippyJon Jones (Judy Schachner)
• Somebunny's Garden (Kathy Rusynyk)
• Cheer Bear: Three Cheers for You
• Watership Down (Richard Adams)*
• What's Inside? My Body (Angela Royston)
• A Day in the Life of the Amish (ed. Bob Ottum)
• Specials (Scott Westerfeld)
• Bartholomew and the Oobleck (Dr. Seuss)
• Summer World (Bernd Heinrich)*
• Understand and Care (Cheri Meiners)
• Share and Take Turns (Cheri Meiners)
• Pretties (Scott Westerfeld)
• Uglies (Scott Westerfeld)
• An Exceptional View of Life (Written and Illustrated by Children with Disabilities)
• I Am In Here: The Journey of a Child With Autism who Cannot Speak But Finds Her Voice (Elizabeth Bonker & Virginia Breen)*
• The American Frugal Housewife (Lydia Maria Child)
• Mockingjay (Suzanne Collins)*
• The Search (Suzanne Woods Fisher)*
• Catching Fire (Suzanne Collins)
• Every Thing On It (Shel Silverstein)
• The Hunger Games (Suzanne Collins)*
• The Waiting (Suzanne Woods Fisher)*
• Don't Sweat The Small Stuff...and Its All Small Stuff (Richard Carlson)
• Living Dead Girl (Elizabeth Scott)*
• The Island of the Blue Dolphins (Scott O'Dell)*
• The Black Book of Colors (Menena Cottin & Rosana Faria)
• The Story of Little Black Sambo (Helen Bannerman)
• Feed (M.T. Anderson)*
• Black Mambas (Van Wallach)
• Epileptic (David B.)
• Shawshank Redemption (Stephen King)*
• Goodnight iPad: a Parody for the Next Generation (Ann Droyd)
• Room: A Novel (Emma Donoghue)*
• Amish People: Plain Living in a Complex World (Carolyn Meyer)
• Bridge to Terabithia (Katherine Paterson)*
• You Are Not a Gadget: A Manifesto (Jaron Lanier)*
• Under The Moon (Dyan Sheldon & Gary Blythe)
• Meet the Amish (Fred Israel)
• The Choice (Suzanne Woods Fisher)*
• Hocus Pocus (Kurt Vonnegut)
• Listen Quick (Dick Bahnson)
• Killed: Rejected Images of the Farm Security Administration (William E. Jones)
• It Chooses You (Miranda July & Brigitte Sire)
• What Makes Me Amish? (Charles George)
• The Giving Tree (Shel Silverstein)
• An Amish Christmas: A Novel (Cynthia Keller)*
• Hutterites of Montana (Laura Wilson)
• Fahrenheit 451: The Authorized Adaptation (Tim Hamilton & Ray Bradbury)
• George's Marvelous Medicine (Roald Dahl)
• An Amish Gathering (Beth Wiseman)*
• Fahrenheit 451 (Ray Bradbury)*
• The Outsiders (S.E. Hinton)*
• Mindless Eating: Why We Eat More Than We Think (Brian Wansink)*
• Thanksgiving: The True Story (Penny Colman)
• The Butter Battle Book (Dr. Seuss)
• It's A Little Book (Lane Smith)
• While Mortals Sleep: Unplublished Short Fiction (Kurt Vonnegut)
• Mariana and the Merchild: A Folk Tale From Chile (Caroline Pitcher & Jackie Morris)