Goodbye 2012!

Well, 2012 was a year for milestones, if not necessarily for this blog, then in my personal life. I graduated high school and community college, then started at the University of Oklahoma. My first semester went quite well, even though it's weird to be 1100 miles from home!

Blogging didn't slow down as much as I expected with the start of college, as I averaged one or two "fun" books a week in addition to what was required for class. Unfortunately, it's taking me a while to get back in the groove over Christmas break....

Book count for the year: 139, which is about 30 more than last year

Anyway, ladies and gentlemen, I present my favorite books of 2012, in no particular order:

Best historical fiction:
Bright and Distant Shores by Dominic Smith
The Printmaker's Daughter by Katherine Govier
The Forest Lover by Susan Vreeland
The Dolphin People by Torsten Krol
The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller

Best sci-fi:
A Million Suns and Shades of Earth (review forthcoming) by Beth Revis
After the Snow by S.D. Crockett
The Age of Miracles by Karen Thompson Walker
The Adoration of Jenna Fox by Mary E. Pearson
The Hollow Earth by Rudy Rucker

Best classic speculative fiction:
The Return of Tarzan by Edgar Rice Burroughs
Voyage to Kazohinia by Sandor Szathmari
The End of This Day's Business by Katharine Burdekin

Best contemporary(-ish):
Arcadia by Lauren Groff
Three Times Lucky by Sheila Turnage
The White Darkness by Geraldine McCaughrean

Best world lit:
Tales from the Town of Widows by James Canon
Family Matters by Rohinton Mistry
Alfa Romeo 1300 and Other Miracles by Fabio Bartolomei

Best nonfiction:
Nisa: The Life and Words of a !Kung Woman by Marjorie Shostak
African Perspectives on Colonialism by A. Adu Boahen
In the Shadow of Man by Jane Goodall

Best in other random categories:
Field of Honor by D.L. Birchfield
The Order of Odd-Fish by James Kennedy

And because there tend to be few books I hate, here's some that particularly inspired my irritation:
Everneath by Brodi Ashton
The Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan
The Nightmare Garden by Caitlin Kittredge
Vixen and Ingenue by Jillian Larkin
Summer and Bird by Katherine Catmull