a year in review

Okay, so the title of this post may be a bit deceiving. I am not going to review the entirety of 2012 in this post. Rather, I am going to reflect on my reading accomplishments for the year because, well, I love books. I have enjoyed reading as long as I can remember, and at the beginning of 2012, I compiled a reading list for the year. I determined that this time of my life might be the most suited to devouring the written word, and I want to take full advantage of it. I was not able to cross every book off my list this year, which may have partly been due to the fact that I continued to add new ones to the list or that reading about social work policies and theories absorbed far more of my reading time than I might have otherwise chosen. (To be fair, I thoroughly enjoyed most of the social work reading, but it wasn't exactly what one might call leisure reading...) So, because I know that many of my friends are always looking for some good books to read, I will share my book list of 2012 with you. Be forewarned, that I like an eclectic collection. These are in no particular order (not even the order in which I read them). I will highlight my favorites with an asterisk. You know, so you don't have to waste your time filtering through the boring ones...

1. The Giver by Lois Lowry*
2. The Idiot by Fyodor Dostoevsky
3. Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe*
4. Breaking Intimidation by John Bevere
5. In a Pit with a Lion on a Snowy Day by Mark Batterson
6. Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides
7. Love Wins by Rob Bell
8. Erasing Hell by Francis Chan and Preston Sprinkle
9. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins*
10. Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins*
11. Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins*
12. Plan B by Anne Lamott*
13. Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
14. Persian Girls by Nahid Rachlin
15. Tattoos on the Heart by Gregory Boyle
16. The Notice by Sean Chandler
17. One Day by David Nicholls
18. Speaking of Jesus by Carl Medearis*
19. The Tale of Three Kings by Gene Edwards
20. Say You're One of Them by Uwem Akpan
21. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows*
22. Where Am I Wearing by Kelsey Timmerman*
23. Secondhand Jesus by Glenn Packiam
24. Tell a Thousand Lies by Rasana Atreya
25. Nickel Plated by Aric Davis
26. Never Fall Down by Patricia McCormick
27. Lulu in the Sky by Loung Ung*
28. The Furious Longing of God by Brennan Manning*
29. The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down by Anne Fadiman*
30. Crazy Love by Francis Chan and Danae Yankoski

I am not sure that I read a "bad" book this year, so I would probably recommend every one of these books for different reasons. And, the best part of a "year in review" is that a whole new year of books and reading and learning is ahead! A good year it shall be!

Happy reading!