My Top Books for 2012

My top books for 2012 are chosen from among the 180 books I read this year, that total by tonight--one still underway. I did start but did not finish about twenty-eight other books that I gave up on for one reason or another.

Note that in the fiction category, I have *starred the books that are part of a series.  My top books are listed here in no particular order of priority and are as follows:

FICTION

1. *Sapphire Blue by Kiersten Gier--YA Fiction

2. *Edenbrooke by Julianne Donaldson--LDS Fiction (but not LDS story)

3. *Cinder by Marissa Meyer--YA Fiction

4. *A Fatal Waltz by Tasha Alexander--Grown-up Fiction

5. *Royal Secrets by Traci Hunter Abramson--LDS Fiction

6. Legend of Shannonderry by Carol Warburton--LDS Fiction (but not LDS story)

7. Book of a Thousand Days by Shannon Hale--YA Fiction

8. *Austenland by Shannon Hale--Grown-up Fiction

9. The Grand Sophy by Georgette Heyer--Grown-up Fiction

10. *Twelve Clues of Christmas by Rhys Bowen--Grown-up Fiction

11. *Deed of Murder by Cora Harrison--Grown-up Fiction

NON-FICTION

1. King Peggy by Peggielene Bartels

2. Journal of Best Practices by David Finch

SERIES
(I read several series where most books scored five stars--the highest score)

1. Ranger's Apprentice series by John Flanagan (9 of the 11 books scored 5 stars from me)

2. Bess Crawford series by Charles Todd (3 or 4 books scored 5 stars and the 4th scored 4 stars)

3. The Agency series by Y.S. Lee (5, 4, and 5 stars of the three books) 

There were several other series I read this year where some of the books in each series scored 5 stars.

1. Constable Evan Mystery by Rhys Bowen (ten books, the last four scored five stars with the fifth to the last scoring four stars).  Although I do not always score Rhys Bowen's books at 5 stars, I have read every single book she has written and liked them all.

2. Sister Fidelma series by Peter Tremayne (I've read seventeen of the 23 in the series with three books scoring five stars).

It certainly is a strange thing to see my reading boiled down to this list.  There were a lot of other books I did read this year.  For some reason they were not quite five-star books but I liked them nonetheless.  One thing that is new to the list is the number of LDS fiction books I have read this past year.  I used to AVOID LDS fiction like the plague.  Maybe it has improved over the years.  Anyway, there is the list for this year (unless the book I am still reading turns out to be a five-star book, too).