It’s time. We’ve given you the best books of 2012 from the NY Times, the Washington Post, Book Riot, and many more. Now the staff of the Mill Valley Public Library are ready to announce their favorite books published in 2012 for your reading delight.
MVPL Staff Favorites of 2012
Fiction:
San Miguel by T.C. Boyle
The Orchardist by Amanda Coplin
The Book of Jonas by Stephen Dau
A Hologram for the King by Dave Eggers
The Round House by Louise Erdrich
Gone Girl by Gilian Flynn
Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk by Ben Fountain
The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey
That’s Not a Feeling by Dan Josefson
The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce
Bring Up the Bodies by Hillary Mantel
Office Girl by Joe Meno
Where’d You Go, Bernadette by Maria Semple
NW by Zadie Smith
The Age of Miracles by Kristen Thompson Walker
Mystery:
What it Was by George Pelecanos
The Twenty Year Death by Ariel S. Winter
Young Adult Fiction:
Bitterblue by Kristen Cashore
Don’t Turn Around by Michelle Gagnon
The Fault in Our Stars by John Green
Every Day by David Levithan
Endangered by Eliot Schrefer
Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein
Graphic Novels:
Are You My Mother? A Comic Drama by Alison Bechdel
The Art of Daniel Clowes, Modern Cartoonist by Alvin Buenaventura
The Hive by Charles Burns
God & Science: Return of the Ti-Girls by Jaime Hernandez
Building Stories by Chris Ware
Non-Fiction:
Who is That Man? In Search of the Real Bob Dylan by David Dalton (biography)
Robert Duncan: the Ambassador from Venus by Lisa Jarnot (biography)
Townie: a Memoir by Andre Dubus III (memoir)
Let’s Pretend This Never Happened: (a mostly true memoir) by Jenny Lawson (memoir)
Wild: from Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail by Cheryl Strayed (memoir)
One Shot at Forever: a Small Town, an Unlikely Coach, & a Magical Baseball Season by Chris Ballard (sports)
The Starch Solution: Eat the Foods You Love, Regain Your Health, and Lose the Weight for Good! By John and Mary McDougall (health)
Eminent Outlaws: the Gay Writers Who Changed America by Christopher Bram (literature/gender)
Kurt Vonnegut: Letters edited by Dan Wakefield (correspondence)
Tiny, Beautiful Things by Cheryl Strayed (essays/advice)
The Oath by Jeffrey Toobin (politics)
The Book of a Thousand Eyes by Lyn Hejinan (poetry)
The Open Door: 100 Poems, 100 Years of Poetry Magazine edited by Don Share & Christopher Wiman (poetry)
Bender, by Dean Young (poetry)
Instant: the Story of Polaroid by Christopher Bonanos (camera industry)
I’m so thrilled that you picked Don’t Turn Around, especially since I’m right across the bridge in SF! What a great holiday gift.