12 in 2012 Series: Books

 

And now for a new series we'd like to call 12 in 2012. Our top 12 books/music/movies/[insert other awesome thing] to look forward to in 2012.

First up: Books!

12. Arcadia by Lauren Groff (March 2012) {Fiction}
Groff's second book, this one about a 1960's Utopian commune struggle to survive.

11. Fairy Tale Interrupted: A Memoir of Life, Love and Loss by RoseMarie Terenzio (Jan 2012) {Non-Fiction}
Written by John F. Kennedy Jr's personal assistant, they're publicizing this book as an unlikely friendship by a girl from the Bronx and a "vertitable prince." I'm more intrigued by what it must have been like to work for the Kennedy family and the last year in JFK Jr's life.

10. The Gaggle: How the Guys You Know Will Help You Find the Love You Want by Jessica Massa (June 2012) {Non-Fiction}
A real girls guide to the post-dating world, Massa explores your gaggle; the guys in your life you may or may not be romantically linked to and how they can lead you to love. This is not so much self-help as it is the book-form of the all the talks you and your girls have over drinks every weekend.

9. Let's Pretend This Never Happened by Jenny Lawson (April 2012) {Non-Fiction}
Self-proclaimed Bloggess Jenny Lawson recounts revealing and sometimes embarrassing moments from her life. I'm hoping this will be equal parts Chelsea Handler and David Sedaris.

8. The Operators: The Wild and Terrifying Inside Story of America's War in Afghanistan by Michael Hastings (Jan 2012- out now) {Non-Fiction}
I'm not usually a war genre reader in fiction or in non-fiction but this novel by the same author that wrote The Runaway General (published in Rolling Stone) was generating fan fare far before its release this week.

7. The Recognitions by William Gaddis (rerelease Feb 2012) {Fiction} Technically I cheated with this one. Previously published in the 50's Gaddis prophetically writes about our current reality in a startlingly correct way.

6. The Flame Alphabet by Ben Marcus (Jan 2012) {Fiction}
Language as a weapon becomes both metaphoric and literal in this Twilight Zone-esque novel about a family in upstate New York.

5. The Book of Drugs: A Memoir by Mike Doughty (Jan 2012) {Non-Fiction}
As a lover of both Soul Coughing and Doughty's solo works I'm psyched he wrote a novel that will let me in to what makes this guy tick.

4. Lone Wolf by Jodi Picoult (Feb 2012) {Fiction}
Those of you that keep up with me know that I've read nearly every Jodi Picoult book so it's only natural that I plod along on to the next one. Early reviews aren't stellar but I'm holding out that this will be a return to her early work.

3. No One Is Here Except All of Us by Ramona Ausubel (Feb 2012) {Fiction}
A small Romanian village attempts to imagine away the war... intriguing! Let's see how that works out for 'em.

2. Farther Away: Essays by Jonathan Franzen (April 2012) {Non-Fiction}
If you've read Franzen's "Freedom" then you'll understand why I'm anticipating his collection of essays and speeches on both personal and environmental concerns.

1. Insurgent by Veronica Roth (May 2012) {Fiction}
I never thought I'd be enraptured with dystopian YA novels and yet here I am pining after the follow up to last years Divergent. Liked Hunger Games? This is next series to read.