Best of 2012 - First Quarter

Hard as it is for me to believe, we are already at the end of the first quarter of 2012.  This is proving to be one of my favorite reading years in a long while because it seems that everywhere I turn this year, I'm finding another great book to read,  That means that, although I read strictly from my TBR stack for the whole month of January, that stack seems to reach a record height about three times a week - and it's still growing.

To this point, these are my favorite novels of 2012 - books that entertained me, made me think, taught me lessons about the world, and kept me up way too late on work nights:

1.  State of Wonder - Ann Patchett - an unforgettable drama in the Amazon
2.  The Might Have Been - Joseph M. Schuster - baseball and life
3.  The Sense of an Ending - Julian Barnes - read this one very carefully
4.  Edge of Dark Water - Joe R. Lansdale - hillbilly noir
5.  The Angel Makers - Jessica Gregson - WWI historical fiction
6.  The Beginner's Goodbye - Anne Tyler - a deceptively simple tale
7.  The Detour - Andromeda-Romano-Lax - a WWII love story/thriller
8.  Taft 2012 - Jasons Heller - Taft runs for president in 2012
9.  Carry the One - Carol Anshaw - guilt carried for a lifetime
10. The Iguana Tree - Michel Stone - sympathetic look at illegal immigration

So much good fiction has found its way to me that my nonfiction reading has unfortunately suffered greatly.  Because I have only read seven nonfiction titles in the last 90 days, I am going to hold off until at least the end of June to post my first nonfiction Top 10 list.

I can't wait to see what surprises me in the second quarter.