"Books are the plane, and the train, and the road. They are the destination, and the journey. They are home." Anna Quindlen spoke about the importance of books in How Reading Changed My Life. Being lucky enough to work everyday in a place full of books, librarians come across a wide assortment of the new, the odd, the classic, and the utterly fascinating. Here's a list of titles that our staff recommended for their favorite books of 2012. It features fiction, fantasy, mysteries, nonfiction and young adult.
Staff Picks
Mystery & Detective
Another in an involving series set during WWI in England. Bess is a nurse who's injured when her ship sinks. While recovering, she's haunted by a letter that she promised to deliver to a dead soldier's family. Great reading.
Nonfiction
Everyday life translated into visual flash fiction by a talented designer. Created for a New York Times blog, these pictorial essays translate the routine into the absurd, for instance, some lego sculptures depict a variety of coffee drinks. There's even a piece about battling lint. You can read the book over lunch.
This haunting story describes the life of a young North Korean raised in a labor camp. He fought his own mother for food and watched camp guards kills his own family members. A harrowing story that still offers hope.
This book provides an incisive look at contemporary life on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation on the plains and badlands of our American West. It highlights the life of the Ogala people, some of the poorest Native Americans in our country. They are the descendants of Black Elk and Crazy Horse.
Did you know that between one-third and one-half of Americans are introverts? This book explores our quieter, more contemplative friends and relatives and summarizes the latest research on this interesting personality type.
This covers many aspects of history, culture, geography etc. and asks the question--what would the world look like if humans suddenly or gradually disappeared. It's a hopeful story, actually. Riveting.
Strayed of Wild fame (the hiking memoir about the Pacific Crest Trail), includes advice of all kinds that she wrote under the pen name Sugar while working as a columnist for Steve Almond's The Rumpus. Both humorous and compassionate, this self-help book will encourage you to get your life in order for 2013.
Adult Fiction
What happens in Tokyo between the hours of midnight and dawn? These loosely connected stories offer a hint of magical realism and provide many absurd moments that will keep you reading.
This novel follows Mantel's award-winning Wolf Hall. Henry the VIII has tired of his second wife Anne Boleyn and has designs for a quieter woman, Jane Seymour. Be careful of that cursed wedding ring!
Outside Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, a nun gives birth to conjoined twins in the night. A skilled obstetrician saves them but the mother dies. The reported father, a British surgeon, disappears. Outstandingly well reviewed.
This dark tale of revenge follows illegal Irish immigrant Michael Forsythe who becomes an enforcer for mob boss Darky White. Things go horribly wrong when he and his fellow enforcers are trapped in a drug sting in Mexico.
Think your family is dysfunctional? You're bound to feel better about yourself by comparison with the family depicted here. Campy banter among the fashion world set. Not for the sartorially challenged.
This Man Booker nominee introduces a Bombay opium den from the 1970s through the heroin trade of the 1990s. The dazzling prose unfolds the heartbreaking stories of numerous unique characters, including Dimple, the eunuch, and Mr. Lee, the Chinese refugee. One of the best books this librarian has ever read.
Three friends from an English boarding school for special students reconnect in their thirties. This beautifully written literary novel examines issues of trust and love against a backdrop of cloning and organ farming.
A novel in stories that won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 2009. It centers on a seventh grade math teacher from Crosby, Maine and features a string of other characters who the author reports are "always alone. Born alone. Die alone."
A man literally is racing the clock as he rushes to prevent his wife's murder. A gripping, suspenseful, page-turner. Cast your favorite actor in the lead role of the frantic husband. Tom Hanks anyone?
A teenager with autism who does math puzzles in his head for fun decides to investigate the death of a neighbor's dog. Along the way he discovers secrets about his family and himself.
Two adult siblings return to their artistic parents' home and reconnect with all the elements of their chaotic childhood. Ann Patchett described this book as a work of "genius."
A coming of age novel that captures the otherness of North Korea. Dreamy sequences about a lost mother, a cultural mission to America as a diplomat, a stint as a spy listening to a female rower each night over the radio. Literary fiction that will expand your world-view as it enthralls you.
A movie tie in always creates buzz -- and Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell is no different. But his newer novel, The Thousand Autumns...is my favorite. Don't let the story line of a ship's clerk at the Japanese port of Dejima in Nagasaki Harbor and political strategies of the Dutch East India Company bore you. This novel is filled with engaging characters, unique voices, rough and lush landscapes, and the presentation of a time period that is less well known. De Zoet's journey is often funny, sometimes sad but also fully captivating.
The Queen of England visits a mobile library and takes up controversial reading. A great premise for a delightful novella written by the humorous playwright Bennett.
science fiction
Three historians from 2060 travel back in time and experience the Blitz in London as it happens. Can time travelers actually change the course of events? Read this to find out.
A pair of greedy bank tellers for the Henry Sill Banking Corporation desert the city of Cog for hell. This terrifying tale has beautiful illustrations. Its riveting story will keep you reading 'til the late hours.
After finding a mysterious book with the same title as this one, the heroine, Ariel, a professor, swallows a tincture and disappears into the troposphere. Time travel mixed in with academic banter. Who can resist?
Young Adult Fiction
This haunting young adult fantasy centers on an abandoned orphanage on a mysterious island. Were the children quarantined for some reason? What happened to them? Vintage photos bring the text to life.
This young adult book tells the story of Dora, who may be the daughter of Sherlock Holmes. If you like mysteries set in Victorian London with a strong female character, try this book.
This young adult thriller is set in the future where oil is scarce and ships are ripped apart for metal and other elements by young people. A dystopian look at love among the ruins set in our Gulf Coast region.