2012 Reading List

By Jonathan Wilhoit

Has it really been a year already?  Seems like time has flown.  Of course, there was that black hole that sucked up my life back in August, September, and October but we won’t go into that.  Anyhow, since we’ve just put another year in the books, it’s time to do what we always do at the end of the year on I Read a Book Once—reminisce over all the awesomely fantabulous books we’ve read and reviewed this year.

2012 is a different bird than previous years, though.  While the majority of the year it was just the Critic-in-Chief by his lonesome, we added several additional reviewers to the mix.  That complicates things, since in years prior this exercise was simply me bragging about how many books I read that year.  I never broke my arm patting myself on the back, but I did strain something, I think…

So this year it’s a combination of things—both the books I’ve read, and books our lovely reviewers have read and reviewed.  My personal count this year was 42 (there goes that back patting again), which is nowhere near my total last year, but it’s forgivable, everything considered.  Just barely.  The total review count, all contributor reviews included, was 40.  Yeah yeah, I’ve been lazy and haven’t reviewed some of my reads yet.  I’ll get to them eventually.

Below you’ll find a list of the books from 2012.  When a review is available, the title will link to that.  If there was an author interview, there’s a link to that as well.  And when it wasn’t yours truly who did the reviewing, that’ll be noted too.   I might have gone a little link-happy with this, but oh well.

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Curse the Names by Robert Arellano (3.5/5) (author interview here)

Not Comin’ Home to You by Lawrence Block (4/5) (author interview here)

Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury (5/5)

Long After Midnight by Ray Bradbury (3/5)

World War Z:  An Oral History of the Zombie War (4/5) by Max Brooks

The Dramatist by Ken Bruen (3/5)

Shadows in Flight by Orson Scott Card

The King in Yellow by Robert W. Chambers (4/5)

Layer Cake by J. J. Connolly

The Adventures of Sherlock Homles by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (4/5)

The Bridge of Deaths by M. C. V. Egan (3/5) (author interview here)

Walking with God by John Eldredge

L.A. Confidential by James Ellroy (5/5)

Tainted Dish by Charles L. Fields (1/5)

Pariah by Bob Fingerman (3.5/5) – review by Ryan St. Onge

The Foreign Correspondent by Alan Furst (3/5)

Falling Angel by William Hjortsberg (4/5)

The Deadfall Project by Brett James (4/5) (author interview here)

The Phoenix Unchained by Mercedes Lackey and James Mallory (2/5)

While I’m Still Myself by Jeremy Mark Lane (2.5/5) – review by Jessica Veter

The Nervous System by Nathan Larson (4.5/5) (author interview here)

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson (4/5)

Socialpunk by Monica Leonelle (2/5) (author interview here)

The Mystery of the Yellow Room by Gaston LeRoux (3/5)

The Moving Target by Ross MacDonald (5/5)

Company of Liars by Karen Maitland (4/5)

Killers Are My Meat by Stephen Marlowe (4/5)

One True Sentence by Craig McDonald (4/5)

Zombies Are Us:  Essays on the Humanity of the Walking Dead by Christopher M. Moreman (3/5)

All I Did Was Shoot My Man by Walter Mosley (4/5)

Devil in a Blue Dress by Walter Mosley (4/5)

Fear of the Dark by Walter Mosley (5/5)

Something Red by Douglas Nicholas (3/5) (author interview here)

Soldier Hill by Phil Rossi (4/5) (author interview here)

Death at Willow Creek Mine by J. D. Savid (3/5) (author interview here)

The Madman Theory by Harvey Simon

Stalin’s Ghost by martin Cruz Smith (4/5)

The Reluctant by C. S. Splitter (4/5) (author interview here)

The Willing by C. S. Splitter (4/5) – review by Joe Young

Catch the Gold Ring by John Stephen Strange (3/5)

Haunting Obsession by R. J. Sullivan (3/5) (author interview here)

Thank You for Your Cooperation (4/5) (author interview here)

Hell Swamp by Susan Whitfield (3/5) (author interview here)

The Twenty-Year Death by Ariel S. Winter

Shangri-La Trailer Park by John Zunski (3/5) (author interview here)