Books I read in 2012

Because I knew you cared, here's what I read in 2012, give or take. This may not be exhaustive. It is more or less listed chronologically, with some pithy and intelligent comments:

1. Team of Rivals - Doris Kearns Goodwin
• I picked it out awhile back in preparation for reading Abraham Lincoln Vampire Slayer. Now I'm a Lincoln fan and the vampires can slay themselves. Spielberg's Lincoln, which I am dying to see, is based on this. My very humble review.
2. Pathfinder - Orson Scott Card
• I love Orson Scott Card's books but recently they haven't been what they used to. While this is no Ender's Game, it is a much more intriguing and entertaining read than he's been producing lately. I mean, if you hate the movie Hook you're going to be hit and miss.
3. Moneyball - Michael Lewis
• While I don't follow baseball at all, I was intrigued by the movie and so borrowed the book. Moneyball was engaging because the odds were actually in Billy Beane's favor but a whole industry didn't want them to be. Like a case study from Freakonomics.
4. The Hunger Games* - Suzanne Collins
• It was better the first time. I wanted to fill in the parts I was missing when I watched the movie and found out that the plot and ideas are great, but Suzanne Collins' writing is not. *Previously read
5. Leadership & Self-Deception: Getting Out of the Box - Arbinger Institute
6. Asking: A 50-Minute Guide to Everything Board Members, Volunteers, and Staff Must Know - Jerold Paras
7. The BFG - Roald Dahl
8. My Antonia - Willa Cather
• A pleasurable surprise. It follows Bohemian immigrants (actually from the region Bohemia, not incense burning artsy types) in Nebraska in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. A lovely book.
9. The Graveyard Book - Neil Gaiman
• Nobody Owens, a baby orphan, is raised by ghosts in a graveyard. Sort of like Harry Potter all in one book. Very clever. Could also be described as "delightful," but I don't use that word.
10. To The Rescue - Heidi Swinton
• Sizeable but manageable biography of Thomas S Monson, President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latterday Saints. Along with the expected, it contains some interesting insights on correlation. Points if you know what that means.
11. Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
• Did I really not write a blog about this? I really meant to because it was the best book I read this year. Although I don't really know how much translation affect this, I love Tolstoy's style, purpose and description. I have so much to say about this one. The most unique might be that it is the biggest mis-title in literary history. I guess I'll have to write a review to explain.
12. Frankenstein - Mary Shelley
• My halloween read. Not that I usually have a Halloween read. All I can say is the book is vague on the description of Frankenstein's monster and so the bolts in the neck could maybe pass, but where did Hollywood pull Igor from?
13. A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
• Pretty much just like all the movies and tv shows have lead you to believe. A handful of new sections that I've never seen portrayed, including Spirit of Christmas Future showing Scrooge a married couple reluctantly grateful for his death... any creditor has to be better than him.
14. The Prince - Niccolo Machiavelli
• See my review. 
15. The Children of Men - P.D. James
• Great British writer. I've read a mystery by her and this was just as intriguing. A thoughtful and exciting exploration on what would happen if all of a sudden the human race became infertile.