Books read and listened to in 2012

Name	Author	Listened or read?	Comments
Faithful Place	Tana French	Listened	Fiction - Irish novel where everyone drinks and is miserable.
A Practicing Mind	Thomas M. Sterner	Listened - didn't finish	Non-fiction. I was looking for a book on mindfulness and how to use it. Instead this book was more about the brilliance of the author and really dreadful to listen to.
The Happiness Advantage	Shawn Achor	Listened	Non-fiction. Good book, nice examples and practical advice
Cutting for Stone	Abraham Verghese	Read	Fiction - took me a long time to read. I just couldn't get into it. Was it because I read it so slow?
The House at Riverton	Kate Morton	Listened	Fiction - Victorian England mixed with current date. Good long story but kind of predictable.
Willpower: Rediscovering the Greatest Human Strength	Roy F. Baumeister, John Tierney	Listened	Non-fiction - Research into willpower and self-control and how to work with it. Lots of interesting examples involving famous people
Doc: A Novel	Mary Doria Russell	Read	Fictionalization of the life of Doc Holliday. Interesting if only some of it is true
The Marriage Plot	Jeffrey Eugenides	Listened	Fiction - Three people at college and afterward. All flawed and looking ahead. Good writing, but not very interesting story.
People of the Book	Geraldine Brooks	Listened	Fiction - An ancient Jewish prayer book is found and the book traces how the book was created.
The Colour: A Novel	Rose Tremain	Read	Fiction – A couple in the 1800s travels to New Zealand to farm.
Rules of Civility	Amor Towles	Listened	Fiction – 1938 as experienced by a working class woman in New York City and the people she meets.
Unfamiliar Fishes	Sarah Vowell	Listened	Nonfiction – A history of Hawaii
Saving Fish from Drowning	Amy Tan	Read	Fiction - A group of tourists get kidnapped in Burma.
A Game of Thrones (A Song of Ice and Fire, Book 1)	George R. R. Martin	Listened	Fiction - First in a series set in a mystical land.
Running with the Kenyans: Passion, Adventure, and the Secrets of the Fastest People on Earth	Adharanand Finn	Listened	Nonfiction - A 37-year-old man moves his family to Kenya so that he can train with Kenyan runners and try to figure out their secrets.
Come Home	Lisa Scottoline	Listened	Fiction - A woman's ex-husband conman dies and she starts investigating his death and life. Not very good.
Eventide	Kent Haruf	Read	Fiction - Various people in a small Colorado town and how their lives overlap. Good book
The Shoemaker's Wife	Adriana Trigiani	Listened	Fiction - Early part of the 20th century. Two immigrants from Italy to the US fall in love and get married. HATED IT! The characters were one dimensional and the love story was trite.
True Colors	Kristin Hannah	Read	Fiction – Three sisters who live in a small Washington town and the family ranch. It seemed like it could have been so much better, but many of the characters were very one-dimensional. Predictable story too.
Catching Fire	Suzanne Collins	Listened	Fiction - second book in the Hunger Games trilogy. Forgettable. I feel like I should read it, but it isn't very exciting
War Brides	Helen Bryan	Listened	Fiction - A group of different women come together in a small English town during World War II. Kind of Downton Abbey like.
She's Gone Country	Jane Procter	Read	Fiction - During divorce a woman moves with her three sons back to her hometown in Texas from Manhattan. Not worth the $5 I paid for it.
Wild	Cheryl Strayed	Listened	Nonfiction – A woman walks the Pacific Crest Trail. One of the best books I have read in a long time.
The Chaperone	Laura Moriarty	Listened	Fiction - An older (36) woman is hired to chaperone a 15-year-old Louise Brooks in New York City. The first part is good, but by the last part the years just go by too fast and there is not much conflict.
Grand Avenue	Joy Fielding	Read	Fiction - Four women who live on the same street in their young married life. It was a beach read and was perfect when I was reading it. Better than the other light books I have tried this year.
Cocktail Hour Under the Tree of Forgetfulness	Alexandra Fuller	Listened	Memoir - Author writes about her mother and growing up at the end of colonial Africa. Quirky and very British.
In the Garden of Beasts: Love, Terror, and an American Family in Hitler's Berlin	Erik Larson	Listened	Nonfiction - The American ambassador Dodd in Germany during the rise of Hitler and the Nazi party. Very dull and dry. Difficult to finish
Year of Wonders - A Novel of the Plague	Geraldine Brooks	Read	Fiction - Plague hits an English village in the 1600s. Good despite the subject.
In the Last Analysis	Amanda Cross	Read	Fiction - Copyright 1964. Very dated mystery novel involving a literature professor and a psychoanalysist. Really dumb solution to the mystery
Wives and Sisters	Natalie R. Collins	Read	Fiction - Beach read, very anti-Mormon about growing up in patriarchial religion. Couldn't put down.
Shantaram	Gregory David Roberts	Listened	Fiction - Man escapes prison in Australia and moves to Bombay. Very well written and very long.
Fast Women	Jennifer Crusie	Listened	Fiction - Light reading; detective novel. Interesting ideas about marriage and cheating.
A House in Fez: Building a Life in the Ancient Heart of Morocco	Suzanna Clarke	Read	Nonfiction - A couple buys a house in Morocco and renovates it while dealing with language, bureaucracy and cultural issues.
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn	Betty Smith	Listened	Fiction - A girl grows up in Brooklyn in poverty at the beginning of the 20th century. Written in the 40s but very modern themes.
How to be a Woman	Caitlin Moran	Listened	Memoir – What it means to be a modern woman by a funny British woman.
A Wasp Among Eagles: A Woman Military Test Pilot in World War II	Ann Carl	Read	Nonfiction – A woman WASP and fighter jet tester memoir.
Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore	Robin Sloan	Listened	Fiction - A technical guy works in a bookstore with some unusual characters.
Running the Books: The Adventures of an Accidental Prison Librarian	Avi Steinburg	Listened	Nonfiction - A Harvard grad who makes money writing obituaries takes a job as a prison librarian.
Sweet Tooth	Ian McEwan	Listened	Fiction - Beautiful british woman gets a job with MI5 just after college in the 70s. I don't get Ian McEwan.  I've never read a book of his that I like.