Twenty Questions: A Year-End Book Survey for 2012

I think did a similar post last year, if not, I guess I meant to:)   JoAnn@Lakeside Musing inspired me to follow through for 2012.  Here goes:

1. What is the best book you read in 2012?

• East of Eden; John Steinbeck 

 
2. Most disappointing book?

• Fairy Tale Interrupted; Rose Marie Terenzio 

3. Most surprising (in a good way) book of 2012?  

• Tell the Wolves I'm Home; Carol Rifka Brunt 

4. Book(s) you recommended most in 2012?

• East of Eden; John Steinbeck 
• Lots of Candles Plenty of Cake; Anna Quindlen
• The Spectator Bird; Wallace Stegner 
• The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry; Rachel Joyce
• Defending Jacob; William Landay

5. Best series you discovered in 2012?

• The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo (still have book #3 to read though)

6. Favorite new authors you discovered in 2012?

• Ivan Doig - The Bartender's Tale
• Kay, Francesca - Translation of the Bones
• Ford, Richard - Canada
• Moore, Liz -  Heft

 
 7. Most thrilling, unputdownable book in 2012?

•  Lots of Candles Plenty of Cake; Anna Quindlen  (memoir)

 
8. Book you most anticipated in 2012?  

• The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry; Rachel Joyce 

9. Favorite cover of a book you read in 2012?

•  A Grown-Up Kind of Pretty; Joshilyn Jackson 

 











10. Most memorable character in 2012?

•   Aaron Wolcott - The Beginner's Goodbye; Anne Tyler

11. Most beautifully written book read in 2012?

•  A Sense of an Ending; Julian Barnes

12. Book that had the greatest impact on you in 2012?

•   The End of Your Life Book Club; Will Schwalbe - (memoir)

13. Book you can’t believe you waited UNTIL 2012 to finally read?

•  East of Eden; John Steinbeck 

 
14. Favorite passages/quotes from a book read in 2012?

[ Lots of Candles Plenty of Cake; Anna Quindlen's memoir]

• "When I was young I was loath to admit that I liked being alone, but not anymore.  By the time you've lived for fifty or sixty years, you are better armored to embrace the things about yourself that are true, even if the you think the world sees them as odd, eccentric....."
• "What a time we've live through so revolutionary that the list could go on and on: the Pill, the heart transplant, the moon landings, cell phones, cable television, computer communication,.....and  as Quindlen's father said..."I'm glad I lived long enough to see the Phillies win a World Series and a black man elected President."
• "I am a liberal because......as I said often, much to the consternation of friends of other faiths who have come to see Catholicism as narrow, conservative, and antediluvian, I am a liberal because I was raised Catholic.  In a typically thoughtful and searching speech he gave at Notre Dame, former New York Governor Mario Cuomo, the most intellectual of non-clerical Catholics referred to practicing the work of Christ in our life, 'I practice it especially where the love is most needed, among the poor and weak and the dispossessed.' That's the lesson I took away from the New Testament, the requirement that if you had two cloaks you should give one to the person who had none that you love your neighbor as yourself. It's a lesson that never left me."

15. Book read in 2012 that you would be most likely to reread in 2013?

• none - I generally don't reread  books

16. Best classic(s) read in 2012?  

• East of Eden; John Steinbeck
• A Moveable Feast; Ernest Hemingway (memoir)

  17. Best translated work you read in 2012?

•  My Brilliant Friend; Elena Ferrante 

18. Any titles abandoned in 2012 you might read in 2013?  

• Mad River; John Sandford (started the audio at work and then got busy and distracted)

19. Any challenges completed in 2012?  

• 100+ Books Challenge  (138)
• eBook Challenge (51)
• Audio Book Challenge (40)
• Back to Classics Challenge (4)
• Picture Book Challenge (38)
• Stephen King Challenge (4)
• RIP VII (6)

 20. Any read-alongs completed in 2012?

•  The Stand-a-Long; Stephen King

Survey adapted from The Perpetual Page-Turner. 

Feel free to play along.