Jia’s Best of 2012 List
Recommended Reads / Top Ten ListsBest of 2012 / best of list / Recommended Reads4 Comments
In alphabetical order, by author’s last name:
- The Diviners by Libba Bray
- A Midsummer’s Nightmare by Kody Keplinger (review)
- Adaptation by Malinda Lo
- Fracture by Megan Miranda (review)
- Unraveling by Elizabeth Norris (review)
- Strobe Edge by Io Sakisaka (review)
- Days of Blood and Starlight by Laini Taylor (review)
- Skirmish by Michelle West (review)
It’s been a rough year for me in terms of reading. I think my tastes have begun to shift again. I find myself starting to gravitate towards more thrillers and darker contemporaries.
Like last year, I feel the lack of adult fantasy novels on this list. It’s my favorite genre and yet I continue to have the hardest time finding titles to get excited about. Hopefully 2013 will be a better year in that regard.
Jia, have you tried Martha Wells? I really love her. One of my all-time favorite writers. Her romance doesn’t dominate the text–but it’s all the more compelling for how subtly it’s handled, I think. My recommendations to start would be Element of Fire, Wheel of the Infinite, or her Gate of the Gods series. The female characters in all of those are so compelling. I think if you read even a first chapter of any of them, you’ll be hooked. :)
@Laura Florand: Seconding this rec.
Also: I love that the manga is on your best of list, too! My favourite manga reads available in English this year were Bunny Drop and Kimi ni Todoke. … oh… and Cross Game ^^
Here I am with another nod to Martha Wells. Her most recent books (the trilogy-Books of the Raksura) don’t even feature humans at all! Cloud Roads is the first and is fabulous!
She is auto-buy for me. My favorite is ‘Death of the Necromancer’, which is sadly out of print.
Anyway, her world building is superb, the romance is there, but subtle and her women are not wimps.
Jia, of all the DA reviewers, your taste in books has most closely matched mine, so I too hope 2013 will be a better year. I look forward to your reviews and your recommendations (or non-recommendations).