2012 Book Report: First Quarter

It's a new year and a (mostly) new slate of books. Again, my target is to read 100 books in 2012—I hope I have the full year before the world ends. You'd think by the lack of posts on the blog I'd have spent more time reading, but ... well, you'll see.

Key: C: Children's; F: Fantasy; H: Historical; Hr: Horror; M: Mystery; MG: Middle Grade (ages 8-12); NF: Nonfiction; P: Poetry; R: Romance; SF: Science Fiction; SS: Short Stories; V: Verse novel; YA: Young Adult (age 13+); *not in the last ten years at least; ^for work; #e-book.

01/02/12: Sarah Rees Brennan, The Demon's Lexicon (F, YA, 1)
01/07/12: Rees Brennan, The Demon's Covenant (F, YA, 1)
01/15/12: Nathan Wolfe, The Viral Storm (NF, 1)
01/18/12: Ransom Riggs, Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children (F, YA, 1)
01/26/12: Margaret Atwood, Oryx and Crake # (SF, 1)
01/29/12: Rees Brennan, The Demon's Surrender (F, YA, 1)
02/02/12: Steven Johnson, The Ghost Map (NF, 1)
02/06/12: Jennifer Carson, Hapenny Magick (MG, F, 1)
02/09/12: Daniel Handler and Maira Kalman, Why We Broke Up (YA, 1)
02/13/12: Michael Grant, Hunger (YA, SF, 1)
02/16/12: Grant, Lies (YA, SF, 1)
02/19/12: Grant, Plague (YA, SF, 1)
02/23/12: Kristin Cashore, Graceling (YA, F, 1)
02/26/12: Grant, The Call (MG, F, 1)
03/06/12: Siddhartha Mukherjee, The Emperor of All Maladies # (NF, 1)
03/12/12: Cashore, Fire (YA, F, 1)
03/16/12: Suzanne Collins, The Hunger Games # (YA, SF, 3)
03/18/12: Collins, Catching Fire # (YA, SF, 2)
03/21/12: Collins, Mockingjay # (YA, SF, 2)
03/25/12: Connie Willis, Doomsday Book (SF, 5ish)

Wow, only 20 books for the quarter. It didn't feel like I was working like crazy, or that I wasn't reading. I guess I've just been slow. A lot of the YA books were by people I was profiling for work, but I chose them because they looked interesting, and they were. Still, it's hard to pick my favorite book of the quarter; there weren't any real stinkers, and a lot of very good books, but nothing that jumped up and grabbed me and made me want to share it with everyone around me. The closest of the first-timers I read was probably Sarah Rees Brennan's The Demon's Lexicon, which had a great voice, a cool urban fantasy world, and a fantastic twist I didn't see coming. If urban fantasy is your thing, I recommend it.