Year-End Lists

Dennis Cooper: 21 Favorite Books of 2012 (as numbered on Cooper’s site, but note that he precedes the list with “in no order”)

[see also 2019 • 2018 • 2016]

1. Action, Figure
   Frank Hinton
2. Sky Saw
   Blake Butler
3. You Private Person
   Richard Chiem
4. Baby Geisha
   Trinie Dalton
5. Autoportrait
   Edouard Leve
6. fuckscapes
   Sean Kilpatrick
7. Billie the Bull
   xTx
8. Assisted Living
   Nikanor Teratologen
9. Spreadeagle
   Kevin Killian
10. Confessions from a Dark Wood
    Eric Raymond
11. The No Variations
    Luis Chitarroni
12. The Collected Works of Scott McClanahan Vol. 1
    Scott McClanahan
13. One
    Blake Butler/Christopher Higgs/Vanessa Place
14. Daniel Fights a Hurricane
    Shane Jones
15. Treees
    Stephen Michael McDowell
16. Cataclysm Baby
    Matt Bell
17. The Obscene Madame D
    Hilda Hilst
18. Immobility
    Brian Evenson
19. The Sky Conducting
    Michael Seidlinger
20. Town of Shadows
    Lindsay Stern
20. Slow Slidings
    M. Kitchell

Salon: Top 10 Books of 2012 (a poll of nearly 20 critics)

[see also 2022]

1. Behind the Beautiful Forevers

   Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity
   Katherine Boo
2. Bring Up the Bodies
   Hilary Mantel
3. Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk
   Ben Fountain
4. Far From the Tree

   Parents, Children, and the Search for Identity
   Andrew Solomon
4. NW
   Zadie Smith
6. How Should a Person Be?
   Sheila Heti
7. Gone Girl
   Gillian Flynn
8. Arcadia
   Lauren Groff
9. Beautiful Ruins
   Jess Walter
10. The Guardians
    Sarah Manguso

Library Journal: Top 10 Books of 2012 (alphabetically by author)

[see also 2023 • 2022 • 2021 • 2020 • 2019 • 2017 • 2016 • 2011]

• By the Iowa Sea

  A Memoir of Disaster and Love
  Joe Blair
• Behind the Beautiful Forevers

  Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity
  Katherine Boo
• A Land More Kind Than Home
  Wiley Cash
• Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk
  Ben Fountain
• Crusoe

  Daniel Defoe, Robert Knox, and the Creation of a Myth
  Katherine Frank
• Some Kind of Fairy Tale
  Graham Joyce
• The Song of Achilles
  Madeline Miller
• The Lady in Gold

  The Extraordinary Tale of Gustav Klimt’s Masterpiece, Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer
  Anne-Marie O’Connor
• NW
  Zadie Smith
• Tiny Beautiful Things

  Advice on Love and Life from “Dear Sugar”
  Cheryl Strayed

Benjamin Schwarz: Top 15 Books of 2012, as published by The Atlantic

[see also 2011]

• The Great Sea
  David Abulafia
• Time’s Shadow
  Arnold J. Bauer
• Good Behaviour
  Molly Keane
• Bring Up the Bodies
  Hilary Mantel
• Moscow, 1937
  Karl Schlögel

The Runners Up

• What They Do in the Dark

  A Novel
  Amanda Coe
• The Book of Common Prayer

  The Texts of 1549, 1559, and 1662
  Brian Cummings (editor)
• Orderly and Humane

  The Expulsion of Germans After the Second World War
  R.M. Douglas
• Fairness and Freedom

  A History of Two Open Societies, New Zealand and the United States
  David Hackett Fischer
• The Road to Ruins
  Ian Graham
• Evening’s Empire

  A History of Night in Early Modern Europe
  Craig Koslofsky
• Dear Life
  Alice Munro
• Sir Walter Raleigh
  Mark Nicholls and Penry Williams
• Masters of the Planet

  The Search for Our Human Origins
  Ian Tattersall
• The Essays of Virginia Woolf, Volume 6

  1933-1941
  Virginia Woolf, edited by Stuart N. Clarke

The New York Times: 100 Notable Books of 2012

[see also The 10 Best Books of 2023 • 100 Notable Books of 2023 • The 10 Best Books of 2022 • 100 Notable Books of 2022 • The 10 Best Books of 2021 • 100 Notable Books of 2021 • The 10 Best Books of 2020 • 100 Notable Books of 2020 • 100 Notable Books of 2019 • The 10 Best Books of 2019 • 10 Best Books of 2018 • 100 Notable Books of 2018 • 100 Notable Books of 2017 • 10 Best Books of 2017 • 10 Best Books of 2016 • 10 Best Books of 2015 • The 10 Best Books of 2014 • The 10 Best Books of 2013 • 10 Best Books of 2012 • 100 Notable Books of 2011 • Ten Best Books of 2011]

Fiction

• Alif The Unseen
  G. Willow Wilson
• Almost Never
  Daniel Sada. Translated by Katherine Silver
• An American Spy
  Olen Steinhauer
• Arcadia
  Lauren Groff
• At Last
  Edward St. Aubyn
• Beautiful Ruins
  Jess Walter
• Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk
  Ben Fountain
• Blasphemy
  Sherman Alexie
• The Book Of Mischief

  New And Selected Stories
  Steve Stern
• Bring Up the Bodies
  Hilary Mantel
• Building Stories
  Chris Ware
• By Blood
  Ellen Ullman
• Canada
  Richard Ford
• Carry The One
  Carol Anshaw
• City Of Bohane
  Kevin Barry
• Collected Poems
  Jack Gilbert
• Dear Life
  Alice Munro
• The Devil in Silver
  Victor LaValle
• Enchantments
  Kathryn Harrison
• Flight Behavior
  Barbara Kingsolver
• Fobbit
  David Abrams
• The Forgetting Tree
  Tatjana Soli
• Gathering Of Waters
  Bernice L. McFadden
• Gods Without Men
  Hari Kunzru
• HHhH
  Laurent Binet. Translated by Sam Taylor
• A Hologram for the King
  Dave Eggers
• Home
  Toni Morrison
• Hope

  A Tragedy
  Shalom Auslander
• How Should a Person Be?
  Sheila Heti
• In One Person
  John Irving
• A Land More Kind Than Home
  Wiley Cash
• Married Love

  And Other Stories
  Tessa Hadley
• NW
  Zadie Smith
• On The Spectrum Of Possible Deaths
  Lucia Perillo
• Pure
  Julianna Baggott
• The Right Hand Shore
  Christopher Tilghman
• The Round House
  Louise Erdrich
• Salvage The Bones
  Jesmyn Ward
• San Miguel
  T. Coraghessan Boyle
• Shine Shine Shine
  Lydia Netzer
• Shout Her Lovely Name
  Natalie Serber
• Silent House
  Orhan Pamuk. Translated by Robert Finn
• The Starboard Sea
  Amber Dermont
• Sweet Tooth
  Ian McEwan
• Swimming Home
  Deborah Levy
• Telegraph Avenue
  Michael Chabon
• The Testament Of Mary
  Colm Tóibín
• This Is How You Lose Her
  Junot Díaz
• Three Strong Women
  Marie NDiaye
• Toby’s Room
  Pat Barker
• Watergate
  Thomas Mallon
• What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank

  Stories
  Nathan Englander
• The Yellow Birds
  Kevin Powers

Nonfiction

• All We Know

  Three Lives
  Lisa Cohen
• American Tapestry

  The Story Of The Black, White, And Multiracial Ancestors Of Michelle Obama
  Rachel L. Swarns
• American Triumvirate

  Sam Snead, Byron Nelson, Ben Hogan, And The Modern Age Of Golf
  James Dodson
• Are You My Mother? A Comic Drama
  Alison Bechdel
• Barack Obama

  The Story
  David Maraniss
• Behind the Beautiful Forevers

  Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity
  Katherine Boo
• Belzoni

  The Giant Archaeologists Love To Hate
  Ivor Noël Hume
• The Black Count

  Glory, Revolution, Betrayal, And The Real Count Of Monte Cristo
  Tom Reiss
• Breasts

  A Natural And Unnatural History
  Florence Williams
• Coming Apart

  The State Of White America, 1960 2010
  Charles Murray
• Darwin’s Ghosts

  The Secret History Of Evolution
  Rebecca Stott
• A Disposition To Be Rich

  How A Small Town Preacher’s Son Ruined An American President, Brought On A Wall Street Crash, And Made Himself The Best Hated Man In The United States
  Geoffrey C. Ward
• Far From the Tree

  Parents, Children, and the Search for Identity
  Andrew Solomon
• Flagrant Conduct. The Story Of Lawrence V. Texas

  How A Bedroom Arrest Decriminalized Gay Americans
  Dale Carpenter
• The Folly Of Fools

  The Logic Of Deceit And Self Deception In Human Life
  Robert Trivers
• The Grey Album

  On The Blackness Of Blackness
  Kevin Young
• Haiti

  The Aftershocks Of History
  Laurent Dubois
• How Children Succeed

  Grit, Curiosity, And The Hidden Power Of Character
  Paul Tough
• How Music Works
  David Byrne
• Iron Curtain

  The Crushing of Eastern Europe, 1945–1956
  Anne Applebaum
• Kayak Morning

  Reflections On Love, Grief, And Small Boats
  Roger Rosenblatt
• Lincoln’s Code

  The Laws Of War In American History
  John Fabian Witt
• Little America

  The War Within The War For Afghanistan
  Rajiv Chandrasekaran
• Memoir Of A Debulked Woman

  Enduring Ovarian Cancer
  Susan Gubar
• My Poets
  Maureen N. McLane
• The Obamas
  Jodi Kantor
• Oddly Normal

  One Family’s Struggle To Help Their Teenage Son Come To Terms With His Sexuality
  John Schwartz
• On A Farther Shore

  The Life And Legacy Of Rachel Carson
  William Souder
• On Saudi Arabia

  Its People, Past, Religion, Fault Lines — And Future
  Karen Elliott House
• The One

  The Life And Music Of James Brown
  RJ Smith
• The Passage of Power

  The Years of Lyndon Johnson
  Robert A. Caro
• The Patriarch

  The Remarkable Life and Turbulent Times of Joseph P. Kennedy
  David Nasaw
• People Who Eat Darkness

  The True Story of a Young Woman Who Vanished from the Streets of Tokyo
  Richard Lloyd Parry
• Red Brick, Black Mountain, White Clay

  Reflections On Art, Family, And Survival
  Christopher Benfey
• Rule And Ruin. The Downfall Of Moderation And The Destruction Of The Republican Party

  From Eisenhower To The Tea Party
  Geoffrey Kabaservice
• Saul Steinberg

  A Biography
  Deirdre Bair
• Shooting Victoria

  Madness, Mayhem, And The Rebirth Of The British Monarchy
  Paul Thomas Murphy
• Short Nights Of The Shadow Catcher

  The Epic Life And Immortal Photographs Of Edward Curtis
  Timothy Egan
• The Social Conquest Of Earth
  Edward O. Wilson
• Sometimes There Is A Void

  Memoirs Of An Outsider
  Zakes Mda
• Spillover

  Animal Infections And The Next Human Pandemic
  David Quammen
• The Taste Of War

  World War Ii And The Battle For Food
  Lizzie Collingham
• Thomas Jefferson

  The Art Of Power
  Jon Meacham
• Victory

  The Triumphant Gay Revolution
  Linda Hirshman
• When God Talks Back

  Understanding The American Evangelical Relationship With God
  T.M. Luhrmann
• Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal?
  Jeanette Winterson
• Why Does the World Exist? An Existential Detective Story
  Jim Holt

Tina Brown: 7 Favorite Books of 2012, as published by The Daily Beast

• The Orphan Master’s Son
  Adam Johnson
• On Saudi Arabia

  Its People, Past, Religion, Fault Lines — And Future
  Karen Elliott House
• Sweet Tooth
  Ewan McEwan
• The Man Without a Face
  Masha Gessen
• Hitlerland
  Andrew Nagorski
• Prague Winter
  Madeleine Albright
• Kill or Capture
  Daniel Klaidman

The Economist: 11 Best Books of 2012 (fiction, essays, and poetry)

[see also 2023 • 2022 • 2021]

• Bring Up the Bodies
  Hilary Mantel
• The Forgiven
  Lawrence Osborne
• Toby’s Room
  Pat Barker
• The Dinner
  Herman Koch
• The Garden of Evening Mists
  Tan Twang Eng
• Grimm Tales

  For Young and Old
  Philip Pullman
• Winter

  Five Windows on the Season
  Adam Gopnik
• Pulphead
  John Jeremiah Sullivan
• Three Strong Women
  Marie NDiaye
• Yellow Tulips

  Poems 1968-2011
  James Fenton
• P L A C E
  Jorie Graham

Publishers Weekly: 10 Best Books of 2012

[see also 2023 • 2022 • 2021 • 2020 • 2019 • 2018 • 2017 • 2016 • 2015 • 2014 • 2013 • 2011]

1. Building Stories
   Chris Ware
2. Bring Up the Bodies
   Hilary Mantel
3. The Round House
   Louise Erdrich
4. Happiness Is a Chemical in the Brain
   Lucia Perillo
5. The Devil in Silver
   Victor LaValle
6. Detroit City Is the Place to Be

   The Afterlife of an American Metropolis
   Mark Binelli
7. All We Know

   Three Lives
   Lisa Cohen
8. People Who Eat Darkness

   The True Story of a Young Woman Who Vanished from the Streets of Tokyo
   Richard Lloyd Parry
9. The Barbarous Years: The Peopling of British North America: The Conflict of Civilizations, 1600–1675
   Bernard Bailyn
10. Iron Curtain

    The Crushing of Eastern Europe, 1945–1956
    Anne Applebaum

Kathryn Schulz: Top 10 Books of 2012, as published by New York Magazine

1. Dear Life
   Alice Munro
2. Behind the Beautiful Forevers

   Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity
   Katherine Boo
3. Why Does the World Exist? An Existential Detective Story
   Jim Holt
4. Zona

   A Book About a Film About a Journey to a Room
   Geoff Dyer
5. Telegraph Avenue
   Michael Chabon
6. Mortality
   Christopher Hitchens
7. Object Lessons

   The Paris Review Presents the Art of the Short Story
   Lorin Stein, Sadie Stein
8. When I Was a Child, I Read Books

   Essays
   Marilynne Robinson
9. Into the Silence

   The Great War, Mallory, and the Conquest of Everest
   Wade Davis
10. House of Stone

    A Memoir of Home, Family, and a Lost Middle East
    Anthony Shadid

The New York Times: 10 Best Books of 2012

[see also The 10 Best Books of 2023 • 100 Notable Books of 2023 • The 10 Best Books of 2022 • 100 Notable Books of 2022 • The 10 Best Books of 2021 • 100 Notable Books of 2021 • The 10 Best Books of 2020 • 100 Notable Books of 2020 • 100 Notable Books of 2019 • The 10 Best Books of 2019 • 10 Best Books of 2018 • 100 Notable Books of 2018 • 100 Notable Books of 2017 • 10 Best Books of 2017 • 10 Best Books of 2016 • 10 Best Books of 2015 • The 10 Best Books of 2014 • The 10 Best Books of 2013 • 100 Notable Books of 2012 • 100 Notable Books of 2011 • Ten Best Books of 2011]

Fiction

• Bring Up the Bodies
  Hilary Mantel
• Building Stories
  Chris Ware
• A Hologram for the King
  Dave Eggers
• NW
  Zadie Smith
• The Yellow Birds
  Kevin Powers

Nonfiction

• Behind the Beautiful Forevers

  Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity
  Katherine Boo
• Far From the Tree

  Parents, Children, and the Search for Identity
  Andrew Solomon
• The Passage of Power

  The Years of Lyndon Johnson
  Robert A. Caro
• The Patriarch

  The Remarkable Life and Turbulent Times of Joseph P. Kennedy
  David Nasaw
• Why Does the World Exist? An Existential Detective Story
  Jim Holt