Third Place Blog: Bookseller Top Tens! Part One

So, it's a little late in the countdown list game, but here are our bookseller top ten lists for books read in 2012. There are very few rules for this...books listed can be published this year, or not; they can be in English, or not; they can be old favorites, or new; the lists can be ordered, or not...really anything goes, as long as they're books, and even that's negotiable. I'm breaking this into two posts, because I got so many responses from both our Lake Forest Park and Ravenna booksellers. Without further ado...

Robert at Lake Forest Park

Robert says that all these were published this year except for Williams 1965 neglected classic Stoner – a beautiful and sad book that he would recommend to anyone who loves literature.

1. May We Be Forgiven by A M Homes
2. Stoner by John Edward Williams
3. The Orphan Master’s Son by Adam Johnson
4. Lazarus is Dead by James Beard
5. These Dreams of You by Steve Erickson
6. Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk by Ben Fountain
7. A Million Heavens by John Brandon
8. By Blood by Ellen Ullman
9. Mr Penubra’s 24-Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan
10. The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg

Michael at Ravenna
Michael says he doesn't really have a favorite, but if forced...he would pick The Life of Objects

Canada by Richard Ford
The Life of Objects by Susanna Moore
The Orchardist by Amanda Coplin
The Revised Fundamentals of Caregiving by Jonathan Evison
Beautiful Ruins by Jess Walter
Waiting for Sunrise by William Boyd
Eating Dirt by Charlotte Gill
Where’d You Go Bernadette by Maria Semple
Dearie: The Remarkable Life of Julia Child by Bob Spitz
Stranger's Child by Alan Hollinghurst

Emily A. at Lake Forest Park

Emily cheated and picked 11- although I did say there were few rules...well played, Emily.

Alif The Unseen by G Willow Wilson
The Orchardist by Amanda Coplin
The Revised Fundamentals of Caregiving by Jonathan Evison
The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce
Mrs. Queen Takes the Train by William Kuhn
A Very Minor Prophet by James Bernard Frost
Leon and Louise by Alex Capus
The Round House by Louise Erdrich
Let's Pretend This Never Happened by Jenny Lawson
The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey
Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk by Ben Fountain

Ami at Ravenna

Ami is super stoked to see what everyone else picked for their top tens!!!!!!!!!!!!!

1. Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace
2. Almost No Memory by Lydia Davis
3. To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf
4. Pan by Knut Hamsun
5. Giovanni's Room by James Baldwin
6. Songs of the Dragon Flying to Heaven by Young Jean Lee
7. Girl With Curious Hair by David Foster Wallace
8. Pale Fire by Vladimir Nabokov
9. All the Days and Nights by William Maxwell
10. Sex at Dawn by Christopher Ryan and Cacilda Jetha

Stan at Lake Forest Park

Stan's top ten is titled, Untitled...edgy, Stan!

38 nooses: Lincoln, Little Crow, and the Beginning of the Frontier's End by Scott W. Berg
Mrs.Queen Takes the Train by William Kuhn
On the Overgrown Path by David Herter
The Luminous Depths by David Herter
Dancing Lessons for the Advanced in Age by Bohumil Hrabal
Season of the Witch: Enchantment, Terror and Deliverance in the City of Love by David Talbott
Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce
Better Off Without 'em: A Northern Manifesto for Southern Secession by Chuck Thompson
The Fat Years by Chan Koonchung
Mission to Paris by Alan Furst

Mark B. at Ravenna
I've never heard someone praise a book as much as Mark praised Gone Girl.

Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
Matterhorn by Karl Marlantes
Elegies for the Brokenhearted by Christie Hodgen
Far North by Marcel Theroux
The Odds by Stewart O'Nan
Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy
The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes
Immobility by Brian Evenson
Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell
Roadside Picnic by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky

Patti H. at Ravenna
Patti makes a bold move and says that Icefall, is not only her number one for the year, but maybe one of her most favorite books...EVER!