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Year consensus · 2012

The Most Recommended Books of 2012

We counted 4,221 entries from 128 sources in 2012. Bring Up the Bodies by Hilary Mantel appeared on 24, 4 more than any other book.

A source counts once per book, whatever the result: a win, a shortlist place, or a list pick. We show books named by 3 or more sources. 2012 is the award or list year, not the publication year.

24 sources

  1. Bring Up the Bodies by Hilary Mantel

20 sources

  1. Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity by Katherine Boo

16 sources

  1. The Passage of Power: The Years of Lyndon Johnson by Robert A. Caro

  2. This Is How You Lose Her by Junot Díaz

15 sources

  1. Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk by Ben Fountain

13 sources

  1. Building Stories by Chris Ware

  2. NW by Zadie Smith

  3. The Fault in Our Stars by John Green

12 sources

  1. Dear Life by Alice Munro

  2. Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn

11 sources

  1. Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein

  2. Iron Curtain: The Crushing of Eastern Europe, 1945-1956 by Anne Applebaum

  3. Joseph Anton: A Memoir by Salman Rushdie

  4. Telegraph Avenue by Michael Chabon

  5. The Yellow Birds by Kevin Powers

  6. Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail by Cheryl Strayed

10 sources

  1. Are You My Mother?: A Comic Drama by Alison Bechdel

  2. Beautiful Ruins by Jess Walter

  3. The Orphan Master's Son by Adam Johnson

9 sources

  1. A Hologram for the King by Dave Eggers

  2. Far From the Tree: Parents, Children, and the Search for Identity by Andrew Solomon

  3. The Round House by Louise Erdrich

  4. The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce

  5. This Is Not My Hat by Jon Klassen

8 sources

  1. And Then It's Spring by Julie Fogliano and Erin E. Stead

  2. Canada by Richard Ford

  3. House of Stone: A Memoir of Home, Family, and a Lost Middle East by Anthony Shadid

  4. Liar & Spy by Rebecca Stead

  5. Mortality by Christopher Hitchens

7 sources

  1. Arcadia by Lauren Groff

  2. Every Love Story Is a Ghost Story by D.T. Max

  3. Extra Yarn by Mac Barnett and Jon Klassen

  4. Flight Behavior by Barbara Kingsolver

  5. Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking by Susan Cain

  6. Seraphina by Rachel Hartman

  7. Spillover: Animal Infections and the Next Human Pandemic by David Quammen

  8. Sweet Tooth by Ian McEwan

  9. The Age of Miracles by Karen Thompson Walker

  10. The Diviners by Libba Bray

  11. Thomas Jefferson by Jon Meacham

6 sources

  1. 2312 by Kim Stanley Robinson

  2. Alif the Unseen by G. Willow Wilson

  3. Among Others by Jo Walton

  4. Ask the Passengers by A.S. King

  5. Broken Harbor by Tana French

  6. Home by Toni Morrison

  7. Never Fall Down by Patricia McCormick

  8. No Crystal Stair: A Documentary Novel of the Life and Work of Lewis Michaux, Harlem Bookseller by Vaunda Micheaux Nelson and R. Gregory Christie

  9. People Who Eat Darkness: The Fate of Lucie Blackman by Richard Lloyd Parry

  10. Private Empire: ExxonMobil and American Power by Steve Coll

  11. Tell the Wolves I'm Home by Carol Rifka Brunt

  12. The Orchardist by Amanda Coplin

  13. The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey

  14. Wonder by R.J. Palacio

  15. Z Is for Moose by Kelly Bingham

5 sources

  1. Angelmaker by Nick Harkaway

  2. At Last by Edward St. Aubyn

  3. Before I Go to Sleep by S. J. Watson

  4. Embassytown by China Miéville

  5. Every Day by David Levithan

  6. Grave Mercy by Robin LaFevers

  7. Half Blood Blues by Esi Edugyan

  8. HHhH by Laurent Binet

  9. How Music Works by David Byrne

  10. Into the Silence: The Great War, Mallory and the Conquest of Everest by Wade Davis

  11. Leonardo and the Last Supper by Ross King

  12. Son by Lois Lowry

  13. The Better Angels of Our Nature: The Decline of Violence in History and Its Causes by Steven Pinker

  14. The Black Count: Glory, Revolution, Betrayal, and the Real Count of Monte Cristo by Tom Reiss

  15. The Brides of Rollrock Island by Margo Lanagan

  16. The Casual Vacancy by J.K. Rowling

  17. The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate

  18. The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater

  19. The Signal and the Noise: Why so Many Predictions Fail — But Some Don’t by Nate Silver

  20. The Social Conquest of Earth by Edward O. Wilson

  21. We've Got A Job: The 1963 Birmingham Children's March by Cynthia Levinson

4 sources

  1. 11/22/63 by Stephen King

  2. A Dance with Dragons by George R. R. Martin

  3. A Home for Bird by Philip C. Stead

  4. A Land More Kind than Home by Wiley Cash

  5. Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass: The Story Behind An American Friendship by Russell Freedman

  6. Absolution by Patrick Flanery

  7. All We Know: Three Lives by Lisa Cohen

  8. Beyond Courage: The Untold Story of Jewish Resistance During the Holocaust by Doreen Rappaport

  9. Bitterblue by Kristin Cashore

  10. Bomb: The Race to Build—and Steal—the World's Most Dangerous Weapon by Steve Sheinkin

  11. Dearie by Bob Spitz

  12. Defending Jacob by William Landay

  13. Dodger by Terry Pratchett

  14. Double Cross by Ben Macintyre

  15. Drama by Raina Telgemeier

  16. Fobbit by David Abrams

  17. Gods without Men by Hari Kunzru

  18. Goldilocks and the Three Dinosaurs by Mo Willems

  19. Green by Laura Vaccaro Seeger

  20. How Children Succeed by Paul Tough

  21. I’m Your Man: The Life of Leonard Cohen by Sylvie Simmons

  22. In A Glass Grimmly by Adam Gidwitz

  23. In One Person by John Irving

  24. Jimmy the Greatest by Jairo Buitrago

  25. Keeping the Castle by Patrice Kindl

  26. Learning To Swim by Sara J. Henry

  27. Magnificence by Lydia Millet

  28. Moonbird: A Year on the Wind with the Great Survivor B95 by Phillip Hoose

  29. My Book of Life by Angel by Martine Leavitt

  30. Patrick Leigh Fermor: An Adventure by Artemis Cooper

  31. Penny and Her Doll by Kevin Henkes

  32. Phantom by Jo Nesbø

  33. Salvage the Bones by Jesmyn Ward

  34. Short Nights of the Shadow Catcher: The Epic Life and Immortal Photographs of Edward Curtis by Timothy Egan

  35. Splendors and Glooms by Laura Amy Schlitz

  36. Swimming Home by Deborah Levy

  37. The Big Screen: The Story of the Movies by David Thomson

  38. The Cove by Ron Rash

  39. The Devil in Silver by Victor LaValle

  40. The Dog Stars by Peter Heller

  41. The Dream of the Celt by Mario Vargas Llosa

  42. The End of Your Life Book Club by Will Schwalbe

  43. The Garden of Evening Mists by Tan Twan Eng

  44. The Girl Who Fell Beneath Fairyland and Led the Revels There by Catherynne M. Valente

  45. The Mansion of Happiness by Jill Lepore

  46. The Miseducation of Cameron Post by Emily M. Danforth

  47. The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern

  48. The Old Ways by Robert Macfarlane

  49. The Patriarch: The Remarkable Life and Turbulent Times of Joseph P. Kennedy by David Nasaw

  50. The Sandcastle Girls by Chris Bohjalian

  51. The Second World War by Antony Beevor

  52. The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller

  53. The Testament of Mary by Colm Tóibín

  54. Three Times Lucky by Sheila Turnage

  55. Toby's Room by Pat Barker

  56. Turn of Mind by Alice LaPlante

  57. Useless Landscape, or A Guide for Boys by D. A. Powell

  58. Waging Heavy Peace by Neil Young

  59. What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank by Nathan Englander

  60. Where'd You Go, Bernadette by Maria Semple

  61. Why Nations Fail by Daron Acemoğlu

  62. Winter Journal by Paul Auster

3 sources

  1. 1222 by Anne Holt

  2. A Black Hole Is Not A Hole by Carolyn Cinami DeCristofano

  3. A Trick of the Light by Louise Penny

  4. After the Apocalypse: Stories by Maureen F. McHugh

  5. Agatha Christie: Murder in the Making by John Curran

  6. All Cry Chaos by Leonard Rosen

  7. All That I Am by Anna Funder

  8. Arguably by Christopher Hitchens

  9. Bad Pharma by Ben Goldacre

  10. Bear Has A Story to Tell by Philip Christian Stead

  11. Bee Journal by Sean Borodale

  12. Boot & Shoe by Marla Frazee

  13. By Blood by Ellen Ullman

  14. Carry the One by Carol Anshaw

  15. Chuck Close: Face Book by Chuck Close, Amanda Freymann and Joan Sommers

  16. Consider the Fork by Bee Wilson

  17. Country Girl by Edna O'Brien

  18. Cronkite by Douglas Brinkley

  19. Death of the Mantis by Michael Stanley

  20. Dr. Brinkley’s Tower by Robert Hough

  21. Dreaming up: A Celebration of Building by Christy Hale

  22. Drift by Rachel Maddow

  23. Each Kindness by Jacqueline Woodson

  24. Edge of Dark Water by Joe R. Lansdale

  25. Endangered by Eliot Schrefer

  26. Fifty Cents and A Dream: Young Booker T. Washington by Jabari Asim

  27. Fun & Games by Duane Swierczynski

  28. Girlchild by Tupelo Hassman

  29. Haiti by Laurent Dubois

  30. Heart-Shaped Bruise by Tanya Byrne

  31. I Am an Executioner by Rajesh Parameswaran

  32. I Have A Dream by Martin Luther King Jr.

  33. Inside by Alix Ohlin

  34. Inside the Centre by Ray Monk

  35. Island by Jason Chin

  36. Live by Night by Dennis Lehane

  37. Lulu and the Duck in the Park by Hilary McKay

  38. Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention by Manning Marable

  39. Merivel by Rose Tremain

  40. Nazareth Child by Darrell James

  41. Ocean of Life by Callum Roberts

  42. On Saudi Arabia: Its People, Past, Religion, Fault Lines – and Future by Karen Elliott House

  43. On the Eve: The Jews of Europe Before the Second World War by Bernard Wasserstein

  44. Osama by Lavie Tidhar

  45. People Who Like Meatballs by Selima Hill

  46. Plutocrats: The Rise of the New Global Super Rich and the Fall of Everyone Else by Chrystia Freeland

  47. Portrait of a Novel: Henry James and the Making of an American Masterpiece by Michael Gorra

  48. Ready Player One by Ernest Cline

  49. Religion for Atheists by Alain de Botton

  50. Rule & Ruin: The Downfall of Moderation and the Destruction of the Republican Party from Eisenhower to the Tea Party by Geoffrey Kabaservice

  51. San Miguel by T.C. Boyle

  52. Seating Arrangements by Maggie Shipstead

  53. See You at Harry's by Jo Knowles

  54. Shine Shine Shine by Lydia Netzer

  55. Starry River of the Sky by Grace Lin

  56. Sword of the Spirit, Shield of Faith: Religion in American War and Diplomacy by Andrew Preston

  57. The Beetle Book by Steve Jenkins

  58. The Chaperone by Laura Moriarty

  59. The Coldest Night by Robert Olmstead

  60. The Company Man by Robert Jackson Bennett

  61. The Disenchantments by Nina LaCour

  62. The Drowning Girl by Caitlin R. Kiernan

  63. The False Prince by Jennifer A. Nielsen

  64. The Grey Album: On the Blackness of Blackness by Kevin Young

  65. The Hero's Guide to Saving Your Kingdom by Christopher Healy

  66. The Hunger Angel by Herta Müller

  67. The Information: A History, a Theory, a Flood by James Gleick

  68. The Informationist by Taylor Stevens

  69. The Killing Moon by N.K. Jemisin

  70. The Lighthouse by Alison Moore

  71. The Mighty Miss Malone by Christopher Paul Curtis

  72. The Newlyweds by Nell Freudenberger

  73. The Odds by Stewart O'Nan

  74. The Overhaul by Kathleen Jamie

  75. The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg

  76. The Presidents Club by Nancy Gibbs

  77. The Purchase by Linda Spalding

  78. The Righteous Mind by Jonathan Haidt

  79. The Sleepwalkers by Christopher Clark

  80. The Submission by Amy Waldman

  81. The Swerve: How the World Became Modern by Stephen Greenblatt

  82. The Thief by Fuminori Nakamura

  83. The Uninvited Guests by Sadie Jones

  84. The Violinist's Thumb by Sam Kean

  85. Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman

  86. Three Strong Women by Marie N'Diaye

  87. Titian: His Life by Sheila Hale

  88. Turing’s Cathedral: The Origins of the Digital Universe by George Dyson

  89. Twelve Kinds of Ice by Ellen Bryan Obed

  90. Umbrella by Will Self

  91. Unspoken: A Story From the Underground Railroad by Henry Cole

  92. Watergate by Thomas Mallon

  93. When I Was a Child, I Read Books: Essays by Marilynne Robinson

  94. Who Could That Be at This Hour? by Lemony Snicket

  95. Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal? by Jeanette Winterson

  96. Winter of the World by Ken Follett

Sources counted in 2012