Best reads of 2012

So, here are my top five reads of 2012 (in no particular order):

1.  This Beautiful Life by Helen Schulman 

A 10th grader receives a sexy message from an 8th grade girl.  Overwhelmed and unthinking, he forwards it.  This Beautiful Life shows how little mistakes can be so much bigger and, ultimately, how life keeps going.

2.  The Submission by Amy Waldman

A 9/11 memorial is chosen by a jury that has reviewed blind submissions.  The winner?  An American Muslim.  When a widow of the attack defends the architect, she and he face strong reactions.

3.  The Art of Fielding by Chad Harbach 

From the book description:  At Westish College, baseball star Henry Skrimshander seems destined for big league until a routine throw goes disastrously off course. In the aftermath of his error, the fates of five people are upended. Henry’s fight against self-doubt threatens to ruin his future. College president Guert Affenlight has fallen unexpectedly and helplessly in love. Owen Dunne becomes caught up in a dangerous affair. Mike Schwartz realizes he has guided Henry’s career at the expense of his own. And Pella Affenlight returns to Westish after escaping an ill-fated marriage, determined to start a new life.

As the season counts down to its climactic final game, these five are forced to confront their deepest hopes, anxieties, and secrets. Written with boundless intelligence and filled with the tenderness of youth, “The Art of Fielding is mere baseball fiction the way Moby Dick is just a fish story” (Nicholas Dawidoff). It is an expansive, warmhearted novel about ambition and its limits, about family and friendship and love, and about commitment–to oneself and to others.

4.  Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn 

On her fifth wedding anniversary, a wife vanishes.  A husband is left looking suspicious.  Did the husband do it?

5.  Wife 22 by Melanie Gideon 

Listless about her marriage, job, parenting, Alice Buckle enrolls in a marriage study (she’s Wife 22!).  The writer cleverly uses modern technology like Facebook status updates, Google searches, and emails to drive the story forward.

What were your favorite reads from the year?