Best Books of 2012

This is the moment all of the writers and editors of January Magazine have been working towards all year. The moment when, after a mountain of reading and a gargantuan effort, we stand aside after 12 dizzying months, and introduce you to our picks for the best books of the year.

You’ll find a few words about our methodology, as well as links to all the lists, here.

Best Books of 2012: Fiction

This is the Best Fiction segment of January Magazine’s Best Books of 2012 feature. Also available are our picks for best non-fiction, best SF/F, best books for children and young adults,  best crime, mystery and thriller fiction of 2012, in two parts: one and two. As well, here are the best cookbooks of 2012. 

12.21 by Dustin Thomason (Dial)
12.21 is by one of the authors of The Rule of Four, Dustin Thomason. When I picked it up, I expected it to be good -- but I didn't expect to be drawn into its tale of lost secrets, conspiracies and treasure. This is a tale of what might have happened on December 21, the date the Mayans predicted the world as we know it would come to an end. 12.21 starts with the death of a man from a condition that prevents him from sleeping. His brain goes wild, his systems shut down, and all is lost. It seems like an isolated incident, and then the cases begin to pile up. That’s when the hero, Gabriel Stanton, gets involved, pulling in Mayan expert Chel. Will they fall in love? Will they find a way to save the world from itself? Come now. What do you think? -- Tony Buchsbaum

Antigonick (Sophokles) by Anne Carson, Illustrated by Bianca Stone, Design by Robert Currie
While the e-book revolution has a lot to answer for, it’s not all bad. One of the bonuses that we’re seeing is that the success of electronic books has forced segments of the publishing industry to examine the very meaning of the word and to reimagine what a book can and should be. Are there some things that an electronic book can’t supply? What are they? Increasingly, we’re seeing more beautiful books. And even more that just have something different about them. Something that would not translate properly into electronic form. Antigonick is a really terrific example of this. Here Pushcart Prize-winning author and poet and classical scholar, Anne Carson, does an innovative translation of Sophocles’ Antigone. As well, the text is hand-lettered by Carson and collaborator and designer, Robert Currie. The translations are accompanied by beautiful and whimsical illustrations by Bianca Stone. The resulting book is stunning, luminous and  delightful, even if Carson’s translations have drawn controversy from certain quarters. Velum pages, a hard board cover, quirky hand-lettering and illustrations; this is not a book that would have been published in quite this form even a decade ago. But now, in a book world shifting and bending to capture each new wave, we are given the occasional gift. Antigonick is a very special one. -- Linda L. Richards

Beautiful Ruins by Jess Walter (Harper)
There’s a lot going on in this marvelous novel, which shifts back and forth in time and space between half a dozen international locations; most of the story, though, gets started in a small coastal village in Italy in 1962, when a beautiful young American actress arrives to recuperate from distressing news. Dee Moray enchants all the men she meets: the ambitious yet modest proprietor of “The Hotel Adequate View”; the would-be-hotshot from Hollywood in charge of handling her crisis; and even the great Richard Burton, who’s filming Cleopatra nearby. Events set in motion by the lovely starlet’s visit spin in kaleidoscopic fashion throughout the novel, which takes readers from Seattle, Washington, in 1967, to Edinburgh, Scotland, in 2008, to Sandpoint, Idaho, in the recent past and to present-day Los Angeles -- though not necessarily in that order. People not even born when Dee Moray made her fateful Italian trip become entwined in her history: a desperate wannabe-screenwriter, a disillusioned studio “development-girl,” a might-have-been singer-songwriter. Meanwhile, the older characters continue exploring their ongoing life stories: the hotel-keeper, the movie hot-shot -- and Dee Moray herself. Scenes from a community-theater play, chapters from someone’s unfinished World War II novel and a section of a movie mogul’s memoir are all incorporated into the gifted Mr. Walter’s well-crafted text. Part satire, part metaphor, part fable, part romance -- Beautiful Ruins is terrific: a one-of-a-kind delight. -- Tom Nolan

Dear Life: Stories by Alice Munro (Knopf/Doubleday Canada)
In the 14 stories that comprise Dear Life, Alice Munro is coming home. Brilliantly. Few contemporary writers have done as much for short form fiction as Munro who often reveals as much by what she does not say as by what she does. The stories in Dear Life are shorter than we’ve seen from this author in the past. Even so, each one impresses itself upon us with the weight of spirit of a well executed novel. Such is Munro’s power. The last section of the book is skillful, but will be frightening to fans with its promise. “The final four works in this book are not quite stories,” Munro writes. “They form a separate unit, one that is autobiographical in feeling, though not, sometimes, entirely so in fact. I believe they are the first and last -- and the closest -- things I have to say about my own life.” These final “stories” have the feeling of plain truth even if, as Munro herself says, they are not quite. (Unless maybe they are.) And here, as in the actual stories at the beginning of the book, Southwestern Ontario is one of the major players in this stunning collection. Or, rather, it is the magnet, the destination, the presence at journey’s end. -- Sienna Powers

Enchantments by Kathryn Harrison (Random House)
Enchantments is a beautiful, and often surprisingly touching, book that focuses its historical view on final days of Russia’s Romanov Empire. Harrison has proven herself adept at involving us in weirdly angular family dramas which she does here again. After Rasputin is hauled dead from the river, his 18-year-old daughter, Masha, takes his place at the bedside of the hemophiliac Romanov prince, Aloysha. Her mission is to help heal the prince and, with him, the empire. We all know how that turned out. Even so, Enchantments is an unlikely and strangely beautiful love story. Harrison’s growing army of fans will not be disappointed with Enchantments. The writer here gets back to the her historical roots to very good effect. -- Monica Stark

Fobbit by David Abrams (Black Cat)

The publication and universal adoration of David Abrams’ debut novel, Fobbit, was especially gratifying for January Magazine: not that it was a surprise. Abrams is a January alum and we’ve known and appreciated his brilliant pen for a long time. When the rest of the world applauded him, there wasn’t much we could do beyond nudge each other knowingly, saying, “See?” While everything we’ve seen that Abrams has written over the years has been gorgeous, Fobbit is, in addition, a genuinely important work of fiction: something you just don’t see every day. A 21st century M*A*S*H or Catch-22, Fobbit brings us the absurdity of the Iraq war, from a very special perspective. Fobbit is a perjoritive term that describes soldiers in Iraq who seldom leave the (relative) safety of the Forward Operating Base, or FOB. Abrams understands this beat: he worked it himself. Abrams has said that the blueprint for the novel which would become Fobbit was the journal he kept during 2005 when he joined the 3rd Infrantry Division and deployed to Baghdad in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. Kirkus managed to nail the book in a couple of lines: “Sardonic and poignant. Funny and bitter. Ribald and profane. Confirmation for the anti-war crowd and bile for Bush supporters.” Succinct but well-placed. Those ready to laugh through the heartbreak of war will like this one very much. Meanwhile, because we know some of Abrams’ secrets, we are privy to the fact that there are more gorgeous novels to look forward to in the not-too-distant future. All we can say is: bring it! -- Linda L. Richards

Heading Out to Wonderful by Robert Goolrick (Algonquin) 
Heading Out to Wonderful is exactly that. Wonderful. That is, it’s filled with wonder. Robert Goolrick, author of A Reliable Wife, has once again dug beneath the surface of lives, unearthing mystery and motive that, when combined, drive this impressive, hypnotic tale relentlessly forward. The year is 1948, in a gorgeous Virginia valley. Charlie Beale comes to town with two suitcases, one filled with cash, the other with knives. Slowly, with patience and an understanding of how small towns work, Charlie weaves his way into the lives of the town folk. He leads a quiet life, causing few if any ripples, but still touching lives every day, most notably Sam, the young son of his employer, and Sylvan, a young bride who’s determined to live more a Hollywood life than that of a small town. These three characters, each an opposite of the others, come together in an explosive tale that seems part fairy, part cautionary. But no matter how you read it, it’s gorgeous. -- Tony Buchsbaum

Husk by Corey Redekop (ECW)
No one watching such things in Canada doubts his voice or his vision: Corey Redekop has emerged as one of THE young writers to watch over the coming few years. His debut, Shelf Monkey, has been equally lauded and trampled, but the trampling has contained such vitriol, you just knew you had to pay attention. His sophomore effort, Husk, delivers a similar blend of humor and thought-provoking observation. This time out, however, Redekop finds those observations in a strange but surprising place. Strictly speaking, Husk is a zombie novel. At least on the surface. The narrator and protagonist, Husk, is an “everyzombie” and Redekop instantly and without apparent effort does the impossible on the very first page: he makes Husk sympathetic. Think about it: a sympathetic zombie. How does that even work? The book opens thus: “I miss breathing. Sounds stupid, yes. Autonomic system was always there for me. Did the work whether I remembered to inhale or not. Took breaths in and out unfailingly. Never let me down …. Something that was always there. Like sunsets. Rainbows. Complex if I ever thought about it, but why would I? Taking things for granted is a core component of the human experience.” As charming as these early observations may be, they do not a book from zombie perspective a story make and some of Husk gets very dark and very violent, indeed. But the most trenchant observation about Husk comes from the wonderful Andrew Pyper (The Killing Circle) who called the book “Camus meets Palahniuk." That’s possibly all the information potential fans for Redekop’s work will need to rush out to get a copy. -- Linda L. Richards

Illuminations by Mary Sharratt (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)
I was both moved and surprised by Mary Sharratt’s novel of Benedictine abbess, Hildegard von Bingen, an extraordinary woman of the Middle Ages. One could not anticipate this majesty and drama. There are no bodices to be ripped here: no kings or dukes and nary a white horse in sight. Even so, Illuminations is riveting, following von Bingen through a harsh childhood to becoming basically imprisoned as a young nun to emerge as one of the significant voices of the 12th century. von Blinngen composed sacred music, wrote nine books on subjects as diverse as theology, medicine and human sexuality. An intellectual who had few peers during her lifetime, Sharrat (Daughters of the Witching Hill, The Real Minerva) depicts von Bingen as deeply human. Illuminations is unforgettable. -- Monica Stark

Mother & Child: A Novel by Carole Maso (Counterpoint)
Carole Maso’s sixth novel is a gorgeous contemplation of motherhood. Part memoir, part flight of fancy, Mother & Child is lyrical and luminescent. “If the mother and the child flew high above the world in an airplane of some sort, they would see below them a field of wool. The clouds are like that.” This is Maso’s first novel since 1998’s lovely though largely unremarked Defiance, which was a darkly powerful novel. In some ways, Mother & Child is just as powerful, but it is yang to Defiance’s yin; a surreal exploration of the mother-daughter bond; a meditation on life, death and the very beauty and fragility of existence. -- Linda L. Richards

Mr. Blank by Justin Robinson (Candlemark & Gleam)
I don’t really believe in them, but I always like a good conspiracy theory. I’m not talking here about those propounded by the birthers or the 9/11 truthers; those people can go to hell. Instead, I mean conspiracy theories involving secret societies, the Kennedy assassinations (my favorite John Kennedy one? Elaborate suicide), the moon landings and Area 51. I also love the Weekly World News. Justin Robinson’s Mr. Blank is a thriller that’s like candy for the conspiracy theorist. It’s about the mysterious “Guy” of “They” that we’ve all mentioned at least once, the person who makes things keep going and has connections to just about everything ... and now somebody is trying to kill him, and since he works for everyone, the list of suspects is endless. The story is very funny and quick, with great popular cultural references, both those that are easy to spot and others so obscure, they feel like they were written by a real pop-culture nerd (and not just for the purpose of pandering, as CBS-TV’s Big Bang Theory so often does with its references). Amazingly, author Robinson -- like Donald E. Westlake and Ross Thomas before him -- manages to juggle the numerous and various balls in his plot without dropping any; quite a feat. But what really sold me on this novel? The notion that monsters like Bigfoot, called Cryptids, exist ... but vampires are complete myths. If you liked The X-Files, Fringe, The Middleman, Warren Ellis’ Planetary or Brian Azzarello’s brilliant conspiracy crime thriller, 100 Bullets? You'll love this debut work. -- Cameron Hughes

One Good Hustle by Billie Livingston (Random House Canada)
January Magazine has been following Billie Livingston’s career closely since we interviewed her while she was promoting her exquisite debut novel, Going Down Swinging, back in 2000. Her second novel, Cease to Blush, was one of this magazine’s best books of 2006. Her third novel, Greedy Little Eyes, won the prestigious Danuta Gleed Award. But even with all of its celebrated and award-winning predecessors, Livingston’s fourth book, One Good Hustle, may be the best of the bunch thus far. Sixteen-year-old Sammie Bell prides herself on knowing the score. The daughter of a brace of grifters, Sammie finds herself feeling like a fish out of water when her con artist father lands in jail and her mother is sliding into a haze of alcohol and depression and Sammie finds herself ensconced into a friend’s loving family. Though part of Sammie really wants to be normal, she fears her genetics and her upbringing set her too far apart. Set in the 1980s, Livingston handles her historic material with the same aplomb she brings to the emotion. One Good Hustle is sharp and sweet and Sammie Bell proves to be one of those memorable characters readers are searching for every time they open a book. -- Linda L. Richards

Red Country by Joe Abercrombie (Orbit)
I seem to be reading a lot of Westerns lately. Good ones. This pleases me, for the older I get, the more I appreciate the genre. After all, the majority of crime novels are just modern Westerns. I picked up Joe Abercrombie’s Red Country not too long ago. It’s a very classic Western type of story. The hero(ine)’s family is kidnapped and she sets out to get revenge. What makes this tale different is that it’s really a fantasy with an Old West setting. It feels just real enough to remind me of “Too Tough to Die” Tombstone and Gold Rush-era California, but boasts enough of the fantastic to give it flavor, and a nicely noirish aftertaste to boot. I can see why my friend Lauren and other women I know like Abercrombie so much. In the almost hilariously misogynist fantasy genre, Abercrombie manages to write great females, first Monza Murcatto from the 2009 revenge novel Best Served Cold, and now, in Red Country, Shy South, who manages to seem realistically feminine as well as tough. I loved both her and her craven stepfather, Lamb (his name quickly becomes ironic, and he reminds me some of True Grit’s Rooster Cogburn). Fans of Abercrombie’s First Law Trilogy will be delighted to realize who he is, as it’s gradually revealed in the novel; but if you’ve only read this one book, you’ll be fine. Lamb is the archetypical old guy with a mysterious and bloody past, like Clint Eastwood’s Will Munny in Unforgiven. He and Shy make a most compelling pair, with the female character doing most of this yarn’s heavy lifting. Red Country is violent, but credibly so. I kind of wish the author had stuck to old, slow-loading but powerful guns instead of swords, but he makes the incongruousness of sword-play in an Old West setting work. This seems to be the most filmable of Abercrombie’s novels thus far (I can already see an older actor like Bruce Willis or Jeff Bridges playing Lamb). It’s also pretty funny. Abercrombie has always been skilled at developing characters, but like many fantasy writers, his dialogue was somewhat stilted. In these pages, though, the dialogue feels naturalistic and real. I became a Joe Abercrombie fan after reading his bloody and brutal war novel, 2001’s The Heroes (which Time magazine described as something like what Lord of the Rings might have been, had Akira Kurosawa written and directed it). If you appreciate Kurosawa, Sergio Leone and Stephen King’s Dark Tower books, you’ll like Red Country. -- Cameron Hughes

Syndrome E by Franck Thilliez (Viking)
A completely captivating, slow-moving thriller about what makes people violent and how one person's violent tendencies can spread to others, like a virus. The story’s initial murders start adding up fast, and two French cops are on the trail of the killer, working to unravel a tale that spans 50 years. The two copes, Franck and Lucie, both have damaged souls, in need of love and understanding as much as a solution to this case. They’re captivated by its twists and turns, and you will be, too. Thilliez’s writing, translated by Mark Polizzotti, is crisp and sure, and though the story unfolds in short chapters, I found myself reading only one or two at a time, to drag out the suspense even more and increase my pleasure. -- Tony Buchsbaum

The Devoted by Jonathan Hull (Dancing Muse)
Jonathan Hull is a writer whose work I always give my full attention. Hull writes beautifully. Searingly. Heartbreakingly. I find it difficult to review Hull’s work: it impresses and touches me so completely, I find I must struggle against hyperbole. Hull’s 2000 debut novel, Losing Julia, was a masterwork. His third novel, The Devoted, lives up to this author’s previous work. It moves us from wartime Italy to the American west and through the lives of three families struggling with various aspects of devotion. Hull spent a decade as a correspondent for TIME, including three years as the Jerusalem Bureau Chief. “Fiction seems far better equipped to get at the deeper and more compelling truths of life,” Hull wrote several years ago, “our unspoken fears and hopes, our secret desires, how we make sense of our lives.” The Devoted once again brings home the truth of those words. It’s a wonderful, memorable book. -- Linda L. Richards

The Quiet Twin by Dan Vyleta (Bloomsbury)
It is a mystery to me that people do not clamor over Dan Vyleta’s every printed word. In my opinion, Vyleta’s writing is muscular, yet lyrical and the stories he chooses to tell resonate through history. The Quiet Twin is a fully nuanced nightmare of reality. Set in Vienna in 1939, it is not immediately apparent that an apartment building is either a metaphor for or a microcosm of the rise of fascism in Europe. But it is not the topic that makes this book a complete and perfectly wrought work of literary genius. Or maybe more accurately, it is not just that. Instead, as with his debut work, Pavel & I, Vyleta starts us off thinking we’re involved in a particularly good war-time thriller. It’s not until we’re deeply involved with Vyleta’s completely compelling story that we realize that more is going on here than meets the eye. The Quiet Twin is a searingly good book. It’s even better than Pavel & I, a book I found nothing short of astonishing. It astonished me also that, in the US, The Quiet Twin is published as a paperback original. Read it now, while Vyleta is still our secret. If there is justice, that will not be the case for long. -- Linda L. Richards

The Sweet Girl by Annabel Lyon (Random House Canada)
No one does historical fiction like Annabel Lyon. Her stories not only have historical significance and cultural relevance, they leap with humanity and verve and life. Lyon’s second novel, The Sweet Girl, is the story of Aristotle’s daughter, Pythias, who battles everything -- even the gods -- to find her way in the world when her father dies. The Sweet Girl follows up Lyon’s starkly successful The Golden Mean and those who adored that book will find a familiar cadence here. Some could find that cadence jolting and, to tell the truth, it all could have gone very badly: this ancient Greek voice speaking in modern tones. Yet somehow, Lyon makes it not only work, but triumph. “The first time I ask to carry a knife to the temple,” opens The Sweet Girl, “Daddy tells me I’m not allowed to because we’re Macedonian.” And so we are given access to the inaccessible: an ancient girl with a modern heart. And it all works beautifully. Almost like magic. Will Lyon follow this diptych with yet another book from the era? Personally, I think it could go either way. Certainly there is room here and stories yet untold, though these two books together make a perfect set piece. Like many of her fans, I’m anxious to see what Lyon decides. -- Sienna Powers

The Tinsmith by Tim Bowling (Brindle & Glass)
Though The Tinsmith opens on the Battle of Antietam during the Civil War -- the bloodiest battle in American history -- Tim Bowling’s newest novel mostly takes place a couple of decades later, in the salmon canneries along the Fraser River. This is familiar ground for Bowling, who grew up in the British Columbia Delta regions he writes about here. But that was a long time ago. Bowling has since become not only a respected novelist, but a somewhat celebrated poet. His strong connections to a poetic past resonate most vividly in The Tinsmith, a book that manages to be deeply interesting, searingly beautiful and historically compelling. The Tinsmith touched me completely. It seemed to me the best type of adventure story for the modern man. -- David Middleton

The Twelve by Justin Cronin (Ballantine)
After a two year wait, I read Justin Cronin’s follow up to The Passage and it was wonderful. Was it worth the wait? Oh, yeah. This time around, Cronin has shaken things up a bit. If you’re expecting The Twelve to simply pick up where The Passage left off, I’ve got some bad news for you. Instead, Cronin jumps forward in time. We get a good, hard look at the aftermath of what was about to happen at the end of The Passage -- but we don’t actually see it happen. Instead, and more elegantly, we see who it killed, the lives it tore apart, and the narrative strands it knotted up. For much of The Twelve, Cronin jumps back and forth between characters, crafting scenes that are sharply written and even more sharply plotted. There’s a chess game going on here, and Cronin is both players. He seems to want you to luxuriate in this novel, soaking up character, motivation and conflict. And there’s plenty of all three. What I really, really like about The Twelve is that while it’s connected to The Passage -- significantly -- it isn’t a retread. It’s not just more of the same. It assumes we know something about this world and these people, but at the same time, somehow, it operates in such a way that you’re always suspicious. Do you know what you think you know? As it turns out, the whole virals-ransacking-the-world thing is just the surface story. There’s a lot more to what’s going on than meets the eye. Best of all, the villains this time out aren’t the virals we’ve come to know and fear. The Passage expertly drew the conflict between humans and virals. It was a very detailed, desperate primer on how to survive. The Twelve expertly does something else. It asks the question: what now? And as it strives for an answer, it serves up a new group of villains: other survivors. -- Tony Buchsbaum

Where’d You Go Bernadette by Maria Semple (Little, Brown)
In another life, Maria Semple wrote for some of television’s funniest and best loved shows including Mad About You, Ellen and Arrested Development. With that sort of background, it’s not surprising that Semple’s books are both deeply human and witty to the point of of being occasionally laugh out loud funny. We laugh, sure. But it’s partly because we know we laugh at ourselves. In Semple’s second novel, fiercely intelligent and mildly manic Bernadette outsources every aspect of motherhood that she can to a company in India so that she can avoid human interaction as much as possible. But when Bernadette’s best laid plans go awry and she is forced to do some serious human interactaction on all of her familial and professional fronts, Bernadette disappears, leaving her confused husband and daughter behind. Where’d You Go Bernadette is charming, funny and, in the end, thoughtful and lovely. -- Sienna Powers

Wife 22 by Melanie Gideon (Ballantine)
Twenty-two years into her marriage and Alice Buckle’s life is unravelling. Her marriage is dying, her kids don’t need her much anymore and her job doesn’t do anything to fill the holes in her heart. A marriage survey Alice finds and in her spam folder ultimately leads her on a path of self-evaluation she could never have anticipated. She is “Wife 22” in the study and she knows her caseworker only as “Researcher 101” but through a series of carefully posed, insightful questions, Alice begins to see herself and her life in a new light… and the light isn’t always good. Gideon is the author of The Slippery Year: A Meditation on Happily After, fingered as a book of the year by both NPR and the San Francisco Chronicle. Wife 22 seems like the perfect fictional companion to that book and why not? Following a memoir that did as well as that one with a quirky feel-good coming-to-middle-age story seems almost like natural progression. -- Monica Stark

Best Books of 2012: Non-Fiction

This is the Best Non-Fiction segment of January Magazine’s Best Books of 2012 feature. Also available are our picks for best SF/F, best books for children and young adults,  best crime, mystery and thriller fiction of 2012, in two parts: one and two. As well, here are the best cookbooks of 2012. Still to come: our contributors’ selections of the Best Fiction of 2012. 

Both Flesh and Not: Essays by David Foster Wallace (Little, Brown)
With the verve and bite of 2007’s seminal Consider the Lobster, David Foster Wallace’s Both Flesh and Not brings together 15 of the author’s finest essays, never before published in book form. For me this collection was bittersweet. This is, after all, the voice of the man A.O. Scott called the “best mind of his generation.” His writing was always sharp and his curiosity seemingly endless. Seemingly because, of course, it was not: Foster Wallace died by his own hand in 2008. And therein lies what, for me, can’t help but be bittersweet: pure brilliance damped by the knowledge that the star has dimmed. It should be noted that, since Both Flesh and Not collects essays from throughout Foster Wallace’s writing life, the book will most likely appeal to readers of a certain age. Here the author comments on the best book of 1994, the best film of 1990 and tennis matches that are mostly not recalled at all. He writes about the conspicuously young crop of writers of 1987 (of which he would have been one) and the sexual armageddon unleashed by heterosexual AIDs. Though the topics will have limited appeal after so much time has passed, the author’s insights and gorgeous prose will not. Also included is a selection from Wallace’s personal vocabulary list. An assemblage of unusual words by a man who loved them. Swanskin, tarn, swage, purlieus, rachis. All of them interesting. All of them reminders of why we miss him so much. -- Linda L. Richards

Darwin’s Devices by John Long (Basic Books)
Robotics viewed through a biologist’s lens, that’s a bit of what Darwin’s Devices: What Evolving Robots Can Tell Us About the History of Life and the Future of Technology boils down to. But with scientific precision from a professor/author with a poet’s soul. It’s all intensely exciting. When you surf along with the author’s engaged and engaging voice, it becomes very obvious that his topic is not rocket science. That is, it’s a new and evolving field, one that he’s championing and one that has been powerful in his own work. What Long does is create an environment where his models and robots can evolve. Not nearly as odd as it sounds. The robots compete against each other for food and other basic survival needs and their responses provide important clues to the evolution of extinct species. Long shares his disappointments as well as his triumphs and he does so in a lucid and sometimes even humorous way. We come away from Darwin’s Devices with the idea that, whatever work Long is doing here, it’s deeply interesting and even important. I suspect that this will not be the final work on this topic, but Long lays the groundwork for a future filled with discovery and adventure. -- Jones Atwater

Falling for Eli by Nancy Shulins (Da Capo Lifelong)
Nancy Shulins’ fantastic personal journey is made all the more powerful by her fierce talent. The twice Pulitzer Prize-contending journalist knows how to tell a story; knows how to bring us along. “Letting go of a dream is a process,” she tells us early in Falling for Eli , “a series of openings and closings of the hand, as you watch the magic dust you’ve been cradling so carefully trickle away in thin streams.” The word “cradle” in this context is, no doubt, a conscious one. In Falling for Eli, we watch Shulins come to terms with the fact that she’ll never have the baby she always longed for. What surprises her, as well as all of those around her, is when the heartbreak she feels at the loss of something she never even had is eased from an unexpected place: when she decides to fulfill a life-long dream by learning to ride a horse. The riding leads her to her own horse, a chestnut gelding named Eli, and we participate in the complex relationship that builds between the two. Like the very best memoirs, Falling for Eli is a wonderful story, but it is also so much more. We are made, in a way, to think about motherhood and how the definitions around it have changed and continue to change. In other ways, it is a story of redemption and even triumph of spirit, as Shulins moves from depression at the realization that she will never give birth to a child, through her transformation as she works through a difficult period of relationship building with her new horse, to triumph as she enjoys a satisfying -- if complicated -- relationship with her 1200 pound “baby.” -- India Wilson

From the Forest: A Search for the Hidden Roots in Our Fairytales by Sara Maitland (Counterpoint)
Published in the UK by Granta as Gossip from the Forest, Sara Maitland’s book is a charming and thought-provoking look at the history and development of our folk stories. Each chapter looks at a different story and how the forest it sprung from shaped the tale we know. This is lyrical, fanciful stuff. As Maitland tells us, “forests are places where a person can get lost and hide -- losing and hiding, of things and people, are central to European fairy stories in ways that are not true of similar stories in different georgraphies.” Regardless of whether you buy what Maitland is positing here, her foray straight to the heart of some of the stories we love best is unforgettable. -- Monica Stark

Gifts of the Crow by John Marzluff and Tony Angell (FreePress)
Few creatures are as misunderstood as the crow. Their black plumage and watchful demeanor can evoke fear and even shadows of future evil. But in reality, contend authors John Marzluff and Tony Angell, in many ways crows are much more like us than most people would care to admit. “The gifts of the crow are physical, metaphorical, and far-reaching,” they write in Gifts of the Crow, setting us up for a journey of stories that demonstrate the almost magical intellect of the crow. This isn’t this authorial duo’s first visit in the corvid world. In the Company of Crows and Ravens (2007) gives a first intimate look at the birds. Gifts of the Crow extends the lessons shared in that work but does not depend on readers having read the first one. Gifts of the Crow is a deeply astonishing book. At the same time, it is also oddly satisfying. Somehow seeing the similarities between humans and crows makes us feel less alone. -- Jones Atwater

Gilded Lives, Fatal Voyage: The Titanic’s First-Class Passengers and Their World by Hugh Brewster (Crown)
As the title of this book suggests, the focus here is on those fortunate folk able to book the most luxurious accommodations on the Titanic’s ill-fated, April 1912 maiden crossing from Southampton, England, to New York City. Lily May Futrelle, the wife of American mystery writer Jacques Futrelle (who perished in the sinking), described her first-class shipmates as “a rare gathering of beautiful women and splendid men.” Included in their number were real-estate magnate John Jacob Astor IV and his pregnant 18-year-old wife; tennis player and future Olympic gold medalist R. Norris Williams; Denver socialite and women’s rights champion Margaret Brown; Major Archibald Butt, the military aide to U.S. President William Howard Taft; and silent-film actress Dorothy Gibson. (Financier J.P. Morgan had planned to sail on the Titanic as well, but instead stayed behind with his mistress in France.) Although Gilded Lives relies often on speculation about the shipboard activities of the Edwardian celebrities lost in that maritime calamity, Brewster balances that with his splendid use of first-hand accounts from the survivors -- a much greater percentage of whom were cabin-class passengers than poorer, steerage travelers. Although Walter Lord’s 1955 book, A Night to Remember, remains the standard for Titanic histories, Brewster’s Gilded Lives contributes greatly to our understanding of that tragedy’s human dimension. -- J. Kingston Pierce

Hello Goodbye Hello by Craig Brown (Simon & Schuster)
Of course you know about six degrees of separation. Not the amazing John Guare play of that name, but the idea of it, that we’re separated from everyone on the planet by only six people. One line in the play mentions how wonderful that is, yet also how maddening -- since the trick is knowing which six people. Hello Goodbye Hello takes this idea into an unexpected but fun area: meetings. Craig Brown’s book chronicles 101 meetings between celebrities. He sets the scenes, draws the personalities and shares what the two said to each other. Best of all, each conversation really happened -- and each one is linked to the next (though not always chronologically). This is one string of meetings: Helen Keller and Martha Graham, Graham and Madonna, Madonna and Michael Jackson, Jackson and Nancy Reagan, Reagan and Andy Warhol, and so on. The book begins and ends with meetings involving Hitler, opening with a meeting with John Scott-Ellis and ending with a meeting with the Duchess of Windsor. This amazing book will turn you into the proverbial fly on the wall -- and leave you wanting more, more, more. -- Tony Buchsbaum

I’m Your Man: The Life of Leonard Cohen by Sylvie Simmons (Ecco)
There were so many singer-songwriters breaking on the scene of the 1960s and ’70s, we took them all for granted -- every Tim, Richie and Harry -- for as long as we wished. Leonard Cohen proved to be a keeper: a Canadian poet and novelist who sang in a somber, spellbinding near-monotone (was this the voice of the common Garden-of-Eden snake?). Cohen is singing still, half a century later; and his 2012 CD, Old Ideas, is (for some of us) the record of the year. Veteran author Sylvie Simmons tells the beguiling saga of L. Cohen at suitable length and with admirable style in I’m Your Man, which follows her poetic pilgrim’s progress from before his 1934 birth and privileged Montreal upbringing up to the present. Versifier, novelist, recording artist, city dweller, island exile, world traveler, ladies’ man, husband, father, monk -- Cohen has played many roles. One virtue of this grand biography is how it finds unifying elements among such a diverse life’s seeming disarray. “Did he tell you about the writing on the wall?” Cohen’s ex-flame Marianne (“So Long, Marianne”) asked his biographer of one of LC’s LSD visions: “It was in gold paint and it said, ‘I change, I am the same, I change, I am the same ...’ I think it was beautiful.” Also fine to behold is the way in which I’m Your Man’s writer arranges the parts of her scrupulously gathered material in a mosaic at once pleasing and recognizable, yet still appropriately ambiguous. Sylvie Simmons proves to be something of a poet herself. -- Tom Nolan

John Quincy Adams by Harlow Giles Unger (daCapo)
No one writes biography quite like Harlow Giles Unger. His last half dozen or so books have brought as many long dead presidents back to something like literary life. I loved 2010’s Lion of Liberty, an action-packed portrait of Patrick “liberty or death” Henry. James Monroe, Lafayette, Noah Webster, John Hancock, George Washington and others all have been breathed to life for us with skill and vigor and Harlow Giles Unger’s well seasoned pen. The first few words of John Quincy Adams illustrate Unger’s skill: in a very few words he tells us everything we really need to know about his subject, introduces the idea of why we should care and teases us to go on. It’s a great ride. -- Aaron Blanton

The Life of Super-Earths by Dimitar Saddelov (Basic Books)
It doesn’t take long for Harvard professor of astronomy Dimitar Saddelov to get down to business in The Life of Super-Earths. The second line in the book: “What is life and how did it come to be?" In a conversational tone, Saddelov sets out to answer that, as well as anyone can. As he points out, “The actual origin of Earth remains as elusive as ever and may well stay that way. After all, it is a historical question that requires knowing environments that are not preserved in the Earth’s geological record.” Even so, Saddelov points out, there are things we can look at -- and other branches of knowledge and science -- that can perhaps bring us closer to understanding. From life here on Earth, it’s a short journey to looking for life in other places. As an astronomer, this isn’t a new thought for Saddelov and, as he points out, “it seems likely that on some of these Earth-like planets, we will find signs of life.” Beyond anything, it seems to me that The Life of Super-Earths is an exploration, both of discoveries and possibilities. As the the sub-title promises: “How the hunt for Alien Worlds and Artificial Cells Will Revolutionize Life on Our Planet.” Considering the nature of the beast -- Saddelov is a scientist, after all -- this subtitle might be a bit of oversell. He is here exploring what is real and what may well be real, after all. Still, this is exciting, thought-provoking stuff. These are the latest and most cutting edge thoughts on that age old question: are we alone in the universe? And perhaps a new wrinkle: If we are alone, will it be for very long? -- Aaron Blanton

Mickey Cohen: The Life and Crimes of L.A.’s Notorious Mobster by Tere Tereba (ECW Press)
Hollywood, from the roaring 1920s to the current day, has always loved making gangster movies. And in the 1940s and ’50s, it had its own real-life hoodlum to scrutinize and lionize: Mickey Cohen, “the King of the Sunset Strip,” a dapper, diminutive mobster who could have been played on the screen by Edward G. Robinson or John Garfield. The newsboy-turned-boxer-turned-crook oversaw criminal activities from his base in an unincorporated stretch of Los Angeles following the 1947 assassination of his former mentor, Benjamin “Bugsy” Siegel. Cohen -- who also owned such legitimate businesses as an ice-cream parlor and a haberdashery -- cut a wide swath through L.A.; and the publicity he received from appearances with such diverse types as Billy Graham and Mike Wallace helped make him a national figure. It was Cohen’s associate Johnny Stompanato who was stabbed to death at Lana Turner’s Beverly Hills home in 1958. When Russia’s Nikita Khrushchev visited Hollywood in 1959 and twitted L.A. police chief William Parker about its “gangster” problem, he was referring to Parker’s nemesis, Cohen. Crime-fiction writers from Ross Macdonald to James Ellroy (who, as a youngster, met this mobster) found inspiration for stories in Mickey Cohen. Singer-songwriter Warren Zevon’s gambler father, “Stumpy” Zevon, once worked for Mickey. First-time author Tere Tereba does a notable job telling Cohen’s story -- warts, wounds, sleaze and all. Her well-researched chronicle should put to rest forever the notion that organized crime is somehow glamorous, while allowing readers (to quote another Sunset Strip figure, Jim Morrison) one last “wallow in the mire.” -- Tom Nolan

Modern Furniture: 150 Years of Design edited by Fremdkoerper (H.F. Ullmann)
In 2012 more than any other year it was easy for me to select the book that had the most impact on me and that I could not do without in my collection.  Even though Modern Furniture: 150 Years of Design is an update of a well known (in design circles) classic, to me it remains one of the most important design books every time it is reissued. And for good reason. In essays and photos it looks back over the 150 years of the modern design era. The essays are far-reaching and published in French, German and English (not as confusing as it sounds!) and cover every aspect of modern furniture design. But what makes this an impossibly great resource are the photos. They are chairs, almost one per design year, beginning with  the 1867 Demonstration Chair probably designed by August Thonet. What will most startle those unfamiliar with Modern furniture is how contemporary the real classics still appear. If you’ve never seen Josef Hoffman’s Kubus from 1910, for example, nothing will prepare you for what will likely strike you as classic 1970s lines. And everyone is familiar with Ludwig Mies van deer Rohe’s Barcelona Armchair -- by sight if not by name. However many people are startled when they realize it was designed for exhibition in the German Pavilion at the 1929 World’s Fair, held in Barcelona. It’s also interesting to page through the really terrific and well-documented photos and observe which designers and firms have had the most influence over the years. Again: Modern Furniture: 150 Years of Design is an important and well-excuted book. My bookshelf will never be without it. -- David Middleton

Reinventing Bach by Paul Elie (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
Paul Elie’s memorable first book, The Life You Save May Be Your Own: An American Pilgrimage (2003), was a group-portrait of four people linked by a common creed (Catholicism). In a way, the author follows that same pattern in Reinventing Bach, a hefty, ever-readable study of how a musical oeuvre composed nearly 300 years ago survived into the present, shaping and being shaped by genius interpreters. The organist-humanist Albert Schweitzer, cellist Pablo Casals, conductor Leopold Stokowski, pianist Glenn Gould, cellist Yo-Yo Mama: all receive pocket-biographies chronicling their personal and professional devotion to Johann Sebastian Bach. Arching over all is the figure of the composer himself, whose story is parceled out according to this book’s structural needs. But many other performing artists, writers, commentators, producers, technicians, theorists -- the author, too -- appear on the pages of this engrossing study, which shows Bach’s seemingly eternal power to inspire, instruct, console. Like one of Bach’s own works, Elie’s text unfurls, repeats, works variations and returns to the root -- all in sentences often as graceful as his main subject’s musical lines. “Certainly, Bach envisioned that his music would be made by musicians other than [those of his own time],” Elie writes near the end of this work. “Surely he envisioned that his music would be taken up for other instruments, some known to him and others freshly invented ... But did he envision that his music, in time, would be ‘played’ by people who could not sing or play a musical instrument, would be ripped and remixed and mashed up, and would withstand the process, even thrive through it? Could he have envisioned the digital present? He could, and he did.” -- Tom Nolan

The Southern Journey of Alan Lomax: Words, Photographs and Music by Tom Piazza (Norton)
The year 1959 was a sort of annus mirabilis in American music. Advances in recording technology helped produce an abundance of noteworthy jazz LPs (from Dave Brubeck’s Time Out to Miles Davis’ Kind of Blue). German jazz-scholar Joachim Berendt and Los Angeles photographer William Claxton made a historic road-trip throughout America, documenting jazz music at its sources. And the legendary folklorist Alan Lomax, fresh from a multi-year European sojourn, returned for two months to the American South, photographing and recording white and black rural musicians with new, high-quality stereophonic equipment. Lomax had been a groundbreaking cultural historian for decades, first with his father, John, and then on his own. Together or separately, the Lomaxes advanced the reputations of such seminal figures as Leadbelly, Woody Guthrie, Jelly Roll Morton and Muddy Waters. Alan Lomax’s importance to the course of American and world vernacular music can hardly be overestimated. Songs he gathered in the 1930s fueled an American folk-music movement -- as well as showing up in such concert-music as Aaron Copland’s Rodeo. Programs he produced for the BBC launched the 1950s skiffle craze in England, out of which grew the British rock scene of the 1960s. His recordings of Spanish music more than influenced Gil Evans’ and Miles Davis’ Sketches of Spain LP. And his New York City apartment in the early ’60s was an open-house graduate-seminar for such budding artists as Bob Dylan. Lomax’s 1959 Southern hegira was perhaps his last great adventure. Tom Piazza (and, in an introduction, William Ferris) provides the text and context for Lomax’s simple, powerful photographs; a 12-track CD gives highlights from the trip’s 80 hours of field recordings. “Most civilizations have to wait to be buried before being dug up,” Piazza writes. “Lomax did the spade work in real time ... looking for music that hadn’t been commodified ... [H]e had good luck and great instincts, and he was able ... to record some of the last of a breed ...” -- Tom Nolan

Steven Spielberg: A Retrospective by Richard Schickel (Sterling)
This was bound to happen sooner or later, and I’m just happy it’s happened now. Someone has seen fit to write an in-depth look at the films of Steven Spielberg. Richard Schickel, onetime film critic at TIME magazine, has taken an exhaustive look at the director’s career, from his childhood and the little 8mm films he made, all the way through last year’s War Horse and a peek at this year’s Lincoln. I said exhaustive -- not exhausting. Spielberg: A Retrospective is a magnificent volume, stuffed with photos and insightful essays about the films and how they were made. Included, of course, is a great wealth of interview material, all of it original with the author, much of it created for this book (the rest of based on past conversations between the two). I found myself lost in these pages for a good while, and that was, I know, just the beginning. As I find with the man’s films every time I see one (and then see it again), I know I’ll find much more to discover every time I open this wonderful look at one of the best filmmakers Hollywood has produced. -- Tony Buchsbaum

Working the Dead Beat by Sandra Martin (Anansi)
Award-winning journalist Sandra Martin has been working the dead beat at the Globe and Mail for many years. It’s a beat Martin has loved, despite less than enthusiastic reactions from those she encounters. As she writes in the very moving Working the Dead Beat, “I’ve grown accustomed to the arched brow, the flash of revulsion, the involuntary step backwards, and the exclamation, ‘But that’s so morbid’ when I tell people what I do for a living.” In her book, Martin shares the obituaries of 50 prominent Canadians who died between 2000 and 2010. In her introduction, Martin remarks that obituary writing has been transformed in the period covered in the book. “Once the preserve of the rich, the noble, and the worthy, obituaries now encompass scoundrels as well as saints, eccentrics as well as celebrities.” As well, Martin writes, “There is a new frankness, an unwillingness to camouflage warts under layers of unctuous hyperbole.” Martin has written hundreds of obituaries for the Globe. More. So choosing 50 for inclusion in the book was a challenge. She writes that she “tried to cover a range of occupations, achievements, locations, and aspirations. Most of all, I wanted to write about individuals whose stories moved me and whose lives said something larger about the country and our collective history.” Included are Martin’s portraits of Pierre Trudeau, Jane Jacobs, Pierre Berton, Maurice “the Rocket” Richard, Oscar Peterson, Jane Rule and Mordecai Richler. For a book that at first seems entirely focused on death, Martin gifts her subjects with a real and lasting life. Working the Dead Beat is a beautiful book. -- Linda L. Richards

Best Books of 2012: Science Fiction/Fantasy

This is the Best Science Fiction/Fantasy Books of 2012 segment of January Magazine’s Best Books of 2012 feature. Also available are our picks for best books for children and young adults,  best crime, mystery and thriller fiction of 2012, in two parts: one and two. As well, here are the best cookbooks of 2012. Still to come: our contributors’ selections of the Best Fiction and Best Non-Fiction. Look for them in the coming days.

2312 by Kim Stanley Robinson (Orbit)
If you’ve ever liked anything by Kim Stanley Robinson (Forty Signs of Rain, Fifty Degrees Below, Sixty Days and Counting, The Years of Rice and Salt, et al) you will enjoy 2312. If this is your first visit to Robinson’s terraforming worlds, you’re in a for a helluva treat. Robinson is sharp and strong and simply at his best here. Never mind dystopia: this is utopia, and it doesn’t get much better. A terrorist organization or individual has bombed a city on the planet Mercury. Uncovering whodunnit leads to a conspiracy so deep, it penetrates to the very roots of Mercurian history, right back to Earth’s own polluted history. Robinson fans will recognize his keen sense of place and value for the environment as well as his hopeful vision. -- Lincoln Cho

Hair Side, Flesh Side by Helen Marshall (ChiZine)
Sometimes you hear people talking about the new face of horror. Well huddle closer, children. Hair Side, Flesh Side is it. This is author Helene Marshall’s debut story collection, but she’s no stranger to these shores. In 2011, she published a ground-breaking poetry collection, Skeleton Leaves, that among other things was selected for consideration for the Bram Stoker Award for excellence in horror. Marshall is a Doctoral Candidate at Centre for Medieval Studies, Toronto and holds a Ph.D. in Medieval and Renaissance Studies from University of Toronto. So then when you discover stories that hinge so sharply on themes and strands garnered from Marshall’s extensive intellectual travels, it is on a certain level, unsurprising. What surprises is what she does with it. Marshall’s stories are frightening, touching, quirky, sexy and deeply lyrical. The 15 stories each seem deeply grounded in reality, making the otherworldly explorations all the more real. -- Sienna Powers

Railsea by China Miéville (Del Rey)
You can call China Miéville’s Railsea young adult fiction if you want, but I won’t, nor do I think history will, either. This is a sharp, almost steampunk retelling of the Moby Dick story, but the captain here is at the helm of a mole-hunting train. Though the story is satisfying, as always the chief delight of a Miéville novel is Miéville himself. Here again, I wonder at the YA label, as the language seems sophisticated beyond younger readers. What does remain clear is this author’s skill. Un Lun Dun, Perdido Street Station, The City & The City and on, Miéville writes beautiful, memorable books. Adventures a reader can carry through their life. Railsea is another beauty in a growing bouquet of simply wonderful books. -- Linda L. Richards

Redshirts by John Scalzi (Tor)
In a year of sharply, inventive books, Redshirts may have been the sharpest, most inventive thing I read. As anyone who has watched even a bit of Star Trek knows, a Redshirt is a character who will die not long after being introduced. It’s such a truism, the word has leaked into language. I’ve seen it on sitcoms. “He’s a Redshirt,” says one character to another and everyone knows what is meant. This cultural knowledge is what John Scalzi’s Redshirts is predicated on. It’s an idea that could have failed dismally, but he makes it work. Hell: he makes it sing. In fact, it is this cultural knowledge that Scalzi hinges his book upon, but there is so much more here than meets the eye. On one level, it is a classic old school science fiction adventure, with a highly hilarious edge. On another, we get to witness what goes on in the lives of characters we would not normally ever get to see: those bit players we’re aware of just off stage left. On still another, it’s not until after you’ve finished this particular journey that you realize that Scalzi has skillfully interwoven thoughtful comments on the very nature of death into his narrative. Bottom line: though you might like Redshirts on the first pass, you’ll realize it’s an even better book than you thought it was after a couple of weeks of thinking back. -- Lincoln Cho

Steampunk III: Steampunk Revolution edited by Ann Vandermeer (Tachyon)
When Ann Vandermeer began editing an annual steampunk anthology in 2008, it didn’t create a huge ripple. I was reading steampunk at that time and had been for years, so I understand how difficult Vandermeer’s job must have been just talking about the sub-genre, let alone getting people to understand what it was. Most recently, steampunk has practically slipped into the mainstream and it seems everyone is talking about it and filming it and writing it. It’s even slipped into furniture design. And Vandermeer has the enviable position of having been in the vanguard. Her annual anthology offers up the best of the lot that seems always to be getting better and everyone who cares about such things knows it. It strikes me that this third edition is the best yet. Labels aside, Steampunk III is a strong  and sharp collection of writing. You don’t have to be a fan of steampunk -- or even really know what it is -- to enjoy this work. In any case, it collects the writing of not only the sharpest, newest voices in steampunk, but also a great many who bring their authority to all types of explorative writing. The list is deep, but we find works by Lev Grossman, Cherie Priest, Garth Nix, Bruce Sterling, Jeffrey Ford and many others. This is a great collection. -- Lincoln Cho

The Long Earth by Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter (Harper)
If nothing else, you can love this one for the beauty of the collaboration: between them, Pratchett and Baxter have both ends of SF/F pretty well covered. Baxter writes the sort of hard SF one would expect from someone with degrees in mathematics and engineering. From his debut with 1991’s Raft to his 2012 Doctor Who novel The Wheel of Ice, Baxter’s work has been informed by strong scientific research fueled by understanding of the philosophies of the human condition. Pratchett, on the other hand, is best known for his highly comedic Discworld fantasy series, which represents a different sort of world building altogether. It’s an absolute delight that putting these two together has resulted in exactly the book one would hope for from such a collaboration: The Long Earth snaps with hard science and just the right amount of humor. In the book, we discover that parallel worlds have been breached by the discovery and implementation of some fairly simple technology revolving around… a potato. Though this sounds like a silly premise, in these skilled hands it not only works, it fairly sings. Enough so that I’m looking forward to the second installment in what is being billed a two book series. -- Lincoln Cho

The Year’s Best Science Fiction edited by Gardner Dozois (St. Martin’s Press)
The 29th publication of this annual needed little announcement. Every year, this anthology rounds up the very best of SF/F from the previous year, offering readers the chance to see what genre masters are up to plus giving us a glimpse of where things are headed with the best of the best from the brightest of young things. As usual, the anthology begins with a summation of the previous year by the editor. Here Dorzois puts emphasis on the importance of the e-book on various trends in SF/F, but also the importance of magazines that publish fiction, regardless of format. “If you’d like to see lots of good SF and Fantasy published every year,” the editor admonishes, “the survival of these magazines is essential, and one important way that you can help them survive is by subscribing to them.” It’s a good point, too. Especially in this context, since almost all of the fiction in this anthology was initially published in a periodical of some description. This time out, the more than 300,000 words in the anthology includes short stories by Robert Reed, Alastair Reynolds, Maureen F. McHugh, Pat Cadigan, Elizabeth Bear and others. Gardner has a demonstrated talent for finding the best of the best and this year’s offering is no exception. -- Lincoln Cho

Triggers by Robert J. Sawyer (Ace)
Though the sharp but sadly short-lived 2009-2010 television series based on his novel Flashforward introduced Robert J. Sawyer to a wider audience than ever before, the novelist’s work has been solid, respected and awarded for over two decades. Like much of his work, 2012’s Triggers rides the edge of a couple of genres. The author seems pleasingly unconcerned about where those edges should fall. President Seth Jerrison narrowly missed assassination. In the hospital while doctors try to revive him, another doctor is experimenting with memory erasing technology. At the same time, a terrorist bomb detonates, thrusting the President into cardiac arrest. When he has a near death experience, the President is flooded with memories not his own. Not long after, it becomes apparent that the memory altering technology has somehow embedded the Presdident’s own memories in some random person: a potential catastrophe, considering the classified nature of a President’s knowledge, especially since some of it relates to a top secret military mission that could impact countless lives. It strikes me that Sawyer is at the height of his powers here. A mature storyteller, sharing his worlds with us at his own easy stride. I couldn’t put it down. -- Linda L. Richards

Best Books of 2012: Children’s Books

This is the Best Books for Children and Young Adults segment of January Magazine’s Best Books of 2012 feature. Also available are our picks for best crime, mystery and thriller fiction of 2012, in two parts: one and two. As well, here are the best cookbooks of 2012. Still to come: our contributors’ selections of the Best Fiction, Best Non-Fiction, Best Art & Culture, Best Biography and Best Science Fiction/Fantasy. Look for them in the coming days.

Black Painted Fingernails by Steven Herrick (Allen & Unwin)
Steven Herrick is one of Australia’s most celebrated contemporary poets. His competence and passion for words shows up in his prose, as well and his late YA entry, Black Painted Fingernails, does not disappoint. James is shy and geeky. Sophie is sleek and confident. When life puts them together on a cross-country road trip, it is inevitable that life-changing and coming of age will ensue. James is looking for the strength to live his own life, away from family for the first time. Meanwhile Sophie is at the other end of the spectrum, trying to pull together the pieces of her own shattered past. On the road together as strangers, they open up to each other and help each other towards their own truths. Black Painted Fingernails is warm, real and unforgettable. -- Aaron Blanton

Eldritch Manor by Kim Thompson (Dundurn)
Is there something odd about the boarding house down the street? That’s what 12-year-old Willa Fuller wonders, even thinking that the people who live there might be being kept as prisoners. But when Willa is hired on as a housekeeper, she learns the truth: Eldritch Manor is something like a magical retirement home, where strange and magical beings with stories to tell are living out their unusual years. But when Willa is left alone to keep the place in order, she is faced with crisis after crisis, including the possible unraveling of time. (Which is never good!) Eldritch Manor is slender but compelling: a fantastical adventure story in a small package with a big whallop. Filmmaker-turned-author Kim Thompson understands what makes a story work. She has been generous with that knowledge here. Eldritch Manor is charming, compelling and just the right amount of scary. I enjoyed this one a lot. -- India Wilson

Freakling by Lana Krumweide (Candlewick)
“If everyone is special, is anyone really special?” The famous phrase is what Lana Krumweide’s Freakling is about. In the future, there is an isolated metropolis called Deliverance where everyone has a telekinetic power called psi. Taemon is an 11-year old boy who’s finally starting to get the hang of using his power while his older brother, Yens, torments him and is believed to be the new successor of Deliverance, otherwise known as the True Son. But what is unknown is Yens has true evil inside him and everyone but Taemon is blind to that. Yens soon goes as far as almost killing his brother, which gives Taemon the ability to kill him. But Taemon can't do it, and the inner force that controls everyone’s psi takes Taemon’s away. Freakling is an amazing story about what happens when superpowers get out of hand. Ben Parker wasn’t wrong when he said, “With great power, comes great responsibility.” Five stars. You’ll be intrigued at every turn, wanting to read more and more. The book is full of wonderful ideas and things that you wouldn’t think of.  -- Ian Buchsbaum

Get Outside: The Kids Guide to Fun in the Great Outdoors by Jane Drake & Ann Love, illustrated by Heather Collins (KidsCan)
In an era when adults often complain about how kids don’t get out to play enough and spend too much time watching television or playing computer games, Get Outside provides a fairly complete list of what kids can do in the great outdoors. Get Outside is meant to be a strong tool against “I’m bored!” The book not only provides dozens of ideas for outdoor fun, it also offers historic, scientific and cultural context in the form of lists and sidebars intended to create a book that even reluctant readers will feel comfortable using. From making a scarecrow to flying a kite and juggling bubbles, Get Outside is a great tool to help create active readers. -- Monica Stark 

Grave Mercy by Robin LaFevers (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)
History and fantasy are often an uneasy blend, with neither coming out very well against the other. Robin LaFevers’ Grave Mercy proves the exception, a thrilling journey following an assassin nun on her deadly trail through a fantastic version of 15th century France. When she escapes from an unthinkable arranged marriage, 17-year-old Ismae finds sanctuary at a convent where her gifts from the god of Death are discovered. She is trained as an assassin to serve as Death’s handmaiden, an uneasy robe, but one she must be willing to take in order to be able to move forward. “Why be the sheep when you can be the wolf?” is the motto of Grave Mercy, the first book in a series called “His Fair Assassin.” Beautifully written and imaginatively realized, a new series this good only debuts every few years. I loved every word. -- Monica Stark

Greta and the Goblin King by Chloe Jacobs (Entangled Teen)
Though it’s not difficult to find someone to tell you that the whole teen paranormal book thing has been done to death, young readers don’t seem to be listening. Writers don’t either: though, thankfully, we’ve begun to see fewer vampires and evermore night creatures with only one thing in common: despite odd bits of lore and heritage, the weird dudes in YA novels these days need to be mindlessly hot. Without speculating on what impact this might have on the future mate selection of the young women who read these books, I get the fascination with sexy vampires, angels and all other manner of unexpected leading men. But I have to admit: it takes a bit of authorly magic to fit that sexiness around the most unlikely of love interests. Of course the title of Chloe Jacobs’ Greta and the Goblin King gives away the nature of the ultimate object of protagonist Greta’s affections. But a goblin? C'mon! Yet Jacobs makes it work. Before she can make any headway with Isaac, said Goblin King, bounty hunter Greta will be exposed to all sorts of nightmarish danger, enough, in any case, to keep readers perched at the edge of their seats. A contemporary fantasy quest with a strong romantic element, Greta and the Goblin King will have young readers swooning for a sequel. -- Linda L. Richards

The Mark of Athena: Heroes of Olympus, Book 3 by Rick Riordan (Hyperion)
Rick Riordan fed readers with The Mark of Athena, the third book in the sequel series to the popular Percy Jackson novels. Although this book showed a lot of repetition, it shows the Rick Riordan still has it. I was hooked since before page one, since Riordan left the last book off at a massive cliffhanger; a clever trick. I was bothered by the repetition: one of the main characters frequently getting knocked out, long travels, groups of three, a god or goddess giving them advice in the form of a riddle. They would also reference things from earlier books, but it’s been so long since the last book, everyone forgot about that stuff. But you can ignore all those things, and let yourself get hooked. This masterpiece is for everyone, since it has so many genres to it; action, Greek mythology, Roman mythology, even a little bit of romance, and comedy. The best part about it are the many reveals to the prophecy we read about in the fifth book of the first series, like who are the demigods for a quest and what they have to do. This book hits the mark (of Athena), leaving readers wanting more. -- Ian Buchsbaum

Moonlight and Ashes by Sophie Masson (Random House Australia)
Interestingly, this year my YA favourites were all by Australian women writers and all were based on, or inspired by, folk tales. Moonlight and Ashes is Sophie Masson’s version of Cinderella. It’s based on the German version, Ashputtel, in which the Cinderella character is a lot stronger than the French Cendrillon, who is very passive. She uses a hazel tree planted on her mother’s grave to get herself to the ball. This one simply uses the Cinderella story as a jumping off place and her heroine is even tougher than Ashputtel. Sophie Masson is very good with folk tale-based novels -- most of her books are inspired by fairy tales, so she has had a lot of practice in this area. The setting is firmly 19th century Europe, though in a fictional country. But among all the steam trains and newspapers, there is still the magic of a “once upon a time” kingdom. -- Sue Bursztynski

Potatoes on Rooftops: Farming in the City by Hadley Dyer (Annick Press)
Potatoes on Rooftops is just about the best introduction to the new food movement that one could imagine. Intended for nine to 12-year-olds, there is a lot here for almost everyone who is interested in small-scale urban farming. Or, in the case of the kids who will read the book, everyone who should be interested. The book looks at what’s happening in cities with regards to foods we can all grow and be part of. Very much like Jennifer Cockrall-King’s Food and the City, but for the junior set, it’s impossible to read Potatoes on Rooftops without feeling like getting your hands dirty. The book looks at examples of city gardening including high school programs in Toronto and Detroit. It also looks at some of the specifics of urban gardening: composting, seeding and planting in small and unusual places and includes looks at innovative places to plant. It’s powerful to think Potatoes on Rooftops might set kids to digging. But even if it doesn’t, getting them thinking now might be enough for later. In any case, it’s a dead interesting book. -- Sienna Powers

Redwing by Holly Bennett (Orca)
Rowan’s entire family is wiped out by the plague and he’s left alone in a hostile world not unlike (but not entirely like, either) our own Middle Ages. He keeps himself going, traveling in his family’s old caravan, going from town to town playing music made all the more poignant by his broken heart. After a while, he forms an uneasy alliance with another young musician who has the ability to help Rowan communicate with his dead sister. The story turns on the twinned themes of friendship and grief and places an engaging story into a fascinating landscape. As she did in 2010’s Shapeshifter, Bennett brings a fantasy world into suspenseful, believable life. -- Sienna Powers

Sea Hearts by Margo Lanagan (Allan & Unwin)
If, like me, you grew up on Celtic folk tales, you’ll be familiar with the story of the human male who gets himself an otherworldly bride. With a few exceptions, it’s really only in modern YA paranormals that it’s the other way around. Basically, there are two kinds: There’s the one where she’s the daughter of a king of the otherworld, whether it’s the sea or Faerie; and there’s the one where she’s a selkie (seal-maiden) whose skin is stolen while she’s dancing around in human form. There is always a condition -- the groom has to promise not to ask her certain questions, not to hit her without cause (Welsh -- The Physicians of Myddfai), not to see what she gets up to on Saturdays (Melusine, who is, in theory, the ancestress of the British royal family), or he has to keep her sealskin hidden because once she finds it, she’ll grab it and go home, even leaving her children by her land husband. Invariably, the husband breaks the contract, mostly by accident, and loses his wife and any wealth she brought with her. Margo Lanagan’s Sea Hearts asks: Yes, but what happens generations later when there are descendants of those seal maidens in a small community where presumably the gene pool is pretty small? Sea Hearts  is a series of connected novellas, told from the viewpoints of a number of characters, including Miskaella herself. Despite this, there is still a twist at the end, when you realize that Miskaella didn’t tell you quite everything. The writing is beautiful, your heart aches for those selkie girls and you can even understand why Miskaella is so bitter. It’s a fascinating take on the old folk tales, a wonderful “what if ... ?” In Sea Hearts (called The Brides of Rollrock Island outside Australia) the author asks what happens centuries later when the islanders are mostly descended from these reluctant brides? And what happens when Miskaella, a young woman who has been bullied by the other women finds she can bring beautiful women out of the island’s seal population? It’s an exquisitely beautiful novel, seen from a number of viewpoints over a couple of generations. -- Sue Bursztynski

The Secret of the Fortune Wookie by Tom Angleberger (Amulet)
Breaking the rule that says the first of a trilogy is the best, I thought that the third book the popular Origami Yoda series was the best one yet! This addition to the trio was full of hilarity and kept me hooked throughout the whole book, with interesting stories and fun concepts. Tom Angleberger has continued his streak of wonderful books with this great story. The star of The Secret of the Fortune Wookie is ... well, a Fortune Wookie: a cootie catcher designed to look like the famous character Chewbacca from Star Wars. This time, our origami wielder is none other than Sara, the girlfriend of our main character, Tommy. She lets the students ask questions, which are answered with roars and are translated by the Fortune Wookie’s friend, Han Foldo. But, while the students have fun with the Fortune Wookie, the infamous Harvey is trying to prove that all this origami stuff is fake, and that he’s been right all along. Meanwhile, the star of the first books in the series, Dwight and Origami Yoda, are trapped at a fancy private school where everyone has picked up on making Star Wars origami, making Dwight miserable and no longer unique. Read Secret of the Fortune Wookie to see how everything is resolved.  -- Ian Buchsbaum

The Third Wheel: Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Book 7 by Jeff Kinney (Amulet)
After six books, readers couldn’t get enough, so Jeff Kinney gave it to them. The Third Wheel, the seventh book in Diary of a Wimpy kid series, has arrived. This time around, Greg is in the circle of love, but the third one. The book illustrates the complications Greg faces with school and girlfriends. This continuation fulfills all the archetypes the other ones filled; Greg wasting money, going out of his way to impress someone, shocking twists and something always going wrong. The book was so amazing, I read it in about an hour and a half. I crack when I read about the childish thoughts of Rowley -- Greg’s best friend -- alongside Greg’s street smarts and high expectations. I suggest this book for about 3rd to 7th graders, give or take. A definitely awesome book. -- Ian Buchsbaum

Toads on Toast by Linda Bailey, illustrated by Colin Jack (KidsCan)
I am invariably charmed by the combination of a delightful and slightly aberrant story with top notch illustrations. That was certainly the case with this year’s Toads on Toast by award-winning author Linda Bailey. In this story, Mama Toad is desperately trying to keep her brood out of a hungry fox’s frying pan. The matter is resolved by an entirely vegetarian version of toad-in-a-hole (recipe included). Colin Jack’s illustrations fairly crackle with the energy of his animation background and the story is compelling and entirely engaging. -- Monica Stark

Uncle Wally’s Old Brown Shoe by Wallace Edwards (Orca)
“This is Uncle Wally’s old brown shoe/This is the kitten that drove around in Uncle Wally’s old brown shoe/This is the pig in the fancy hat that tickled the kitten that drove around in Uncle Wally’s old brown shoe.” And so on. The rhyme is inspired by The House That Jack Built, but the illustrations seem inspired by many places and leave the reader with a plethora of input. Where to leave one’s eyes? So much is going on in every panel, it’s hard to know where to begin and end. The illustrations, also by author Wallace Edwards, have a Victorian feel. The depth, detail and wimsey seem vintage, as well. Children will enjoy the solid rhymes and deeply detailed illustrations, but I’ve a hunch that collectors will be on the list for this book, as well. -- Monica Stark

Under My Skin by Charles de Lint (RazorBill)
The premise of Under My Skin is very good. Something is happening to the young people in a town called Santa Feliz. And the thing that is happening is so dramatic, it’s difficult to believe. The kids are changing shape: shedding their human forms and becoming various animals. Basically, if you can think of it, the animal is represented. These are shape-shifters with a difference. The action focuses on Josh Saunders who shifts for the first time during an argument with his mother’s boyfriend that, from Josh’s perspective, goes from argument to Josh standing over the man, as blood drips from his mountain lion claws. Josh’s experience almost undoes him, but he will emerge as one of the leaders of the wildlings. de Lint is credited with the creation of the urban fantasy and readers will encounter that in this story. The setting is perfectly contemporary -- anytown and any group of kids. In a way, that’s what makes the story so chilling and helps make it work this well. The book is a wonderful exploration of a very good idea, but it is also a deeply human tale. -- Lincoln Cho

Under the Moon by Deborah Kerbel (Dancing Cat Books)
When Lily MacArthur’s Aunt Su dies, Lily pretty much loses her tenuous hold on sleep. She’s was never terribly good at sleeping, but with Su’s death, sleep evades her entirely. As she begins to lose her health -- and maybe, to a certain degree, her sanity -- Lily begins to push away her human friends while drawing ever closer to the moon she struggles under every night. When she meets new boy Ben, it seems for a time that he’ll be able to help Lily recapture her lost sleep. But Ben’s own past is troubled and perhaps somewhat dark and he has problems of his own. Under the Moon is a classic coming of age story, yet our quirky narrator, Lily, holds us entranced. Lily is beautifully fleshed out. A damaged teen, but weren’t we all, to some degree? Damaged and confused to discover that the adult life that’s threatening to erupt all around us is not at all what we pictured when we were little kids. Kerbel captures all of these emotions so delicately, explaining why this book was so heavily awarded in its native Canada this year. -- Sienna Powers