#bestreads2012

I am joining John Wiswell from The Bathroom Monologues in a blog hop about our favourite reads of 2012.  Not necessarily published in 2012, just books we first read this year which for one reason or another we loved.

Regular visitors here will know that I read a lot.  And, as my side-bar will attest, I read quite a wide variety of things.  I almost always have at least two books on the go at any one time.  Usually one is fiction and the other non-fiction.  My fiction choices could come from almost any genre.  Sadly (for what it says about me) murder mysteries seem to be my comfort read of choice.  On the nights when something is churning around in my head and preventing me from sleeping, I turn to murder and mayhem for relief.

My non-fiction preferences are diaries, letters, autobiographies and some biographies (curiosity killed the cat).

In no particular order, five of my favourite books for 2012 are:

The Book of Margery Kempe:  Margery Kempe

This book is reputedly the earliest surviving autobiography in English.  Margery Kempe (c1373-c1440) could neither read nor write and dictated her story late in her life.  I am fairly certain that if she were alive today she would be considered mentally ill, and would probably be locked up for her own protection.
She went mad following the birth of the first of her fourteen children.  Religion arguably restored her reason.  She had regular conversation's with God, with Jesus, the Holy Ghost and the Virgin Mary.  She saw visions and heard voices.   She went on pilgrimages to Europe and the Holy Land.  Her fellow pilgrims found a woman who wailed and wept uncontrollably and flung herself to the ground in churches difficult to handle.  Which I could well understand.  One area where I thought she was not only sane but smart as a whip was her efforts (ultimately successful) to convince her husband to adopt a vow of chastity.
Not always a comfortable read - but fascinating.

The Freedom Writers Diary:  The Freedom Writers with Erin Gruwell

I think that teachers are under appreciated, undervalued and underpaid.  And no, I am not and never was a teacher.  This book starts with a teacher fresh out of teacher training being essentially set up to fail by being given a room full of 'unteachable, at-risk students'.    Not only was she set up to fail, so were her students.  She managed to thwart both expectations.
I found her determination and ingenuity inspirational. 

someone has to set a bad example:  an Ann Taintor collection

This was a gift from a very dear friend and arrived at a shall we say 'challenging' part of the year.  Essentially the book is pictures of women in fifties garb, plus captions.  Some of them are laugh out loud funny.  Others (medicated and motivated for example) made me wince in rueful recognition.

Walter the Farting Dog:  William Kotzwinkle and Glen Murray

This is another book that came into my life just when it was needed, in a very ugly patch indeed.  At a time when I was uncertain whether I wanted to weep or swear, laughter was a wonderful alternative.  And the pictures are wonderful too.  I bought it to give to my great-nephews, read it, and re-read it several times, chuckling all the while.  I have yet to succumb and buy my own copy - but I will.

Letters Between Six Sisters The Mitfords:  Edited by Charlotte Mosley

 I have a passion for the Mitford sisters and have read their own writing and a variety of biographies about them.

They didn't seem to understand the concept of moderation.  In anything.  One or other of the Mitfords seem to know everyone - counting among their friends Adolf Hitler, Queen Elizabeth, President Kennedy, Evelyn Waugh, Charlie Chapman, Dr Spock, Julie Andrews, and the list goes on.  They loved each other, they hated each other and they wrote to and about each other.   And they wrote well.  This was a weighty tome, coming in at nearly 1000 pages, but I devoured it.  Sadly there is now only one Mitford sister still alive, or the letters would assuredly still be exchanged to the delight of nosey voyeurs like myself.

There could have easily been more books on this list, but I decided to stop while I could, and before this became a fifteen page post.