ABBC 2012: Second Edition

Compilation of the best books of 2012 steams on, and today WRL releases the second edition of our 2012 All the Best Books Compilation (ABBC) (Best2012.) Since the release of the first edition, the compilation has grown from 66 sources to 120. The spreadsheet now documents mentions of over 2200 books published in 2012. We’ll continue to fill in the grid until the final edition is released at the end of the month. The ABBC is the most extensive resource of its kind.

You’re encouraged to download the Microsoft Excel spreadsheet Best2012 and use it as you see fit: to find the best books for yourself or to promote reading to others. We only ask that you link here to Blogging for a Good Book (
http://bfgb.wordpress.com/2013/03/15/abbc-2012-second-edition/
) instead of reposting the entire spreadsheet and that you cite Williamsburg Regional Library’s Blogging for a Good Book and chief compiler, Neil Hollands. The newest edition of the spreadsheet is available for download, and is easy to re-sort by author, by title, or by number of mentions in any of the ABBC’s twelve major categories.

I’ve written already about the results so far in short stories, crime and thrillers, speculative fiction, romance, young adult fiction, graphic works, and nonfiction. Today at my other home, Book Group Buzz, I’m discussing historical fiction. Results in literary and mainstream fiction and biographies and memoirs will follow there over the next couple of weeks.

With over 2200 books tabulated to date, these are just the tip of the iceberg, but here are the books that have received 15 or more mentions so far:

Gone Girl, by Gillian Flynn (48 mentions to date)

Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, and Hope in the Mumbai Undercity, by Katherine Boo (42 mentions)

Bring up the Bodies, by Hilary Mantel (38 mentions)

This Is How You Lose Her, by Junot Diaz (38 mentions)

Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk, by Ben Fountain (33 mentions)

Wild: from Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail, by Cheryl Strayed (33 mentions)

The Fault in Our Stars, by John Green (32 mentions)

Building Stories, by Chris Ware (29 mentions)

Beautiful Ruins, by Jess Walter (26 mentions)

Where’d You Go Bernadette, by Maria Semple (23 mentions)

The Yellow Birds, by Kevin Powers (23 mentions)

Canada, by Richard Ford (22 mentions)

Code Name Verity, by Elizabeth Wein (22 mentions)

Passage of Power: the Years of Lyndon Johnson, by Robert Caro (22 mentions)

The Round House, by Louise Erdrich (22 mentions)

The Orphan Master’s Son, by Adam Johnson (20 mentions)

Telegraph Avenue, by Michael Chabon (20 mentions)

Dear Life, by Alice Munro (19 mentions)

Seraphina, by Rachel Hartman (19 mentions)

The Age of Miracles, by Karen Thompson Walker (18 mentions)

Alif the Unseen, by G. Willow Wilson (17 mentions)

Broken Harbor, by Tana French (17 mentions)

Sweet Tooth, by Ian McEwan (17 mentions)

Are You My Mother?, by Alison Bechdel (16 mentions)

Quiet: the Power of Introverts in a World that Can’t Stop Talking, by Susan Cain (16 mentions)

Tell the Wolves I’m Home, by Carol Rifka Brunt (16 mentions)

Arcadia, by Lauren Groff (15 mentions)

Joseph Anton: a Memoir, by Salman Rushdie (15 mentions)

Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore, by Robin Sloan (15 mentions)

NW, by Zadie Smith (15 mentions)

Come back at the end of the month to download the final spreadsheet and get the final word on the best books of 2012!