Various newspapers, journals, and media outlets list their picks for “best books” published the prior year. Here is a partial listing of 2012 titles that appeared on multiple “best” lists.
Fiction
 Carry the One
by Carol Anshaw
Birds of a Lesser Paradise
by Megan Mayhew Bergman
The Sandcastle Girls
by Chris Bohjalian
Tell the Wolves I’m Home
by Carol Rifka Brunt
Telegraph Avenue
by Michael Chabon
The Twelve
by Justin Cronin
 This Is How You Lose Her
by Junot Díaz
A Hologram for the King
by Dave Eggers
What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank
by Nathan Englander
The Round House
by Louise Erdrich
Gone Girl
by Gillian Flynn
Canada
by Richard Ford
 Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk
by Ben Fountain
The Fault in Our Stars John Green (YA FIC GREEN)
Arcadia
by Lauren Groff
The Dog Stars
by Peter Heller
May We Be Forgiven
by A.M. Homes
The Snow Child
by Eowyn Ivey
 The Orphan Master’s Son
by Adam Johnson
Suddenly, A Knock on the Door
by Etgar Keret
The Devil in Silver
by Victor LaValle
Live by Night
by Dennis Lehane
Watergate
by Thomas Mallon
Bring Up the Bodies
by Hilary Mantel
 Dear Life
by Alice Munro
Shine Shine Shine
by Lydia Netzer
I Am an Executioner
by Rajesh Parameswaran
The Yellow Birds
by Kevin Powers
The Casual Vacancy
by J.K. Rowling
Where’d You Go, Bernadette?
by Maria Semple
 NW
by Zadie Smith
At Last
by Edward St. Aubyn
The Age of Miracles
by Karen Walker
Beautiful Ruins
by Jess Walter
Nonfiction
The Boy Kings of Texas: A Memoir
by Domingo Martinez
070 MAR
Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World that Can’t Stop Talking
by Susan Cain
155.232 CAI
 Mortality
by Christopher Hitchens
304.64 HIT
Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity
by Katherine Boo
305.569 BOO
House of Stone: A Memoir of Home, Family, and a Lost Middle East
by Anthony Shadid
306.0956 SHA
Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity, and Poverty
by Daron Acemoglu, James A. Robinson
330 ACE
Far from the Tree: Parents, Children and the Search for Identity
by Andrew Solomon
362.4083 SOL
People Who Eat Darkness: The True Story of a Young Woman Who Vanished from the Streets of Tokyo – and the Evil that Swallowed Her Up
by Richard Lloyd Parry
364.1523 PAR
 Short Nights of the Shadow Catcher: The Epic Life and Immortal Photographs of Edward Curtis
by Timothy Egan
770 EGA
The Lifespan of a Fact
by John D’Agata and Jim Fingal
808.02 DAG
My Heart is an Idiot
by Davy Rothbart
818.6 ROT
Joseph Anton: A Memoir
by Salman Rushdie
823.914 RUS
Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal?
by Jeanette Winterson
823.914 WIN
Iron Curtain: The Crushing of Eastern Europe, 1944-1956
by Anne Applebaum
947.0842 APP
 The Barbarous Years: The Peopling of British North America: The Conflict of Civilizations, 1600-1675
by Bernard Bailyn
973.2 BAI
The Black Count: Glory, Revolution, Betrayal, and the Real Count of Monte Cristo
by Tom Reiss
B DUMAS
The Patriarch: The Remarkable Life and Turbulent Times of Joseph P. Kennedy
by David Nasaw
B KENNEDY
Every Love Story is a Ghost Story: A Life of David Foster Wallace
by D.T. Max
B WALLACE
Want more? See the exhaustive list of all “Best of 2012” links compiled by Largehearted Boy.
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