...whether they were published in 2012 or (most likely) not. I'll get more of mine up later. I just posted the opener after being called out by Ismitje. Best Novel: Georges Simenon, Dirty Snow Best Collection of Essays, Literary Division: Marilynne Robinson, When I Was a Child, I Read Books More later
In No Particular Order: Short Fiction: Daniil Khaarms: Today I Wrote Nothing: Collected Writings Best Volume of Poetry, Dead Guy Division: John Milton's Paradise Lost, which I read aloud to a couple of nearly blind nuns at a nearby retirement home. As Samuel Johnson said, no one ever wished it longer. That's especially true if you're reading it aloud Best Volume of Poetry, Still Breathing Division: Robert Bly Talking Into the Ear of a Donkey. I used to hate his work. His last few books are quite good. I went back to look at his earlier works, and not counting his translations, I still hate them. Philosophy: Gianni Vattimo: Farewell to Truth (Sorry, Mr. Kierkegaard) Religion/Spirituality: Charles Foster: The Sacred Journey Literary Journalism: Gay Talese: Fame and Obscurity: Portraits Dancing to Architecture: Alex Ross: The Rest is Noise: Listening to the 20th Century Autobiography: Satish Kumar: Path without Destination (Don't ask me to explain the distinction but) Memoir: Ed Sanders Fug You: An Informal History of the Peace Eye Bookstore, the ******** You Press, the Fugs, and Counterculture in the Lower East Side Biography: Nancy Schoenberger and Sam Kashner: A Talent for Genius: The Life and Times of Oscar Levant
IIRC, it was my "best novel" last year. Edit... Not quite... Best Novel, first time reading: The Lazarus Projec by Alexander Hemon. Honorable mention to Chad Harbach for The Art of FieldingBest Novel: Rereading: The Song of the Lark by Willa Cather.
I don't read a lot of novels, but last year finally picked up Annie Proulx's The Shipping News, which I've had on my bookshelf for years. Absolutely loved it. Most of what I read doesn't fall into clean categorical divisions. Case in point, my 'best book' would be Robert Macfarlane, The Old Ways. I also very much enjoyed Adam Frank's The Constant Fire.
I look forward to hearing what you think of it. It is, I now know, part of a 'loose trilogy', by which I think the trilogy part is pretty much unplanned. I just finished the first of the three, Mountains of the Mind, which is excellent, though it lacks the poetic prose and some of the depth of the final work. Then again, he wrote it in his mid-20s (ten years ago). The middle title, The Wild Places, is supposed to be excellent (as per a friend, whose opinions I value). I'd never heard of the guy until a few months ago. It's wonderful when you stumble upon a literary vein like this.
I've always thought Paradise Lost would make a wonderful big-budget film. Spectacular scenery, Hell and Eden and Heaven and the Chaos. Giant demons and other gruesome beasties, fearsome battles, angels, a nekkid hot chick, and oh yeah sex too. Plus the baddie of all baddies who makes the speeches of all speeches. [He doesn't get to say "Kirrrrrkkkkk!" but otherwise he has all of Khan's best lines, and then some.] What's not to like? Paradise Regained, on the other hand, pffft. If you read that out loud to the nuns, they'd perish of boredom.
Well, they liked PR well enough, but if it had been twelve books rather than four short ones, each half the length of the ones in PL... Then, yeah, Milton and I would probably be investigated as a cause of death. They're really digging Wise Blood by Flannery O'Connor. As to a filmed version of PL... I'm surprised as hell no one has tried, esp. with what CGI makes possible. You'd have to pare down some of the speeches (Michael means well, but Milton lets him go on too long), but it could work.