Tammy’s Top Ten Books I’m Excited to Read in 2012

Wow, this Top Ten thing is really fun! I’m happy once again to be a part of The Broke and the Bookish’s “Top Ten Tuesday.”  Here are the Top Ten books I’m really excited to read in 2012, in order of publication date:

1. CINDER by Marissa Meyer (Feiwel & Friends, January 3 2012)  I’ve been looking forward to Cinder for a while, and it’s finally here. Yippee! It’s a young adult science fiction tale of a cyborg mechanic named Cinder, her horrible stepmother (of course!) and an intergalactic battle.  Throw in a prince and you’ve got a terrific re-imagining of a classic fairy tale.

2. THE ROOK by Daniel O’Malley (Little Brown & Co., January 11 2012). This a the first book from O’Malley, and it looks great. It’s part supernatural thriller, part mystery and is the story of a girl who wakes up in a London park with no memory of who she is.

3.  ARCADIA by Lauren Groff (Voice, March 13 2012). I loved Groff’s last book, The Monsters of Templeton, and I’m looking forward to this one. It takes place in the late 1960s in the fields of New York as a group of people gather to form a commune called Arcadia House.

4.  SACRÉ BLEU by Christopher Moore (William Morrow, April 3 2012).  I love Christopher Moore. I met him once at a book signing a long time ago and he was a really nice guy.  His writing is funny, perverse, and irreverent.  He’s written about vampires, demons, angels and devils, but this book looks like it’s mostly about humans. I can’t seem to find a description of the story, but it looks like it’s about French people and art. You can read the first few chapters on Moore’s website here.

5.  THE SELECTION by Kiera Cass (Harper Teen, April 24, 2012).  A young adult fantasy with a gorgeous cover design.  It’s about a girl named America who is chosen among 35 girls to enter into a competition to win the heart of Prince Maxon.

6.  THE WIND THROUGH THE KEYHOLE (THE DARK TOWER #4.5) by Stephen King (Scribner, April 24 2012).  Anyone who’s been reading this blog knows I love Stephen King, and I love his Dark Tower books the best.  Even after the series had finally been written and published, King’s imagination did not slow down, and he came up with a “what if” story that takes place between books #4 (Wizard and Glass) and #5 (Wolves of the Calla).  There are several pricey collectors editions being published by Donald M. Grant, but luckily for the rest of us, Scribner has an affordable hardcover coming out as well.

7.  BITTERBLUE by Kristin Cashore (Dial, May 1 2012).  Graceling and Fire are, in my humble opinion, among the best young adult books out there.  They ought to be as popular as The Hunger Games series!  I’m so looking forward to this third book.

8.  LIES BENEATH by Anne Greenwood Brown (Delacorte Press, June 12 2012).   Love, murder and adventure with mermaids!! This first book in a new series looks like it has everything I’m looking for in a mermaid story:)

9.  SHADOW OF NIGHT by Deborah Harkness (Viking Adult, July 10 2012).  I absolutely loved A Discovery of Witches (which made it into my top ten books of 2011) and I’m so glad I don’t have to wait too long to read the sequel.

10.  THE TWELVE by Justin Cronin (Ballantine Books, Fall 2012).  The Passage was one of my favorite books in 2010, and The Twelve is the second book in the trilogy. The details are a little sketchy on the actual publishing date of this book.  And I found this cover image on a Finnish website, so I doubt this will end up being the American cover. But it looks better than having no cover at all to show you! In any case, The Twelve is scheduled to come out sometime in 2012, probably closer to the end of the year.  I am so excited…

It looks like 2012 will be a stellar year for new books, and I’ll be as busy as ever trying to get through this list. What books are you looking forward to?

Release dates courtesy of Goodreads, and subject to change.