Dennis Cooper: 21 Favorite Books of 2012 (as numbered on Cooper’s site, but note that he precedes the list with “in no order”)

1. Action, Figure – Frank Hinton – Amazon
2. Sky Saw – Blake Butler
3. You Private Person – Richard Chiem
4. Baby Geisha – Trinie Dalton
5. Autoportrait – Edouard Leve
6. fuckscapes – Sean Kilpatrick
7. Billie the Bull – xTx
8. Assisted Living – Nikanor Teratologen
9. Spreadeagle – Kevin Killian
10. Confessions from a Dark Wood – Eric Raymond
11. The No Variations – Luis Chitarroni
12. The Collected Works of Scott McClanahan Vol. 1 – Scott McClanahan
13. One – Blake Butler/Christopher Higgs/Vanessa Place
14. Daniel Fights a Hurricane – Shane Jones
15. Treees – Stephen Michael McDowell
16. Cataclysm Baby – Matt Bell
17. The Obscene Madame D – Hilda Hilst
18. Immobility – Brian Evenson
19. The Sky Conducting – Michael Seidlinger
20. Town of Shadows – Lindsay Stern
20. [tie] Slow Slidings – M. Kitchell

Salon: Top 10 Books of 2012 (a poll of nearly 20 critics)

1. Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity – Katherine Boo – Amazon
2. Bring Up the Bodies – Hilary Mantel
3. Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk – Ben Fountain
4. Far From the Tree – Andrew Solomon
4. [tie] NW – Zadie Smith
6. How Should a Person Be? – Sheila Heti
7. Gone Girl – Gillian Flynn
8. Arcadia – Lauren Groff
9. Beautiful Ruins – Jess Walter
10. The Guardians – Sarah Manguso

Library Journal: Top 10 Books of 2012 (alphabetically by author)

• By the Iowa Sea: A Memoir of Disaster and Love – Joe Blair
• Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity – Katherine Boo
• A Land More Kind Than Home – Wiley Cash
• Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk – Ben Fountain
• Crusoe: Daniel Defoe, Robert Knox, and the Creation of a Myth – Katherine Frank
• Some Kind of Fairy Tale – Graham Joyce
• The Song of Achilles – Madeline Miller
• The Lady in Gold: The Extraordinary Tale of Gustav Klimt’s Masterpiece, Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer – Anne-Marie O’Connor
• NW – Zadie Smith
• Tiny Beautiful Things: Advice on Love and Life from “Dear Sugar” – Cheryl Strayed

Benjamin Schwarz: Top 15 Books of 2012 (as published by The Atlantic)

• The Great Sea – David Abulafia – Amazon
• Time’s Shadow – Arnold J. Bauer
• Good Behaviour – Molly Keane
• Bring Up the Bodies – Hilary Mantel
• Moscow, 1937 – Karl Schlögel

The Runners Up

• What They Do in the Dark: A Novel – Amanda Coe
• The Book of Common Prayer: The Texts of 1549, 1559, and 1662 – Brian Cummings (editor)
• Orderly and Humane: The Expulsion of Germans After the Second World War – R.M. Douglas
• Fairness and Freedom: A History of Two Open Societies, New Zealand and the United States – David Hackett Fischer
• The Road to Ruins – Ian Graham
• Evening’s Empire: A History of Night in Early Modern Europe – Craig Koslofsky
• Dear Life: Stories – Alice Munro
• Sir Walter Raleigh – Mark Nicholls and Penry Williams
• Masters of the Planet: The Search for Our Human Origins – Ian Tattersall
• The Essays of Virginia Woolf, Volume 6: 1933-1941 – Virginia Woolf, edited by Stuart N. Clarke

New York Times: 100 Notable Books of 2012 [see also Ten Best Books of 2012]

Fiction

• Alif The Unseen – G. Willow Wilson
• Almost Never – Daniel Sada. Translated by Katherine Silver
• An American Spy – Olen Steinhauer
• Arcadia – Lauren Groff
• At Last – Edward St. Aubyn
• Beautiful Ruins – Jess Walter
• Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk – Ben Fountain
• Blasphemy – Sherman Alexie
• The Book Of Mischief: New And Selected Stories – Steve Stern
• Bring Up The Bodies – Hilary Mantel
• Building Stories – Chris Ware
• By Blood – Ellen Ullman
• Canada – Richard Ford
• Carry The One – Carol Anshaw
• City Of Bohane – Kevin Barry
• Collected Poems – Jack Gilbert
• Dear Life: Stories – Alice Munro
• The Devil In Silver – Victor LaValle
• Enchantments – Kathryn Harrison
• Flight Behavior – Barbara Kingsolver
• Fobbit – David Abrams
• The Forgetting Tree – Tatjana Soli
• Gathering Of Waters – Bernice L. McFadden
• Gods Without Men – Hari Kunzru
• HHhH – Laurent Binet. Translated by Sam Taylor
• A Hologram For The King – Dave Eggers
• Home – Toni Morrison
• Hope: A Tragedy – Shalom Auslander
• How Should A Person Be? – Sheila Heti
• In One Person – John Irving
• A Land More Kind Than Home – Wiley Cash
• Married Love: And Other Stories – Tessa Hadley
• NW – Zadie Smith
• On The Spectrum Of Possible Deaths – Lucia Perillo
• Pure – Julianna Baggott
• The Right Hand Shore – Christopher Tilghman
• The Round House – Louise Erdrich
• Salvage The Bones – Jesmyn Ward
• San Miguel – T. Coraghessan Boyle
• Shine Shine Shine – Lydia Netzer
• Shout Her Lovely Name – Natalie Serber
• Silent House – Orhan Pamuk. Translated by Robert Finn
• The Starboard Sea – Amber Dermont
• Sweet Tooth – Ian McEwan
• Swimming Home – Deborah Levy
• Telegraph Avenue – Michael Chabon
• The Testament Of Mary – Colm Toibin
• This Is How You Lose Her – Junot Díaz
• Three Strong Women – Marie NDiaye. Translated by John Fletcher
• Toby’s Room – Pat Barker
• Watergate – Thomas Mallon
• What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank: Stories – Nathan Englander
• The Yellow Birds – Kevin Powers

Nonfiction

• All We Know: Three Lives – Lisa Cohen
• American Tapestry: The Story Of The Black, White, And Multiracial Ancestors Of Michelle Obama – Rachel L. Swarns
• American Triumvirate: Sam Snead, Byron Nelson, Ben Hogan, And The Modern Age Of Golf – James Dodson
• Are You My Mother? A Comic Drama – Alison Bechdel
• Barack Obama: The Story – David Maraniss
• Behind The Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, And Hope In A Mumbai Undercity – Katherine Boo
• Belzoni: The Giant Archaeologists Love To Hate – Ivor Noël Hume
• The Black Count: Glory, Revolution, Betrayal, And The Real Count Of Monte Cristo – Tom Reiss
• Breasts: A Natural And Unnatural History – Florence Williams
• Coming Apart: The State Of White America, 1960 2010 – Charles Murray
• Darwin’s Ghosts: The Secret History Of Evolution – Rebecca Stott
• A Disposition To Be Rich: How A Small Town Preacher’s Son Ruined An American President, Brought On A Wall Street Crash, And Made Himself The Best Hated Man In The United States – Geoffrey C. Ward
• Far From The Tree: Parents, Children, And The Search For Identity – Andrew Solomon
• Flagrant Conduct. The Story Of Lawrence V. Texas: How A Bedroom Arrest Decriminalized Gay Americans – Dale Carpenter
• The Folly Of Fools: The Logic Of Deceit And Self Deception In Human Life – Robert Trivers
• The Grey Album: On The Blackness Of Blackness – Kevin Young
• Haiti: The Aftershocks Of History – Laurent Dubois
• How Children Succeed: Grit, Curiosity, And The Hidden Power Of Character – Paul Tough
• How Music Works – David Byrne
• Iron Curtain: The Crushing Of Eastern Europe, 1944 1956 – Anne Applebaum
• Kayak Morning: Reflections On Love, Grief, And Small Boats – Roger Rosenblatt
• Lincoln’s Code: The Laws Of War In American History – John Fabian Witt
• Little America: The War Within The War For Afghanistan – Rajiv Chandrasekaran
• Memoir Of A Debulked Woman: Enduring Ovarian Cancer – Susan Gubar
• My Poets – Maureen N. McLane
• The Obamas – Jodi Kantor
• Oddly Normal: One Family’s Struggle To Help Their Teenage Son Come To Terms With His Sexuality – John Schwartz
• On A Farther Shore: The Life And Legacy Of Rachel Carson – William Souder
• On Saudi Arabia: Its People, Past, Religion, Fault Lines — And Future – Karen Elliott House
• The One: The Life And Music Of James Brown – RJ Smith
• The Passage Of Power: The Years Of Lyndon Johnson – Robert A. Caro
• The Patriarch: The Remarkable Life And Turbulent Times Of Joseph P. Kennedy – David Nasaw
• 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 – Richard Lloyd Parry
• Red Brick, Black Mountain, White Clay: Reflections On Art, Family, And Survival – Christopher Benfey
• Rule And Ruin. The Downfall Of Moderation And The Destruction Of The Republican Party: From Eisenhower To The Tea Party – Geoffrey Kabaservice
• Saul Steinberg: A Biography – Deirdre Bair
• Shooting Victoria: Madness, Mayhem, And The Rebirth Of The British Monarchy – Paul Thomas Murphy
• Short Nights Of The Shadow Catcher: The Epic Life And Immortal Photographs Of Edward Curtis – Timothy Egan
• The Social Conquest Of Earth – Edward O. Wilson
• Sometimes There Is A Void: Memoirs Of An Outsider – Zakes Mda
• Spillover: Animal Infections And The Next Human Pandemic – David Quammen
• The Taste Of War: World War Ii And The Battle For Food – Lizzie Collingham
• Thomas Jefferson: The Art Of Power – Jon Meacham
• Victory: The Triumphant Gay Revolution – Linda Hirshman
• When God Talks Back: Understanding The American Evangelical Relationship With God – T. M. Luhrmann
• Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal? – Jeanette Winterson
• Why Does The World Exist? An Existential Detective Story – Jim Holt

Tina Brown: 7 Favorite Books of 2012 (as published by The Daily Beast)

• The Orphan Master’s Son – Adam Johnson
• On Saudi Arabia – Karen Eliot House
• Sweet Tooth – Ewan McEwan
• The Man Without a Face – Masha Gessen
• Hitlerland – Andrew Nagorski
• Prague Winter – Madeleine Albright
• Kill or Capture – Daniel Klaidman

The Economist: 11 Best Books of 2012 (fiction, essays, and poetry)

• Bring Up the Bodies – Hilary Mantel
• The Forgiven – Lawrence Osborne
• Toby’s Room – Pat Barker
• The Dinner – Herman Koch
• The Garden of Evening Mists – Tan Twang Eng
• Grimm Tales: For Young and Old – Philip Pullman
• Winter: Five Windows on the Season – Adam Gopnik
• Pulphead: Essays – John Jeremiah Sullivan
• Three Strong Women – Marie N’Diaye
• Yellow Tulips: Poems 1968-2011 – James Fenton
• P L A C E – Jorie Graham

Building Stories – Chris Ware – Read Reviews on Amazon

Publishers Weekly: 10 Best Books of 2012

1. Building Stories – Chris Ware
2. Bring Up the Bodies – Hilary Mantel
3. The Round House – Louise Erdrich
4. Happiness Is a Chemical in the Brain – Lucia Perillo
5. The Devil in Silver – Victor LaValle
6. Detroit City Is the Place to Be: The Afterlife of an American Metropolis – Mark Binelli
7. All We Know: Three Lives – Lisa Cohen
8. People Who Eat Darkness: The True Story of a Young Woman Who Vanished from the Streets of Tokyo – Richard Lloyd Parry
9. The Barbarous Years: The Peopling of British North America: The Conflict of Civilizations, 1600–1675 – Bernard Bailyn
10. Iron Curtain: The Crushing of Eastern Europe, 1945–1956 – Anne Applebaum

Kathryn Schulz: Top 10 Books of 2012 [as published by New York Magazine

1. Dear Life – Alice Munro
2. Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity – Katherine Boo
3. Why Does the World Exist? An Existential Detective Story – Jim Holt
4. Zona: A Book About a Film About a Journey to a Room – Geoff Dyer
5. Telegraph Avenue – Michael Chabon
6. Mortality – Christopher Hitchens
7. Object Lessons: The Paris Review Presents the Art of the Short Story – Lorin Stein, Sadie Stein
8. When I Was a Child, I Read Books: Essays – Marilynne Robinson
9. Into the Silence: The Great War, Mallory, and the Conquest of Everest – Wade Davis
10. House of Stone: A Memoir of Home, Family, and a Lost Middle East – Anthony Shadid

New York Times Book Review: 10 Best Books of 2012

Fiction

• Bring Up the Bodies – Hilary Mantel
• Building Stories – Chris Ware
• A Hologram for the King – Dave Eggers
• NW – Zadie Smith
• The Yellow Birds – Kevin Powers

Nonfiction

• Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity – Katherine Boo
• Far From the Tree: Parents, Children, and the Search for Identity – Andrew Solomon
• The Passage of Power: The Years of Lyndon Johnson – Robert A. Caro
• The Patriarch: The Remarkable Life and Turbulent Times of Joseph P. Kennedy – David Nasaw
• Why Does the World Exist? An Existential Detective Story – Jim Holt