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The Notables: 2012

1. Mary Celeste
   at 5:18 pm on November 27, 2012

   What a great list of all the notable books of the year. I plan to give a few of these to myself for Christmas…

2. Joshua Nomen-Mutatio
   at 5:53 pm on November 27, 2012

   What I think is missing from this list:

   The Blueprints of the Afterlife by Ryan Boudinot
   The Flame Alphabet by Ben Marcus
   Threats by Amelia Gray
   The Vanishers by Heidi Julavits
   Hot Pink by Adam Levin
   Understories by Tim Horvath
   Cataclysm Baby by Matt Bell
   Tenth of December by George Saunders

   And though it was published a few years earlier, I’d still mention The Naked Singularity by Sergio De La Pava since it gathered a fair amount of attention in 2012 for the first time.

3. Donna Gleason
   at 6:07 pm on November 27, 2012

   What I think is missing : The Last Moderate Muslim, by Sam Wazan. A semi autobiographical account of a devout Muslim family struggling for normalcy while their world is subject sniper warfare and rocket bombs in Beirut , Lebanon, during the Civil War between Palestine and Israel in the late 70′s.

4. Fluffy Clumsy
   at 6:17 pm on November 27, 2012

   I agree about The Last Moderate Muslim. In this landmark novel, Ziad the protagonist wages an internal Jihad… To join the militants committing atrocities in the name of Allah; or seek a more moderate way to adhere to his Sunni Muslim faith, while risking the wrath of his father. The Last Moderate Muslim gives a factual account of the struggles, that continue in today’s headlines. The author, Sam Wazan lived this violent life. He emigrated to the US in ’89, in search of a life of opportunity and promise. The Alastair Moderate Muslim is his first novel.

5. Rusty
   at 8:38 pm on November 27, 2012

   The Dog Stars by Peter Heller is a notable book this year. The first half will make any animal lover cry.

6. Joshua Nomen-Mutatio
   at 12:17 am on November 28, 2012

   Also:

   The Orphan Master’s Son by Adam Johnson

7. C. Shiira
   at 4:33 am on November 28, 2012

   Better late than never: Jesmyn Ward’s “Salvage the Bones”. I love how the author humanizes the subculture of dog fighting without sparing none of the quasi-sport’s brutality. Missing from this year’s list: Don Lee’s “The Collective”.

8. ZK
   at 11:35 am on November 28, 2012

   Agree on Dog Stars and on The Orphan Master’s Son. Both will stick with me for a long time.

   I’d add The Middlesteins, too.

9. Max Hartshorne
   at 9:19 am on November 29, 2012

   I would definitely add Peter Heller’s The Dog Stars, can’t believe the NY Times left if off!

10. M. Richards
    at 2:15 pm on November 29, 2012

    “Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk” was far and away my favorite of fiction published in 2012. Surprisingly my library has had few requests for it.
    Ben Fountain is brilliant!

11. dbraden
    at 2:28 pm on December 3, 2012

    I agree that it’s astonishing that “The Dog Stars” was left off. A few other books that struck me as ridiculously good and overlooked here: Narcopolis by Jeet Thayil, Ghosting by Kirby Gann, and City of Bohane by Kevin Barry.
    Loved Ben Fountain’s novel, too.

12. Newsday Tuesday « Books and Bowel Movements
    at 6:11 pm on December 4, 2012

    [...] The Notables 2012 @ The Millions [...]

13. UNDERSTORIES on Best-of 2012 Lists | Tim Horvath
    at 10:50 pm on March 4, 2013

    [...] Joshua Nomen-Mutatio was kind enough to give it a write-in vote in the comments on The Millions at http://www.themillions.com/2012/11/th…. [...]