As I’ve said before, for the last four (five?) years I’ve set a goal to read 100 books a year. You can see the 100 books I read in 2011 here.
Here’s my 2012 list — and this year I’ll be making the (big! bold! alert!) change of actually rating some of the books I read. I will not rate every book, because sometimes I forget. Yes. And also because I read such niche books sometimes that my ratings may not be relevant and/or helpful.
Ratings will go like this:
* {eh.}
** {useful information, but likely not something the general masses will fawn over.}
*** {good, but with the caveat that I read (and enjoy) weird books}
**** {darn good. worth buying a hard copy of to put on a nice shelf.}
***** {love! top-10 placement! life-changing! gold stars 4eva!}
Books Read in 2012:
- The Message (Every year, I read through Peterson’s The Message.)
- The Happiness Project, Gretchen Rubin. ****
- Leaving the Saints: How I Lost the Mormons and Found my Faith, Martha Beck. ****
- Frozen Assets, Quentin Bates ***
- The Money Saving Mom’s Budget, Crystal Paine. ****
- Jesus Freaks
- {health book}
- Large Family Logistics *
- Empire of Sand**
- All the Money in the World, Laura Vanderkam.****
- My Life in Doha
- Little Princes: One Man’s Promise to Bring Home the Lost Children of Nepal, Conor Grennan.*****
- Salmon Fishing in the Yemen, Paul Torday.****
- Lone Traveler, Anne Mustoe.***
- Holy Cow
- Saving Savvy, Kelly Hancock.
- Choosing to See, Mary Beth Chapman.
- Hiding from Reality, Taylor Armstrong.
- The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher***
- The Barefoot Executive, Carrie Wilkerson****
- {health}
- {health}
- Seven: A Mutiny Against Excess***
- Instant Speaking Success, Paul Evans.
- Same Kind of Different as Me
- {health}
- Cold Comfort
- Radical, David Platt.***
- Quiet****
- Possum Living
- {health}
- Seven Money Rules for Life, Mary Hunt.
- The Possibility of You, Pamela Redmond Satran.
- In the Land of Invisible Women
- A Mother’s Rule of Life***
- The Dip, Seth Godin.
- All That You Can’t Leave Behind
- Friendraising
- God’s Spy
- All the Pope’s Men
- Un Amico Italiano
- Pajama School
- {health}
- Swahili for the Broken Hearted
- The Peace “Corpse”
- The Power of Giving

A couple of recommendations to consider for your list. BTW – I also recommend Gretchen Rubin’s book as well — and her daily newsletter/quote is good too.
(1) Marc Ian Barasch’s “Compassionate Life” at http://www.amazon.com/Compassionate-Life-Walking-Path-Kindness/dp/1576757560/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1326943259&sr=1-2)
(2) “Emotional Equations” by @chipconley at http://www.amazon.com/Emotional-Equations-Creating-Happiness-Success/dp/1451607253/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1326943546&sr=1-1
(3) “The Venice Chronicles” by Pixar short film (La Luna) director @sketchcrawl at http://www.amazon.com/Venice-Chronicles-Enrico-Casarosa/dp/0981845509/ref=tsm_1_tp_un_it
Oh! These look AWESOME!! Checking out now! (and hi!!)