Good reads.

According to my Goodreads account, I read 28 books in 2012. My goal was 25—a completely arbitrary number that if I hadn't met I wouldn't care at all—but the fact that I surpassed it by more than 10% makes me smile.

Since I've been a superb blogger and wrote precisely four posts from August through the end of the year plus a guest post from my sweet friend Tami at Local {ATL}ast, I haven't recapped any of those reads here in quite some time. That's a bit of a shame because I've read some really great books since August. Here are a few of them.

Drowning Ruth // B-

A mystery/thriller of sorts sharing the story of a mother who dies too young, leaving her little girl in the care of her sister, Amanda. While Amanda loves the little girl deeply, she struggles with quite a long list of psychological issues that keep the story in twists. It's a good, fairly easy read, but the style isn't quite my favorite.

Wild // A

I really loved this story. Cheryl's memories of her childhood, the death of her mother at such a young age and the ways she ultimately coped with that incredible loss were heart-wrenching, inspiring and captivating. Though most won't be able to connect with the specifics of Cheryl's life, I think we could all relate at some point in our lives to her feeling of emptiness and the need to fill it with something, even it if takes time to figure out the right something.

State of Wonder // A

Ann isn't just a writer. She's an exceptional stringer-together-of-beautiful-words. She creates the most real images in the minds of her readers with her descriptions of scenery, and the characters in this book are some of the most well-crafted, clearly-developed characters in any book I've read. She's just incredible. The story is far-fetched and honestly, looking back, a little strange. I know nothing of pharmaceutical research, so this story about the research conducted deep in the Amazon rainforest is hard to believe at best but I suppose there are elements of it that could be entirely plausible. What makes it special though is that while reading it, I believed every word. I knew the characters as friends, and I could feel the thick heat they lived in. Ann Patchett is that good.

Secret Daughter // B

I'm a little "meh" about this book. I loved that the author was real about India, sharing it's best and worst qualities and broadening my understanding of a culture I'll never experience firsthand. However, the story was a bit formulaic, everything happening just as you'd expect it to from one chapter to the next. If I were to recommend this book, it would be less for the tale of two mothers and their shared daughter and more for the imagery the author uses and how she can easily place you in the Indian village Kavita comes from and in the home of Asha's wealthy family in urban India as well.