What book do you wish more people had read this year? People love to create Best of the Year lists every December, but we prefer to spotlight the most overlooked books each season.
Below, we are linking to free samples of the Most Overlooked Books of 2012. Share your favorite overlooked book in the comments section, and we’ll add a sample to our growing list.
To get the list started, we took selected titles from Slate’s long list of underrated books and Flavorwire’s Notable Books Unfairly Overlooked by ‘The New York Times’ list.
If you want more books, we made similar literary mixtapes linking to free samples of the 2012 Man Booker Longlist, the Best Science Fiction of the Year, the 2012 Scotiabank Giller Prize Shortlist, the Believer Book Award nominees, the 2012 Orwell Prize shortlist, the LA Times Book Prize winners, and the Best Business Books of the Year. (Cassette tape photo via Kevin)
Free Samples of the Most Overlooked Books of 2012
2012: Midnight at Spanish Gardens by Alma Alexander
What Happened to Sophie Wilder by Christopher Beha
Cataclysm Baby by Matt Bell
Magic Hours by Tom Bissell
The People of Forever are Not Afraid by Shani Boianjiu
A Million Heavens by John Brandon
The River Witch by Kimberly Brock
Dying to Know You by Aidan Chambers
A Violet Season by Kathy Cziepel
Coal to Diamonds by Beth Ditto
Girl Walks Into a Bar by Rachel Dratch
Joe Peace by Kerry Dunn
Elevating Overman by Bruce Ferber
Enchantment by Thaisa Frank
The Man Without a Face by Masha Gessen
City of Women by David Gillham
We Hope You Like This Song by Bree Housley
Remain In Light by Collin Kelley
Daughters Who Walk This Path by Yejide Kilanko
Before Versailles by Karleen Koen
Hot Pink by Adam Levin
Music 109: Notes on Experimental Music by Alvin Lucier
The Architect of Flowers by William Lychack
The Old Ways by Robert MacFarlane
The Master’s Muse by Varley O’Connor
The Healing by Jonathan Odell
I Am an Executioner by Rajesh Parameswaran
The Scientists by Marco Roth
Prison Pit, Volume 4 by Johnny Ryan
The Gentrification of the Mind: Witness to a Lost Imagination by Sarah Schulman
Where’d You Go, Bernadette by Maria Semple
Swimming Studies by Leanne Shapton
Seating Arrangements by Maggie Shipstead
Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan
Londoners by Craig Taylor
Monstress by Lysley Tenorio
Narcopolis by Jeet Thayil
How to Get Into the Twin Palms by Karolina Waclawiak
Battleborn by Claire Vaye Watkins
The Anarchist’s Girlfriend by Susan Weinstein
Thin Blue Smoke by Doug Worgul