2012 BOTY Sweet Sixteen - Finally!!

It's been a rough couple of weeks and I've been horribly neglecting the blog. I've been incredibly mopey and lazy and it's time to dig myself out of the rut. I am still working through the loss of Harley. It's just so hard not to have him around. But...life has to go on.

So...even though I'm two weeks later than I planned, it's finally time to work on announcing my pick for my 2012 Book of the Year. Since it tends to become a lengthy situation, I am breaking the BOTY bracket announcement into three separate posts. Today is Sweet Sixteen, followed by the semifinals, and then the finals. It should be fun. All of the books are wonderful.

Last year's goal was a total of 64 books. I didn't make it. Such a sad day. I ended up with 56 books completed. Still 6 above the 2011 count, so I'm happy about that. (This year's goal is again the 64. I'm doing pretty well so far, having completed 14 books already.) Because I didn't have the full 64, lining up the bracket was difficult. What I ended up doing is taking the books that rated 5 stars and putting them in the final 16. I filled up the remainder of the 16 slots with the best of the 4 star books. So here is where we end up :

Not a bad group of books to begin with. Since the bracket is too small to read without clicking directly on it, here are the contestants in list form. (As of today, some of them still have not been reviewed. Those that have been reviewed are linked to their individual posts. Those that have not will be linked up as their reviews are completed.)

1. The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern

2. Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? by Mindy Kaling

3. Let's Pretend This Never Happened by Jenny Lawson

4. Saving CeeCee Honeycutt by Beth Hoffman

5. The Sugar Queen by Sarah Addison Allen

6. City of Lost Souls by Cassandra Clare

7. The Shoemaker's Wife by Adriana Trigiani

8. The Girl Who Chased the Moon by Sarah Addison Allen

9. Sarah's Key by Tatiana de Rosnay

10. The Fault in Our Stars by John Green

11. Secret Daughter by Shilpi Somaya Gowda

12. Ape House by Sara Gruen

13. City of Fallen Angels by Cassandra Clare

14. Eight Keys by Suzanne LaFleur

15. The Secret Lives of Dresses by Erin McKean

 16. Garden Spells by Sarah Addison Allen

As with last year, we have a couple of authors with multiple entries. Cassandra Clare shows up in both sides of the bracket with two of the books from her Mortal Instruments series. They are fabulous books. Sarah Addison Allen enters her first BOTY bracket with THREE entries. I just discovered her last year and I absolutely adored everything I read of hers so far.

Any of these books would be a fabulous read, but we'll see which one came out on top (yes...I already know the winner). Take your bets. The semifinals show up tomorrow.