2012 has been a good year for reading for me.

Throughout the year I’ve kept a record of what I thought was the ‘best’ book of the month – ‘best’ meaning the one I enjoyed the most, the one that kept me wondering what happens next, the one I was the most engrossed in, the one that I thought was really memorable and didn’t want to stop reading.

These are the books:

• January: The Help by Kathryn Stockett – I loved it. I saw the film before I read the book ‘“ Octavia Spencer won a Golden Globe award as best supporting actress for her performance as Minny – and even though I knew the story I still found the book full of tension and completely absorbing. It’s set in Jackson, Mississippi in 1962, where black maids raise white children, but aren’t trusted not to steal the silver. 5/5

• February: Little Boy Lost by Marghanita Laski – Once I started reading I didn’t want to put it down; I just had to know what happened. It’s the story of Hilary Wainwright, who is searching for his son, lost five years earlier in the Second World War. 5/5

• March: Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen – I’ve read this many times before, but each time I still think it’s wonderful. It’s a novel based on character, plot and is a study of society in the late 18th/early 19th centuries, but above all it is a love story. 5/5

• April: The Village by Marghanita Laski – this chronicles life in an English village immediately after the end of the Second World War. It’s a novel exploring the issues of class and social mobility, family relationships, parental control and the position of women. 5/5

• May: The Redeemed by M R Hall – the third in the series about Jenny Cooper, a Coroner investigating suspicious deaths. She finds herself one of the suspects in this book as well as delving into supernatural and the fight between good and evil. 4.5/5

• June: The Secret River by Kate Grenville – this book completely captivated me and I could hardly wait to get back to it each time I had to put it down. It’s historical fiction, straight-forward story-telling following William Thornhill from his childhood in the slums of London to his new life in Australia in the early 19th century. Dramatic, vivid and thought-provoking. 5/5

• July: The Crimson Rooms by Katharine McMahon – historical crime fiction set in London in 1924, with Britain still coming to terms with the aftermath of the First World War.  I was fascinated by the account of early women lawyers, represented by Evelyn, the central character. It clearly shows the prejudice these women had to overcome just to qualify as lawyers, never mind the difficulties of persuading law firms to employ them and clients to accept them. Beautifully written and full of imagery. 5/5

• August: The Girl on the Stairs by Louise Welsh – full of suspense and increasing tension a dark, psychological thriller.  I really enjoyed this book. Are Jane’s fears justified or is she delusional? The uncertainties and ambiguities kept me guessing to the end. 4.5/5

• September: The Sixth Lamentation by William Brodrick –  this is historical fiction and it’s also a mystery. It looks back  to the Second World War in occupied France, telling a dramatic tale of love and betrayal, full of suspense, and interwoven stories. 4.5/5

• October: The Chalk Circle Man by Fred Vargas – This is a very cleverly constructed and quirky mystery, peopled with eccentric characters, and set in Paris, where Commissaire Adamsburg is faced with solving three murders. 4.5/5

• November: Standing in Another Man’s Grave by Ian Rankin – the latest of his Rebus books. Rebus, now retired, is working in a Cold Case Unit.  I liked it ‘“ I liked it a lot. It was like meeting up again with an old acquaintance. Rebus is older and fatter but he hasn’t really changed. I was engrossed in the book and liked the way Rankin included characters from earlier books, such as Big Ger Caffety and in particular Malcolm Fox. 4/5

• December: Silent Voices by Ann Cleeves – the fourth in her DI Vera Stanhope series. Vera is a truly eccentric individual, intelligent, single minded and dedicated to her job, single and with no family responsibilities. This is an excellent book, one that kept me turning the pages and exercising my brain as I tried to unravel the mystery of the death of a woman found in the sauna room of Vera’s local gym. 5/5