2012 is the year of moving forward without everything that’s holding us back. But sometimes it’s worth looking at whether it’s ourselves holding us back, or at least our reticence to pick up the copy of that book that we borrowed from our best friend or mom or ex and have kept on the coffee table for eight months and really are going to read one of these days. You know what I mean — like the copy of Anna Karenina or The Woman Warrior that you’ve kept through like three different moves but still never opened? Well hey, it’s a new year, and we’re all still bright-eyed and optimistic and the hangover is mostly gone, so why not make it today? Or at least one of the coming 365 days in 2012? Â We looked deep inside ourselves in a very honest and searching way, and came up with the books we’ve been meaning to read and are finally going to take the plunge on, or finish the very extended plunge on, depending. Here are our choices. What are you going to read in 2012?
Rachel, Senior Editor
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Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention
Carmen, Contributing Editor
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Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close
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Crystal, Music Editor
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Laura, Contributing Editor
Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books
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Manifesta: Young Women, Feminism, and the Future
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Carolyn, Contributing Editor
Persistence: All Ways Butch and Femme
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You Are Not a Gadget: A Manifesto (Vintage)
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Whitney, Contributing Editor
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Rin Tin Tin: The Life and the Legend
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Laneia, Executive Editor
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao
Riese, Editor in Chief
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Zami: A New Spelling of My Name
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No More Nice Girls: Countercultural Essays
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This Bridge Called My Back: Writings by Radical Women of Color
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The Best American Nonrequired Reading 2011
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Glory Goes and Gets Some: Stories
