10 Books To Help You Recover From A Tense 2012

2012 has been a very jittery year — what with the presidential election, extreme weather events and the looming "fiscal cliff." In response to these tense times, some readers seek out escape; others look to literature that directly confronts the atmospheric uncertainty of the age. I guess I'm in the latter camp, because many of my favorite books this year told stories, imagined and real, about ordinary people who felt like they didn't have a clue what hit 'em.

The dazed-and-confused trend in fiction started off back in January, with a slim novella about economic despair and the whims of Fate ...

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