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Participants in a new study demonstrated higher levels of brain activity when reading the original passages from select Shakespeare plays as compared to the same text rewritten in simpler language.

I admit it: I have trouble retaining the details of books. Most texts eventually get relegated to a dark corner of my mind, slowly accumulating dust until they're barely visible at all. The only thing I can remember about DeLillo's White Noise is that the narrator's wife is named Babette, The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen brings to mind sharp angles and little else, and the specifics of Conrad's Heart of Darkness have grown as murky as the book's title.

The process is gradual but often follows a pattern. First plot particulars float away. Next the theme grows fuzzy. Then characters and images start to vanish until all that's left is one or two lone figures standing in a cornfield or the high desert or a sprawling suburban home. Occasionally the entire book recedes into the ether.

As part of my New Year's resolution, I've decided to take some steps to boost my recall. While I don't expect to be able to recite Crime and Punishment, I hope that I'll come to recollect a little more about the books I read. If you experience the same forgetfulness, you might want to consider trying out some of these strategies as well.

Threats presents a world thrown off-kilter by a mysterious death. David, the bewildered widower, struggles to uncover the source of his wife's undoing while simultaneously shielding himself from the truth. In a book filled with decay and self-destruction, Amelia Gray manages to make the grotesque endearing. Threats is sad, surreal, and strangely beautiful.

Here at Powells.com, in addition to exclusive interviews, original essays, and Q&As, we feature a wide selection of guest blogs from noteworthy authors. Each week, a new author contributes to our blog for five days straight, revealing everything from their thoughts on the writing process to details about their favorite neighborhood cat. We're constantly amazed at what comes out of these series, and we consider ourselves incredibly lucky to be able to host so many brilliant authors in one place.

As the year comes to a close, we thought we'd give a rundown of all our guest bloggers for 2012 in case you missed — or want to revisit — any of their posts.

Adam Johnson (January 9 - 13)
Books | Guest Blogs
Adam Johnson, a former Wallace Stegner Fellow, teaches creative writing at Stanford University. His previous work includes a short-story collection, Emporium, and the novel Parasites Like Us. His second novel, The Orphan Master's Son, is an epic tale that charts a young man's undercover journey in the world's most mysterious dictatorship: North Korea.

Exclusive to Powells.com: Johnson ...