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2005 High Scores: The Best-Reviewed Books

Metacritic's complete Best of 2005 coverage: High Scores | Awards | Critic Top Ten Lists


Book Critics' Year-End Top Ten Lists

Amazon.com Editors' Picks
1.
The Year Of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion
2.
Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer
3.
Freakonomics by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner
4.
Encyclopedia Of An Ordinary Life by Amy Krouse Rosenthal
5.
My Friend Leonard by James Frey
6.
Oh The Glory Of It All by Sean Wilsey
7.
Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
8.
The History of Love by Nicole Krauss
9.
The Complete Calvin And Hobbes by Bill Watterson
10.
The World Is Flat by Thomas Friedman
Boston Globe

FICTION: (alphabetical by title)
  A Long Way Down by Nick Hornby
  On Beauty by Zadie Smith
  The Painted Drum by Louise Erdrich
  Rules For Old Men Waiting by Peter Pouncey
  Saturday by Ian McEwan
  The Sea by John Banville
  NONFICTION: (alphabetical by title)
  1776 by David McCullough
  The Assassins' Gate by George Packer
  Collapse by Jared Diamond
  The Encyclopedia Of New England Edited by Burt Feintuch and David H. Watters
  Henry Adams and the Making of America by Garry Wills
  The Lost Painting by Jonathan Harr
  The Rise of American Democracy by Sean Wilentz
  Team Of Rivals by Doris Kearns Goodwin
  The Year Of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion
Chicago Sun-Times

(alphabetical by title)
  Beyond Glory by David Margolick
  Courtroom 302 by Steve Bogira
  The Lighthouse by P.D. James
  The March by E.L. Doctorow
  Mirror To America by John Hope Franklin
  On Beauty by Zadie Smith
  Ordinary Heroes by Scott Turow
  Saturday by Ian McEwan
  Spook by Mary Roach
  The Year Of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion
Chicago Tribune

(alphabetical by title)
  Acts Of Faith by Philip Caputo
  American Prometheus by Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin
  And They All Sang by Studs Terkel
  Bury The Chains by Adam Hochschild
  Dream Boogie by Peter Guralnick
  Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince by J.K. Rowling
  The March by E.L. Doctorow
  Ordinary Heroes by Scott Turow
  Small Island by Andrea Levy
  The Year Of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion
Christian Science Monitor

FICTION:
1.
The Ha-Ha by Dave King
2.
My Jim by Nancy Rawles
3.
Pearl by Mary Gordon
4.
A Long Long Way by Sebastian Barry
5.
Tilting At Windmills by Julian Branston
6.
March by Geraldine Brooks
7.
Ireland by Frank Delaney
8.
Saturday by Ian McEwan
9.
The History of Love by Nicole Krauss
10.
Oh Pure And Radiant Heart Lydia Millet

MYSTERIES:
1.
The Lincoln Lawyer by Michael Connelly
2.
In The Shadow Of The Law by Kermit Roosevelt
3.
A Slight Trick Of The Mind by Mitch Cullin
4.
The Final Solution by Michael Chabon
5.
Tilt-A-Whirl by by Chris Grabenstein

GENERAL NONFICTION:
1.
The World Is Flat by Thomas Friedman
2.
Blink by Malcolm Gladwell
3.
When Computers Were Human by David Alan Grier
4.
Miss Leavitt's Stars by George Johnson
5.
His Oldest Friend by Sonny Kleinfield
6.
The Lost German Slave Girl by John Bailey
7.
Thirteen Ways Of Looking At The Novel by Jane Smiley
8.
The Lady And The Panda by Vicki Constantine Croke
9.
The Chosen by Jerome Karabel
10.
Girl Sleuth by Melanie Rehak

BIOGRAPHIES:
1.
When Trumpets Call by Patricia O'Toole
2.
Becoming Justice Blackmun by Linda Greenhouse
3.
The Survivor by John F. Harris
4.
Mark Twain by Ron Powers
5.
Mao by by Jung Chang and Jon Halliday

HISTORY:
1.
1776 by David McCullough
2.
Judgment Days by Nick Kotz
3.
Sarah's Long Walk by Stephen Kendrick and Paul Kendrick
4.
Racing The Enemy by Tsuyoshi Hasegawa
5.
The Fate Of Africa by Martin Meredith
The Daily Telegraph

FICTON (alphabetical by title) :
  A Long Long Way by Sebastian Barry
  The Accidental by Ali Smith
  Arthur & George by Julian Barnes
  Beyond Black by Hilary Mantel
  Divided Kingdom by Rupert Thomson
  Gilead by Marilynne Robinson
  Lunar Park by Bret Easton Ellis
  Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
  On Beauty by Zadie Smith
  The People's Act Of Love by James Meek
  Runaway by Alice Munro
  Saturday by Ian McEwan
  The Sea by John Banville
  Surface by Siddhartha Deb
  We Need To Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver

BIOGRAPHY (alphabetical by title) :
  1599 by James Shapiro
  Christopher Marlow by Park Honan
  Clarice Cliff by Lynn Knight
  Haw-Haw by Nigel Farndale
  Judge Sewall's Apology by Richard Francis
  Mae West by Simon Louvish
  Mao by by Jung Chang and Jon Halliday
  Mary Archer by Margaret Crick
  Mary Wollstonecraft [aka 'Vindication'] by Lyndall Gordon
  Melville by Andrew Delbanco
  Olivier by Terry Coleman
  The Orientalist by Tom Reiss
  Shakespeare by Peter Ackroyd
  The Short Life and Long Times of Mrs Beeton by Kathryn Hughes
  Stuart by Alexander Masters
  With Billie by Julia Blackburn
The Economist

FICTION & MEMOIRS:
1.
The March by E.L. Doctorow
2.
A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian by Marina Lewycka
3.
Incendiary by Chris Cleave
4.
The Third Woman by Mark Burnell.
5.
Brandenburg by Henry Porter
6.
The Year Of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion

BIOGRAPHY:
1.
The Pursuit Of Victory by Roger Knight
2.
The Prince Of The City by Fred Siegel
3.
Gannibal by Hugh Barnes
4.
Mao by by Jung Chang and Jon Halliday
5.
Matisse The Master by Hilary Spurling

HISTORY:
1.
Imperial Reckoning by Caroline Elkins
2.
Bury The Chains by Adam Hochschild
3.
A Great Improvisation by Stacy Schiff
4.
Sons Of The Conquerors by Hugh Pope
5.
A Life In Secrets by Sarah Helm
6.
Rough Crossings by Simon Schama
7.
Agincourt by Juliet Barker
8.
The Rise Of American Democracy by Sean Wilentz

POLITICS & CURRENT AFFAIRS:
1.
Setting The People Free by John Dunn
2.
Radicals In Robes by Cass R. Sunstein
3.
Night Draws Near by Anthony Shadid
4.
The Assassin's Gate by George Packer
5.
I Didn't Do It For You by Michela Wrong
6.
In The Shadow Of Swords by Sally Neighbour

ECONOMICS & BUSINESS:
1.
Against The Flow by Samuel Brittan
2.
Conspiracy Of Fools by Kurt Eichenwald
3.
Freakonomics by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner
4.
DisneyWar by James B. Stewart
5.
The Origins Of Value edited by William N. Goetzmann and K. Geert Rouwenhorst
5.
The Search by John Battelle
5.
Medici Money by Tim Parks

SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY:
1.
Collapse by Jared Diamond
2.
The Weather Makers by Tim Flannery
3.
Parallel Worlds by By Michio Kaku
4.
Dr Peter Scardino's Prostate Book by Peter T. Scardino and Judith Kelman
5.
Power, Sex, Suicide by Nick Lane
Entertainment Weekly

FICTION:
1.
On Beauty by Zadie Smith
2.
Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
3.
13 Steps Down by Ruth Rendell
4.
The March by E.L. Doctorow
5.
Cold Skin by Albert Sánchez Piñol
6.
Beasts Of No Nation by Uzodinma Iweala
7.
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince by J.K. Rowling
8.
Dancing In The Dark by Caryl Phillips
9.
(tie) Ex Machina by Brian K. Vaughan
(tie) Black Hole by Charles Burns
10.
Drive by James Sallis

NONFICTION:
1.
The Year Of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion
2.
The Orientalist by Tom Reiss
3.
Suburban Safari by Hannah Holmes
4.
Tete-a-Tete by Hazel Rowley
5.
Istanbul by Orhan Pamuk
6.
The Big Picture by Edward Jay Epstein
7.
Fat Girl by Judith Moore
8.
102 Minutes by Jim Dwyer and Kevin Flynn
9.
Blink by Malcolm Gladwell
10.
(tie) Everybody Into The Pool by Beth Lisick
(tie) Killing Yourself to Live by Chuck Klosterman
Kirkus

FICTION: (alphabetical by author)
  Eleanor Rigby by Douglas Coupland
  Specimen Days by Michael Cunningham
  The March by E.L. Doctorow
  Lunar Park by Bret Easton Ellis
  Veronica by Mary Gaitskill
  Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
  Kafka On The Shore by Haruki Murakami
  Shalimar The Clown by Salman Rushdie
  On Beauty by Zadie Smith
  Sudden Rain by Maritta Wolff
  NONFICTION: (alphabetical by author)
  The City Of Falling Angels by John Berendt
  The Perfectionist by Rudolph Chelminski
  Them by Francine du Plessix Gray
  102 Minutes by Jim Dwyer and Kevin Flynn
  Storming The Court by Brandt Goldstein
  Bury The Chains by Adam Hochschild
  1776 by David McCullough
  The Tender Bar by J.R. Moehringer
  Two Lives by Vikram Seth
  The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls
Los Angeles Times

FICTION: (alphabetical by author)
  The Sea by John Banville
  A Long Long Way by Sebastian Barry
  The Testing Of Luther Albright by MacKenzie Bezos
  Ice Haven by Daniel Clowes
  The March by E.L. Doctorow
  Johnny Mad Dog by Emmanuel Dongala
  The Painted Drum by Louise Erdrich
  Our Ecstatic Days by Steve Erickson
  Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer
  Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
  The History Of Love by Nicole Krauss
  No Country For Old Men by Cormac McCarthy
  The Road To Esmeralda by Joy Nicholson
  The People Of Paper by Salvador Plascencia
  Shalimar The Clown by Salman Rushdie
  On Beauty by Zadie Smith
  Trance by Christopher Sorrentino
  The Hummingbird's Daughter by Luis Alberto Urrea
  Europe Central by William T. Vollmann
  The Time Of The Uprooted by Elie Wiesel

NONFICTION: (alphabetical by author)
  No god but God by Reza Aslan
  Epileptic by David B.
  Edmund Wilson by Lewis M. Dabney
  Collapse by Jared Diamond
  The Year Of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion
  The Great Earthquake and Firestorms of 1906 by Philip L. Fradkin
  A Little History of the World by E.H. Gombrich
  Defining the World by Henry Hitchings
  Bury The Chains by Adam Hochschild
  The Wounded Surgeon by Adam Kirsch
  The Disappointment Artist by Jonathan Lethem
  The Tender Bar by J.R. Moehringer
  The Assassins' Gate by George Packer
  If This Be Treason by Gregory Rabassa
  Embroideries by Marjane Satrapi
  A Great Improvisation by Stacy Schiff
  Big Bang by Simon Singh
  Thirteen Ways Of Looking At The Novel by Jane Smiley
  Matisse The Master by Hilary Spurling
  Sky Burial by Xinran
The New York Times

FICTION: (alphabetical by title)
  Kafka On The Shore by Haruki Murakami
  On Beauty by Zadie Smith
  Prep by Curtis Sittenfeld
  Saturday by Ian McEwan
  Veronica by Mary Gaitskill
  NONFICTION: (alphabetical by title)
  The Assassins' Gate by George Packer
  De Kooning by Mark Stevens and Annalyn Swan
  The Lost Painting by Jonathan Harr
  Postwar by Tony Judt
  The Year Of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion
The Onion A.V. Club

(alphabetical by author)
  Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
  My Detachment by Tracy Kidder
  Walt And Skeezix by Frank King
  The Hot Kid by Elmore Leonard
  Freakonomics by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner
  Kafka On The Shore by Haruki Murakami
  Gilead by Marilynne Robinson
  The Method Actors by Carl Shuker
  The Acme Novelty Library by Chris Ware
Salon

FICTION: (almost alphabetical by title)
  Veronica by Mary Gaitskill
  Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
  Kafka On The Shore by Haruki Murakami
  On Beauty by Zadie Smith
  Magic For Beginners by Kelly Link
  Times Like These by Rachel Ingalls

NONFICTION: (alphabetical by title)
  Tulia by Nate Blakeslee
  Them by Francine du Plessix Gray
  Dream Boogie by Peter Guralnick
  1491 by Charles C. Mann
  The Assassins' Gate by George Packer
USA Today
1.
The Year Of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion
2.
The March by E.L. Doctorow
3.
The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova
4.
The World Is Flat by Thomas Friedman
5.
The City Of Falling Angels by John Berendt
6.
The Assassins' Gate by George Packer
7.
Team Of Rivals by Doris Kearns Goodwin
8.
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince by J.K. Rowling
9.
French Women Don't Get Fat by Mireille Guiliano
10.
The River Of Doubt by Candice Millard
Village Voice

ALL BOOKS : (alphabetical by title)
  Adrian Mole and the Weapons of Mass Destruction by Sue Townsend
  Afflicted Powers by Retort
  Atomik Aztex by Sesshu Foster
  Black Hole by Charles Burns
  The Collected Fiction of Kenneth Koch edited by Jordan Davis, Karen Koch, and Ron Padgett
  Europeana by Patrik Ourednik
  Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer
  Killing Yourself to Live by Chuck Klosterman
  The Letters of Robert Lowell edited by Saskia Hamilton
  Like a Fiery Elephant by Jonathan Coe
  Love Creeps by Amanda Filipacchi
  Lunar Park by Bret Easton Ellis
  Magic for Beginners by Kelly Link
  My Life in CIA by Harry Mathews
  Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
  99 Ways to Tell a Story by Matt Madden
  Other Electricities by Ander Monson
  Povel by Geraldine Kim
  Reflex by Vik Muniz
  Rubble by Jeff Byles
  The Sluts by Dennis Cooper
  Times Like These by Rachel Ingalls
  Veronica by Mary Gaitskill
  Wimbledon Green by Seth
  The Year Of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion
Washington Post - Editors' Picks

FICTION: (alphabetical by title)
  The History Of Love by Nicole Krauss
  March by Geraldine Brooks
  The March by E.L. Doctorow
  On Beauty by Zadie Smith
  Shalimar The Clown by Salman Rushdie

NONFICTION: (alphabetical by title)
  The Assassins' Gate by George Packer
  Bury The Chains by Adam Hochschild
  Melville by Andrew Delbanco
  Night Draws Near by Anthony Shadid
  Shake Hands With the Devil by Romo Dallaire
Washington Post - Critics' Picks

FICTION:
1.
Making It Up by Penelope Lively
2.
The Closers by Michael Connelly
3.
Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
4.
Carnivore Diet by Julia Slavin
5.
The Broker by John Grisham

NONFICTION:
1.
The Year Of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion
2.
The Coldest Winter by Paula Fox
3.
Defining the World by Henry Hitchings
4.
The Cardinal's Hat by Mary Hollingsworth
5.
The Edifice Complex by Deyan Sudjic

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