 Don't Miss
More at Powell's
Find Books
Read the City
Win Free Books!
PowellsBooks.news
Technica
PowellsBooks.kids
 |
| |
|
This year's Puddly Awards ceremony went off without a hitch.
If not for the extra cost incurred due to unseasonably dry
weather (producers had no choice but to truck in clouds and
rain; otherwise, what good are galoshes?), it might have been
the smoothest undertaking in the five-year history of the
event. For those of you who missed it, the top fifty vote-getters
in our people's choice awards are listed here.
|
|
 |
|
#1
The
Da Vinci Code
by
Dan Brown
"Dan Brown has to be one of the best, smartest, and most
accomplished writers in the country. The Da Vinci Code
is many notches above the intelligent thriller; this is pure
genius." Nelson DeMille
#2
Life
of Pi
by
Yann Martel
"Those who would believe that the art of fiction is moribund
— let them read Yann Martel with astonishment." Alberto Manguel
#3
The
Secret Life of Bees
by Sue Monk Kidd
"Sue Monk Kidd's eccentric, inventive, and ultimately forgiving
novel is reminiscent of the work of Reynolds Price in its ability
to create a truly original Southern voice." Anita Shreve
#4
Harry
Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
by J.K. Rowling
"If [Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire] was the
work of a born storyteller still sorting out her technique,
Phoenix is the smooth product of a natural at the top
of her game." Laura Miller, Salon
#5
The
Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
by
Mark Haddon
"I have never read anything quite like Mark Haddon's funny
and agonizingly honest book, or encountered a narrator more
vivid and memorable. I advise you to buy two copies; you won't
want to lend yours out." Arthur Golden, author of Memoirs
of a Geisha
#6
Middlesex
by
Jeffrey Eugenides
"Middlesex isn't just a respectable sophomore effort;
it's a towering achievement, and it can now be stated unequivocally
that Eugenides' initial triumph wasn't a one-off or a fluke.
He has emerged as the great American writer that many of us
suspected him of being." Jeff Turrentine, The Los Angeles
Times
#7
Cerulean
Sins: An Anita Blake Vampire Hunter Novel
by
Laurell K. Hamilton
"Anita Blake is one of the more fascinating fictional heroines
since Scarlet O'Hara — and a hell of a lot more fun than
most....There's plenty of the hot stuff, but it's presented
with a certain morality and definite hilarity....the author
is back on track with the best Blake yet." Publishers
Weekly
#8
The
Time Traveler's Wife
by
Audrey Niffenegger
"Inspired by her grandparents love story in which the grandmother
outlived her husband by nearly three decades, Niffenegger has
invented Henry and Clare, and their unique and complicated love
story involving the ability to live in the past and future in
an unpredictable parallel. Delightful, imaginative, with an
unforgettable conclusion." Donna Kane, Powells.com
#9
The
Lovely Bones
by
Alice Sebold
"Don't start Lovely Bones unless you can finish
it. The book begins with more horror than you could imagine,
but closes with more beauty than you could hope for....emotionally,
it's faultless. Sebold never slips as she follows this family.
The risks she walks are enough to give you vertigo." Ron
Charles, The Christian Science Monitor
#10
Bel
Canto
by
Ann Patchett
"This is a story of passionate, doomed love; of the glory
of art; of the triumph of our shared humanity over the forces
that divide us, and a couple of other unbearably cheesy themes,
and yet Patchett makes it work, completely." Laura Miller,
Salon
#11
Lord
of the Rings Trilogy
by J. R. R. Tolkien
"A unique, wholly realized other world, evoked from deep
in the well of time, massively detailed, absorbingly entertaining,
profound in meaning." New York Times Book Review
#12
Seabiscuit:
An American Legend
by Laura Hillenbrand
"In telling the Cinderella story of Seabiscuit and his
devoted trainer, owner and jockey, the author, Laura Hillenbrand,
has written an absorbing book that stands as the model of sportswriting
at its best." Michiko Kakutani, New York Times Book
Review
#13
The
Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair
That Changed America
by Erik Larson
"You've got to respect a book that makes you keep flipping
to the back cover, double-checking that it is nonfiction. Erik
Larson's The Devil in the White City seems like something
from the mind of, say, Thomas Harris. But it is, in fact, true.
A gruesome and gripping book....[T]he heart of the story is
so good, you find yourself asking how you could not know this
already." Adrienne Miller, Esquire
#14
Lies
and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair and Balanced Look
at the Right
by Al Franken
"In the kicking, spitting spirit of current all-star political
discourse, Al Franken gives as good as he gets....Funnier here
than he was in his previous Oh, The Things I Know!, Mr.
Franken also has a serious agenda." Janet Maslin, The New
York Times
#15
The
Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay
by Michael Chabon
"The depth of Chabon’s thought, his sharp language, his inventiveness
and his ambition make this a novel of towering achievement."
Ken Kalfus, The New York Times Book Review
#16
Atonement
by Ian McEwan
"[T]he fineness of the book as a novel, as a distinguished
and complex evocation of English life before and during the
war, burns away the theoretical, and implants in the memory
a living, flaming presence." James Wood, The New Republic
#17
The
Eyre Affair
by Jasper Fforde
"Through the miracle of literary-genetic engineering, Jasper
Fforde has crossbred Jane Eyre with James Bond and Harry Potter....This
is about as much fun as you can have in the classics section
without being thrown out of the library. To those students who
swore they wouldn't reread Jane Eyre 'til Hades freezes
over, I have good news: He's out cold. Start reading." Ron
Charles, The Christian Science Monitor
#18
The
Fortress of Solitude
by Jonathan Letham
"The book is a Bildungsroman in the exact sense, the story
of Dylan's self-development in the context of place and time.
It's also a comedy, a history and a fantasy, where the strange
and supernatural mix freely with the solid and austere, as they
do in life, in memory, in everyone's autobiography." Peter
Kurth, Salon.com
#19
Empire
Falls
by Richard Russo
"In a warmhearted novel of sweeping scope.... [Russo] shows
an unerring sense of the rhythms of small-town life, balancing
his irreverent, mocking humor with unending empathy for his
characters and their foibles" Booklist
#20
All
the Sundays Yet to Come: A Skater's Journey
by Kathryn Bertine
"Her book should serve as a cautionary tale for ambitious young
people who hope to make it to the top in the sports world."
Publishers Weekly
#21
Peace
Like a River
by Leif Enger
"A lean and lovingly told story, drawn from Midwestern life,
sparked with moments of the miraculous." Mark Ingraham, Powells.com
#22
John
Adams
by David McCullough
"Given that your average American learned much of his country's
history at that show at Disney World with the scary automatons
in goofy Amadeus-era tights, it's no small feat that this narrative
succeeds so marvelously well at rendering all these players
of early American history human....Here is a book that's so
good it'll make you shiver." Adrienne Miller, Esquire
#23
Oryx
and Crake
by Margaret Atwood
"The genre of doom-laden futuristic fiction has its share
of classics — such as H. G. Wells's The Time Machine,
Aldous Huxley's Brave New World, and George Orwell's
Nineteen Eighty-Four — and these works are now joined
by Margaret Atwood's splendid novel." Richard A. Posner,
The New Republic
#24
The
Namesake
by Jhumpa Lahiri
"[Q]uietly dazzling....[A] wonderfully intimate and knowing
family portrait...a debut novel that is as assured and eloquent
as the work of a longtime master of the craft." Michiko Kakutani,
The New York Times
#25
Angels
and Demons
by Dan Brown
"[P]lenty of thrilling cat-and-mouse maneuvers and life-or-death
cliffhangers....Romance, religion, science, murder, mysticism,
architecture, action. Go!" Kirkus Reviews
#26
East
of Eden
by John Steinbeck
"A novel planned on the grandest possible scale...One of those
occasions when a writer has aimed high and then summoned every
ounce of energy, talent, seriousness, and passion of which he
was capable...It is an entirely interesting and impressive book."
The New York Herald Tribune
#27
The
Five People You Meet in Heaven
by Mitch Albom
"Transcendent....Albom has aimed high here, and there's a whiff
of paradise as a result." Atlanta Journal Constitution
#28
Under
the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith
by Jon Krakauer
"[T]old with raw narrative force and tight focus....Krakauer
lays the portent on beautifully, building his tales carefully
from the ground up until they irresistibly, spookily combust."
Kirkus Reviews
#29
Reading
Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books
by Azar Nafisi
"Reading Lolita in Tehran is sophisticated and bursting
with texture and sensuality....Nafisi picks through her memories
delicately, but at every turn sensations surge through."
Joy Press, Village Voice
#30
The
Crimson Petal and the White
by Michel Faber
"[An] enthralling melodrama....It's hard to imagine...that readers
who hunger for story won't devour this like grateful wolves.
Riveting, and absolutely unforgettable." Kirkus Reviews
#31
A
Fine Balance
by Rohinton Mistry
"[T]hose who continue to harp on the decline of the novel...ought
to consider Rohinton Mistry. He needs no infusion of magic realism
to vivify the real. The real world, through his eyes, is magical."
The New York Times
#32
Three
Junes
by Julia Glass
"Three Junes has the rich pleasures of a ninetenth-century
novel and the rush of New York life of the last ten years. I'm
amazed it's a first novel — it is a mature, captivating
work of fiction." John Casey
#33
Jarhead:
A Marine's Chronicle of the Gulf War and Other Battles
by Anthony Swofford
"Yes, there have been many, many books about combat in
the Gulf War, but none as beautifully written or as ferocious
as Jarhead. Anthony Swofford's account of his life on
the front lines is so honest and uncompromising as to be brutal."
Adrienne Miller, Esquire
#34
Dude,
Where's My Country?
by Michael Moore
"Michael Moore is everything the contemporary politician
isn't. He is smart, brash, profane, hilarious, beholden to no
one, and genuine in his devotion to the country." The Denver
Post
#35
The
Big Rumpus: A Mother's Tale from the Trenches
by Ayun Halliday
"The Big Rumpus is positively the best mothering
memoir I've read by a straight-tawkin', breast-feeding, xenophilic,
world-traveling, Indiana-reared, New York City transplant. I
stayed up past my bedtime reading it, no lie. The gal can write."
Chris Dodge, Utne Reader
#36
Cold
Mountain
by Charles Frazier
"Novelists are never in short supply. Natural-born storytellers
come along only rarely. Charles Frazier joins the ranks of that
elite cadre on the first page of his astonishing debut." Newsweek
#37
The
Corrections
by Jonathan Franzen
"No one book, of course, can provide everything
we want in a novel. But a book as strong as The Corrections
seems ruled only by its own self-generated aesthetic: it creates
the illusion of giving a complete account of a world, and while
we're under its enchantment it temporarily eclipses whatever
else we may have read." David Gates, The New York Times Book
Review
#38
Everything
Is Illuminated
by Jonathan Safran Foer
"One of the most impressive first novels in a long time....[T]his
book is, as its name implies, brilliant." Adrienne Miller,
Esquire
#39
The
No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency
by Alexander McCall Smith
"One of the best, most charming, honest, hilarious and
life-affirming books to appear in years." The Plain Dealer
#40
Quicksilver:
Volume One of The Baroque Cycle
by Neal Stephenson
"[T]he great trick of Quicksilver is that it makes
you ponder concepts and theories you initially think you'll
never understand, and its greatest pleasure is that Stephenson
is such an enthralling explainer....[A] wonderment to behold.
(Grade: A-)" Ken Tucker, Entertainment Weekly
#41
A
Short History of Nearly Everything
by Bill Bryson
"This is great for Bryson fans, who can encounter this
material in its barest essence with the bonus of having it served
up in Bryson's distinctive voice....[T]o read Bryson is to travel
with a memoirist gifted with wry observation and keen insight
that shed new light on things we mistake for commonplace."
Publishers Weekly
#42
Fast
Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal
Eric Schlosser
"The book's revelations are shocking. About half
the pages of my copy are covered with underlined passages and
exclamation points in the margins." Dave, Powells.com
#43
The
Purpose-Driven Life: What on Earth Am I Here For?
by Rick Warren
"If you only read one book on what life is all about
— make it this one! Rick Warren is absolutely brilliant
at explaining our real purpose in the world and making the complex
understandable. Read this book, then give it to everyone you
care about." Lee Strobel, author of The Case for Christ
| | |
