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We've made a couple of changes to our Puddlys Prize this year. We discovered that galoshes made entirely of 24-carat gold have a nasty tendency to be sort of heavy, and also to stick in puddles at crucial moments like, say, when one is crossing a rain-slicked street in heavy traffic. Therefore, this year's galoshes are made of a fine, breathable latex inlaid with 9-carat gold bands. The other big change is, all acceptance speeches must come in under twenty seconds or we're cueing up the orchestra. And without further ado, the winners:

	this way to last year's puddly winners

America (the Book): A Citizen's Guide to Democracy Inaction by Jon Stewart read more about this title

The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown read more about this title

"[A] gleefully erudite suspense novel....Not since the advent of Harry Potter has an author so flagrantly delighted in leading readers on a breathless chase and coaxing them through hoops." Janet Maslin, The New York Times

"[A] highly original first novel....[A] soaring love story illuminated by dozens of finely observed details and scenes....[L]eaves a reader with an impression of life's riches and strangeness rather than of easy thrills." Publishers Weekly (Starred Review)

"It may be just as well that Susanna Clarke's first novel, Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell, is nearly as big as a house, since this is the kind of book you want to move into and settle down in for a long stay." Laura Miller, Salon.com

A 'cozy' set in Africa. This is the first in a wonderful new mystery series set in Botswana. Using deceptively simple language that nonetheless sings with the rhythms of Africa, the author introduces us to the indomitable lady detective, Precious Ramotswe. You will come to love her and the land she lives in. Kathi, Powells.com

"[Rowling's] Potter saga...positively teems with imagination and creativity." Phil Kloer, Atlanta Journal-Constitution

"A wonderful work....This is one of those unforgettable stories that stay with you for years. All the great themes of literature and of life are the fabric of this extraordinary novel: love, honor, guilt, fear redemption....It is so powerful that for a long time everything I read after seemed bland." Isabel Allende

"This is a lovely book, sweet, entertaining and wise. What a gutsy, surprising follow-up to Morrie." Anne Lamott, author of Traveling Mercies and Blue Shoe

"This original and affecting novel is a triumph of empathy; whether describing Christopher's favorite dream...or his vision of the universe collapsing in a thunder or stars, the author makes his hero's severely limited world a thrilling place to be." The New Yorker

"[I]nspired parody....[T]he book's ultimate joke...is that it's not only more informative about how American government and culture work than the textbooks it burlesques, but gives us a keener sense of having a stake in both." Tom Carson, The New York Times Book Review

"An impressive work of mythic magnitude. May turn out to be Stephen King's greatest literary achievement." Atlanta Journal-Constitution

"[P]lenty of thrilling cat-and-mouse maneuvers and life-or-death cliffhangers....Romance, religion, science, murder, mysticism, architecture, action. Go!" Kirkus Reviews

"Sue Monk Kidd's eccentric, inventive, and ultimately forgiving novel is reminscent of the work of Reynolds Price in its ability to create a truly original Southern voice." Anita Shreve

"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

"[M]artel’s writing is so original you might think he wants you to read as if, like a perfect snowflake, no other book had ever had this form…. In Pi one gleans that faith — one of the most ephemeral emotions, yet crucial whenever life is one the line — is rooted in the will to live. In any event, when Pi does come to the end of his journey, he has it." National Post

"The Eyre Affair is mostly a collection of jokes, conceits, and puzzles. It's smart, frisky, and sheer catnip for former English majors, a cross between Douglas Adams's A Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and Jonathan Lethem's Gun, With Occasional Music, with a big chunk of The Norton Anthology of English Literature tossed in." Laura Miller, Salon.com

"Great Britain's answer to Thomas Pynchon outdoes himself...maddeningly intricate, improbably entertaining....[O]ne of the most imaginative and rewarding novels in recent memory....Sheer storytelling brilliance." Kirkus Reviews

Bad Cat is a laugh-out-loud look at hundreds of not-so-pretty kitties and cats gone bad — bad habits, bad intentions, and bad attitude. Based on the hit Web site www.mycathatesyou.com, this collection pays homage to the baddest cats around.

"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

"The Shadow of the Wind will keep you up nights — and it'll be time well spent. Absolutely marvelous." Kirkus Reviews (Starred Review)

"Sebold has given us a fantasy-fable of great authority, charm, and daring. She's a one-of-a-kind writer." Jonathan Franzen, author of The Corrections

"It may well be [Roth's] best [novel], and it may well arouse more controversy than all the rest combined....The Plot Against America is far and away the most outward-looking, expansive, least narcissistic book Roth has written." Jonathan Yardley, The Washington Post

"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. It is life-changing. Believe me, you’ll never be the same after reading this!" Lee Strobel, author of The Case for Christ

"The characters are compelling and draw the reader into the arcana as they muddle their way through a pivotal era in human existence....It's geek literature of the highest order." Eric S. Elkins, The Denver Post

"Too good to pass up." USA Today

"Stunning...a literary life raft on Iran's fundamentalist sea....All readers should read it." Margaret Atwood

"The Last Juror does not need to coast on its author's megapopularity. It's a reminder of how the Grisham juggernaut began." The New York Times

"[A] brilliant comic performance — a deftly shaken cocktail of wit, weirdness, and melancholy....Sedaris deserves a rave for giving us another book, period. But he's getting one here for giving us the best book of his career. (Grade: A)" Augusten Burroughs, Entertainment Weekly

"[Larson] uses language well, but has little sense of pacing or focus, perhaps because of the huge amount of material available on the fair....There is much less material available on H. H. Holmes, and Larson tells that part of the story economically." David Traxel, The New York Times Book Review

"My Life is, by a generous measure, the richest American presidential autobiography — no other book tells us as vividly or fully what it is like to be president of the United States for eight years." Larry McMurtry, The New York Times

"Let me put this plainly: Ann Patchett has written the best book I've read in a long, long time. Bel Canto is a masterpiece true to its title, a beautiful song, a broad, bold entirely original love story destined to become an international classic. This is the book we all wait for, the one we thrust into the hands of friends, saying, 'You've got to read this! You've got to read this now!'" A. Manette Ansay, author of Midnight Champagne

"This extraordinary novel [is] the best new work of American fiction to cross my desk in years." Jonathan Yardley, The Washington Post Book World

"Simply amazing, so brilliantly written...almost intolerably exciting at times, and at others, equally poignant." Antonia Fraser

"Gone is the druggy logorrhea of his 1966 novel, Tarantula, as Mr. Dylan...looks back on his life. Yet Chronicles is hardly tame. It is lucid without being linear, swirling through time without losing its strong storytelling thread." Janet Maslin, The New York Times

"In a cleaner, less congested style than he usually favors, Mr. Koontz builds an enveloping story....Odd Thomas walks a very thin line between the exploitation of horror and the feel-good religious optimism that transcends the darkness..." Janet Maslin, The New York Times

"Nicholas Sparks is a singer of songs, a harp-weaver who will not let you go. His novel shines with integrity: a real mission impossible." Dallas Morning News

"I'm not sure what the exact definition of a 'great American novel' is, but I'm pretty sure that Michael Chabon's sprawling, idiosyncratic, and wrenching new book is one." Daniel Mendelsohn, New York Magazine

"[A] typically unabashed blend of razor-witted denunciation and old-fashioned gumshoe detective work directed at right-wing crazies both in and out of government....And Franken can be very funny." Andrew Gumbel, The Independent (U.K.)

"While the misfortunes hover on the edge of being ridiculous, Snicket's energetic blend of humor, dramatic irony, and literary flair makes it all perfectly believable." Library Journal

"Powerfully illuminating....Almost every section of the book is fascinating in its own right, and together the chapters make a rich picture....An arresting portrait of depravity." The New York Times Book Review

"[P]erhaps MacDonald's most impressive accomplishment is her uncanny ability...to vividly re-create the wonder, humor, and fears of childhood." Joanne Wilkinson, Booklist

"Picoult's timely and compelling novel will appeal to anyone who has thought about the morality of medical decision making and any parent who must balance the needs of different children. Highly recommended." Library Journal

"Full praise to Eragon, and I want more! A winner...tip of the hat to young master Paolini." Anne McCaffrey, author of The Dragonriders of Pern series

"No one now writing fiction in the English language surpasses Ian McEwan." The Washington Post Book World

"A moving, crying pageant with wilderness strengths." Carl Sandburg

"Philip Pullman is a writer I very much admire. I think he can write most adult authors off the page....I think he's amazing." J.K. Rowling

"Bryson...achieve[s] exactly what he'd set out to do, and, moreover, [he does] it in stylish, efficient, colloquial and stunningly accurate prose....[S]eems destined to become a modern classic of science writing." Ed Regis, The New York Times

"Gilead is an almost otherworldly book. Its characters are, to a one, good people trying to do right. Obviously a work of enormous integrity, it feels different in kind from the work of writers who produce a book every couple of years, rushing to meet alimony payments, one imagines, or wanting to renovate kitchens. One senses none of the rub of greed informing the writing of the book — but because it lacks the mess of life poking up from the bottom, one is also left without the urgency of fiction." Mona Simpson, The Atlantic Monthly

"Lahiri's short story collection, Interpreter of Maladies, won the 2000 Pulitzer Prize, and her deeply knowing, avidly descriptive, and luxuriously paced first novel is equally triumphant." Donna Seaman, Booklist

"Extravagantly inventive, exuberantly written, emotionally engaging, richly plotted, unafraid of human frailty, heart-wrenching, and so, so funny, Case Histories is prime Kate Atkinson. My Christmas shopping is done!" Christina Schwarz, author of Drowning Ruth and All Is Vanity

"In inventing his own conflicted, determined Jesus — one who found His conviction one step at a time instead of emerging from the manger fully formed and ready to preach — Moore is endlessly, wryly creative." Tasha Robinson, The Onion