While tracing Orwell's early career in Burma and its impact on his writing, Larkin provides a harrowing glimpse into how current day Burma hauntingly mirrors the worlds Orwell wrote about in 1984 and Animal Farm.

Blink is riveting and entertaining, not to mention quite brief, which makes for a very fast read — but it stays with you. Few books can change your worldview or cause you to rethink your every action and response to the world around you. Not only can Blink boast such a claim, but it does so in a brisk, engrossing, unforgettable fashion. And it makes for great conversation at parties.

Best book of 2005, favorite book of the year... Slice the question any number of ways, but the book published last year that I'm most grateful for having read is The Year of Magical Thinking, a devastating affirmation of love and commitment, hope and despair, life and death.

Ishiguro's prose has never failed to dazzle me, and this novel is certainly no exception. With a near stillness, a quiet passivity, Ishiguro's narrator tells the story of her and her two friends' eerie predestined fate; a fate that echoes throughout novels such as The Handmaid's Tale and Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?. What is revealed here is an important, wistful meditation on life and society. His books are marvels — astonishing works of art.

In the movie In the Mood for Love, Tony Leung whispers his most secret thoughts into a hole in the ruined temple of Angkor Wat. In Bethlehem, pilgrims write out their prayers and wishes and stuff them into tiny cracks between the bricks at the Western wall. With Frank Warren's PostSecret, everyday folks anonymously send postcards of their most intimate stories, truths, and lies to be published for all to see. Each card is a unique piece of art hand-crafted by the nameless confessor. Intriguing and creative. I love it.

Islamic prince, Hollywood intimate, Mussolini's biographer, Jewish tycoon's son, international bestselling author (Goebbels was a big fan), chummy with the Nabakovs and Pasternaks: Lev Nussimbaum (aka Kurban Said, aka Essad Bey) was all these things... and not. Dead by age thirty-seven, Nussimbaum lived one of the most creative, exciting, adventuresome lives one might imagine, refashioning himself as circumstances demanded. With infectious love and romance, Tim Reiss recreates Lev's brilliant career in The Orientalist: Solving the Mystery of a Strange and Dangerous Life, a book that leaves you wishing for more.

In Kafka on the Shore, Haruki Murakami brings the Oedipus legend to contemporary Japan. The reader is treated to his musings on art, culture, the loss of innocence and...cats, in his patented, magic-realist way. Easily his best novel translated into English since The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, Kafka on the Shore will please Murakami fans old and new.

This book has traveled with me daily since I purchased it a few months ago. It even prevented me — a lifelong reader — from picking up a "real" book for two months. Addictive, hypnotic, and just plain fun, I can't wait to complete the next puzzle.

Is it fair to say a book that has been on the shelves less than two months is the best book of 2005? If it is written by George R. R. Martin, then, yes. We've been waiting two years for the fourth book in A Song of Ice and Fire series and I'm glad he took his time. The quality of the writing and of the story have not diminished.

Iron Sunrise is the follow-up to Charles Stross's debut novel, Singularity Sky. Stross is a brilliant new voice in science fiction. And he's British! Like blood pudding.

Ishiguro takes a meditative look at childhood, loss of innocence, and human deception and the drive for survival. This is a haunting narrative that is joyous and sad at once — reminiscent of Philip K. Dick, but with a very literary and poignant eye for deeper "human" emotion. This book takes its time, but it will surprise you. In the end, it may even change the way you think about the nature of man.

Once again John Berendt proves he is a powerful magnet for eccentrics. With clever proficiency, Berendt depicts for readers a host of quirky characters, providing an exclusive glimpse into the Venice you won't see as a tourist. Gossipy yet wholly entertaining, this mix of personal stories and social intrigue pivot around the fiery destruction of the Fenice, the historic Venice opera house. The city's art and architecture unfold alongside the mystery of the fire; Berendt's gifted eye and pen captures it all.

If you are at all concerned about the issue of free speech and methods that have been used to attack or limit it in the past (and the present), Perilous Times is a must-read.

A caustic and hilarious story about Lewis Miner, a man afflicted by a terrible high school experience and blessed with an acid tongue that takes no prisoners. Lipsyte's sentences are creations of absolute wonder and terrific angst.

For years, my initial recommendation to Murakami virgins was The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle. This sublime and mesmerizing novel has changed that.

Rebecca Solnit's marvelous new book of essays, A Field Guide to Getting Lost, is about the spaces between stability and risk, solitude, and the occasional claustrophobia of ordinary life. She explores the mysterious without puncturing the mystery, and that is a remarkable achievement indeed.

Eldest delivers! The deft young author's writing has matured giving the second story in the trilogy more depth, as well as successfully building further anticipation for the conclusion of the series. I'm not letting out any spoilers... Just get the book. Read it. Love it!

This is a great, sprawling book, a memoir in verse by the legendary founder of New Directions Publishers. It tells memorably of his life as a rich young literary upstart, his relationships with the likes of Ezra Pound and William Carlos Williams, and gives a great slice of publishing history — and personal anecdote — in the twentieth century. At times uneven, it is, overall, a real treat of a book.

Magic for Beginners reads more like a book of spooky old fairy tales and fables than a contemporary short story collection. Link embraces various genres, such as fantasy and horror, lovingly takes them apart, combines their pieces, and revives them, creating stories that never fail to please or surprise. This is some of the most interesting writing — in any genre — out there today.

Are you captivated by stories of rare creatures living beneath the surface of the ocean? Do you like the idea of an eccentric teenage narrator handing out startlingly detailed descriptions of these creatures and other aquatic mysteries? Are you a sucker for coming-of-age tales that take place in small coastal towns? Then read this amazing book.

For fans of the troubled and oft misunderstood writer this, the first volume in a three part series, will prove an essential reference. For fans of literate, incandescent, exquisitely written biographies, Kafka by Reiner Stach will be a standout in any collection.

Everything I've made from this book is outstanding. These are recipes that beg to be cooked, devoured, and made again and again. Here is a cookbook to cook from, not just another bunch of pretty pictures accompanied by insanely complicated directions.

Beautiful! This immensely enjoyable epic vividly brings to life the wonderful, endearing characters of Don Tomas and Teresita. Don't wait to read this!

This may not be Cormac McCarthy's best book, or even one of the best books of the year (in fact, its construction is a bit incoherent), yet I remain a sucker for the peculiar blend of melancholy and savagery that permeates all of McCarthy's work. Frightening, depressing, bleak: don't miss it.