ROBERTA RUBIN

Among the many books to choose from, I think I have to pick Ian McEwan's Saturday. The story takes place all in one day in London in February 2003; post 9/11. Henry Perowne is a successful neurosurgeon who starts his day at 4 a.m. watching a plane land with its wing on fire. The tone is set and the deviations from a normal day are intriguing. McEwan examines what it is to be a parent, child, friend, lover, doctor, squash player, and victim.



  ELISE BARACK

The Hummingbird's Daughter by Luis Urrea is a wonderful, mystical novel about a young woman's sudden sainthood in the late 19th century. It is full of engaging characters and wonderfully written. I kept viewing the narrative cinematically in my head as I read! Great book for a snowy winter day; it takes place in sunny Mexico.



MELISSA BEACOM

Snowflower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See is a tale of privilege, secret language, life-long friendship, and hidden customs in 19th century China, where wives and daughters were foot-bound and lived in seclusion. The book is a brilliantly realistic journey back to an era of Chinese history that is as deeply moving as it is sorrowful – with piercing detail and deep resonance. This novel delves into one of the most mysterious of human relationships: female friendship.



  MARY JOYCE DiCOLA 

A Woman in Berlin by Anonymous is the haunting story written by a then-34-year-old German journalist in April 1945 as the Russian Army entered the vanquished city of Berlin. The eight-week diary records with honesty and frankness her personal fight for the survival of her body and soul. She often thinks the horrors she is experiencing are just a fantasy ("...my true self simply leaving my body behind...floating off, unblemished, into a white beyond.

Her story has not left me.


NANCY DREHER

Who wouldn't love Freddy and Fredericka by Mark Helprin, one of so many wonderful authors who visited The Book Stall in 2005? It's a fairy tale about an English monarch-in-waiting who, along with his spoiled young wife, is commanded to reclaim America as a British colony. This novel is not only laugh-out-loud funny, it has many touching passages and humble epiphanies and is a lively travelogue of the United States. (Freddy and Fredericka even spend the winter in Chicago.)

JULIE JACOBSON

My favorite book this year is The History of Love by Nicole Krauss. In a beautifully constructed multi-layered plot, the mystery of a book called The History of Love is teased out through a combination of historical storytelling and contemporary action. The two main characters, a Holocaust survivor who lost the love of his life and a young girl who lost her father, are heroic and humorous as they find their way to each other.


NANCY RANDALL

This was an easy choice. I adored Small Island by Andrea Levy. Her four main characters were wonderfully multi-dimensional and often made me angry, sad, and happy within a matter of three or four pages. It is a novel about war, marriage, and prejudice presented very creatively.

KATHY RILEY

In The Year of Magical Thinking, Joan Didion writes about the year following the sudden death of her husband, John Gregory Dunne. They had just returned from the hospital where their only daughter, Quintana, was desperately ill. Didion enters into a time where she closely examines the medical records detailing her husband's death but cannot part with his shoes. She also reconstructs the details of their life together. As only a writer of her caliber can, she addresses the grief, the lunacy, and the harsh realities of this loss. I greatly admire this intimate look at the thoughts that follow the death of a loved one and so choose it as my favorite book of the year.


JAY SCHWANDT

I need to break the rules and pick two favorites. In David McCullough's inimitable style, 1776 is the intensely human story of those who marched with George Washington in the year of the Declaration of Independence. I've read many books on the Revolutionary period, none as compelling and readable as this. No one but David McCullough could craft such an entertaining narrative. I also have to give a nod to Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince, J.K. Rowling's finest book in the series. Anyone who attended our Midnight Party in July knows how special and unique these books are to so many readers; their impact was evident on the faces of every young (and not-so-young) person who was there.

  BOB THIEL 

Of all the books that I've enjoyed this past year, no novel compares to Cormac McCarthy's No Country for Old Men. The spare, unflinching style in which every word counts, the iconic characters that are the personification of good and evil, and a story that captures you from the opening line all combine to create a rewarding read. This is simply masterful storytelling.


  ALISON THOMAS 

My favorite is The Lighthouse by P.D. James. Adam Dalgliesh and his team of detectives go to isolated Coomb Island off the coast of England to solve a number of mysterious killings. Hopefully this will not be the last in this series because The Lighthouse is P.D. James at her finest.

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