A Year in Review – The Book Stuff
Les voilà – mes livres préférés de l’année 2005… (don’t ask, I had a French minute)
10) Barbara Kingsolver: The Poisonwood Bible
I didn’t expect to like that book as much as I did. The story of a missionary’s wife and daughters lost in a strange place called Africa. The different voices and views of the five women were captured brilliantly.
9) Dave Eggers: You Shall Know Our Velocity
I tried to describe this book to others and failed. Can you just trust me when I tell you this is a great book and should be read? Because it is.
8) William Goldman: The Princess Bride
Caitlin insisted that I haven’t seen it all until I have seen The Princess Bride. So I watched the movie. Then I read the book. Now I want to see the movie again. (So what I have a thing for Mandy Patinkin? Who wouldn’t?)
7) Margaret Atwood: Oryx and Crake
A strangely disturbing science fiction story and my first Atwood (yes, I am a bit ashamed). I enjoyed that a lot.
6) Michael Chabon: The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay
The touching story about Sam Clay and Joseph Kavalier, the passion for comic books, undying love and irreplaceable loss, New York and strange places. At the end I cried.
5) Neil Gaiman: Coraline
The creepiest book I read and my first Neil Gaiman that left me wanting more.
4) Gregory Maguire: Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West
Wicked was funny, tragical, weird, strange, wild and wicked. And now I even like the musical.
3) Joanne K. Rowling: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
I still like the fifth Harry Potter the most, but HPatHBP was great, too. The finale had my world shatter into pieces. Whoa!
And finally there they are. My favorite books of 2005. I need a drum roll or something.
1) Jasper Fforde: The Eyre Affair & Neil Gaiman: Neverwhere
I tried very hard, but I couldn’t decide. Both The Eyre Affair and Neverwhere were books I just loved, ‚one of a kind’-books full of wild imagination, fun to read and addictive as hell.