Top 2+0+0+5=7 Books of the Year (not that they were necessarily written in '05)

1. Ilium, Dan Simmons. Any book that combines Mars, the Trojan War (complete with all the gods), robots, little green men, dinosaurs and Shakespeare has to be the best book ever written, right? No contest. And it has Voynix. Whatever those are.
2. Half-Blood Prince, You-know-who. Grrr! Rargh! Damn you Snape! I owe you for a punch in the nose!
3. Beauty Tips from Moose Jaw, Will Ferguson. A cool Canadian travelogue in the style of both Cahill and Bryson, but not a ripoff of either. Plus he's from Alberta too! The chapter on St. John's is worth the cover price alone.
4. Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell, Susanna Clark. I'm reading this one now- not quite done, but I can't leave it off the list. Still, this book is not for everyone- the 19th century language and sensibilities, as well as meanderingness will put off some readers. But I love it- it is often hilarious and quite dark. Surprisingly dark at times, as Clark is keenly aware that the original connotations of Faerie were sinister, malevolent, and had a curiously innocent way of being wickedly selfish.
5. A Game of Thrones, George RR Martin. This guy excels at writing very vivid, lurid scenes full of mayhem and murder. Hard to put down. My only complaint might be that I devoured the second volume and then realized afterward that hardly anything had happened to move the story along. But all those crazy twists and turns made up for it. Martin will be in Edmonton January 11th at Greenwoods, in support of Volume 4, btw.
6. A Short History of Nearly Everything, Bill Bryson. Fascinating and funny, well researched and very readable. Bryson at his best.
7. Across China, Peter Jenkins. A friend of my Grandma's moved to Hawaii and left us some books by this guy who walked across America back in the 70s (she also gave me a bright orange hoodie for some reason). Then he went to Tibet and China in the 80s, and wrote about it in his easy, conversational style. You feel like you were there with him, and he made me want to go back.