Books read in 2005 (From Best to Worst)
Explore the best to worst books read in 2005 with this ranked list. Discover top picks and avoid the disappointments from this year's reading journey.
Book
Harry Potter
by J. K. Rowling
Collects the complete series that relates the adventures of young Harry Potter, who attends Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, where he and others of his kind learn their craft.
Book
Memoirs of a Geisha
by Arthur Golden
A literary sensation and runaway bestseller, this brilliant debut novel tells with seamless authenticity and exquisite lyricism the true confessions of one of Japan's most celebrated geisha. Nominated as one of Americaâs best-loved novels by PBSâs The Great American Read Speaking to us with the wisdom of age and in a voice at once haunting and startlingly immediate, Nitta Sayuri tells the story of her life as a geisha. It begins in a poor fishing village in 1929, when, as a nine-year-old girl with unusual blue-gray eyes, she is taken from her home and sold into slavery to a renowned geisha house. We witness her transformation as she learns the rigorous arts of the geisha: dance and music; wearing kimono, elaborate makeup, and hair; pouring sake to reveal just a touch of inner wrist; competing with a jealous rival for men's solicitude and the money that goes with it. In Memoirs of a Geisha, we enter a world where appearances are paramount; where a girl's virginity is auctioned to the highest bidder; where women are trained to beguile the most powerful men; and where love is scorned as illusion. It is a unique and triumphant work of fictionâat once romantic, erotic, suspensefulâand completely unforgettable.
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Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
by J. K. Rowling
Collects the complete series that relates the adventures of young Harry Potter, who attends Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, where he and others of his kind learn their craft.
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Book
Summer Sisters: A Read with Jenna Pick
by Judy Blume
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER ⢠READ WITH JENNA BOOK CLUB PICK AS FEATURED ON TODAY ⢠âSummer Sisters is a book to return to again and again.ââColleen Hoover âAs warm as a summer breeze blowing through your hair, as nostalgic as James Taylor singing âHow Sweet It Is.â You remember. So does Judy Blume. How sweet it was.ââChicago Tribune In the summer of 1977, Victoria Leonardâs world changes forever when Caitlin Somers chooses her as a friend. Dazzling, reckless Caitlin welcomes Vix into the heart of her sprawling, eccentric family, opening doors to a world of unimaginable privilege, sweeping her away to vacations on Marthaâs Vineyard, an enchanting place where the two friends become âsummer sisters.â Now, years later, Vix is working in New York City. Caitlin is getting married on the Vineyard. And the early magic of their long, complicated friendship has faded. But Caitlin begs Vix to come to her wedding, to be her maid of honor. And Vix knows that she will goâbecause she wants to understand what happened during that last shattering summer. And, after all these years, she needs to know why her best friendâher summer sisterâstill has the power to break her heart.
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The Secret Life of Bees
by Sue Monk Kidd
The multi-million bestselling novel about a young girl's journey towards healing and the transforming power of love, from the award-winning author of The Invention of Wings and The Book of Longings Set in South Carolina in 1964, The Secret Life of Bees tells the story of Lily Owens, whose life has been shaped around the blurred memory of the afternoon her mother was killed. When Lily's fierce-hearted Black "stand-in mother," Rosaleen, insults three of the deepest racists in town, Lily decides to spring them both free. They escape to Tiburon, South Carolinaâa town that holds the secret to her mother's past. Taken in by an eccentric trio of Black beekeeping sisters, Lily is introduced to their mesmerizing world of bees and honey, and the Black Madonna. This is a remarkable novel about divine female power, a story that women will share and pass on to their daughters for years to come.
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The Pianist
by Wladyslaw Szpilman
Named one of the Best Books of 1999 by the Los Angeles Times, The Pianist is now a major motion picture directed by Roman Polanski and starring Adrien Brody (Son of Sam). The Pianist won the Cannes Film Festivalâs most prestigious prizeâthe Palme dâOr. On September 23, 1939, Wladyslaw Szpilman played Chopinâs Nocturne in C-sharp minor live on the radio as shells exploded outsideâso loudly that he couldnât hear his piano. It was the last live music broadcast from Warsaw: That day, a German bomb hit the station, and Polish Radio went off the air. Though he lost his entire family, Szpilman survived in hiding. In the end, his life was saved by a German officer who heard him play the same Chopin Nocturne on a piano found among the rubble. Written immediately after the war and suppressed for decades, The Pianist is a stunning testament to human endurance and the redemptive power of fellow feeling.
Book
Confessions of a Shopaholic
by Sophie Kinsella
From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Party Crasher and Love Your Life comes âa hilarious tale . . . hijinks worthy of classic I Love Lucy episodes . . . too good to pass up.â (USA Today) âSophie Kinsella keeps her finger on the cultural pulse, while leaving me giddy with laughter.ââJojo Moyes, author of The Giver of Stars and The Last Letter from Your Lover Becky Bloomwood has a fabulous flat in Londonâs trendiest neighborhood, a troupe of glamorous socialite friends, and a closet brimming with the seasonâs must-haves. The only trouble is, she canât actually afford itânot any of it. Her job writing at Successful Saving magazine not only bores her to tears, it doesnât pay much at all. And lately Beckyâs been chased by dismal letters from the bankâletters with large red sums she canât bear to read. She tries cutting back. But none of her efforts succeeds. Her only consolation is to buy herself something . . . just a little something. Finally a story arises that Becky actually cares about, and her front-page article catalyzes a chain of events that will transform her lifeâand the lives of those around herâforever. Praise for Sophie Kinsella and Confessions of a Shopaholic âKinsellaâs Bloomwood is plucky and funny. . . . You wonât have to shop around to find a more winning protagonist.ââPeople âIf a crème brĂťlĂŠe could be transmogrified into a book, it would be Confessions of a Shopaholic.ââThe Star-Ledger âA have-your-cake-and-eat-it romp, done with brio and not a syllable of moralizing. . . . Kinsella has a light touch and puckish humor.ââKirkus Reviews
Book
The Nanny Diaries
by Emma McLaughlin
A cloth bag with ten copies of the title, that may also include miscellaneous notes, discussion questions, biographical information, and reading lists to assist book group discussion leaders.
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Book
Bet Your Bottom Dollar
by Karin Gillespie
Welcome to the Bottom Dollar Emporium, where everything from coconut mallow cookies to Clabber Girl Baking Powder costs only a dollar, and coffee and gossip are free. For Elizabeth, Mavis, and Attalee, logging nine to five at the Bottom Dollar is not just work time, it's family time. So when news gets out that the Super Saver Dollar Store chain plans to set up shop and run the Bottom Dollar out of town, things go catawampus. Manager Elizabeth, who has a good head for business even though she flunked pin-curling in beauty school, teams up with a crew of dedicated do-gooders bent on saving the Bottom Dollar from the fate of spare change. But when Elizabeth's unlikely new love interest -- who also happens to be Cayboo Creek's wealthiest bachelor -- pitches woo, out come some startling revelations about her past that turn life more than a little interesting for all her friends and neighbors.
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Book
Skinny Dip
by Carl Hiaasen
Marine biologist Chaz Perrone can't tell a sea horse from a sawhorse. And when he throws his beautiful wife, Joey, off a cruise liner, he really should know better. An expert swimmer, Joey makes her way to a floating bale of Jamaican pot-and then to an island inhabited by an ex-cop named Mick Stanahan whose ex-wives include five waitresses and a TV producer. Now Joey wants to get revenge on Chaz and Mick's happy to help her. But in swampy South Florida, separating lies from truths and stupidity from brilliance isn't easy. Especially when you're after a guy like Chaz-who's bad at murder, great at fraud, and just terrible at getting caught...
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Book
Divine secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood : a novel
by Rebecca Wells
A NOVEL ABOUT THE COMPLEX BONDS BETWEEN A MOTHER AND A DAUGHTER.
Book
English as a Second Language
by Megan Crane
In this wickedly funny first novel-think Legally Blonde in Oxford-a young New York woman exchanges her corporate job for a year of books, blokes, beers, and new best friends in graduate school in England. Alexandra Brennan is fed up with her dead end New York City job-and even more fed up of running into her smug ex-boyfriend. So when he crosses the line by telling her that she'll never get into graduate school in the United Kingdom, that's precisely what she does. Armed with imported cigarettes and extra strength coffee, Alex leaves home and crosses the Atlantic to face all that Great Britain and grad school have to offer, including ill-considered romantic interludes, a red-headed nemesis with intellectual pretensions and ulterior motives, a preponderance of eighties music, and more books than she can possibly read in a year. What she discovers, however, is that instead of running away from home - she may have actually found it. With a cheeky sense of humor and terrific cast of characters, ENGLISH AS A SECOND LANGUAGE is a funny and irreverent novel about a young woman's misadventures on the path to adulthood.
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