Top 10 Books of Summer 2005

1. A Long Way Down by Nick Hornby

(June 2005) Four people encounter one another on New Year's Eve on the roof of Topper's House, a London destination famous as the last stop for those ready to end their lives.

2. Eleven on Top by Janet Evanovich

(June 2005) In her 11th outing, Stephanie Plum tries to drop out of bounty hunting, but no such luck.

Metro Girl

3. Freddy and Fredericka by Mark Helprin

(July 2005) Helprin's first novel in over ten years, the long awaited, extraordinarily funny allegory about a most peculiar British Royal Family— a novel that mocks contemporary monarchy even as it maintains, in classic Helprin style, a deep sympathy for the individuals caught in its lonely absurdities.

4. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (Harry Potter 6) by J.K. Rowling

(July 2005) As Harry Potter and his friends enter their sixth year at Hogwart's School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, the fight of their young lives looms larger then ever as the nefarious shadow of their most feared and hated adversary, Voldemort, grows.

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5. The Mermaid Chair by Sue Monk Kidd

(April 2005) Inside the abbey of a Benedictine monastery on Egret Island, just off the coast of South Carolina, resides a beautiful and mysterious chair ornately carved with mermaids and dedicated to a saint, who, legend claims, was a mermaid before her conversion.

The Secret Life of Bees

6. No Country for Old Men by Cormac McCarthy

(July 2005) Llewelyn Moss is stalking antelope when he runs across dead bodies, a stash of heroin, and lots of cash. He walks off with the cash, which leads to trouble; he should have stuck with the antelope.

7. Specimen Days by Michael Cunningham

(June 2005) Three characters seen in three different settings: the Industrial Revolution; the 21st century, as terrorists pockmark New York with bombs; and 150 years into the future.

8. The Hot Kid by Elmore Leonard

(May 2005) With tommy guns, hot cars, speakeasies, cops and robbers, and a former lawman who believes in vigilante justice, all played out against the flapper period of gun molls and Prohibition, "The Hot Kid" is Elmore Leonard true to form: great dialog and the fast narrative, never bogged down or distracted.

9. Until I Find You by John Irving

(July 2005) Actor Jack Burns's mother is a tattoo artist, and Jack's life is shaped by her search through North Sea ports and European cathedrals for the tattoo-obsessed church organist who fathered him.

10. The Wonder Spot by Melissa Bank

(June 2005) Following Bank's runaway bestseller, The Girls' Guide to Hunting and Fishing, The Wonder Spot follows Sophie Applebaum's quest for her own identity—who she is, what she loves, whom she loves, and occasionally whom she feels others should love—over the course of 25 years