Contact: Mary Frances Wilkens
Booklist
312-280-5715
mwilkens@ala.org
For Immediate Release
January 17, 2006

Booklist announces 2005 Top of the List selections

CHICAGO - Booklist magazine, the review journal of the American Library Association (ALA), has announced its 16th annual Top of the List winners. The eight winning titles were chosen from the annual Editors’ Choice selections as the best books and media of 2005.

“This year’s Top of the List winners strike a somber tone, with war and death prominent among the themes,” said Bill Ott, Booklist editor and publisher. “Perhaps our choices reflect the state of the world, or perhaps it was just a year for very good books on very unhappy subjects.”

The Top of the List picks are featured in the special combined January 1 & 15, 2006 issue of Booklist, which includes the complete annotated Editors’ Choice lists for adult books, adult books for young adults, books for youth, reference sources, and media.

The 2005 Booklist Top of the List winners are:

Adult Fiction: “The March,” by E. L. Doctorow (Random)

Adult Nonfiction: “American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer,” by Kaie Bird and Martin J. Sherwin (Knopf)

Youth Fiction: “Elsewhere,” by Gabrielle Zevin (Farrar)

Youth Nonfiction: “Hitler Youth: Growing Up in Hitler’s Shadow,” by Susan Campbell Bartoletti (Scholastic)

Youth Picture Book: “Michael Rosen’s Sad Book,” by Michael Rosen and illustrated by Quentin Blake (Candlewick)

Reference Source: “Encyclopedia of Religion,” edited by Lindsay Jones (Macmillan)

Video & DVD: “Einstein’s Big Idea” (WGBH)

Audio: “Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell,” by Susanna Clarke; read by Simon Prebble (Renaissance)

Individual copies of the Editors’ Choice issue may be purchased for $6 (prepaid) by writing to Booklist Back Issues, 50. E. Huron St., Chicago, IL 60611. The issue also will be distributed on the exhibit floor at ALA’s Midwinter Meeting in San Antonio this week.

Booklist magazine, the review journal of the American Library Association (ALA), has announced its 16th annual Top of the List winners.