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December 2004
Compiled by Robin Beerbower, of Salem (OR) Public Library, from contributions by the members of Fiction_L.

(To use this list in your library, book club, etc., please include the following credit line: "Compiled by the subscribers of the Fiction_L mailing list." This list may not be used for commercial purposes.)

And with eight votes, the winner is:

Clarke, Susanna - Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell

Six votes for:

Lindsay, Jeff - Darkly Dreaming Dexter

Pratchett, Terry - Going Postal

Five votes for:

Fforde, Jasper - Something Rotten

Picoult, Jodi - My Sister's Keeper

Four votes for:

Bohjalian, Chris - Before You Know Kindness

McCall Smith, Alexander (or Smith, Alexander McCall) - Sunday Philosphy Club

Three votes for:

Cruise, Jennifer - Bet Me

Dunant, Sarah - Birth of Venus

Fowler, Karen Joy - Jane Austen Book Club

Haruf, Kent - Eventide

Hewson, David - Season of the Dead

Hiassen, Carl - Skinny Dip

Moore, Christopher - Stupidest Angel

Perrotta, Tom - Little Children

Roth, Philip - Plot Againist America

Zafon, Carlos Ruiz (some may catalog this as Ruiz Zafon, Carlos) - Shadow of the Wind

And the rest:

Acito, Marc - How I Paid for College

Albom, Mitch - Five People You Meet in Heaven

Andrews, Mary Kay - Hissy Fit

Atkinson, Kate - Case Histories

Baldwin, Shauna Singh - What the Body Remembers

Balogh, Mary - Slightly Dangerous

Balzo, Sandra - Uncommon Grounds

Baumbich, Charlene Ann - Dearest Dorothy, Slow Down, You're Wearing Us Out!

Beckerman, Marty - Generation S.L.U.T.

Benjamin, Carol Lea - Fall Guy

Berg, Elizabeth - Art of Mending

Berry, Wendell - Hannah Coulter

Beverly-Whittemore, Karen - The Effects of Light

Brandon, Jay - Grudge Match

Brockmann, Suzann - Flashpoint

Brust, Steven - Sethra Lavode

Buckley, Christopher - Florence of Arabia

Bynum, Sarah Shun-lien - Madeleine is Sleeping

Caldwell, Ian - The Rule of Four

Chabon, Michael - Final Solution: A Story of Detection

Chaon, Dan - You Remind Me of Me

Chevalier, Tracy - The Lady and the Unicorn

Child, Lee - Enemy

Coben, Harlan - Just One Look

Connelly, Michael - The Narrows

D'Ancona, Matthew - Going East

Danticat, Edwidge - Dew Breaker

Davidson, Maryjanic - Undead And Unwed

Day, Cathy - Circus in Winter

Deaver, Jeffery - Garden of Beasts

DeMille, Nelson - Night Fall

Drummond, Laurie Lynn - Anything You Say Can and Will Be Used Against You

Dunning, John - The Bookman's Promise

Elkins, Aaron - Good Blood

Ellis, David - Jury of One

Emerson, Kathy Lynn - Deadlier Than The Pen: A Diana Spaulding Mystery

Evanovich, Janet - Ten Big Ones

Farren, Mick - Kindling

Faust, Minister - Coyote Kings of the Space Age Bachelor Pad

Fawkes, L.T. - Early Eight

Fesperman, Dan - The Small Boat of Great Sorrows

Fforde, Jasper - Well of Lost Plots

Flagg, Fannie - Redbird Christmas

Fowler, Earlene - Broken Dishes

Garcia, Eric - Hot & Sweaty Rex

Garcia-Roza, Luis Alfredo - Southwesterly Wind

Garcia-Roza, Luis Alfredo - The Silence of the Rain

Gillespie, Karen - Bet Your Bottom Dollar

Grafton, Sue - R is for Ricochet

Hagen, George - Laments

Haldeman, Joe - Camouflage

Hand, Elizabeth - Mortal Love

Harrington, Donald - With

Harris, Joanne - Holy Fools

Harris, Robert - Pompeii

Hayter, Sparkle - Bandit Queen Boogie

Hearn, Lian - Brilliance of the Moon

Hewson David - Lucifers Shadow

Hill, Ingrid - Ursula Under

Houston, Jeanne Wakatsuki - Legend of Fire Horse Women

Hunter, Madeline - The Charmer

James, P.D. - Murder room Jillette, Penn - Sock

Jones, Edward P. - The Known World

Jordan, Robert - New Spring

Kantner, Seth - Ordinary Wolves

Katzenbach , John - Madman's Tale

Kellerman, Jonathan - Therapy

King, Jonathon - Shadow Men

King, Laurie - The game

King, Stephen - Dark Tower (Book 7)

King, Stephen - Song of Susannah

Kirshenbaum, Binnie - Almost Perfect Moment

Kluger, Steve - Almost Like Being in Love

Konrath J.A. - Whiskey Sour

Kozak, Harley Jane - Dating Dead Men

Lackey, Mercedes - Fairy Godmother

Lackey, Mercedes, et al - Wizard of Karres

Lansdale, Joe - Sunset and Sawdust

Letts, Billie - Shoot the Moon

Logue, Mary - Bone Harvest

Lychack, William - The Wasp Eater

Maine, David - Preservationist

Mapson, Jo-Ann - Goodbye, Earl

Marai, Sandar - Casanova in Bolzano

Marley, Louise - Child Goddess

Maron, Margaret - High Country Fall

Marson, Bonnie - Sleeping with Schubert

Martinez, Nina Marie - Caramba! A Tale Told in Turns of the Card

Mayor, Archer - The Surrogate Thief

McCall Smith, Alexander - The Full Cupboard of Life

McKinley, Robin - Sunshine

McLarty, Ron - Memory of Running

McSparren, Carolyn - All God's Creatures

Melton, Marliss - Forget Me Not

Micklem, Sarah - Firethorn

Min, Anchee - Empress Orchid

Mina, Denise - Deception

Mirvis, Tova - Outside World

Moore, John - Heroics for Beginners

Morgan, Richard - Broken Angels

Morrall, Clare - Astonishing Splashes of Colour

Mosher, Howard Frank - Waiting for Teddy Williams

Munro, Alice - Runaway

Murakami, Ryu - In the Miso Soup

Murkoff, Bruce - Waterborne

Nadel, Barbara - Belshazzar's Daughter

Nadel, Barbara - The Wasp Eater

Nash, Sophia - A Passionate Endeavor

Nguyen, Kien - Le Colonial

Oates, Joyce Carol - The Falls

O'Connell, Carol - Dead Famous

Olson, Shannon - Children of God Go Bowling

Ozick, Cynthia - Heir to the Glimmering World

Perez-Reverte, Arturo - Queen of the South

Poirier, Mark Jude - Modern Ranch Living

Pratchett, Terry - Hat Full of Sky

Qiu Xiaolong - When Red Is Black

Quick, Amanda - The Paid Companion

Ragen, Naomi - The Convenant

Rankin, Robert - The Hollow Chocolate Bunnies of the Apocalypse

Reid, Van - Fiddler's Green

Richards, Leigh - Califia's Daughters

Roberts, Nora - Blue Dahlia

Robinson, Kim Stanley - Forty Signs of Rain

Robinson, Marilynne - Gilead

Robinson, Peter - Playing With Fire

Rosenfelt, David - Bury the Lead

Rozan, S. J. - Absent Friends

Ruff, Matt - Set This House in Order

Runyon, Brent - The Burn Journals

Ryman, Geoff - Air

Samuel, Barbara - Goddesses of Kitchen Avenue

Sayle, Alexei - Overtaken

Schaffer, Dylan - Misdemeanor Man

Searles, John - Strange But True

Shepad, Jim - Project X

Shinn, Sharon - Angel-Seeker: A Novel of Samaria

Shreve, Anita - Light on snow

Siddons, Anne Rivers - Islands

Silbert, Leslie - Intelligencer

Siler, Jenny - Flashback

Smith, Martin Cruz - Wolves Eat Dogs

Sosnowski, David - Vamped

Spencer-Fleming, Julia - Out of the Deep I Cry

Spragg, Mark - Unfinished Life

Stabenow, Dana - A Taint in the Blood

Stephenson - The System of the World

Stross, Charles - Atrocity Archives

Taylor, Debbie - Fourth Queen

Thomas, Will - Some Danger Involved

Toibin, Colm - The Master

Tracy, P.J. - Live Bait

Trevor, William - Bit on the Side

Turteltaub, H. N. - The Holy Land

Vanderhaeghe, Guy - Last Crossing

Vandermeer, Jeff - Veniss Underground

Vreeland, Susan - Forest lover

Ward, Amanda Eyre - How to be Lost

Weiner, Jennifer - Little Earthquakes

Wiggins, Marianne - Evidence of Things Unseen

Wingate, Lisa - Lone Star Cafˇ

Winspear, Jacqueline - Birds of a Feather

Winston, Lolly - Good Grief

Wolfe, Tom - I Am Charlotte Simmons

Wolstencroft, David - Good News Bad News

www.webrary.org/rs:flbklists/bestnovels2004.html
First published on the Web: 1/18/2005
Last updated: 1/18/2005