Clever Magazine, Winter, 05-6 "2005 Clever Book Awards " (www.clevermag.com)

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The Clever Magazine
Book Awards for 2005

by Diannek, editor

It's time once again for the Clever Magazine Book Awards. The thing that makes the Clever Awards different from other awards is that there are no publication restrictions on our choices, since it's impossible for us to read everything that comes along every year. As most readers know, there are bountiful book years and drought book years, but rarely a week goes by without some interesting title that merits our attention.

This year was somewhat difficult because there weren't many stand-out fiction titles that interested us. That view seems to be confirmed by the NYT book editors too. There are more interesting non-fiction titles to choose from. I guess we are more concerned with the facts than mere entertainment these days. No matter. Here are this year's winners, in our humble opinion.

And the winners are:

Fiction:
The Winner: Constant Gardener, John Le Carre (Read this book.)

Runners-up:
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, by Michael Chabon (This book also won the Pulitzer Prize in 2001. We aren't dummies.)
I am Charlotte Simmons, by Tom Wolfe

Non-Fiction:
The Winner: Devil in the White City, by Erik Larson

The Runners-up:
Reading Lolita in Tehran, by Azar Nofisi
Leave Me Alone, I'm Reading, by Maureen Corrigan

Autobiography:
The Winner: The Year of Magical Thinking, by Joan Didion

Mystery:
Contenders: Robert Parker, Ian Rankin, Susan Isaacs
No clear winner

Travel Essay:
The Winner: On Mexican Time, by Tony Cohan

Best Classic (that I probably only read part of but I'm a better person for):
The Winner: The American, by Henry James

Mail Art Book:
A Postal Seance, by Henrick Drescher

Pure Drivel:
No Clear Winner, but we are nominating all those political hit pieces from both the right and left wings-- enough already.

So there you have it. A round of applause for the Phantom, who all deserves a new pair of reading glasses and a nice cup of tea for all her hard work.

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