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The following are in order of their favor...  theme/plot, unique qualities,
historical content/representation, characters, and overall enjoyment.  Special consideration is given to debut novels and foreign authors.
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  1. The Night Circus by Erin Morenstern - moving this to the top of the list, quirky book with magical characters and qualities... might be the longest I have ever just sat still and read.  
  2. Q by Luther Blissett - very, very good book!  Highly recommend. 
  3. In the  Name of the Family by Sarah Dunant -  another excellent by Dunant.  Her style and level of detail is excellent - on a par with Irving Stone.
  4. The Somnambulist by Jonathan Barnes  - a most curious book with the very best opening paragraph I've ever read.
  5. The Map of Time & The Map of the Sky by Felix J Palma - debut novels by this Spanish author. first two books of a trilogy and good enough that I'll look for the third.  Palma's stories surround HG Wells in late 19th Century London.  Very  good stories... make you think (1,200 pgs.!!)
  6. The Other Woman by Daniel Silva - another Israeli spy novel ... easily my favorite modern day novelist.
  7. The Testament of Yves Gudrun by Emily Barton -  a very weird story... very weird; but i liked it
  8. Our Lady of the Forest by David Guterson - a very quirky novel based in a Washington rain forest.  Most enjoyable.
  9. War and Remembrance by Herman Wouk - great author, great book
  10. Caravans by James A Michener - placed in Afghanistan in the post-war 40's.  Good story... descriptive landscape, culture, and politics.
  11. A Most Wanted Man by John Le Carre - I enjoyed his characters and story.
  12. His Autobiography by Benjamin Franklin - my second non-fiction of the year and a good one.  Franklin was a remarkable man who set very high standards for himself and then accomplished them... education, business, science and political... a man to aspire to emulate.
  13. Empire by Seven Saylor - very  detailed epic of from Tiberius to Hadrian
  14. A Battle Won  by S. Thomas Russell - makes me regret not joining the Navy
  15. The Cuban Affair by Nelson DeMille - one of his first books and with a non-police character... his newer  stuff is beginning to look like cookie-cutter novels.
  16. The Royal Physician's Visit by Per Olov Endquist - a rare non-fiction book. 18th Century Danish King Christian VII.  Translated from Swedish. Just remarkable how the world ran in tihe time of royalty.
  17. Sharpe's Triumph by Bernard Cornwell
  18. City of Light by Lauren Belfer - a debut novel (I always enjoy a debut).  Very interesting glimpse into late 19th - early 20th century moneyed east-coast society.  This is what our political and financial giants were made from.
  19. The Affair, Personal and Never Go Back by Lee Child - good vacation reading though very repetitious
  20. Blood Line by James Rollins
  21. Great and Glorious Physician by Taylor Caldwell - historical fiction at its best
  22. The Secret of Lost Things by Sheridan Hay - very  good story of a New Zealand girl relocated to New York - sounds soft but it wasn't.  I enjoyed it. 
  23. The Final Confession of Mabel Stark by Robert Hough - I heard about Mabel on a PBS show on the circus.... a fun read about what was surely a most remarkable woman.
  24. Worthy Brown's Daughter by Phillip Margolin - slow moving but a  good story
  25. The Heaven Tree by Edith Pargeter - very  good story
  26. Sullivan's Sting by Lawrence Sanders - much better  story and characters. than his "Guilty Pleasures" below.
  27. Pride of Carthage by David Anthony Durham - the stuff  you never heard about growing up.  Sure, the name Hannibal has meaning (not Hannibal Lecter) and there's always something to the story about elephants.  This fictionalized account of his personal battle against the Romans is well done and an eye-opener.  I thoroughly enjoyed the historical information as well as the multi-path story-lines that kept it interesting throughout a rather long book.
  28. Mr. Ives' Christmas by Oscar Hijuelos - slow, sad story.  Pretty much indifferent to this book.
  29. The Son of a Hundred Kings by Thomas B Costain - must be about the 8th or 9th book of his that I've read... though not his best.  The plodding style of his writing is difficult.
  30. A God in Ruins by Leon Uris - disappointing after enjoying his more epic war novels... it is as though he's trying to be a more current, romance adventure.
  31. The Greatest Course That Never Was by J. Michael Veron - fun but not particularly good writing
  32. The Quest by Wilbur Smith
  33. Judas, My Brother by Frank Yerby
  34. The Sheriff of Nottingham by Richard Kluger
  35. Guilty Pleasures by Lawrence Sanders - very disappointing - expected another Archie McPhee story and got a story of a horrible family.
  36. The Origin by Dan Brown  I've reached the saturation point with Mr Brown and Professor Langdon... it's just not very good anymore.  this one visited Barcelona, a city we loved, but even the familiarity with the location couldn't save the book... and i'm sick and tired of Tom Hanks.
  37. The Lion of God by Taylor Caldwell - the depth of her religious research or imagination is impressive.  Ranked low simply because it was read immediately after the Great and Glorious Physician.
  38. Vaporetto 13 by RobertGiradi - pretty much a 'nothing' book
  39. McNally's Dare by Vincent Lardo - another book written by a successor under the guise of the original author.  I liked the Lawrence Sanders version of Archie McNally so much better.
  40. Foucault's Pendulum by Umberto Eco - hard book to get through... and I couldn't make it.  I have enough challenges in life that I don't want to struggle through a past-time meant for pleasure.
  41. Sabbath's Theatre by Philip Roth - a dirty little book
  42. The Lighthouse by PD James - okay, I've reached my limit for Adam Dalgliesh
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