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April 15-30, 2004 Edition

Book Sense

Compiles Best

of the Best List

NEW YORK, NY/04/08/04—Book Sense has compiled a list of the most popular books of the past five years from its Book Sense 76 lists, calling the list the “Best of the Best Books.” About 1,000 booksellers were asked to vote on the list and pick titles they most enjoyed selling. Booksellers who belong to the Book Sense community of independent book stores will create special in-store promotions for the titles this summer.

To create the list, Book Sense asked booksellers to vote on top ten ranked books from the Book Sense 76 lists over the last five years. Here are the results:

Adult Fiction

Atonement by Ian McEwan (Nan A. Talese/Doubleday) Bel Canto by Ann Patchett (HarperPerennial) The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown (Doubleday) Empire Falls by Richard Russo (Knopf) Life of Pi by Yann Martel (Harcourt) The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold (Little, Brown) Peace Like a River by Leif Enger (Atlantic Monthly) The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver (HarperPerennial) The Red Tent by Anita Diamant (Picador) The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd (Viking)

Adult Nonfiction

Devil in the White City by Erik Larson (Crown) Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight by Alexandra Fuller (Random House) Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser (HarperPerennial) Nickel and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich (Metropolitan) Seabiscuit by Laura Hillenbrand (Ballantine)

Children’s

The Bad Beginning by Lemony Snicket (HarperTrophy) Because of Winn Dixie by Kate DiCamillo (Candlewick) Dear Mrs. LaRue: Letters from Obedience School by Mark Teague (Scholastic) Diary of a Worm by Doreen Cronin, illustrated by Harry Bliss (Joanna Cotler Books/HarperCollins) Eragon Inheritance: Book 1 by Christopher Paolini (Knopf) The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman (Del Rey) The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien (Houghton Mifflin) The Lion, Witch, and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis (HarperCollins) Olivia by Ian Falconer (Atheneum) The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants by Ann Brashares (Delacorte)