Buford's transformation from overly-ambitious dinner party cook (who is usually having a kitchen emergency when his guests arrive) to self-assured line chef in Mario Batali's Babbo restaurant is just part of this fantastic journey. New York, London, Italy, and even Seattle's own Salumi all play a part in Buford's exploration of food and the pleasures of cooking it. Buford is still inspiring me in the kitchen!

I have a really hard time choosing favorites, but this book keeps asserting itself in my affections. I love the way the story wanders from present to past, and I relished the writing. Dean's descriptions of hardships of Leningrad during the siege remain in my mind (the scene with the chocolate haunts me), the Hermitage comes to life in my imagination, and Marina's relationship with Dmitri still tugs at my heart.

A great read about a recent Harvard grad and Fulbright Scholar to Bulgaria who followed her patriotic inclinations and romantic ideas about the spying life to get a job with the CIA.

A tie for the #10 spot between this book and the one that follows. Both books are inspirational and uplifting true stories about changing the world through literacy. Greg Mortenson started the non-profit that became the Central Asia Institute after promising a school to the Pakistani village that saved his life after a failed summit of K2. John Wood founded Room to Read after a vacation in the Himalayas made him realize there was more to life than his high-powered job with Microsoft. Mortenson's saga is more breathtaking, with suspense in parts of the world like Afghanistan, but Wood's narrative was particularly appealing because of the fun and opinionated history of Microsoft sprinkled throughout. Both are examples of how a dream can spread and how one idea can make a huge difference.

This novel about a Pacific Northwest town that quarantines itself during the 1918 flu epidemic was so thought-provoking, I can't wait for it to come out in paperback so more book clubs can discuss it. I was fascinated by the lumber town with utopian ideals and the complex characters who inhabited it.