All-Time High Scores
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The following table lists the highest-scoring books in our database for 2004. The higher a Metascore for a book (on a 0-100 scale), the better the overall reviews for that book were. Note that a book must have a minimum of seven reviews to qualify for this list. You may also view all-time high scores | view 2005 high scores
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1 | Little Scarlet by Walter Mosley | 2004 | 93 |
2 | The Circus In Winter by Cathy Day | 2004 | 90 |
3 | The Line Of Beauty by Alan Hollinghurst | 2004 | 89 |
4 | Runaway by Alice Munro | 2004 | 88 |
5 | Wolves Eat Dogs by Martin Cruz Smith | 2004 | 87 |
6 | Gilead by Marilynne Robinson | 2004 | 87 |
7 | Harbor by Lorraine Adams | 2004 | 87 |
8 | Heir To The Glimmering World by Cynthia Ozick | 2004 | 86 |
9 | An Unfinished Season by Ward Just | 2004 | 83 |
10 | Between Two Rivers by Nicholas Rinaldi | 2004 | 83 |
11 | The In-Between World Of Vikram Lall by M.G. Vassanji | 2004 | 83 |
12 | Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke | 2004 | 83 |
13 | Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell | 2004 | 82 |
14 | Little Black Book Of Stories by A.S. Byatt | 2004 | 81 |
15 | When The Nines Roll Over by David Benioff | 2004 | 81 |
16 | Crossing California by Adam Langer | 2004 | 81 |
17 | The Master by Colm Tóibín | 2004 | 81 |
18 | California Girl by T. Jefferson Parker | 2004 | 81 |
19 | The Lemon Table by Julian Barnes | 2004 | 80 |
20 | The Plot Against America by Philip Roth | 2004 | 80 |
21 | Old Boys by Charles McCarry | 2004 | 80 |
22 | The Year Is '42 by Nella Bielski | 2004 | 79 |
23 | The System Of The World by Neal Stephenson | 2004 | 79 |
24 | Havoc, In Its Third Year by Ronan Bennett | 2004 | 79 |
25 | Dark Voyage by Alan Furst | 2004 | 79 |
26 | Case Histories by Kate Atkinson | 2004 | 79 |
27 | An Evening Of Long Goodbyes by Paul Murray | 2004 | 79 |
28 | Sweet Land Stories by E.L. Doctorow | 2004 | 79 |
29 | Natasha by David Bezmozgis | 2004 | 78 |
30 | War Trash by Ha Jin | 2004 | 78 |
31 | The Tyrant's Novel by Thomas Keneally | 2004 | 78 |
32 | The Preservationist by David Maine | 2004 | 78 |
33 | The Summer Guest by Justin Cronin | 2004 | 78 |
34 | The Inner Circle by T. Coraghessan Boyle | 2004 | 77 |
35 | Snow by Orhan Pamuk | 2004 | 77 |
36 | Darkly Dreaming Dexter by Jeff Lindsay | 2004 | 77 |
37 | Four Souls by Louise Erdrich | 2004 | 77 |
38 | You Remind Me Of Me by Dan Chaon | 2004 | 77 |
39 | Transmission by Hari Kunzru | 2004 | 77 |
40 | Human Capital by Stephen Amidon | 2004 | 77 |
41 | Iron Council by China Mieville | 2004 | 75 |
42 | My Nine Lives by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala | 2004 | 75 |
43 | Life Mask by Emma Donoghue | 2004 | 75 |
44 | The Divine Husband by Francisco Goldman | 2004 | 74 |
45 | The Rule Of Four by Ian Caldwell and Dustin Thomason | 2004 | 74 |
46 | Banishing Verona by Margot Livesey | 2004 | 73 |
47 | The Red Queen by Margaret Drabble | 2004 | 73 |
48 | Skinny Dip by Carl Hiaasen | 2004 | 72 |
49 | Wake Up, Sir! by Jonathan Ames | 2004 | 72 |
50 | The Sunday Philosophy Club by Alexander McCall Smith | 2004 | 71 |
1 | Arc Of Justice by Kevin Boyle | 2004 | 94 |
2 | A Tale Of Love And Darkness by Amos Oz | 2004 | 94 |
3 | Armageddon by Max Hastings | 2004 | 93 |
4 | Public Enemies by Bryan Burrough | 2004 | 92 |
5 | Nightingales by Gillian Gill | 2004 | 90 |
6 | Chronicles by Bob Dylan | 2004 | 88 |
7 | The Irresponsible Self by James Wood | 2004 | 88 |
8 | The Daily Show With Jon Stewart Presents America (The Book) by Jon Stewart And The Writers Of The Daily Show | 2004 | 88 |
9 | Shadow Divers by Robert Kurson | 2004 | 88 |
10 | Perilous Times by Geoffrey R. Stone | 2004 | 88 |
11 | de Kooning by Mark Stevens and Annalyn Swan | 2004 | 88 |
12 | John James Audubon by Richard Rhodes | 2004 | 87 |
13 | Dress Your Family In Corduroy And Denim by David Sedaris | 2004 | 85 |
14 | Persepolis 2 by Marjane Satrapi | 2004 | 84 |
15 | His Excellency by Joseph J. Ellis | 2004 | 84 |
16 | Maximum City by Suketu Mehta | 2004 | 83 |
17 | George Balanchine by Robert Gottlieb | 2004 | 83 |
18 | The Ancestor's Tale by Richard Dawkins | 2004 | 82 |
19 | Running On Empty by Peter G. Peterson | 2004 | 82 |
20 | Wodehouse by Robert McCrum | 2004 | 81 |
21 | Vermeer In Bosnia by Lawrence Weschler | 2004 | 81 |
22 | Margot Fonteyn by Meredith Daneman | 2004 | 80 |
23 | Namath by Mark Kriegel | 2004 | 79 |
24 | What's The Matter With Kansas? by Thomas Frank | 2004 | 78 |
25 | Truth & Beauty by Ann Patchett | 2004 | 78 |
26 | Leonardo da Vinci by Charles Nicholl | 2004 | 78 |
27 | Rising '44 by Norman Davies | 2004 | 77 |
28 | The Fall Of Baghdad by Jon Lee Anderson | 2004 | 77 |
29 | So You Wanna Be A Rock & Roll Star by Jacob Slichter | 2004 | 75 |
30 | The Myth Of Solid Ground by David L. Ulin | 2004 | 75 |
31 | Will In The World by Stephen Greenblatt | 2004 | 75 |
32 | Another Bullshit Night In Suck City by Nick Flynn | 2004 | 75 |
33 | Amazonia by James Marcus | 2004 | 75 |
34 | Coast Of Dreams by Kevin Starr | 2004 | 75 |
35 | The Truth About The Drug Companies by Marcia Angell | 2004 | 75 |
36 | Bicycle by David Herlihy | 2004 | 75 |
37 | Lucrezia Borgia by Sarah Bradford | 2004 | 75 |
38 | One Matchless Time by Jay Parini | 2004 | 73 |
39 | Exuberance by Kay Redfield Jamison | 2004 | 73 |
40 | Collapse by Jared Diamond | 2004 | 73 |
41 | Jerome Robbins by Deborah Jowitt | 2004 | 73 |
42 | American Dream by Jason DeParle | 2004 | 73 |
43 | How Soccer Explains The World by Franklin Foer | 2004 | 73 |
44 | Wonderland by Michael Bamberger | 2004 | 72 |
45 | Spice by Jack Turner | 2004 | 72 |
46 | War And The American Presidency by Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr. | 2004 | 71 |
47 | Magical Thinking by Augusten Burroughs | 2004 | 70 |
48 | American Taboo by Philip Weiss | 2004 | 70 |
49 | The Iraq War by John Keegan | 2004 | 69 |
50 | Osama by Jonathan Randal | 2004 | 69 |
The full longlist is displayed below. Shortlisted titles are denoted with an asterisk; the winner is denoted with two asterisks.
Purple Hibiscus by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Maps for Lost Lovers by Nadeem Aslam
Clear: A Transparent Novel by Nicola Barker
The Island Walkers by John Bemrose
Havoc, in its Third Year by Ronan Bennett
Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke
Always the Sun by Neil Cross
* Bitter Fruit by Achmat Dangor
Becoming Strangers by Louise Dean
A Blade of Grass by Lewis Desoto
* The Electric Michelangelo by Sarah Hall
Cooking with Fernet Branca by James Hamilton Paterson
The Honeymoon by Justin Haythe
The Great Fire by Shirley Hazzard
** The Line of Beauty by Alan Hollinghurst
Sixty Lights by Gail Jones
* Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell
The Unnumbered by Sam North
Snowleg by Nicholas Shakespeare
Cherry by Matt Thorne
* The Master by Colm Tóibín
* I'll Go to Bed at Noon by Gerard Woodward
More Information: bookerprize.co.uk
Winners are marked with an asterisk.
Fiction finalists
Madeleine Is Sleeping by Sarah Shun-lien Bynum
Florida by Christine Schutt
Ideas of Heaven by Joan Silber
* The News from Paraguay by Lily Tuck
Our Kind by Kate Walbert
Nonfiction finalists
* Arc Of Justice by Kevin Boyle
Washington's Crossing by David Hackett Fischer
Life On The Outside by Jennifer Gonnerman
Will In The World by Stephen Greenblatt
The 9/11 Commission Report by the 9/11 Commission
More Information: nationalbook.org
Elfriede Jelinek
Winners are marked with an asterisk.
Fiction finalists
The Dew Breaker by Edwidge Danticat
The Line of Beauty by Alan Hollinghurst
Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell
* Gilead by Marilynne Robinson
The Plot Against America by Philip Roth
General Nonfiction finalists
Arc of Justice: A Saga of Race, Civil Rights and Murder in the Jazz Age by Kevin Boyle
Blue Blood by Edward Conlon
* The Reformation: A History by Diarmaid MacCulloch
The Working Poor: Invisible in America by David Shipler
Blood Done Sign My Name: A True Story by Timothy B. Tyson
Autobiography / Biography finalists
Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow
Chronicles, Vol. 1 by Bob Dylan
Will In The World by
Stephen Greenblatt
Queen of Scots: The True Life of Mary Stuart by
John Guy
* de Kooning: An American Master by Mark Stevens and Annalyn Swan
Poetry finalists
The Orchard by Brigit Pegreen Kelly
Cocktails by D.A. Powell
* The School Among the Ruins by Adrienne Rich
Interglacial by James Richardson
Danger on Peaks by Gary Snyder
Criticism finalists
Paper Trail: Selected Prose 1965-2003 by Richard Howard
* Where You’re At: Notes From the Frontline of a Hip-Hop Planet by Patrick Neate
Strangers: Homosexual Love in the 19th Century by Graham Robb
Sontag & Kael: Opposites Attract Me by Craig Seligman
The Irresponsible Self: On Laughter and the Novel by James Wood
More Information: bookcritics.org
Winner is marked with an asterisk.
Finalists
The Green Lantern by
Jerome Charyn
The Dew Breaker by
Edwidge Danticat
* War Trash by Ha Jin
Gilead by Marilynne Robinson
Prisoners of War by
Steve Yarbrough
More Information: penfaulkner.org
Fiction
Gilead by Marilynne Robinson
Nonfiction
Ghost Wars by Steve Coll
Biography
de Kooning: An American Master by Mark Stevens and Annalyn Swan
History
Washington's Crossing by David Hackett Fischer
Drama
Doubt, a parable by John Patrick Shanley
Poetry
Delights & Shadows by Ted Kooser
More Information: pulitzer.org
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