Best Non-Fiction of 2005

For those who haven't been playing along so far, I've been accumulating the totals of the various "best of" lists that are published this time of year to come up with a comprehensive group of the books considered best of 2005. I look at the fiction works on Friday, and Mondays are devoted to non-fiction.

1. The Year of Magical Thinking, by Joan Didion
2. Bury the Chains, by Adam Hochschild
3. (tie) 1776, by David McCullough
3. (tie) The Assassin's Gate, by George Packer
3. (tie) Matisse the Master, by Hilary Spurling
3. (tie) The Tender Bar, by J.R. Moehringer
4. (tie) American Prometheus, by Martin J. Sherman
4. (tie) The Beatles: A Biography, by Bob Spitz
4. (tie) Becoming Justice Blackmun, by Linda Greenhouse
4. (tie) Big Bang, by Simon Singh
4. (tie) Blink, by Malcolm Gladwell
4. (tie) Collapse, by Jared Diamond
4. (tie) The Disappointment Artist, by Jonathan Lethem
4. (tie) Epileptic, by David B.
4. (tie) Girl Sleuth, by Melanie Rehak
4. (tie) A Great Improvisation, by Stacy Schiff
4. (tie) The Lady and the Panda, by Vicki Constantine Croke
4. (tie) Mao: The Unknown Story, by Jung Chang and John Halliday
4. (tie) Thirteen Ways of Looking at the Novel, by Jane Smiley
4. (tie) The World Is Flat, by Thomas L. Friedman