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Favorite Book-Jacket Designer of the Year: Gabriele Wilson at Knopf. In my list of favorite books for 2004, I mentioned Wilson's marvelous design for Peter Steinhart's The Undressed Art: Why We Draw. She continued to do excellent work in 2005. See for example the cover she designed for Lynn Nicholas' Cruel World: The Children of the Europe in the Nazi Web. It's very difficult to design a cover on this subject without falling into kitsch or cliché or, on the other hand, distancing the reality of it in an attempt to be hip. Wilson solved this problem brilliantly with a cover that imitates design of the 1940s, giving it a slightly faded look, as of a document retrieved from obscurity. Her colleague at Knopf, Chip Kidd, is justly famous, but Wilson too deserves to be recognized. We'll be reviewing the Nicholas book along with a related book just coming out this month from Knopf, Witnesses of War: Children's Lives Under the Nazis, by Nicholas Stargardt.

Favorite Magazine Article of the Year: Burkhard Bilger, "Sole Survivor: One man's quest to find the best shoes ever made" (The New Yorker, February 14 & 21, 2005). It was very hard to make the final choice for this award. I read so many outstanding articles in the course of the year, in so many genres, in so many different keys—and some of you who emailed me with your nominations sent me to gems I had missed. I love Bilger's essay for many reasons, not least because I am a lifetime walker, and it reminded me (among other things) of many walks I've taken over the years with my son, Andrew. Another reason is the figure at the center of the piece, Petr Hlavacek, a "professor of shoe technology at Tomas Bata University, in the Czech city of Zlin," a man whom Bilger portrays with the virtuosity of John McPhee at the height of his powers. Yet another reason is the Central European setting and the curious history of this particular city. And then there is Hlavacek's fascination with the footwear of the frozen man found in a glacier in South Tyrol, who was thawed out after more than 5,000 years. Hlavacek painstakingly constructs a replica of the ancient shoes and pronounces them superior to many that are currently on the market. Did I mention that the piece is superbly written, from the very first sentence?

Next week: some coming attractions from 2006.

Copyright © 2006 Christianity Today. Click for reprint information.

Also posted today is:

Books & Culture's Top Ten Movies | We open the New Year with a look back at the films of 2005. Here are the Top Ten lists of B&C regulars Roy Anker and Peter Chattaway.

Books & Culture Corner and Books & Culture's Book of the Week, from Christianity Today sister publication Books & Culture: A Christian Review (want a free trial issue?), appears regularly on Tuesdays at Christianity Today. Earlier editions include:

Not Just Looking | Books for the eye. (Dec. 27, 2005)

The Top Ten Books of 2005 | A charming bedside miscellany, a new novel by P. D. James, and much more. (Dec. 20, 2005)

How to Survive a Bookalanche | Some more keepers from 2005. (Dec. 13, 2005)

'Tis the Season for Books (And Lists of Books) | Part one of our 2005 roundup. (Dec. 6, 2005)

Taizé in the Fall | A parable of community. (Nov. 29, 2005)

'Have Mercy on Me, O God' | A report from AAR/SBL. (Nov. 22, 2005)

The Shrine Next Door | A superb study of Chinese popular religion helps to set the context for the appeal of Christianity in China today. (Nov. 8, 2005)

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January (Web-only) 2006, Vol. 50