Why should we let everybody else play this game? We've all read some books this year. Let's tally our favorites.
Since it's bound to come up, here are mine:
Fiction: Barry Unsworth's The Ruby in Her Navel (runnerup - Bill Pronzini's The Crimes of Jordan Wise)
Nonfiction - Francis Collins's The Language of God
Okay, mine at up.
ReplyDeleteMine is up too, though I note my favorites of the books I read this year, regardless of the year the book was published.
ReplyDeleteWell, I am torn between two nonfiction books:
ReplyDeleteTo War with Whitaker -- The Wartime Diaries of the Countess of Ranfurly 1939-45, published in 1994 when the Countess was 81 years old (recently recommended by GOB), and Halsey's Typhoon -- The True Story of a Fighting Admiral, an Epic Storm, and an Untold Rescue by Bob Drury and Tom Clavin, just published (sent to me by Drury/Clavin's publisher).
I'm obsessed with war-related tales these days.
I have to think about the fiction. Hum... Like Scott, I need to keep better lists of what I read.
Ok, now I'm going to wrap gifts.
Lynne
I keep recommending David Mitchell's coming-of-age novel, _Black Swan Green_. It's very different from his other, more experimental novels, and I think it may have put off his old fans for that reason, though it should have won him some new ones (people who like more traditional stuff).
ReplyDeleteNonfiction? It came out a long time ago, but I only read it this summer: _In the Heart of the Sea_, by Nathaniel Philbrick. About the fate of the whaleship Essex (Melville's source for Moby Dick). A fascinating read and eminently deserving of the National Book Award it won when it came out a few years ago.
mine are up at my blog, too.
ReplyDeletesusan - i read The Heart of the Sea last year (?) and also really enjoyed it.
"The Innocent Man" by John Grisham. His first non-fiction. I couldn't put it down.
ReplyDeleteI posted my list of favorite reads of the year here. There happen to be ten of them, but when I look back over the list, the ones I'd really recommend as stand-outs are Clare Dudman's One Day the Ice Will Reveal All Its Dead, Mary Sharratt's The Vanishing Point, and Nancy Taylor Robson's Course of the Waterman.
ReplyDeleteThis year I discovered Gabriel Garcia Marquez. And I have to say his very simple Chronicle of a Death Foretold was my favorite work of fiction I read this year. I know that's not exactly 2006 material, but my non-fiction favorite, Burns' Infamous Scribblers , is.
ReplyDeleteThe above comment mentioning Black Swan Green is the third time I've seen that title mentioned in the context of "best of the year". If people are still talking about it, I may have to check it out now.