<p>I’m not sure I can choose one favorite from all the books I read in 2006 but these were all near the top of the list:</p>
<p>The Year of Magical Thinking - by Joan Didion. A beautifully written and terribly sad account of a tragic year in her life. Am anxious to see the Broadway show based on the book which starts soon and will star Vanessa Redgrave.</p>
<p>What Remains - by Carole Radziwill. Another well-written but sad memoir. Interesting look into the Kennedy clan from an ‘outsider’s’ point of view.</p>
<p>For character-driven fiction, my two favorites were Middlesex by Geoffrey Eugenides and The First Desire by Nancy Reisman. Both interesting accounts of interesting, and somewhat dysfunctional, families.</p>
<p>For pure reading pleasure, my favorite author of the year has to be John Dunning. I had never read one of his books prior to 2006 but once I’d read one, I had to find everything he’s written! I ended up reading these:</p>
<p>Booked to Die
The Bookman’s Wake
The Bookman’s Promise
The Bookwoman’s Last Fling - all of these are centred around the same character, a retired cop who is a ‘bookman’ (really interesting detail about the book world) who solves mysteries. Great books!
Deadline - another Dunning book but a different character. Equally enjoyable!</p>
<p>I read Charlotte Simmons, but didn’t care for it (even though Wolfe is a UNC-CH grad ). As the mother of a college age daughter, I found it depressing. I did like these (some new/some old)…</p>
<p>An Instance of the Fingerpost - Iain Pears (not a current one; published in 1998, but worth reading)</p>
<p>Death on the Black Sea: The Untold Story of the Struma and World War II’s Holocaust at Sea - Douglas Frantz
(I read this more than a year ago, my husband read it this year. It is very interesting…covers an angle of WWII that has truly been ignored.)</p>
<p>Last Town on Earth - Thomas Mullen </p>
<p>The Brothers Bulger - Howie Carr</p>
<p>The Chosen: The Hidden History of Admission and Exclusion at Harvard, Yale and Princeton - Jerome Karabel</p>
<p>A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth (Love this one…but am still working on it…it’s almost 1500 pages)</p>
<p>Death in Belmont - Sebastion Junger</p>
<p>Borgia Bride - Jeanne Kalogridis (Bought this for my d who is obsessed with the period. I was surpised at what a great read it turned out to be.)</p>
<p>My husband also enjoyed this one…</p>
<p>Behind the Lines: Powerful and Revealing American and Foreign War Letter - and One Man’s Search to Find Them - Andrew Carroll</p>
<p>Before last week, I had only purchased one James Patterson novel…years ago…“Kiss the Girls”. I didn’t even finish it because, frankly, after a few chapters, I came to the conclusion Patterson has a few screws loose. Later I watched the movie and thought it was okay (no weird snake stuff thank goodness). And of course, after d started UNC-CH, we had to rent the movie again, just to look at the flyovers of UNC and Duke.</p>
<p>Last week, I was in the mood for a good mystery and quickly grabbed “Cross” at the BN, forgetting this was the author of “Kiss the Girls”. I realized it after I got home. So the book is sitting on the kitchen counter daring me to read it. I swear…if there is any weirdo, perverted stuff…I’m gonna throw that thing in the trash. ;)</p>
<p>Ack! Don’t throw it out! I want it (though I wouldn’t get to read it until summer)! </p>
<p>Yeah, I read “Kiss the Girls” and loved how the guy went to Spanky’s all the time. Have no clue why he chose that restaurant over all of the others…others are better than Spanky’s…he must haver really been impressed…</p>
<p>i love the alex cross novels. mindless. sometimes you just need that. i don’t think cross is as strange as some of the others. i do not care for most of his other work.</p>
<p>i join in with an earlier poster about john sandford. i especially like the fact that his novels are based in mnnpls/st paul. i am anxiously awaiting his next novel…he did a little research for a home on summit avenue, and i can’t wait to see how it fits in with his next story…</p>
<p>My full list or recommendations didn’t come through the first time. Here it is again.</p>
<p>Suprized nobody has mentioned Black Swan Green by David Mitchell. It was may favorite novel this year.</p>
<p>Also enjoyed:
The Peoples Act Of Love – James Meek
On Beauty – Zadie Smith
Never Let Me Go – Kazuo Ishiguro
My Latest Grievance – Elinor Lipman
The Last of Her Kind – Sigred Nunez
Intuition – Allegra Goodman
Abide With Me – Elizabeth Strout</p>
<p>ophiolite - I save Cross for you…lol! (It looks like a 2 day read…and I better not come across any bizarre abuse of snakes, lizards, bugs, whatever when I read it…)</p>
<p>My wife, who speed reads through anything in the Kay Scarpeta? series and anything by both Kellermans has a beastly time with the Patterson stuff too, and says the scares can’t compare…</p>
<p>Won’t win literary awards but props to Patterson.</p>
<p>Mystery buffs should also try Eliot Pattison. I read The Skull Mantra and loved it. All of the books are set in Tibet and China and are quite revealing.
<p>Not impressed with Charlotte Simmons either. The characters didn’t remind me of the 18 to 20 year olds around my house. They reminded me of teen soap and sitcom characters.</p>
<p>Thanks for the further analysis of Suite, bookiemom. Is there any further significance that a non-musician might not pick up? My mother also said that the book did receive criticism from some Jewish critics for not developing the Jewish characters.</p>
<p>Mathmom, you know, my daughter also intensely disliked Saturday, but loved Atonement. That’s really weird, because usually we read and like all the same books…and we dislike all the same books…for some reason, though, I just absolutely could not stop turning the pages…</p>
<p>YAY-- I get to be the one to mention ABSURDISTAN!!! Sooooo funny. If you have a cracked, irreverent, dark sense of humor you will think you have died & gone to heaven.</p>
<p>I enjoyed Sedaris. Great on CDs on long car drives.</p>
<p>I can’t imagine thinking Saturday was a page turner! I do know that I like to read about characters I’d like to have as friends. I tend to get impatient with books with no sympathetic characters.</p>
<p>I also liked the Year of Magical Thinking and the Kite Runner. Have been midway through Reading Lolita for quite some time. I did the same thing with the Kite Runner and then was so glad that I finally sat down to finish it. </p>
<p>Another one I enjoyed: Digging to America, Anne Tyler.</p>
<p>Another book on the best books of 2005 (not 6) from the NY Times that I really enjoyed–The Lost Painting. About the discovery of a lost painting by Caravaggio–quite fascinating. </p>
<p>I just ordered the World to Come. I do want to read the Suite Francaise too but I am not sure I can make it through.</p>
). As the mother of a college age daughter, I found it depressing. I did like these (some new/some old)…</p>