Home delivery

Traffic | Weather | Your account

Movies | Restaurants | Today's events

Friday, December 22, 2006 - Page updated at 11:56 AM

E-mail article Print view

Best books of 2006

By Mary Ann Gwinn

Seattle Times book editor

What's on your top 10 list?

Best-book lists, de rigueur this time of year, present a strategic/aesthetic/philosophical question — is it better to be exclusive or expansive?

Some years we choose to be exclusive — last year there were 10 Seattle Times best books, but we left a lot of good books on the cutting-room floor. This year, the executive decision was ... why not be generous? Even jaded habitu�s of the publishing world acknowledged that an unusual number of good, even great, books were published in 2006, proving that the compulsion to tell a good story well persists, even in the wireless age.

So here's our list of 42 books, fiction and nonfiction, put together with the help of our erudite and hard-working reviewers. We hope you find a few that will give you as much pleasure as they have given us.

Fiction

"The Judas Field" by Howard Bahr (Henry Holt). Steve Raymond, who generally reviews nonfiction about the Civil War, tried out this fictional recreation of the Battle of Franklin (Tenn.), and appreciated Bahr's "vivid, gritty descriptions of Civil War combat and the grim life of Civil War soldiers."

Michael Upchurch's top 10 picks

This has been an unusually good reading year, and I could as easily have come up with a top 20 for 2006 as a top 10.

Two "trends," if you can call them that, grabbed my attention. First, an unusual number of literary novels about World War II were published, bringing fresh insights into a subject one might think had been long ago exhausted.

Second, a blurring of the lines between fiction and nonfiction kept coming up, in books by authors as varied as Dave Eggers, Alice Munro and Lisa St. Aubin de Ter�n. And the blurring wasn't done for the sake of clever metafictional mind-games but in an effort to tap into as big a truth as possible.

Here are 10 I would happily read all over again, if time allowed.

"The Romanian" by Bruce Benderson (Tarcher-Penguin). Several excellent memoirs by gay writers (including Bernard Cooper and Edmund White) were published this year, but this one about a middle-age American translator who picks up and moves to Bucharest after falling in love with a young Romanian hustler was the standout. Culturally astute, politically cranky and packed with Oscar Wilde-worthy epigrams ("Passion is an emotion that rarely respects its own aftermath"), "The Romanian" is a crazed and comical revelation.

"The Architecture of Happiness" by Alain de Botton (Pantheon). The Swiss-British author who has put his own eccentric stamp on subjects as diverse as "Status Anxiety" and "The Art of Travel" turns his eye to architecture, with genuinely refreshing results. Are we in the realm of self-help here, or building design? Both, it turns out, in a book that, with its wily common sense, goes a long way toward identifying architectural approaches that might make this world a healthier, more harmonious place.

"What Is the What: The Autobiography of Valentino Achak Deng" by Dave Eggers (McSweeney's). The best-selling memoirist ("A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius") vanishes completely as he lends his talents to a Sudanese "Lost Boy" anxious to tell his own harrowing tale. Eggers employs docu-drama methods in creating this "fiction" closely based on Deng's ordeals — but the book sings like a novel. The result: a work by an American writer that feels, amazingly, like an African classic.

"Our Holocaust" by Amir Gutfreund, translated by Jessica Cohen (Toby Press). You wouldn't expect a book with this title to be laugh-out-loud funny. Yet in its sunny opening section, this Israeli debut novel is both teasing and mischief-filled as its two stubborn youngsters try to find out how their elderly neighbors — who fill in for mysteriously missing relatives — wound up in Haifa. When the kids are finally Old Enough (always with initial caps) to hear the truth, the book turns into a strange and terrifying headlong dive into the world of the Holocaust.

"The View from Castle Rock" by Alice Munro (Knopf). The Canadian writer breaks new ground in a book that draws heavily on her own family history. This far-ranging, symphonic suite of stories outshines even her earlier masterworks, "Lives of Girls and Women" and "Open Secrets." As Munro ranges from 18th-century Scotland to her own personal recollections of growing up in rural Ontario, she transforms archival past into living past, and magically captures the process by which memory turns into history.

"Suite Fran�aise" by Ir�ne N�mirovsky, translated by Sandra Smith (Knopf). Reading the two novellas of "Suite Fran�aise" is like engaging in a nerve-racking version of time-travel. N�mirovsky, writing while in hiding from the Nazis, chronicled the invasion of France and ensuing German occupation in bitterly ironic yet complexly shaded terms. The second novella, especially, gives readers a sense of what life was like under the occupation. N�mirovsky, tragically, died in Auschwitz in 1942. The survival, discovery and publication of her book more than 60 years after her death is something of a miracle.

"Seaworthy: Adrift with William Willis in the Golden Age of Rafting" by T.R. Pearson (Crown). This Southern writer is a longtime favorite of mine, but I had my doubts about his first venture into nonfiction, especially since I don't have any special love of maritime adventure. But "Seaworthy," with its maverick, tenacious hero — who crossed the South Pacific Ocean twice when in his 60s, and made three attempts to cross the Atlantic when in his 70s — won me over. Plus, Pearson is so dapper in his turns of phrase and storytelling, it scarcely matters what he's writing about.

"Swallowing Stones" by Lisa St. Aubin de Ter�n (HarperPerennial). Like Dave Eggers, St. Aubin de Ter�n entirely turns over her talents to someone else's story in this startling and often hilarious fictionalized memoir "by" real-life Venezuelan leftist guerrilla (now reformed) Oswaldo Barreto Miliani. As its action swings from the high Andes to 1968 Paris to Chile during its 1973 coup, "Swallowing Stones" reveals a man trying to figure out how he got pulled so deeply into radical politics against his better instincts.

"The Places in Between" by Rory Stewart (Holt). Stewart's other book this year, "The Prince of the Marshes," was a fascinating — and discouraging — account of trying to administer two Iraqi provinces in 2003-2004 (at age 30!). Important stuff, for sure. But "The Places in Between," his book about walking across Afghanistan in midwinter, is the quieter, more seductive book, couched in spare, pulsing prose reminiscent of Bruce Chatwin's. Here's a writer who takes extraordinary risks in the field, and makes every sight he sees come alive on the page.

"The Night Watch" by Sarah Waters (Riverhead). The author of "Tipping the Velvet" tries something daring and new in this backward-moving narrative about a loose-knit circle of London friends, lovers and acquaintances at three different points in time: 1947, 1944, 1941. When we first meet them post-war, there's much that is puzzling or off-balance about them. Soon it grows clear that Waters' unusual narrative strategy isn't just a stunt. The climax of her narrative inevitably has to be buried in the intensity of the war years, so why not work back to it? A Man Booker Prize nominee.

Michael Upchurch: mupchurch@seattletimes.com.

He has been the Seattle Times book critic since 1998 and has published four novels.

"Arthur & George" by Julian Barnes (Knopf). A novel based on a real event in the life of Sherlock Holmes' creator Arthur Conan Doyle. Barnes uses Doyle's attempt to right a miscarriage of justice involving a half-Indian lawyer to construct "that rare book that is worth re-reading. What's best about it? It's a fascinatingly seamless blend of historical fact presented as a biographical detective thriller," said Robert Allen Papinchak.

"The Inheritance of Loss" by Kiran Desai (Atlantic Monthly Press). Ellen Emry Heltzel called this novel, which won this year's Man Booker Prize, a story about "globalization, dislocation and the inevitable fallback position — tribalization — in India. It's a story full of beguiling characters and missed opportunities."

"The Whistling Season" by Ivan Doig (Harcourt). Seattle author Doig's latest novel, a favorite of several reviewers, is set in a one-room schoolhouse in Montana and "tells a tale that is part coming of age and part mystery. As usual his language is taut and dynamic, his characters are true, and his story compelling," said David B. Williams.

"The Lay of the Land" byRichard Ford (Knopf). Richard Wallace nominated the third volume in Ford's trilogy about sportswriter Frank Bascombe "because it's always a pleasure reading an author writing at the top of his game."

"When Madeline Was Young" by Jane Hamilton (Doubleday). The story of a woman who sustains brain damage and becomes the charge of her husband (and, eventually, of his second wife). Bharti Kirchner said this novel is "poignant and beautiful."

"Come Together, Fall Apart" by Cristina Henr�quez (Riverhead). Betsy Aoki said this collection of stories and a novella about modern-day Panama showed a "command of language at its sensory best."

"A Disorder Peculiar to the Country" by Ken Kalfus (Ecco). Mark Lindquist said this novel, which explores post-9/11 life through the lens of a disintegrating marriage, "examined the darker side of human nature as revealed by 9/11." Nominated for a National Book Award.

"Magic for Beginners" by Kelly Link (Harcourt). This collection, winner of the British Science Fiction Association Award, "contains odd, absorbing, fantasy stories about dogs, pajamas, zombies, TV series, and marriage counselors for the dead," said science-fiction reviewer Nisi Shawl.

"My Latest Grievance" by Elinor Lipman (Houghton Mifflin). A teenager discovers her nerdy father's first marriage to a flamboyant bombshell, who reappears at the college where the girl's parents are professors and house-parents. "It's the witty, spot-on dialogue that makes this narrative sing and the novel linger in the memory," said Melinda Bargreen.

"The Road" by Cormac McCarthy (Knopf). Richard Wakefield admired this grim tale by one of American literature's masters: "In a post-apocalyptic world, a man and his young son walk an American highway in search of salvation and in flight from the savages into which their fellow human beings have devolved," he said.

"The Emperor's Children" by Claire Messud (Knopf). The lives of several Manhattanites intersect just prior to 9/11. "Messud has captured the predicament of people who have lost their way. ... However over-privileged and whiny these characters may seem, Messud's flawless writing makes us care about what becomes of them." said Valerie Ryan.

"Abundance" by Sena Jeter Naslund (Morrow). This richly detailed and compassionate historical novel about Marie Antoinette "dashes the simplistic misrepresentations of the queen that have come down to us through history," said Barbara Lloyd McMichael.

"The Echo Maker" by Richard Powers (Farrar, Straus and Giroux). A young meatpacker recovering from an auto accident doubts that his closest friends and relations are who they claim to be. As in his other books, Powers uses "scientific advances (in this book, brain research) to illuminate the lives of his characters," said Steve Weinberg. Winner of this year's National Book Award for fiction.

"Firebird" by R. Garcia y Robertson (Tor). A fantasy adventure "that's both fun and thought-provoking," said Nisi Shawl. "Set in an imaginary medieval Russia seething with extremes (werewolves, demigods, nuns, and witches), it features a strong, appealing female heroine and a solid social conscience."

"Absurdistan" by Gary Shteyngart (Random House). "Gary Shteyngart's brilliant novel about an elite Russian �migr� stranded in a post-Soviet oil republic is thoroughly hilarious, bitingly satiric, and at times swerves frighteningly close to dead-on political reporting," said Tim McNulty.

"Wizard of the Crow" by Ngugi wa Thiong'o (Knopf). Skye Moody said this contemporary African story "lampoons the cruelty of misanthropic dictators and their subjects' often-inept rebellion, making for political satire at its finest."

Mysteries

"One Good Turn" by Kate Atkinson (Little, Brown). Several reviewers loved this novel by the Scottish literary-novelist-turned-thriller-writer. The sequel to Atkinson's virtuoso "Case Histories," it brings back Jackson Brodie, a semi-retired British police detective who becomes ensnared in what one reviewer called "a kind of literary 'Crash' " in the middle of an Edinburgh arts festival.

"What Came Before He Shot Her" by Elizabeth George (HarperCollins). This novel by Seattle transplant George picks up where she ended her last novel (she killed off the wife of a London police inspector) "by tracing the killer's life to the moment of his deed. The result is Dickensian in its heft, its vividness of characters and bleak London settings, and its rage at society's failures," said crime-fiction columnist Adam Woog.

"The Mission Song" by John le Carr� (Little, Brown). "From the elder statesman of top-drawer espionage fiction comes a bittersweet, beautifully written, absorbing story of a bright but naive translator who overhears a dirty secret and tries to stop unstoppable forces," said Adam Woog.

"The Zero" by Jess Walter (Regan Books). Spokane writer Walter's novel, a National Book Award finalist, "is a pitch-black and provocative satire about the aftermath of a terrorist attack — and the marketing thereof — told in glinting, hall-of-mirrors prose," said Adam Woog.

"Winter's Bone" by Daniel Woodrell (Little, Brown). A fearless teenager searching for her father "ventures across a few valleys in a journey that might as well be to Mars. This compact book is luminous, sometimes brutal, and drenched in the sights, sounds, and smells of the author's native Ozarks," said Woog.

Nonfiction

Contemporary culture and affairs

"The Happiness Hypothesis: Finding Modern Truth in Ancient Wisdom — Why the Meaningful Life is Closer Than You Think" by Jonathan Haidt (Basic Books). Kimberly Marlowe Hartnett called Haidt's book "a delightful look at the anatomy of happiness, and the myriad ways we humans have hunted for it throughout history."

"The Dead Beat : Lost Souls, Lucky Stiffs and the Perverse Pleasures of Obituaries" by Marilyn Johnson (HarperCollins). Barbara Sjoholm said this examination of the art of the obituary is "a surprisingly upbeat tale about newspaper obits and the reporters who've turned death into an art."

"The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals" by Michael Pollan (Penguin Press). David Laskin called this account of what we eat and where it comes from an "eye-opening look at how our food is grown, processed or found — from industrial agriculture to organic farming to foraging."

"The Lemon Tree: An Arab, a Jew and the Heart of the Middle East" by Sandy Tolan (Bloomsbury). A moving, harrowing microcosm of Middle East history, about a house shared by two families — one Palestinian, whose patriarch built the house in then-Palestine; the other Jewish, who moved into the house in 1948 after the Palestinians were driven from it. Against great odds, the Palestinian son and Jewish daughter keep talking to one another. (Mary Ann Gwinn)

"The Disposable American: Layoffs and Their Consequences" by Louis Uchitelle (Knopf). Bob Simmons said this report on the state of working people in contemporary America "offers intimate profiles of laid-off workers and their families trying to regain control of their lives after disastrous decisions from the astonishingly fibroid minds of corporate CEOs."

"The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11" by Lawrence Wright (Knopf). Several reviewers admired this chilling chronicle of the evolution of Islamic terrorism and how it led to the events of 9/11. A National Book Award nominee.

Biography/history

"The Most Famous Man in America: A Biography of Henry Ward Beecher" by Debby Applegate (Doubleday). A well-told tale about Beecher, a charismatic 19th-century minister (brother of Harriet Beecher Stowe) from a strait-laced background who preached a new gospel of love and acceptance before becoming mired in scandal ... for loving too much. (Mary Ann Gwinn)

"Moscow 1941: A City and its People at War" by Rodric Braithwaite (Knopf). This account of the Battle of Moscow is "a necessary reminder of the unfathomable losses suffered by the Russians in the war against Nazi Germany," said Douglas Smith.

"Walt Disney : The Triumph of the American Imagination" by Neal Gabler (Knopf). John Hartl said this life of Disney, a key influence on 20th-century American popular culture, is "an exceptionally well-researched biography with plenty of revealing insights into the character of its subject."

"Persian Fire: The First World Empire and the Battle for the West" by Tom Holland (Doubleday). William Dietrich said this account of the wars between ancient Greece and Persia "is not just an eloquent retelling of one of history's most dramatic and unbelievable stories — Greek democracy's defeat of the Persian Empire — but puts today's Middle East conflict in the broadest kind of historical perspective."

"Thunderstruck" by Erik Larson (Crown). Charles R. Cross recommended this nonfiction best-seller, a dual narrative about wireless inventor Marconi and a London murderer: "This book is a thrilling combination of murder and science that keeps the reader on edge until the last page," he said.

"Ivan's War: Life and Death in the Red Army, 1939-1945" by Catherine Merridale (Henry Holt). This account of World War II through the eyes of ordinary Red Army soldiers by a British historian is a "a colorful, sometimes shocking, engaging and impressively researched story of how the Soviet Union fought, bled and beat Germany in World War II," said Bruce Ramsey.

"James Tiptree, Jr.: The Double Life of Alice B. Sheldon" by Julie Phillips (St. Martin's Press). The life of an influential 20th-century science-fiction author, who felt she had to masquerade as a man to make it in a male-dominated field. "From childhood African safaris to the early days of the CIA to the award posthumously named in her honor, Sheldon/Tiptree's saga engages and informs," said Nisi Shawl.

"Blood and Thunder: An Epic of the American West" by Hampton Sides (Doubleday). Of this 19th-century history of the Southwest, with a focus on white subjugation of the Navajos, John B. Saul said: "If you could ride beside Kit Carson's mule from 1848 to the 1860s, you'd witness from your saddle key events in the development of the American West and get to know a complex man (Carson) who had a hand in many of them." Sides' book, Saul said, is the next best thing.

"Rough Crossings: Britain, the Slaves and the American Revolution" by Simon Schama (HarperCollins). Schama, a British transplant to America, tells the amazing story of the African Americans who, correctly surmising they would remain enslaved if the Americans won, joined the British side during the Revolutionary War. Simon tells of their epic journey, from Africa to America to Nova Scotia and back to Africa, in an exuberant but well-documented narrative. (Mary Ann Gwinn)

"Consuelo and Alva Vanderbilt: The Story of a Daughter and a Mother in the Gilded Age" by Amanda Mackenzie Stuart (HarperCollins). Ellen Emry Heltzel said this book explores a mother-daughter relationship "in which a social-climbing mother forces her daughter into marrying a cold-hearted British aristocrat. But the daughter, Alva, proves she's got a backbone of her own."

Natural history/the outdoors

"Casting a Spell: The Bamboo Fly Rod and the American Pursuit of Perfection" by George Black (Random House). Part meditation on fishing, part travelogue, this is a "beautifully written, lovingly researched book," said Irene Wanner, "in which the journalist/editor turns to his midlife passion of trout fishing, tracing the history and tradition of angling with expensive sticks and fake bugs."

"Home Ground: Language for an American Landscape" by Barry Lopez (Trinity University Press). This unique compendium of the American vocabulary of landscape, with contributions by dozens of notable writers, "shows the integral and beautiful connections between landscape and language," said David B. Williams.

"Field Notes From A Catastrophe: Man, Nature, and Climate Change" by Elizabeth Kolbert (Bloomsbury). Several reviewers cited this brief book about the looming global climate crisis. Fred Bortz said the book "speaks clearly, passionately, and directly to the largest readership. It has the potential to inspire political action to establish national policies and programs to mitigate the potential catastrophe of its title."

"The Cloudspotter's Guide: The Science, History and Culture of Clouds" by Gavin Pretor-Pinney (Perigee). This literary journey through the skies is "clever, literate, informative and entertaining," said Fred Bortz.

E-mail article Print view

More arts & entertainment headlines...

Buy a link