Wednesday, November 22, 2006

My 30 Favourite Books of 2006

THESE are 30 of my favourite books of 2006. What’s on your list?

Novels
1. Half of a Yellow Sun / Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
2. The Law of Dreams / Peter Behrens
3. The Lay of the Land / Richard Ford
4. The Dream Life of Sukhanov / Olga Grushin
5. The Road / Cormac McCarthy
6. After This / Alice McDermott
7. So Many Ways to Begin / Jon McGregor
8. Be Near Me / Andrew O’Hagan
9. The Thirteenth Tale / Diane Setterfield
10. The Night Watch / Sarah Waters
11. Winterwood / Patrick McCabe

Stories
12. Moral Disorder and Other Stories / Margaret Atwood
13. All Aunt Hagar’s Children / Edward P. Jones
14. Matters of Life and Death / Bernard MacLaverty
15. The View from Castle Rock / Alice Munro
16. Mothers and Sons / Colm Tóibín

Poetry
17. The Book of Blood / Vicki Feaver
18. Averno / Louise Glück
19. White Apples and the Taste of Stone: Selected Poems, 1946-2006 / Donald Hall
20. District and Circle / Seamus Heaney
21. After / Jane Hirschfield
22. Swithering / Robin Robertson

Nonfiction
23. Flaubert: A Life / Frederick Brown
24. Running for the Hills / Horatio Clare
25. Seminary Boy / John Cornwell
26. The Last Mughal: The Fall of a Dynasty, Delhi, 1857 / William Dalrymple
27. We Tell Ourselves Stories in Order to Live: Collected Nonfiction / Joan Didion
28. In Spite of the Gods: The Strange Rise of Modern India / Edward Luce
29. Temptations of the West: How to be Modern in India, Pakistan, Tibet and Beyond / Pankaj Mishra
30. Thomas Hardy: The Time-Torn Man / Claire Tomalin

7 Comments:

Blogger Leon Wing said...

I'm nearly 3/4 into Be Near Me, and into the bits where the Father is accused of misdemeanor. And, I'm looking for Robin Robertson's Swithering still. Is it here already?

Tuesday, November 21, 2006 10:33:00 PM  
Blogger Eric Forbes said...

I believe you are enjoying Andrew O'Hagan's Be Near Me. I am afraid Robin Robertson's Swithering is still not here yet. Bookshops should bring in prizewinning books as fast as possible before they run out of steam. Well ....

Tuesday, November 21, 2006 10:52:00 PM  
Blogger bibliobibuli said...

i am left far behind ...

but my favourite book so far is '1,000 years of good prayers'

Wednesday, November 22, 2006 12:43:00 AM  
Blogger Eric Forbes said...

Yiyun Li's A Thousand Years of Good Prayers (2005) is excellent. It was one of my favourite reads of 2005. I base my list on the year the books are published. Look out for her novel!

Wednesday, November 22, 2006 1:13:00 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hi Eric, I am waiting for the paperback for Half of a Yellow Sun; actually I first discovered Adichie when I read her short story in the New Yorker I think, or some other literary magazine. It was the short story that expanded into the novel I suppose. Bought Purple Hibiscus at a warehouse sale but it's a little disappointing so hopefully Half of a Yellow Sun is as good as the short story suggests!

Wednesday, November 22, 2006 3:52:00 PM  
Blogger Eric Forbes said...

Hello Janet - I believe the paperback edition of Half of a Yellow Sun (2006) will only be released in either late 2007 or early 2008. Yes - it was first published in the New Yorker and she expanded her story into a full-length novel. Though flawed in many ways, I think Purple Hibiscus is still a successful first novel in several aspects. On the whole, Half of a Yellow Sun is a better novel than Purple Hibiscus.

Thursday, November 23, 2006 1:36:00 PM  
Blogger Poppadumdum said...

Finished reading The Inheritance of Loss. It was terrible! Full or tired and over-used tricks.

Friday, December 01, 2006 3:26:00 PM  

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