Best Books – 2006
Best Books of 2006
Other Years: 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019
The following are the best books of 2006, as determined by book review trade magazines, national newspapers, and popular arts and culture publications. The Top 20 listed below was compiled by tallying the number of Best Books of the Year lists and major award shortlists that included each book (we only counted lists of 30 or less titles in order to ensure selectivity). The parentheses following each book indicate the total number of lists on which the book was included.
Top 20
1. The Road by Cormac McCarthy (17)
2. The Lay of the Land by Richard Ford (14)
3. The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11 by Lawrence Wright (13)
4. The Emperor’s Children by Claire Messud (11)
4. The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals by Michael Pollan (11)
6. Fiasco: The American Military Adventure in Iraq, 2003 to 2005 by Thomas E. Ricks (8)
7. The Echo Maker by Richard Powers (7)
7. Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic by Alison Bechdel (7)
7. Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (7)
7. Suite Francaise by Irene Nemirovsky, Sandra Smith (7)
7. What is the What by Dave Eggers (7)
12. All Aunt Hagar’s Children by Edward P. Jones (6)
12. At Canaan’s Edge: America in the King Years, 1965-68 by Taylor Branch (6)
12. Black Swan Green by David Mitchell (6)
12. James Tiptree, Jr.: The Double Life of Alice B. Sheldon by Julie Phillips (6)
12. Mayflower: A Story of Courage, Community, and War by Nathaniel Philbrick (6)
17. After This by Alice McDermott (5)
17. Heat by Bill Buford (5)
17. The Inheritance of Loss by Kiren Desai (5)
17. The Lost: A Search for Six of Six Million by Daniel Mendhlsohn (5)
17. Twilight of the Superheroes by Deborah Eisenberg (5)
Other books on four or more lists:
Absurdistan by Gary Shteyngart (4), A Disorder Peculiar to the Country by Ken Kalfus (4), Everyman by Philip Roth (4), The Lemon Tree by Sandy Tolan (4), The Night Gardener by George Pelacanos (4), Oracle Bones by Peter Hessler (4), The Places in Between by Rory Stewart (4), Special Topics in Calamity Physics by Marisha Pessi (4), Theft by Peter Carey (4), The View from Castle Rock by Alice Munro (4), Wizard of the Crow by Nguwi wa Thiong’o (4)
