It’s that time of year again, time for the critics and lit-bloggers and authors to mount their podiums and declare the ‘Best Books of 2006’. The Guardian had its two-part feature on Saturday; The Observer joined in on Sunday; The Times has their 10 Best as well as Erica Wagner's round-up. The TLS had a special Books of the Year issue, which you can sample here, and The Economist had a very interesting selection. The blogging world, not to be outdone, has been gearing up to the recommendations too - Danielle at A Work in Progress offers a round-up of interesting links. (I particularly liked Sandra's 'Dirty Dozen', a list of the books she wished she hadn't bothered opening in 2006.)
I thought I might offer a not-very-original variation on this whole theme: below is a list of the six books I loved best in 2006 (and a few others that deserve honourable mentions), while tomorrow I'll post the six that I liked least. They're in no real order within their groups, and not all of them were published in the last 12 months, although some of them were...
Six of One, Or the Books That Made Me Tingle:
- Disobedience by Naomi Alderman - I thought this debut novel (March, 2006) was thoroughly wonderful, and that it absolutely deserved to win the Orange Prize for New Writers. Set in the conservative environs of Hendon, the heart of London's Orthodox Jewish community, it explored divisiveness, sexuality, religion and identity in a crystal prose and with moving aplomb.
- The Birthday Letters by Ted Hughes - I don't read enough poetry; it's a habit I've never quite gotten in to, even though I nearly always enjoy it when I do. This collection of poems, Hughes' last, acts as a lyrical gloss on his tragic and controversial relationship with Sylvia Plath, both during their marriage and after her death. Of all this posts I wrote this year, this was my favourite to work at.
- Gilead by Marilynne Robinson - Robinson's long awaited second novel is a subtle, yet incisive study of love and prejudice in 1950s America; couched in a meandering, affable first person narrative it works in mysterious ways. I thought it should definitely have been on the Orange Prize shortlist.
- The Game of Kings by Dorothy Dunnett - In January this year I had my first taste of The Lymond Chronicles, a series of vastly superior historical novels centred on an arrogant and irresistable young Scotsman. I never got around to writing a post about either of the installments that I read, but Nic, a fellow acolyte, praised the fifth installment.
- The Accidental by Ali Smith - The book that, in my opinion, should have won the Orange Prize, hands-down, no real competition (although I would have happily seen Sarah Water's carry it off for The Night Watch...). I loved its post-modern assurance and its stylistic virtuosity- a truly innovative novel from a very lovely lady (and a lesbian too! Woohoo!).
- Finally, Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro - My first experience of Ishiguro and a reading assignment of the very best kind. I read it for this review at Emerald City and was left with a strong sense of my own mortality, and its cost. Also, I cried like a baby at the end.
Honourable Mentions
This is the point where I remember all the books I wish I could fit on my list. [Links to my posts...] To name but a few: Vikram Chandra's wonderful epic of Indian history, myth and legend, Red Earth and Pouring Rain, which barely looks epic at all by the side of Vikram Seth's gargantuan politico-parlour drama of marriage and post-partition tension, A Suitable Boy. Also, Kiran Desai's Booker Prize winning The Inheritance of Loss, which was thoroughly deserving, as was my other Booker favourite Edward St. Aubyn's Mother's Milk. Then there was Olga Grushin's surprisingly moving The Dream Life of Sukhanov and Nicole Krauss' unexpected triumph, The History of Love. I'd be remiss to forget Susanna Clarke's short story collection - The Ladies of Grace Adieu - which I reviewed here.
I also read a number of excellent sf novels and short story collections this year, of which the best were: China Mieville's The Scar (a tighter novel that Perdido Street Station and better for it), Ellen Kushner's Privilege of the Sword (swashbuckling bildungsroman don't get any better than this!) and L. Timmel Duchamp's collection of metaphysical romances, Love's Body, Dancing in Time.
I'm certain I must be missing things (my memory is sieve-like) and I'm also sure that there will be books I read before 1st January 2007 that deserve a mention. I'm confident, for example, that Guy Gavriel Kay's new novel Ysabel (reviewed here by Nic but not due till Jan-March 2007, depending where you live) would have been one of my 6 best if I had quite finished it, and I still have Margaret Atwood's Penelopiad and Mary Gentle's new novel Ilario waiting close at hand. It's been another wonderful year in books...
~~Victoria~~