A YEAR-END LOOK AT THE BOOKS OF 2006: From Lemony Snicket to Thomas Pynchon; from Sing Sing to Iraq
Some of my favorite books published in 2006:
By Bob Minzesheimer
Best kids book while waiting for the new library to open:
Best kids book while waiting for the new library to open: Michael Morpurgo's I Believe in Unicorns, illustrated by Gary Blythe: a lovely children's story about a reluctant reader who comes under the magical spell of a storytelling librarian. The author was inspired by a story he heard in Russia of a librarian, who, as his library was burning down, dashed in to save the books.
Best end to a long-running series:
Lemony Snicket's >The End, the 13th and final installment in his Series of Unfortunate Events about three unlucky but resourceful orphans who happen to know their way around a library. (A library of some sort or other figures in each of the 13 books). Can be enjoyed and appreciated by both 10-year-olds and their parents.
Most imaginative use of post-menstrual angst:
Nora Ephron's I Feel Bad About My Neck, a collection of witty essays on aging by the celebrated screenwriter.
Most vivid reminder that times have been worse:
Timothy Egan's The Worst Hard Time, National Book Award-winning history of the dust bowl, a man-made environmental and social disaster during the Depression.
Best book without words:
David Wiesner's Flotsam, a visual treat and test for young imaginations triggered by a boy's discovery of a magical underwater camera washed up on the beach.
Best local history:
David Goewey's Crash Out, a vivid, morally questioning retelling of the great and deadly 1941 escape from Sing Sing, written by the son and grandson of Sing Sing guards, and a 1973 graduate of Ossining High School.
Funniest book written from a hospice:
Art Buchwald's Too Soon to Say Goodbye, a warm-hearted memoir by the 81-year-old humorist whose failing kidneys began working again after he checked into a hospice expecting to die.
Best elegy:
Calvin Trillin's About Alice, a lovely tribute to his late wife Alice, a mother, writer, educator and her husband's muse. (Also see the reissued "Alice, Let's Eat" by Calvin Trillin).
Best book that exceeded 1,000 pages:
Thomas Pynchon's Against the Day, 1,085 pages, set in the USA, Europe, Mexico, and a few places not on any map, in the years before and after World War I.
Book with the best timing (at least for the author):
Bob Woodward's State of Denial, third in a series inside the Bush White House, by far the most critical, published as Bush's approval ratings plunged.