As the year ends, many newspapers, magazines, journals, and other media publish their best books lists (Seldovia Public Library links to lists). As I read them, I add books to my library's shopping carts and to my personal wish-to-read list. Some of these are books that I had not noticed when first published. Others are books that I had passed over but now reconsider. I enjoy and benefit much from the end-of-the-year lists.
As you might guess, I am now presenting my own best of 2006 list. I have tried to think of a clever award name (like the Ricky), but that seems a little too silly. So I am going to call them "Books That Matter." Some, but not all, do tend toward the serious side. I am also adding some music, film, library, and web awards, all chosen through personal deliberation.
Not every item chosen is actually from 2006. My encounter with each was in 2006.
Nonfiction
Dead Beat: Lost Souls, Lucky Stiffs, and the Perverse Pleasures of Obituaries by Marilyn Johnson
Enrique's Journey: The Story of a Boy's Dangerous Odyssey to Reunite with His Mother by Sonia Nazario
Girls Who Went Away: The Hidden History of Women Who Surrendered Children for Adoption in the Decades Before Roe v. Wade by Ann Fessler
Human Cargo: A Journey Among Refugees by Caroline Moorehead
Impresario: The Life and Times of Ed Sullivan by James Maguire
White Man's Burden: Why the West's Efforts to Aid the Rest Have Done So Much Ill and So Little Good by William Easterly
Worst Hard Time: The Untold Story of Those Who Survived the Great American Dust Bowl by Timothy Egan
Memoir
Truck: A Love Story by Michael Perry
Novels
Beasts of No Nation by Uzodinma Iweala
Timothy; or, Notes of an Abject Reptile by Verlyn Klinkenborg
Digging to America by Anne Tyler
Short Stories
Brief Encounters with Che Guevara by Ben Fountain
Man Who Could Fly and Other Stories by Rudolfo Anaya
Stick Out Your Tongue by Jian Ma
Graphic Novel
Mom's Cancer by Brian Fies
Poetry
Blue Front by Martha Collins
Here, Bullet by Brian Turner
Talking Horse and the Sad Girl and the Village Under the Sea by Mark Haddon
Audio Books
Guitar: An American Life by Tim Brookes
Ordinary Man: An Autobiography by Paul Rusesabagina
Revolutionary Characters: What Made the Founders Different by Gordon S. Wood
Music CDs
Just My Heart for You by Curtis and Loretta
We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Session by Bruce Springsteen
Films
Wordplay
Yesterday
The Queen
A Prairie Home Companion
Little Miss Sunshine
Book for Professional Librarians
Whole Library Handbook 4
Individual Book Review
Nonfiction Readers Anonymous
Library Book Review
Reader's Club at the Public Library of Charlotte and Mecklenburg County
Google Tool of the Year
Google Custom Search Engine (which runs LISZEN and Librarian's Book Revoogle)
Library Science Search Engine
LibWorm
Library Conference of the Year
American Library Association in New Orleans (this links to a list of bloggers' reports)
Library Science Article
Collaboration as the Norm in Reference Work by Jeffrey Pomerantz
I look forward to 2007. There will more good reading, listening, and viewing. Have a Happy New Year!
Update. Thanks to librarian.net for the Seldovia link.
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5 comments:
Hi Rick-
Thanks for mentioning LibWorm! I should mention, though, that LibWorm does NOT use a Google Co-op CSE. Even if they had been availble when we started building LibWorm, they can't do the things we wanted LibWorm to do.
Instead, we selected, categorized, and added about 1500 feed URLs (thus far) to LibWorm. LibWorm then checks and indexes these multiple times daily and makes their contents available for searching. Among the benefits of this is that LibWorm search results can be sorted/ordered by date, and can be outputted via RSS. Neither of these things can be accomplished with a Google Co-Op CSE. (It also allows LibWorm to do fun things like make tag clouds that allow for search and feed creation by folksonomic tags.)
Best,
-David Rothman
Co-creator, LibWorm
http://www.libworm.com
David,
Thanks for the info. I am changing the listings.
Hello, Rick,
I was just busily thinking about how I was going to get my hands on a copy of the Library Handbook 4 when I scrolled down and saw "Nonfiction Readers Anonymous" on your list. I literally could not be any more honored; let's face it, a lot of titles that have showed up on my blog I found on your blog first, and I love the way you try out and discuss new technologies. Thanks again for your writing, and here's to a new year filled with even more and better books, blogs, and library news of all kinds.
Forgot to add, pretty excited to see Michael Perry and "Mom's Cancer" on your list too.
Great list--thanks! And I like your new look (which may not be that new, but I haven't looked at the blog except through Bloglines lately).
Happy New Year!
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