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Year consensus · 2006

The Most Recommended Books of 2006

We counted 2,531 entries from 102 sources in 2006. The Road by Cormac McCarthy appeared on 13, 2 more than any other book.

A source counts once per book, whatever the result: a win, a shortlist place, or a list pick. We show books named by 3 or more sources. 2006 is the award or list year, not the publication year.

13 sources

  1. The Road by Cormac McCarthy

11 sources

  1. At Canaan’s Edge: America in the King Years, 1965-68 by Taylor Branch

  2. The Lay of the Land by Richard Ford

  3. The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11 by Lawrence Wright

10 sources

  1. The Emperor's Children by Claire Messud

9 sources

  1. Fun Home by Alison Bechdel

  2. The Lost: A Search for Six of Six Million by Daniel Mendelsohn

  3. The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals by Michael Pollan

8 sources

  1. Black Swan Green: A Novel by David Mitchell

  2. Mayflower: A Story of Courage, Community, and War by Nathaniel Philbrick

7 sources

  1. Everyman by Philip Roth

  2. The Echo Maker by Richard Powers

  3. The Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai

6 sources

  1. Absurdistan by Gary Shteyngart

  2. Special Topics in Calamity Physics by Marisha Pessl

  3. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

  4. The Lincoln Lawyer by Michael Connelly

  5. The Secret River by Kate Grenville

5 sources

  1. After This by Alice McDermott

  2. American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang

  3. Averno by Louise Glück

  4. District and Circle by Seamus Heaney

  5. Fiasco: The American Military Adventure in Iraq by Thomas E. Ricks

  6. Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

  7. Heat by Bill Buford

  8. Immoral by Brian Freeman

  9. Imperial Life in the Emerald City: Inside Iraq’s Green Zone by Rajiv Chandrasekaran

  10. James Tiptree, Jr.: The Double Life of Alice B. Sheldon by Julie Phillips

  11. State of Denial by Bob Woodward

  12. Suite Française by Irène Némirovsky

  13. The James Deans by Reed Farrel Coleman

  14. The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane by Kate DiCamillo and Bagram Ibatoulline

  15. The Most Famous Man in America: The Biography of Henry Ward Beecher by Debby Applegate

  16. The Night Gardener: A Novel by George Pelecanos

  17. The Night Watch by Sarah Waters

  18. The View from Castle Rock by Alice Munro

  19. The Worst Hard Time: The Untold Story of Those Who Survived the Great American Dust Bowl by Timothy Egan

  20. Twilight of the Superheroes by Deborah Eisenberg

4 sources

  1. A Woman in Jerusalem by A.B. Yehoshua

  2. Accelerando by Charles Stross

  3. All Aunt Hagar's Children by Edward P. Jones

  4. An Abundance of Katherines by John Green

  5. Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman

  6. Digging to America by Anne Tyler

  7. Dizzy by Jonah Winter

  8. Flaubert: A Biography by Frederick Brown

  9. Flotsam by David Wiesner

  10. Learning the World by Ken MacLeod

  11. Lisey’s Story by Stephen King

  12. Oracle Bones: A Journey Between China’s Past and Present by Peter Hessler

  13. Prisoners: A Muslim and a Jew across the Middle East Divide by Jeffrey Goldberg

  14. Red Leaves by Thomas H. Cook

  15. Swithering by Robin Robertson

  16. The Accidental by Ali Smith

  17. The Greatest Story Ever Sold by Frank Rich

  18. The Law of Dreams by Peter Behrens

  19. The Meaning of Night by Michael Cox

  20. The Places in Between by Rory Stewart

  21. The Rules of Survival by Nancy Werlin

  22. What Is the What by Dave Eggers

3 sources

  1. A Feast for Crows by George R. R. Martin

  2. A Godly Hero: The Life of William Jennings Bryan by Michael Kazin

  3. A Sense of the World: How a Blind Man Became History's Greatest Traveler by Jason Roberts

  4. Against the Day by Thomas Pynchon

  5. Air by Geoff Ryman

  6. Andrew Carnegie by David Nasaw

  7. Arthur & George by Julian Barnes

  8. Baby Game by Randall Hicks

  9. Behind the Mystery: Top Mystery Writers Interviewed by Stuart M. Kaminsky

  10. Blood and Thunder: An Epic of the American West by Hampton Sides

  11. Blood Money: Wasted Billions, Lost Lives, and Corporate Greed in Iraq by T. Christian Miller

  12. Blue Arabesque: A Search for the Sublime by Patricia Hampl

  13. Brothers by Da Chen

  14. Cellophane by Marie Arana

  15. Clay by David Almond

  16. Clemente by David Maraniss

  17. Die a Little by Megan Abbott

  18. Fairest by Gail Carson Levine

  19. Field Notes from a Catastrophe: Man, Nature, and Climate Change by Elizabeth Kolbert

  20. Forgetfulness by Ward Just

  21. Freedom Walkers: The Story of the Montgomery Bus Boycott by Russell Freedman

  22. George Mackay Brown: The Life by Maggie Fergusson

  23. Girl Sleuth: Nancy Drew and the Women Who Created Her by Melanie Rehak

  24. Hitler Youth: Growing Up in Hitler's Shadow by Susan Campbell Bartoletti

  25. Horse Latitudes by Paul Muldoon

  26. Inside by Kenneth Harvey

  27. Jane Goodall: The Woman Who Redefined Man by Dale Peterson

  28. Jazz by Walter Dean Myers

  29. John, Paul, George & Ben by Lane Smith

  30. Just in Case by Meg Rosoff

  31. Justice for All by Jim Newton

  32. Keturah and Lord Death by Martine Leavitt

  33. Lilly’s Big Day by Kevin Henkes

  34. Mellon: An American Life by David Cannadine

  35. Miracle in the Andes: 72 Days on the Mountain and My Journey Home to My Father by Nando Parrado and Vince Rause

  36. Moses: When Harriet Tubman Led Her People to Freedom by Carole Boston Weatherford

  37. Mother of Sorrows by Richard McCann

  38. Night’s Child by Maureen Jennings

  39. Old Filth by Jane Gardam

  40. Only Revolutions by Mark Z. Danielewski

  41. Postwar: A History of Europe Since 1945 by Tony Judt

  42. Restless by William Boyd

  43. Rough Crossings: Britain, the Slaves and the American Revolution by Simon Schama

  44. Seven Lies by James Lasdun

  45. Six Bad Things by Charlie Huston

  46. Sold by Patricia McCormick

  47. Spin by Robert Charles Wilson

  48. Strange Piece of Paradise by Teri Jentz

  49. Sweet and Low by Rich Cohen

  50. Talk Talk by T. C. Boyle

  51. Terrorist by John Updike

  52. The Adventures of Marco Polo by Russell Freedman

  53. The Afterlife by Donald Antrim

  54. The Book of Blood by Vicki Feaver

  55. The Children’s Hospital by Chris Adrian

  56. The Cold War by John Lewis Gaddis

  57. The Creation: An Appeal to Save Life on Earth by Edward O. Wilson

  58. The Last Witchfinder by James Morrow

  59. The Lemon Tree: An Arab, a Jew and the Heart of the Middle East by Sandy Tolan

  60. The New Annotated Sherlock Holmes: The Novels by Leslie S. Klinger

  61. The One Percent Doctrine: Deep Inside America's Pursuit of its Enemies Since 9/11 by Ron Suskind

  62. The Zero by Jess Walter

  63. Theft: A Love Story by Peter Carey

  64. Untold Stories by Alan Bennett

  65. Valiant: A Modern Tale of Faerie by Holly Black

  66. Vellum by Hal Duncan

  67. White Ghost Girls by Alice Greenway

  68. Wildfire by Taylor Morrison

  69. Wizard of the Crow by Ngugi wa Thiong’o

  70. You Must Set Forth at Dawn: A Memoir by Wole Soyinka

Sources counted in 2006