Best nonfiction 2006
General nonfiction
The Worst Hard Time, by Timothy Egan (Houghton Mifflin, $28)
This gripping tale of life in the Depression-era Dust Bowl was the 2006 National Book Award winner for nonfiction. (Reviewed
1/10/06)
Oracle Bones: A Journey between China's Past and Present, by Peter Hessler (HarperCollins, $26.95)
New Yorker Beijing correspondent Peter Hessler insightfully describes a new China, one no longer rooted in its traditional rural past. (5/2/06)
The Lemon Tree, by Sandy Tolan (Bloomsbury, $24.95)
The is the true story of the unexpected friendship that grows between an Israeli woman and a Palestinian family connected by a house they both have lived in and each claim to own. (5/9/06)
Mayflower: A Story of Courage, Community, and War, by Nathaniel Philbrick (Penguin Group, $29.95)
Bestselling author Nathaniel Philbrick brings to life the story of the Plymouth Colony. (5/30/06)
Uncommon Carriers, by John McPhee (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, $24)
From trucks to tugboats to coal trains, John McPhee examines the world of transit in delightful and quirky detail. (6/6/06)
The Good Good Pig, by Sy Montgomery (Ballantine Books, $21.95)
Animal expert Sy Montgomery tells the true and touching tale of the happiness an unwanted runt piglet brought her. (6/6/06)
Heat, by Bill Buford (Knopf, $25.95)
New Yorker writer Bill Buford delights with sketches of his experiences in various kitchens, including that of celebrity chef Mario Batali. (6/20/06)
The One Percent Doctrine, by Ron Suskind (Simon & Schuster, $27)
Journalist Ron Suskind explores the state of security in the United States in the years since 9/11 in this flawed but revelatory and chilling book. (7/11/06)
The Prince of the Marshes, by Rory Stewart (Harcourt, $25)
As a member of the coalition forces, a young Scotsman tackles the government of a province in the Iraqi marshlands and narrates his experiences with both disturbing insight and rueful humor. (8/8/06)
The Looming Tower, by Lawrence Wright (Knopf, $27.95)
From New Yorker writer Lawrence Wright, a thorough, accessible, and compelling account of some of the people, politics, and roiling theology behind Islamic terrorism. (9/5/06)
There Is No Me Without You: One Woman's Odyssey to Rescue Africa's Children, by Melissa Fay Greene (Bloomsbury, $25.95)
National Book award nominee Melissa Fay Greene wonderfully chronicles the true story of an Ethiopian woman who took in AIDS orphans. (9/19/06)
Tigers in Red Weather, by Ruth Padel (Walker & Co., $26.95)
Ruth Padel, poet and great-granddaughter of Charles Darwin, gorgeously writes of her hunt for wild tigers. (10/03/06)
The Shakespeare Wars, by Ron Rosenbaum (Random House, $35)
With humor and insight, journalist Ron Rosenbaum examines the impassioned debates that rage between scholars over the works of Shakespeare. (10/17/06)
Fiasco: The American Military Adventure in Iraq, by Thomas Ricks (Penguin, $27.95)
The Washington Post's senior Pentagon reporter offers a detailed and devastating portrait of the run-up to and conduct of the war in Iraq. (10/17/06)
State of Denial: Bush at War, Part III, by Bob Woodward (Simon & Schuster, $30)
The man sometimes called America's dean of journalism uses his remarkable access to continue his chronicle of the George W. Bush administration and the war in Iraq. (10/24/06)
Through the Children's Gate: A Home in New York, by Adam Gopnik (Knopf, $25)
This charming collection of essays by New Yorker writer Adam Gopnik focuses on life in New York City, with a particular interest in urban parenting. (10/31/06)
The Architecture of Happiness, by Alain de Botton (Pantheon, $25)
The wide-ranging Alain de Botton turns his attention to architecture in this superb examination of buildings and how they make us feel. (11/14/06)
Manhunt, by James Swanson (William Morrow, $26.95)
This engrossing blend of history and thriller tells the riveting tale of the search for John Wilkes Booth, Abraham Lincoln's assassin. (2/17/06) [
Editor's note:
The original version mistakenly omitted "Manhunt," by James Swanson. "Manhunt" is non-fiction.]
Biographies
Operation Yao Ming, by Brook Larmer (Gotham Books, $26)
This well-crafted biography of basketball great Yao Ming is also a compelling tale of globalization. (Reviewed 1/3/06)
Lincoln: A Life of Purpose and Power (Knopf, $27.50)
A British scholar offers a penetrating view of Abraham Lincoln and his peculiar gifts as a politician. (1/24/06)
At Canaan's Edge: America in the King Years, 1965-68, by Taylor Branch (Simon & Schuster, $35)
This nuanced biography serves up a detailed portrait of Martin Luther King Jr. and the events of his time. (2/7/06)
Modigliani: A Life, by Jeffrey Meyers (Harcourt, $27)
This crisp, thoughtfully written examination of the life of Italian artist Amedeo Modigliani helps to clarify his place in art history. (3/21/06)
Mockingbird: A Portrait of Harper Lee, by Charles J. Shields (Henry Holt, $25)
Charles J. Shields, an English teacher, has produced the first full-scale biography of the reclusive author of "To Kill a Mockingbird." (6/13/06)
LBJ: The Architect of American Ambition, by Randall B. Woods (Simon & Schuster, $35)
This detailed biography of LBJ paints him as one of the most complex and fascinating of US presidents. (8/1/06)
The Producer: John Hammond and the Soul of American Music, by Dunstan Prial (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, $27)
A man born with golden ears, Hammond jumpstarted the careers of music greats Benny Goodman, Billie Holiday, Count Basie, Aretha Franklin, Bob Dylan, and Bruce Springsteen. (10/3/06)
Memoir
Let Me Finish, by Roger Angell (Harcourt, $25)
New York grandee Roger Angell gracefully recounts his own life story. (Reviewed
6/6/06)
My Life in France, by Julia Child with Alex Prud'Homme (Knopf, $25.95)
Julia Child writes of some of the happiest years of her life - those she spent in France. (6/20/06)
The Discomfort Zone: A Personal History, by Jonathan Franzen (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, $22)
"Corrections" author Jonathan Franzen probes his own past with an acuity that is alternately painful and funny. (9/5/06)
Things I Didn't Know, by Robert Hughes (Knopf, $27.95)
Time magazine's longtime art critic tells of his formative years and experiences in Australia, Europe, and the US. (10/17/06)
The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid, by Bill Bryson (Broadway, $25)
Writer Bill Bryson hilariously and tenderly recalls a 1950s childhood in Iowa. (10/31/06)
Religion
The God Factor: Inside the Spiritual Lives of Public People, by Cathleen Falsani (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, $24)
A journalist queries celebrities about their ideas on God and receives some surprising answers. (Reviewed
3/14/06)
The Great Transformation: The Beginning of Our Religious Traditions, by Karen Armstrong (Knopf, $30)
Popular religion writer Karen Armstrong chronicles the religious breakthroughs that took place worldwide between 900 and 200 BCE. (4/4/06)
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