My ListPad

This is Toronto Public Library's list of the best books of 2006 to 2008, created to help book lovers make their reading lists.  It contains award winners as well as hidden gems carefully selected by the TPL's staff.  This effort by the Toronto Public Library to encourage the love of reading and make reading a rewarding experience to Torontonians is very laudable, and will surely create a literate and civilized community.  This is worth sharing with the rest of the world.


After River
Donna Milner, 2008
The life of a British Columbia family is shattered through a series of events set in motion when a charming young Vietnam War resister comes to work on their dairy farm in 1966.

Agent Zig Zag: A True Story of Nazi Espionage, Love and Betrayal
Ben Macintyre, 2007
Eddie Chapman was a thief, a safecracker and a ladies' man. He was also a highly successful double agent. He was trained by the Germans, but working for the British — or was he?

Agnes and the Hitman
Jennifer Crusie and Bob Mayer
Food writer Cranky Agnes is rescued during a break-in by an unlikely hit man who has been directed by the mob to protect her.

Alone in the Kitchen with an Eggplant: Confessions of Cooking for One and Dining Alone
Jenni Ferrari-Adler (ed.)
Gifted writers reflect on the role that food and cooking have played in their lives and relationships and confess what they really do when alone in the kitchen.

Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life
Barbara Kingsolver, 2007
The author and her family vow to live for one year eating only local food. Along the way, they discuss the politics of food, the joy of making cheese, heirloom plants, vanishing bees, the value of the family farm and more.

Animal's People
Indra Sinha, 2007
Animal, a bawdy, irreverent malcontent with a twisted spine, conjures up the colour, cruelty and camaraderie of life in an Indian city modelled on Bophal, site of one of the world's worst industrial accidents.

Away
Amy Bloom, 2008
Lillian, having escaped a Russian pogrom, is alone in America, but making her way in the Yiddish theatre world of New York. When she hears her infant daughter may still be alive, she begins an epic journey back to Russia.

Bay of Spirits: A Love Story
Farley Mowat, 2006
Mowat's love, not only for his wife Claire, but also for a people and a place, shines through as he chronicles their life in Newfoundland's outports in the 1960s. An unforgettable portrait of a vanished way of life.

The Book of Negroes
Lawrence Hill, 2007
Aminata Diallo recounts her life journey — from her birth in West Africa, to her capture and life of slavery in the United States, to her escape to Nova Scotia, and her eventual return to Africa. An inspiring, heart-wrenching page- turner by a master storyteller.

The Book Thief
Markus Zusak, 2006
Set in Nazi Germany, this tale of foster child Liesel Meminger, is narrated by Death. In his words, the story is about "a girl, some words, an accordionist, some fanatical Germans, a Jewish fist fighter, and quite a lot of thievery."

The Boys in the Trees
Mary Swan, 2008
In 19th century Ontario, tragedy ensues in a small town when William Heath commits an unimaginable crime. A deeply haunting story told from a variety of narrative points of view.

Bridge of Sighs
Richard Russo, 2007
An expansive contemporary novel that tells the tale of humble family life in small town upstate New York. Russo explores the theme of friendship over the course of 50 years.

By the Time You Read This
Giles Blunt, 2006
Although his wife's death was labeled a suicide, detective John Cardinal is not so sure; a fear confirmed when he receives menacing notes in the mail. In Blunt's dark world, the characters are complex and the sense of doom relentless.

The Cave Painters: Probing the Mysteries of the First Artists
Gregory B. Curtis, 2006
Curtis tells the colorful story of how the amazing prehistoric cave paintings in France and Spain were discovered. His moving descriptions of the paintings in their original settings leave no doubt that they were created by master artists.

The Chardonnay Charade: A Wine Country Mystery
Ellen Crosby, 2007
Struggling to protect her vineyard from an unusual late-season freeze, Lucie Montgomery discovers the body of a controversial local politician near her fields.

Child 44
Tom Rob Smith, 2008
Arrested and exiled, the only way for KGB officer Leo Demidov to redeem himself and save his family is to investigate and uncover a serial killer. The problem is that according to the state, there is no crime in Communist Russia.

Consequences
Penelope Lively, 2007
A love story spanning three generations. A granddaughter returns to the cottage where her grandparents started married life and sees for the first time where and how they lived.

Crow Stone
Jenni Mills, 2007
Kit Parry, a successful mining engineer, has a teenage past she would rather forget. However, when she takes a job shoring up the old mines that snake under the city of Bath, she finds her past will no longer stay buried.

The Day I Ate Whatever I Wanted: And Other Small Acts of Liberation
Elizabeth Berg, 2008
Short stories written by a woman who answers the question: What would you do if nobody was looking?

Dead Cold
Louise Penny, 2006
Winter in Canada can be murder— literally in the case of the sleepy Quebec town of Three Pines when CC de Poitiers is electrocuted in her garden chair while watching a curling match.

A Dirty Job
Christopher Moore, 2006
A raucous, comedic fantasy in which Charlie Asher, consummate Beta-male and owner of a second- hand shop in San Francisco, is recruited as a middleman for newly departed souls. He is helped along the way by a Goth girl, an ex-cop and hell hounds. Surprisingly heartwarming.

Does Your Mother Know?
Maureen Jennings, 2006
While attending a police conference in Edinburgh, Canadian Christine Morris learns her estranged mother has been involved in a car accident on a remote Scottish island and is wanted for murder.

Eating for England: The Delights and Eccentricities of the British at Table
Nigel Slater,2007
English food writer Nigel Slater talks about food we all thought long forgotten. Each chapter introduces a quirky British food and why he loves it. Not to be read on an empty stomach.

The Echo Maker
Richard Powers, 2006
Karin returns to her hometown in Nebraska after her brother, Mark, has survived a devastating car accident. To her horror, Mark awakens from his coma insisting that she is an impostor.

Effigy
Alissa York, 2007
Dorrie, the youngest of the four wives of a polygamous horse breeder in an 1850s Mormon community, is a skilled taxidermist, often put to work by her husband, a frequent hunter. The hidden tension and secrets of the household begin to unravel as Dorrie and the newly hired hand get closer.

The End of East
Jen Sookfong Lee, 2007
Sammy Chan's return home to look after her aging mother provides her with an opportunity to piece her scattered family history together, starting with her grandfather who came to Canada in 1913.

Ex-Cottagers in Love
J. M. Kearns,2008
Dave Moore, an expat Canadian living in LA, has fallen hard for city girl Maggie, and takes her to the cottage of his youth. A darkly comic novel about a middle-aged man at a crossroads.

Fieldwork
Mischa Berlinski, 2007
A young reporter is obsessed with the story of a female anthropologist who lived among the Thai hill tribes, but was sentenced to 50 years in jail for murder. The narrative moves between the story of the reporter and the story of the anthropologist.

The Film Club: A True Story of a Father and Son
David Gilmour, 2007
More than an ode to movie magic, this is a deeply felt story of a father's unconventional approach to steering his wayward son in the right direction.

Fried Eggs with Chopsticks: One Woman's Hilarious Adventure into a Country and a Culture Not Her Own
Polly Evans, 2006
Evan's plan was simple: to travel around China using only public transportation, despite her very limited language abilities. From kung fu classes with six-year-olds to trying to eat a soft-fried egg with chopsticks, Evans recounts her adventures with humour.

The Garden of Evil
David Hewson, 2008
The sixth book in an exciting crime series set in Rome. A body is found in front of an unknown Caravaggio masterpiece. The investigation leads Nic Costa to a sinister cult and eventually, the artist himself.

Garden Spells
Sarah Addison Allen, 2007
An apple tree in a small southern town is rumored to bear special fruit, which may be the reason the Waverley family seems to be endowed with mysterious gifts. The blending of romance, magic realism and horticultural folklore makes a charming tale.

The Gathering
Anne Enright, 2007
Veronica ponders how unspoken family secrets have led to her brother's death, as her large Irish family reunites for his funeral. Enright is outstanding, writing in a dense, realistic, shocking and humorous style. Winner of the 2007 Man Booker Prize.

{mospagebreak} The Ghost Map: The Story of London's Most Terrifying Epidemic and How it Changed Science, Cities, and the Modern World
Steven Johnson, 2006
In 1854, cholera broke out on Broad Street in London. Physician John Snow outrageously insisted that the disease spread through contaminated water, and he set out to find patient zero and the source of the infection. This non-fiction reads like a thriller.

Gifted
Nikita Lalwani, 2007
The wry voice of the daughter of Indian immigrants, a gifted mathematician, is perfectly captured in this coming-of-age tale set in Wales in the 1980s. Her parents, especially her rather rigid father, pour all their efforts into her academic development, completely neglecting her emotional development.

Girls Like Us: Carole King, Joni Mitchell and Carly Simon — and the Journey of a Generation
 Sheila Weller, 2008
The creative and romantic struggles of three remarkable musicians led them to write songs which reflected the changing lives of their generation of women.

Gods Behaving Badly
Marie Phillips, 2007
A humorous look at what life would be like for Greek gods living in modern London. Aphrodite provides phone sex and Athena finds there is little work for the virgins.

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society
Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows, 2008
A charming story told entirely in letters which celebrate the joy of reading.  Set in 1946, the harsh German occupation of Guernsey during World War II cannot be forgotten, especially by residents who formed a literary society to justify a broken curfew.

Half of a Yellow Sun
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, 2006
This tale of the lives of twin sisters during the Nigerian/Biafran civil war reveals how such conflict can tear apart relationships and allegiances, leaving shattered lives behind.

A Handbook to Luck
Cristina Garcia, 2007
Three young people’s lives intertwine over the course of 20 years: Cuban-born Enrique, living in California; Marta, growing up in the violent slums of San Salvador; and Leila, enjoying an upper-middle-class youth in Tehran.

Him Her Him Again
the End of Him
Patricia Marx, 2007
A comedy of manners by a former writer for Saturday Night Live. Over ten years, a young woman copes with student life at Cambridge, a romantic obsession, life with parents and the workaday world of New York City.

Holding My Breath
 Sidura Ludwig, 2007
Beth Levy's coming-of-age story spans three generations in the Jewish community of North Winnipeg. Beth navigates between the old world and its pressure to conform, and the new world with its promise of escape.

An Illuminated Life: Belle da Costa Greene's Journey from Prejudice to Privilege
Heidi Ardizzone, 2007
A fascinating account of a chic, vivacious and independent black woman who became, in 1906, the first female librarian of the Pierpont Morgan Library. She achieved social and professional prominence travelling the world buying rare books for the Library.

The Indian Clerk
David Leavitt, 2007
G. H. Hardy, one of the greatest mathematicians of the modern age, arranges to have an unschooled prodigy travel to Cambridge from a small village in India, bringing about a clash of cultures and emotions. Based on a true story.

Interred with Their Bones
Jennifer Lee Carrell, 2007
A trail of murders marks the quest for a hidden Shakespearean treasure as The Da Vinci Code meets Hamlet in this gripping mystery/adventure yarn.

I've Got a Home in Glory Land: A Lost Tale of the Underground Railroad
Karolyn Smardz Frost, 2007
Compelling social history that traces the journey of Lucie and Thornton Blackburn from slavery in Kentucky to freedom in Toronto and their new lives as founders of Canada's first cab company.

The Jennifer Morgue
Charles Stross, 2006
A compellingly odd mix of James Bond spying, Lovecraftian cosmic horror, open source hacker geekery and public service bureaucracy satire, with strong appeal to fans of any one of these and nearly undiluted pleasure to those who like all four.

Keeping the World Away
Margaret Forster, 2006
A fictionalized account of Gwen John, a British artist and one of Rodin's lovers. John expresses her all-consuming love for Rodin through a painting that becomes lost and found through time and place, and touches five other artistic women.

Kindness Goes Unpunished
Craig Johnson, 2007
A small-town sheriff is visiting his daughter in Philadelphia when she becomes badly hurt. He tries to discover exactly what happened to her, while attempting to elude the bad guys and, occasionally, even the police.

King of Infinite Space: Donald Coxeter, The Man Who Saved Geometry
Siobhan Roberts, 2006
A biography of the University of Toronto mathematician whose ideas and research influenced luminaries such as artist M.C. Escher and inventor R. Buckminster Fuller. A fun read which will appeal to non-mathematicians as well as math fans.

Landing
Emma Donoghue, 2007
An appealing love story and an in-depth examination of two very different cultures. Add to that a substantial age difference, a racial difference, a rural versus urban lifestyle and a few thousand miles ...can two women find love under these circumstances?

Last Harvest: How a Cornfield Became New Daleville
Witold Rybczynski, 2007
Over a four-year period, Witold Rybczynski observed the progress of a "neotraditional" residential subdivision from the initial land sale to the first families moving in, with interesting digressions along the way.

The Law of Dreams
Peter Behrens, 2006
Fergus is a teenager when he is left an orphan after the brutal murder of his parents during the Irish potato famine of 1847. He must make his way in a world of hunger, thievery, greed and love. Winner of the Governor General's Award.

Let It Be Morning
Sayed Kashua translated by Miriam Shlesinger, 2006
An Israeli-Arab journalist, who returns to his native village while pretending to his family that he is still working in Tel Aviv, is trapped there when the Israeli army blockades the village. The tension causes families and the community to fall apart.

Life Class
Pat Barker, 2007
Barker revisits the First World War she wrote about in her award- winning Regeneration Trilogy, capturing the devastation of this global cataclysm in the personal stories of a trio of art students.

The Long Walk Home
Will North, 2007
Alec travels to Wales to scatter his wife's ashes on a mountain they had visited together. Nearby is a bed and breakfast run by Fiona who is caring for her dying husband. A moving story of loves lost and new.

A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier
Ishmael Beah, 2007
At age 12, Beah was swept up in the civil war that engulfed Sierra Leone. His horrendous experiences and eventual redemption are recalled in this personal memoir.

Mad Dash
Patricia Gaffney, 2007
An argument over the abandoned puppy they found on their doorstep is the final straw in Dash's decision to leave her 20-year marriage to Andrew. He doesn't seem to realize that Dash needs more than his hypochondria and an endless round of faculty parties.

The Man Who Loved China: The Fantastic Story of the Eccentric Scientist Who Unlocked the Mysteries of the Middle Kingdom
Simon Winchester, 2008
Joseph Needham's journeys through China in the 1940s and 50s led him to produce some of the most extensive and spectacular volumes about science and civilization ever produced. An engaging portrait of the man credited with opening
Western eyes to China's significant scientific achievements.

The Man Who Made Lists: Love, Death, Madness, and the Creation of "Roget's Thesaurus" Joshua C. Kendall, 2008
An amazing, excellent, fabulous, imaginative, incredible, sensational, terrific and wonderful biography of the creator of the ultimate thesaurus. It perfectly captures the sad, strange life of a man obsessed. A fantastic read for anyone who delights in the power, beauty and multiplicity of words.

Mark of the Lion: A Jade del Cameron Novel
Suzanne Arruda, 2006
In 1919, a young woman goes to Kenya to fulfill her dead English fiancé's final wish: solve the
mystery of his father's death and find her fiance's brother. Could his father really have been killed by a hyena in a Nairobi hotel?

Measuring Mother Earth: How Joe the Kid Became Tyrrell of the North
Heather Robertson, 2007
Although short-sighted, deaf and egotistical, 19th century Canadian geographer Joseph Burr Tyrrell became the romantic poster boy for northern exploration, discovering Canada's first dinosaurs remains and making a fortune in gold.

The Ministry of Special Cases
Nathan Englander, 2007
Set during the 1970s in Argentina, this novel follows one family's struggle when their son disappears. Written in the alternating voices of the parents, Kaddish and Lillian.

Mister Pip
Lloyd Jones, 2007
Mister Pip, the fictitious character in Great Expectations, comes alive for Matilda, as her new teacher reads to the class. This enables her to escape temporarily the violence caused by the blockade of her Melanesian island of Bougainville.

Mosquito
Roma Tearne, 2007
An unusual first novel, set in Sri Lanka, an engrossing tale of a romance set against the backdrop of a guerrilla war.

Mr. Clarinet
Nick Stone, 2007
Max Mingus, an ex-cop, ex-private investigator and currently ex-con is asked to investigate the disappearance of the young son of a wealthy white Haitian family. To find the boy, he will have to descend into a corrupt and violent underworld.

My Life in France
Julia Child with Alex Prud'homme, 2006
Told in Child's own words, this is the captivating story of her years in France when she fell in love with French food and found her true calling. Vivid and evocative, this is not a book to be read while on a diet!


My Wedding Dress: True-Life Tales of Lace, Laughter, Tears and Tulle
Susan Whelehan and Anne L. Carter (eds.), 2007
Twenty-six women, some famous, most not, tell the story connected with their wedding dress. The power of a dress to release memories, emotions, truths and insights is astonishing.

No Time for Goodbye
Linwood Barclay, 2007
Former Toronto Star columnist Barclay forsakes his usual humour in this gripping story of a teenaged girl who wakes up one morning to find that her entire family has disappeared without a trace.

The Outlander Gil Adamson, 2007
In 1903, 19-year-old Mary Boulton, widowed by her own hand, flees alone across the west, one quick step ahead of the law and her dead husband's two brothers. The author beautifully charts Mary's flight across a gothic Canadian landscape and the private story which propels her.

People of the Book
Geraldine Brooks, 2008
Hanna Heath, an Australian rare books expert, accepts the job of restoring a Haggadah, a rare and precious Jewish manuscript, rescued from shelling during the Bosnian War. She follows a trail back in time of anti-Semitism, acts of heroism and lives linked through generations.

A Perfect Grave Rick Mofina, 2007
The murder of a Seattle nun leads crime reporter Jason Wade to a hermit nun who founded a mysterious religious order and the dark secret that has long tormented his ex-cop father. A non-stop thrill ride.

Piece of My Heart Peter Robinson, 2006
The 1969 murder of a young girl in Yorkshire's first outdoor rock festival has implications for a case 35 years later when Inspector Alan Banks is asked to investigate the death of a music journalist.

The Post-Birthday World
Lionel Shriver, 2007
Using parallel storylines, the author presents an American couple living in contemporary London in this intriguing novel exploring questions of love, fidelity, choice and destiny.

The Prodigal Tongue: Dispatches from the Future of English
Mark Abley, 2008
A look at the wild and wacky evolution of English and how it is transforming the world at the same time that the world is changing it.

The Ravine
Paul Quarrington, 2008
Comedy and tragedy collide in the story of Phil McQuigge. He has no wife, no job, and is given to late- night drunken phone calls as he tries to make sense of his past and present.

{mospagebreak} The Red Power Murders: A DreadfulWater Mystery
Hartley Good Weather, 2006
Thumps DreadfulWater finds that the murder at the site of a gambling resort is linked to old friends from the Red Power Movement of the 1960s. GoodWeather (a.k.a.
Thomas King) uses his delicious, dry humour to colour this mystery set in the Native community.

The Reluctant Fundamentalist
Mohsin Hamid, 2007
A young Pakistani-American lives the American dream until the events of September 11 force him to confront his personal allegiances.

Reluctant Genius: The Passionate Life and Inventive Mind of Alexander Graham Bell
Charlotte Gray, 2006
A richly rewarding and highly readable biography of Alexander Graham Bell, focusing on his passionate and long lasting relationship with his deaf wife, Mabel.

The Road Home
Rose Tremain, 2007
An East European migrant leaves the harsh circumstances of his home country to find himself in the bewildering and alienating culture of modern London. Winner of the Orange Prize.

Roma: the Novel of Ancient Rome
Steven Saylor, 2007
Fans of the HBO series Rome won't want to miss Steven Saylor's Roma, a sweeping reconstruction of Roman myth and history in the manner of James Michener.

A Romance on Three Legs: Glenn Gould's Obsessive Quest for the Perfect Piano
Katie Hafner, 2008
The story of Glenn Gould and his favourite piano, the CD 318, which he found in Eaton's department store. Piano tuner Charles Verne Edquist plays a pivotal role in ensuring the piano conforms to Gould's unique specifications. Fascinating reading.

Salmon Fishing in the Yemen
Paul Torday, 2007
A gentle satire, told entirely in emails, diary entries and newspaper articles, in which a British fisheries scientist reluctantly agrees to introduce salmon fishing to the desert. Along the way he learns about life, love and politics.

The Septembers of Shiraz
Dalia Sofer, 2007
The story of secular, affluent Jews in Tehran after the Islamic Revolution of the early 1980s as they try to survive in a changing political climate and increasingly unforgiving world.

Service Included: Four-Star Secrets of an Eavesdropping Waiter
Phoebe Damrosch, 2007
Damrosch recounts her intense training followed by the tension of serving the New York Times food critic in this behind-the-scenes look at the famous New York restaurant, Per Se. She offers insights and advice for both waiters and diners.

Shakespeare: The World as Stage
Bill Bryson, 2007
Bryson's wit and intelligence shine throughout this brief overview of Shakespeare's life and work. He concludes by making mincemeat of the many theories that someone else was the author of all those plays.

The Shape I Gave You
Martha Baillie, 2006
In the mailbox of her Berlin apartment, musican Ulrike
Huguenot finds a letter from her father's lover. What can this woman have to say to her, and why does she write now, seven years after her father's death?"

Sign of the Cross: A Mystery
Anne Emery, 2006
In this gripping tale set in Halifax, a priest accused of murder refuses to say anything to help his case, frustrating his lawyer and jeopardizing his future.

Simon Schama's Power of Art
Simon Schama, 2006
Schama "dishes" on eight artists: Caravaggio, Bernini, Rembrandt, David, Turner, Van Gogh, Picasso and Rothko. The masterpieces they created altered the course of art forever.

The Stone Gods
Jeanette Winterson, 2007
On a dying planet, there is talk of a possible refuge: Planet Blue is much like Earth was before it was destroyed by pollution and war. Charming renegade Billie is sent to explore and colonize Planet Blue, accompanied by her beloved 'robosapiens, Spike.

Town House
 Tish Cohen, 2007
An agoraphobe living off the royalties of his dead rock star dad finds himself in a sticky situation when the money runs out and he is forced to sell his home and refuge.

Troublesome Young Men: The Rebels Who Brought Churchill to Power and Helped Save England
Lynne Olson, 2007
During the years before World War II, a small number of young Conservative MPs despised their party's German appeasement policy. Olson provides a vivid narrative of how they eventually brought Churchill to power.

Twin Study: Stories
Stacey Richter, 2007
The duality of contemporary life is explored in 12 stories of diverse characters in pairs. Among the stories: estranged twins meet at a Cal State twin study; and a couple's marriage dissolves after an infidelity with a caveman.

The Uncommon Reader
Alan Bennett, 2007
Follow the evolution of the Queen after her corgis dash into the mobile library and she feels obliged to borrow a book. A wickedly funny novella.

Vivaldi's Virgins
Barbara Quick, 2007
In the 18th century world of the Ospedale della Pieta, an orphanage and music school, prodigy Anna Maria dal Violin studies under the master Vivaldi and tries to uncover the mystery of her mother's identity.

Water for Elephants
Sara Gruen, 2006
During the Great Depression, Jacob Jankowski joins the circus where he meets the two loves of his life, one of which is Rosie the elephant. An unusual and endearing story.

The Wayward Muse
Elizabeth Hickey, 2007
The world of the pre-Raphaelites comes alive in this fictional telling of the story of Jane Burden — rescued from abject poverty to become model and muse to painters and poets.

What Happened Later
Ray Robertson, 2007
Jack Kerouac's last road trip, in search of his French-Canadian roots, parallels the story of a teenager trapped in 1980s suburbia. Funny, complex, irreverent and hopeful, Robertson shows us one artistic life in decline and another just beginning.

When a Crocodile Eats the Sun: A Memoir of Africa
Peter Godwin, 2007
Godwin returns to Zimbabwe to visit his dying father who he learns is not British as the family believed, but a Polish Jew. This is both a moving account of the national tragedy that is unfolding in Zimbabwe and a highly personal memoir.


When We Were Bad
Charlotte Mendelson, 2007
Claudia Rubin is a rabbi and a media darling who pronounces on everything from marriage to matzos. She hopes to become a family goddess, but her 'perfect' family is being stage-managed as ruthlessly as a boy band, and the fault lines are starting to show.

Where War Lives
Paul Watson, 2008
Before he took his iconic photograph of the corpse of an American soldier being dragged through Mogadishu, Watson heard the man say to him, "If you do this, I will own you forever." A pitilessly honest memoir of an award- winning journalist and self- confessed war junkie.

The Whistling Season
Ivan Doig, 2006
A widower with three sons in early 1900s Montana hires a housekeeper. But the beguiling Rose, with her unconventional brother Morris in tow, is not what this farming family expected.

The Whole World Over
Julia Glass, 2006
A compelling character study of the intertwined lives of a New York City bakery owner, her young son, estranged husband and her Greenwich Village neighbors as she moves to New Mexico in the months leading up to 9/11.

Wife in the Fast Lane
Karen Quinn, 2007
Christy Hayes, successful New York entrepreneur and former Olympian, faces the modern woman's conundrum of having it all.

Wind Tails
Anne DeGrace, 2007
On one extraordinary and windy day in 1977 at Cass's Roadside café, the paths of an odd assortment of travellers cross.

World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War
Max Brooks, 2006
Brooks documents the first-person accounts of ordinary people from around the globe who survived a world-wide zombie outbreak. Think of Studs Terkel's The Good War, but with evil brain-chewers

Ysabel
Guy Gavriel Kay, 2007
A young man accompanies his photographer father to Aix en Provence and is lured into a mysterious ancient rivalry between Celtic and Roman tribes.


 

See also:
All-time recommended best books
Best books of 2004 to 2006

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