Book Club's Favorite Books of 2006!

Today I was talking with Rachel about the New York Times' list of the 100 Best Books of the Year. We both realized we had only read one book on the list. This made us sad. Then I thought it would be fun for book club to list the best books we’ve read this year (but they didn’t have to be published this year.) Because of school, (ironically) I didn’t read a lot this year so I only have a few books to recommend.

Sweet and Low - Rick Cohen, All the family drama behind the Cumberland Packaging Company, creators of Sweet n Low. If you have eaten out with me this year, I probably pulled out a pack of Sweet n Low and told you all about this book. (And if I haven’t, I would be happy to do it) I read this book over Memorial Day weekend when I was visiting my friends Andrea and Scott in North Carolina. I must have referenced the book five times a day over the course of the weekend. I could not stop talking about it. They were polite enough not to tell me to shut already about the history of sugar substitutes.

The Know World -Edward P Jones. I had tried to read this before, but I got confused. The narrative style is unusual because a character will be in the present time of the story, but then the narrative might slip at any moment into that character's past and then well into the character’s future, beyond the time period that the story covered. It has an epic feel because we experience the most important points of each character's lives even though the main action of the book only covers a few months of time. Once I got used to it, I really started to love it. (Thanks for reminding me Anne!)

Horse Heaven -Jane Smiley . You don’t need to like horses to like this book. It’s a sophisticated soap opera at the race track.

Little Children -Tom Perrotta. You guys have all read it so I don’t need to explain any further.

Focusing on the Range - lusciously produced photo book about the Mount Holyoke and Mount Tom Ranges. Difficult to find.

Book to Definitely Avoid -
The Lobster Chronicles: Life on a Very Small Island - Linda Greenlaw. It looks quaint and funny, but it’s just boring. Seriously, just keep browsing on past it.