The New York Times Book Review's 10 Best Books of 2006

Fiction
The Lay of the Land (Alfred A. Knopf) / Richard Ford
The Collected Stories of Amy Hempel (Scribner) / Amy Hempel
The Emperor’s Children (Alfred A. Knopf) / Claire Messud
Special Topics in Calamity Physics (Viking) / Marisha Pessl
Absurdistan (Random House) / Gary Shteyngart

Nonfiction
Mayflower: A Story of Courage, Community and War (Viking) / Nathaniel Philbrick
The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals (The Penguin Press) / Michael Pollan
The Places in Between (Harvest/Harcourt) / Rory Stewart
Falling Through the Earth: A Memoir (Henry Holt & Company) / Danielle Trussoni
The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11 (Alfred A. Knppf) / Lawrence Wright