"The Age" literary editor, Jason Steger, has picked up on one book I missed from "The New York Times" 100 Notable Books of the Year list I mentioned a couple of weeks back. In addition to the Robert Hughes memoir, we need to mention Last Evenings on Earth, a collection of stories written by the late Chilean author, Roberto Bolano, and translated by Melbourne poet and academic, Chris Andrews.
The "Christian Science Monitor" picks Peter Carey's Theft as one of its best fiction of the year, and also Robert Hughes's Things I Didn't Know in the memoir category. They add links to their reviews of the books.
Kate Grenville's novel The Secret River is included in "The Independent's" Best World Fiction list compiled by Boyd Tonkin. Barry "Unsworth aside, no period piece showed a finer command of style and structure."
Still in "The Independent", Carmen Callil's Bad Faith is in their Best History Books list: "Callil is one of many historians who, in time-honoured style, seek to address big issues through a biographical focus"; David Thomson's Nicole Kidman appears on the Best Showbiz Books list: "What made it so unusual was that it made no attempt to hide Thomson's infatuation"; San Sombrèro by Santo Cilauro, Tom Gleisner and Rob Sitch makes the Best Stocking Filler list; and Les Murray's The Biplane Houses is on their Best Poetry selection, a book which "combines his usual linguistic energy and quasi-metaphysical wit".
Nicolette Jones chooses Randa Abdel-Fattah's novel Does My Head Look Big in This? in her best books for younger readers (12+) in "The Sunday Times": "It has humour, intelligence and sharp observation and deserves a wide readership".
"The Washington Post" includes, on their Best Fiction of 2006 list, Kate Grenville's The Secret River, Theft: A Love Story by Peter Carey, and Malicious Intent by Kathryn Fox; but none make their top five of the year. On the Best Non-Fiction of 2006 list (previous link, further down the page), The Weather Makers: How Man Is Changing the Climate and What It Means for Life on Earth by Tim Flannery is included. Again not one of their top five.
