I collected approximately 12 lists of “Best Books of 2006″ and combined them into one big meta-list. Here is every book that was on two or more of the original lists. The numbers in bold indicate how many of the original lists the book was on. If I’ve read the book, I’ve included the rating I gave it on Goodreads (1-5 stars).
On 10 lists
THE OMNIVORE’S DILEMMA: A Natural History of Four Meals. By Michael Pollan. (5)
On 9 lists
THE ROAD. By Cormac McCarthy.
THE EMPEROR’S CHILDREN. By Claire Messud.
On 8 lists
TWILIGHT OF THE SUPERHEROES: Stories. By Deborah Eisenberg.
THE LAY OF THE LAND. By Richard Ford.
THE LOOMING TOWER: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11. By Lawrence Wright. (4)
On 6 lists
AT CANAAN’S EDGE: America in the King Years 1965-68. By Taylor Branch.
ALL AUNT HAGAR’S CHILDREN. By Edward P. Jones.
THE ECHO MAKER. By Richard Powers.
On 5 lists
THE LOST: A Search for Six of Six Million. By Daniel Mendelsohn. (5)
MAYFLOWER: A Story of Courage, Community and War. By Nathanial Philbrick. (4)
JAMES TIPTREE, JR.: The Double Life of Alice B. Seldon. By Julie Phillips. (5)
On 4 lists
FUN HOME: A Family Tragicomic. By Alison Bechdel. (4)
THE INHERITANCE OF LOSS. By Kiran Desai. (5)
AFTER THIS. By Alice McDermott.
SUITE FRANCAISE. By Irene Nemirovsky.
THE NIGHT GARDENER. By George Pelecanos.
SPECIAL TOPICS IN CALAMITY PHYSICS. By Marisha Pessl.
FIASCO: The American Military Adventure in Iraq. By Thomas Ricks.
EVERYMAN. By Philip Roth.
On 3 lists
THE MOST FAMOUS MAN IN AMERICA: The Biography of Henry Ward Beecher. By Debby Applegate.
ARTHUR & GEORGE. By Julian Barnes.
THE WORST HARD TIME: The Untold Story of Those Who Survived the Great American Dust Bowl. By Christopher Egan. (3)
WALT DISNEY. By Neal Gabler.
THERE IS NO ME WITHOUT YOU. By Melissa Fay Greene.
A DISORDER PECULIAR TO THE COUNTRY. By Ken Kalfus. (3)
A GODLY HERO: The Life of William Jennings Bryan. By Michael Kazin.
JUSTICE FOR ALL: Earl Warren and the Nation He Made. By Jim Newton.
WIZARD OF THE CROW. By Ngugi wa Thiong’o.
THE SHAKESPEARE WARS. By Ron Rosenbaum.
ABSURDISTAN. By Gary Shteyngart.
THE ACCIDENTAL. By Ali Smith.
THE PLACES IN BETWEEN. By Rory Stewart. (4)
THE ONE PERCENT DOCTRINE. By Ron Suskind.
STATE OF DENIAL. By Bob Woodward. (4)
On 2 lists
THE CHILDREN’S HOPSITAL. By Chris Adrian.
ONE GOOD TURN. By Kate Atkinson.
THE LITTLEST HITLER. By Ryan Boudinot.
TALK TALK. By T.C. Boyle.
THE LIFE AND TIMES OF THE THUNDERBOLT KID. By Bill Bryson.
HEAT. By Bill Buford.
MELLON: An American Life. By David Cannadine.
THEFT. By Peter Carey.
OUR TOWN: A Heartland Lynching, A Haunted Town and the Hidden History of White America. By Cynthia Carr.
IMPERIAL LIFE IN THE EMERALD CITY: Inside Iraq’s Green Zone. By Rajiv Chandrasekaran.
MY LIFE IN FRANCE. By Julia Child with Alex Prud’Homme.
SWEET AND LOW. By Rich Cohen.
THE GOD DELUSION. By Richard Dawkins.
WHAT IS THE WHAT. By Dave Eggers. (5)
INTUITION. By Allegra Goodman.
THE SECRET RIVER. By Kate Grenville.
WHEN MADELINE WAS YOUNG. By Jane Hamilton.
BLUE ARABESQUE. By Patricia Hampl.
ORACLE BONES: A Journey Between China’s Past and Present. By Peter Hessler.
THE 9/11 REPORT: A Graphic Adaptation. By Sid Jacobsen.
FIELD NOTES FROM A CATASTROPHE. By Elizabeth Kolbert. (4)
BLACK SWAN GREEN. By David Mitchell.
ANDREW CARNEGIE. By David Nasaw.
ABUNDANCE. By Sena Jeter Naslund.
THE GREATEST STORY EVER SOLD: The Decline and Fall of Truth from 9/11 to Katrina. By Frank Rich.
THE PRINCE OF THE MARSHES: And Other Occupational Hazards of a Year in Iraq. By Rory Stewart.
MANHUNT: The 12-Day Chase for Lincoln’s Killer. By James L. Swanson.
THE LEMON TREE: An Arab, A Jew and the Heart of the Middle East. By Sandy Tolan.
THE ZERO. By Jess Walter.