Best Books of 2006

Alright, I'll also weigh in with my favourite reads of the year. I read about 130 books on average, some are forgettable, and some are not! I can't rank them specifically; the ones I recall as great have atmosphere, excellent writing, or especially memorable characters. My top recommendations from my reading of 2006 are:
FICTION

1. The Madonnas of Leningrad / Debra Dean
2. Doctor Bloom's Story / Don Coles
3. The Pink Carnation series / Lauren Willig (pure fun)
4. Restless / William Boyd
5. North and South /Elizabeth Gaskell

NON-FICTION

1. Encyclopedia of an ordinary life / Amy Krouse Rosenthal
2. All the fishes come home to roost / Rachel Manija Brown
3. The Shoebox bible / Alan Bradley (a memoir worth reading if only for the one scene where he wanders down the street inside a cardboard box...)

There are so many more I enjoyed but these are the tops.