The Village Voice's top 25 of 2006

Tis the season for favorite/best/notable book lists. The Village Voice's favorite 25 books of 2006 included a couple I reviewed at Spot-on (The Road and One Good Turn) as well as two books that are part of the blog's "page 69 series": James Tiptree, Jr.: The Double Life of Alice B. Sheldon by Julie Phillips and The Last Of Her Kind by Sigrid Nunez.

Among the other titles on the Voice list that caught my eye:

American Genius, A Comedy
By Lynne Tillman

Helen, the protagonist of Lynne Tillman's fifth novel, suffers from the rare disorder dermatographia, in which the slightest caress might erupt into "white lines...which resemble writing on the skin." As she sojourns in an unnamed institution--a mysterious amalgam of sanatorium and artist's colony--Helen reveals a psyche that's equally sensitive. In this canny, elliptical novel, the smallest sensation or suggestion sends her into a paroxysm of recall and digression--on Eames chairs, time pieces, household pets, and all manner of skin ailments.

Click here to see all 25 books tagged by the Voice.

--Marshal Zeringue