Don't worry, Seattle Post-Intelligencer book critic John Marshall actually has something new to say about the best fiction and nonfiction of 2006, with an assortment of authors that haven't been mentioned over and over again on every other reviewer's list this month (except Richard Ford, but what can you do—the Ford will always be with us). Not only that, he mixes fact and fancy together into one list instead of keeping them separate. His #1 selection? Strange Piece of Paradise, Terri Jentz's memoir of surviving an attempted ax murder and her efforts years later to make sense of the assault. (The book earned cover placement on the NYTBR back in May.)

By the way, if you're looking for more recommendations, I did a nonfiction list for my other blog earlier this month with ten books I'd put into just about anybody's hands.