Best of 2006 (My Favorites)

It's about that time of the year when everyone comes out with their "Best of" lists. Now, I listen to a lot of music and read a lot of books, but not all of it was actually released this year. Still, it's new to me! So that being said, here are my "Favorite Finds" in 2006:

Music

1. Diana Krall - "Live in Paris" - the songs are spirited and the playing is superb. One of those CD's where the band is obviously having a great time.
2. Crimson Jazz Trio - "King Crimson Song Book Vol. 1" - Like discovering Crimson for the first time again! Faithful interpretations of the songs and beautiful as well as fierce playing.
3. KTU - "8 Armed Monkey" - Pat Mastelotto and Trey Gunn from Crimson join musicians from "Kluster" in an experiment of loops, samples, percussion, voices and accordion! Like nothing I've ever heard.
4. Fiona Apple - "Extraordinary Machine" - Extraordinary!
5. Porcupine Tree - "Deadwing" - Modern progressive. Hard rocking and melodic.

Books

1. "House of Sand and Fog" - Andre Dubus III - Tension builds slowly for three one-time strangers whose connection to a house leads them down a destructive path.
2. "Roadshow - Landscape with Drums" - Neil Peart - Behind the scenes with Neil as he motorcycles across the country on tour with Rush.
   
3. "City of Joy" - Dominique Lapierre - Life in Calcutta as experienced by a Catholic priest and a rickshaw puller. Inspirational because you cannot believe the happiness and generosity of these people who literally have nothing.
   
4. "The Exorcist" - William Peter Blatty - Almost as scary as the movie and includes some nice background on what it takes to get an exorcisim approved. "And yet even from this - from evil - will come good. In some way. In some way that we may never understand or ever see."
5. "Raveling" - Peter Moore Smith - Schizophrenic brother tries to find out what happened to his sister who went missing 20 years ago.