Do go see Jenny D.'s reading review for 2006 which contains all sorts of delightful categories that I plan to shamelssly steal in the next week or so.

Ed is all excited about Richard Powers' The Echo-Maker but I'm so behind on Powers books, that I can't even think about starting there. On my list for next year is Three Farmers on Their Way to a Dance. I swear I'm going to read that book in 2007 I am way way way behind on this author.

Booklist reviews Gayle Brandeis' follow-up to The Book of Dead Birds. I thought Birds was a fascinating mix of family angst, twenty-something coming-of-age and environmental message and I'm really looking forward to what Brandeis has been up to. Self Storage is another look at a family with a few issues (don't we all have those) and involves Walt Whitman, a wife who buys abandoned storage units and then sells the contents (lots of opportunity to consider humanity in that field) and some post 9/11 hate crime consideration. Donna Seaman liked it and that is pretty much all I need to hear.

The mother of all Connie Willis collections has just been announced by Subterranean Press and at over 600 pages I think the $40 price is pretty damn reasonable.

Cherie Priest has done a great job with Dreadful Skin - a late 19th century werewolf novel told in three riveting stories and starring a nun. It's - well, it's hard to describe or define as it is so different from all the sexy werewolf books out there. These wolves are monsters and so big and bad and scary and devious - it's the devious smart parts that really got me. I am going to write a proper review of this one before it's March release but if you like the werewolf books, then you will want this one.