Just in time for the last 9 shopping days before Christmas is the independent booksellers' list of the best books published in 2006! Historical fiction leads the way with Abundance by Sena Jeter Naslund, a remarkable story of the life of Marie Antoinette, and On Agate Hill, by Lee Smith, a novel set in the post-Civil War era. And, although we suspect Carl Hiaasen's new book, Nature Girl, came out too late in the year to make the list, it is sure to be on the Christmas list of the author's many avid fans.

Among the best non-fiction are Erick Larson's Thunderstruck, which juxtaposes the invention of Marconi's wireless with the murderous actions of the legendary Hawley Crippen, and The Weather Maker, by Tim Flannery, a timely and thorough, review of all previous research regarding climate change that may very well move you to take political action.

Three first novels are particularly noteworthy – Special Topics in Calamity Physics: A Novel, by Marisha Pessl, in which the lonely daughter of an arrogant professor is forced to examine secrets in her past when one of her teacher's is murdered, The Meaning of Night, by Michael Cox, a literary thriller set in Victorian England with plot twists reminiscent of Dickens' best, and The Thirteenth Tale, by Diane Setterfield, the story of a biographer and an ailing writer who meet and discover unique parallels in their lives.

Although, not in the Book Sense Picks, no shopping list would be complete without Amy Sedaris' irreverent, yet hilarious cookbook, entitled I Like You, or Bill Bryson's memoir, The Life and Times of The Thunderbolt Kid. And holiday books abound from David Baldacci's The Christmas Train and Jeff Guinn's The Great Santa Search, for adults, to Tasha Tudor's beautifully illustrated The Night Before Christmas, Tomi de Paola's Christmas Remembered.

Among the magical tales for true believers, you'll find Susanna Ronchi's delightful One Snowy Night and Carter Goodrich's A Creature Was Stirring.

If you are looking for something uniquely informative and entertaining for children and adults of all ages, we recommend Egyptology, Dragonology, Wizardology, Pirateology, Fairyopolis, Fairyality and A Princess Primer, as well as The Architectural Pop-Up Book, Great Maps of the Civil War, and Robert Sabuda and Matthew Reinhart's fantastically engineered pop-up books from The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and Alice's Adventures in Wonderland to Santa Claus, The Twelve Days of Christmas and Winter's Tale.