Biblio Files columnist Donna Liquori weighs in on her 2006 favorite:

“The Collected Stories of Amy Hempel” tops the list of my favorite books of 2006. The stories date from her first collection, published in 1985, to more recent works and display her breadth as one of the finest short story writers around.

As noted by Rick Moody in the introduction, Hempel’s sentences are wonderful. Hempel doesn’t waste a single word, and each sentence is ripe with meaning and emotion. Another 2006 book I loved was “The Whole World Over” by Julia Glass.

This holiday week, I’m enjoying one of my Christmas presents to myself — Bill Buford’s “Heat” about his experience working as a “kitchen slave” at the three-star restaurant Babbo in New York.