It's early November, so that means the year's essentially over, right? No? Well don't tell the editors at Amazon.com or the music critics at the British magazine Uncut. They've got the year all wrapped up and listified already.
Specifically, Amazon editors named their 50 Best Books Of 2006. It's a peculiar list, one in which Max Brooks' World War Z stands next to Stephen King's Cell in what can only be called the zombie block. Suite Francaise, what would have been the beginning of a five-novel cycle by Irene Némirovsky tops the list. Its fragments are the last Némirovsky wrote before being deported to Auschwitz in 1942. Amazon has followed the list with some category-specific lists covering non-fiction, science fiction and fantasy, comics and other areas of interest.
Elsewhere, Uncut names its Top 50 albums. It's topped by Bob Dylan's Modern Times followed by Scritti Politti's White Bread, Black Beer. Didn't see that one coming, did you? Well, they are British.