Best books by people you know 2006...

We've recently passed the point every year where national newspapers and magazines give authors and pundits the chance to plug their mates' books as Christmas presents - possibly on a percentage.

I thought, as lots of us on here are either obscure authors ourselves or know people who've had books published this year but aren't famous enough to make the real lists, we could do a downmarket equivalent.

In the fiction category, I suggest buying:

The Cypriot by Andreas Koumi:
http://www.blackspringpress.co.uk/books/cypriot.html

It is, by some distance, the best star-crossed romance set in London and Cyprus in the 1950s and 1970s that I've read this year.

And for lovers of extremely darkly humourous poetry, I suggest Paul Birtill's new collection, Willing to Change:
http://www.hearingeye.org/zen/index.php?main_page=pubs_product_book_jph1...