Happy New Year to everybody! If 2006 was good, then I hope 2007 will be even better. But if 2006 was a bad year, then hopefully 2007 will make up for it with joy and happiness.

Obviously 2006 was a mixed year for the Sabella family, with the death of my mother following so closely after the death of my mother. We need to keep reminding ourselves that they enjoyed over 55 happy years together, and they brought a lot of happiness to their family, in whose memories they will always remain.

The rest of the year was actually good overall. My extended family is doing well, I am still enjoying teaching a lot, and I have a lot of good friends, including fellow teachers, former students, and correspondents. I have a very rich group of interests, including reading, writing, and editing, and I have decided to take on another project which, if I am able to complete it, should be quite good.

At the end of each year I pick my “Best of the Year” in books and music, so here they are:

My book of the year is Jack McDevitt’s Seeker, the third book in a series begun in A Talent for War and continued in last year’s superb Polaris. These are historical mysteries set in the distant future, combining sense of wonder with the best ingredients of a good mystery (without an emphasis on crime or death because they are truly historical mysteries).

Runnerup was Alastair Reynold’s “New Space Opera” trilogy Revelation Space, Redemption Ark and Absolution Gap. I also loved Jeffrey Ford’s novella “A Cosmology of the Wider World” and Stephen Baxter’s Xeelee collection Resplendent. All of these books were reviewed at my other sfnal blog, if you are interested.

My Album of the Year was Bob Dylan’s Modern Times. It is amazing that Dylan is still so good in his 60s. Runner-up was the five cd boxed set The Life and Music of Richard Thompson. He is my favorite musician who just keeps getting better and better.