Since 2000 we've been bestowing our annual Editor's Choice Awards on favorites from WWII-related books published in the preceding year, awards sometimes known with humor and affection as the "Stonies." We peruse, read, and review quite a few books each year, and during that time we separate a little wheat from a great deal of chaff. The Stonies allow us to select and acknowledge the titles we rate as the most important new releases of the year.
   Mind you, these awards are in their own way just as subjective and imperfect as any other method of honoring books. We can only read so many books in twelve months, and we have our own tastes and preferences about specific topics and about what makes a good book. But—hey!—this is our website, so we get to have a little fun once in awhile.
   The year 2006 provided a smorgasbord of terrific new books on a variety of World War II subjects. The authors of those outstanding titles included some familiar names as well as some new faces. Likewise, some familiar publishers and some new ones contributed to the top new books of the year. As always, the authors found new topics to write about and fresh approaches to familiar topics.
   With all those great new titles arriving on our doorstep during the last twelve months, we managed to read quite a few books we considered top-notch. However, we always limit our annual choices to the very best of the year rather than aiming for a particular number or trying to be overly inclusive. This year we limited our selections to six titles as the creme de la creme.
   Without further ado, the Stone & Stone Editor's Choice Awards for non-fiction books about World War II published in 2006, the Stonies, in alphabetical order by author:

	Bartholomew-Feis, Dixee R. The OSS and Ho Chi Minh: Unexpected Allies in the War against Japan. Lawrence, KS: University Press of Kansas, 2006. The fascinating story of what happened in Vietnam at the end of one war, and how those events led to another conflict.
	Bergstrom, Christer, Andrey Dikov and Vlad Antipov. Black Cross, Red Star: Air War over the Eastern Front, vol 3: Everything for Stalingrad. Hamilton, MT: Eagle Editions, Ltd, 2006. The latest, long-awaited volume of the series of books describing in great depth the air war on the Russian Front from multi-dimensional perspectives covering both Luftwaffe and VVS. The best books on the topic.
	Gamble, Bruce. Darkest Hour: The True Story of Lark Force at Rabaul: Australia's Worst Military Disaster of World War II. St Paul, MN: Zenith Press, 2006. Bruce Gamble doesn't step up to the plate very often, but it seems like he always hits a homerun. A thoughtful, finely crafted, highly evocative book about the loss of Rabaul and its defenders.
	Lumans, Valdis O. Latvia in World War II. New York: Fordham University Press, 2006. A brilliant exposition of a little-known corner of the war and the model for a major new series from Fordham covering individual nations during the war years.
	Lyman, Robert. First Victory: Britain's Forgotten Struggle in the Middle East, 1941. London: Constable & Robinson, 2006. The best book for the combined military-diplomatic aspects of the three interconnected campaigns in Iraq, the Levant, and Iran.
	Mark, Jason D. Island of Fire: The Battle for the Barrikady Gun Factory in Stalingrad, November 1942 - February 1943. Sydney: Leaping Horseman Books, 2006. Proving Death of the Leaping Horseman was no fluke, Jason Mark returns with his day-by-day, casualty-by-casualty, mortar-round-by-mortar-round account of the battle for the Barrikady Gun Factory.

   In addition to this year's winners, here is a list of the Honorable Mentions for 2006. Not quite the Stonies, but very good indeed:

• Boog, Horst, Gerhard Krebs, and Detlef Vogel. Germany and the Second World War, vol 7: The Strategic Air War in Europe and the War in the West and East Asia, 1943-1944/5. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 2006.

• Burrell, Robert S. The Ghosts of Iwo Jima. College Station, TX: Texas A&M University Press, 2006.

• Burton, John. Fortnight of Infamy: The Collapse of Allied Airpower West of Pearl Harbor. Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 2006.

• Deletant, Dennis. Hitler's Forgotten Ally: Ion Antonescu and His Regime, Romania, 1940 - 1944. New York: Palgrave Macmillan Publishing Company, 2006.

• Glantz, David M. Red Storm over the Balkans: The Failed Soviet Invasion of Romania, Spring 1944. Lawrence, KS: University Press of Kansas, 2006.

• Sebag-Montefiore, Hugh. Dunkirk: Fight to the Last Man. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2006.

• Zumbro, Derek S. Battle for the Ruhr: The German Army's Final Defeat in the West. Lawrence, KS: University Press of Kansas, 2006.

   Finally, although our self-imposed rules mandate that only books published for the first time in English during the calendar year qualify for inclusion in the Stonies, one very important title was republished in a new edition in 2006: Stanton, Shelby L. World War II Order of Battle: An Encyclopedic Reference to U.S. Army Ground Forces from Battalion through Division, 1939-1945. Mechanicsburg, PA: Stackpole Books, 2006.

   Our warm congratulations and thanks go out to the authors, editors, publishers, and booksellers who brought us these primo titles of 2006, as well as all the other great new books that arrived last year to enrich and enliven the body of Second World War literature.
   Now we start searching for the best new books of 2007!

Previous Editor's Choice winners:

   Editor's Choice for 1999

   Editor's Choice for 2000

   Editor's Choice for 2001

   Editor's Choice for 2002

   Editor's Choice for 2003

   Editor's Choice for 2004

   Editor's Choice for 2005