The year's business reading identified new trends, reckoned with old challenges, offered counteropinions on hot topics, reinforced some old lessons, highlighted gains over losses, celebrated innovations that have potential for all, and observed the failures of these innovations to keep their promise. In short, it was a year of balancing equations--of balancing the books. A veritable definition of the state of today's business world, these are the best of the year. The books show the persistence of retail and brand giants but note the successes of small companies with intensely loyal customers. They find some business careerists opting out of the corporate race to shape personally fulfilling kaleidoscope careers instead. The year saw some newly crafted equations, particularly in the economics of major business, reshaped by technology, the assured trendsetter. In the meantime, authors note that even as U.S. manufacturing shifts to developing countries, there are intangible costs when global ventures are not simply cyber but literal. These can be steep, even though a global balance is being sought through regulatory reforms, reductions in corruption, and increased transparency. The power of the Internet and social networking is amply recognized as a means of marketing and increasing return on investment, yet the year also brought economic case studies undertaken in developing countries that requite such praise with assessments indicating that cyber access provides few benefits to struggling inhabitants compared with the advantages they acquire through mobile and radio technology. The books listed in this article balance lessons from the past with distinctly rendered maps of the future, where Wall Street shares status with developing nations, with cyberspace, and with the cafe around the corner. A team of librarians and a business practitioner from around the country have chosen these titles as the best of 2006.