best books of 2008

I got a little lax this year and wasn’t bothered by some publications that couldn’t narrow their list down to a top ten, it’s always surprising how little agreement there is on top reads to start with. As usual I can’t chime in as I’m always too behind and too opposed to hardcover that I haven’t read any of these… (oh and these are fiction).

• The Outlander by Gil Adamson – WA
• The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga – BG, ST
• Say You’re One of Them by Uwem Akpan – EW, MC
• The Book of Dahlia by Elisa Albert – EW
• The Wasted Vigil by Nadeem Aslam – AC, BG
• When Will There Be Good News by Kate Atkinson – BG, T
• The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery – MC, WA
• The Secret Scripture by Sebastian Barry – BG
• Peace by Richard Bausch – ST
• 2666 by Roberto Bolaño – Am, NYT, T
• The China Lover by Ian Buruma – ST
• The Rain Before it Falls by Jonathan Coe – BG
• Lost in Uttar Pradesh by Evan S. Connell – AC
• Tallgrass by Sandra Dallas – KGB
• So Brave, Young and Handsome by Leif Enger – Am
• The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman – T
• Sea of Poppies by Amitav Ghosh – BG
• I See You Everywhere by Julia Glass – KGB
• Fall of Frost by Brain Hall – BG
• The Case of Exploding Mangoes by Mohammed Hanif – BG
• The Lazarus Project by Aleksandar Hemon – Am
• The Northern Clemency by Philip Hensher – Am
• The Expeditions by Karl Iagnemma – ST
• The Night Following by Morag Joss – BG
• When We Were Romans by Matthew Kneale – BG
• Telex from Cuba by Rachel Kishner – ST
• World Made by Hand by James Howard Kunstler – AC
• Unaccustomed Earth by Jhumpa Lahiri – KGB, MC, NYT
• Lavinia by Ursula K LeGuin – AC
• Disquiet by Julia Leigh – EW
• The Girl of His Dreams by Donna Leon – BG
• The House on Fortune Street by Margot Livesey – EW
• Unaccustomed Earth by Jhumpa Lahiri – T
• Shadow Country by Peter Matthiessen – AC
• The End of the World by Alistair McCartney – ST
• Dangerous Laughter by Steven Millhauser – NYT, ST
• A Mercy by Toni Morrison – NYT, WA
• What Was Lost by Catherine O’Flynn – BG
• Netherland by Joseph O’Neill – Am, MC, NYT
• Personal Days by Ed Park – T
• Cleaver by Tim Parks – ST
• To Siberia by Per Petterson – BG
• Knockemstiff by Donald Ray Pollock – Am
• Lush Life by Richard Price – Am, EW, T
• Serena by Ron Rash – Am
• What Happened to Anna K by Irina Reyn – EW
• Home by Marilynne Robinson – Am
• Cost by Roxana Robinson – WA
• Wolf Totem by Jiang Rong – AC
• Indignation by Philip Roth – MC
• The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows – T
• Bottomless Belly Button by Dash Shaw – EW 
• The Size of the World by Joan Silber – ST
• American Wife by Curtis Sittenfeld – EW, KGB, T
• Anathem by Neal Stephenson – T
• Olive Kittenridge by Elizabeth Strout – EW
• The Widows of Eastwick by John Updike – T
• Lucky Billy by John Vernon – ST
• The Story of Edgar Sawtelle by David Wroblewski – Am, EW

AC – Alan Cheuse/NPR, AM – Amazon, BG – Boston Globe, EW – Entertainment Weekly, KGB – Karen Grigsby Bates/NPR, MC – Maureen Corrigan/NPR, NYT – New York Times, ST – Seattle Times, T – Time, WA – Washington Post

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