2008's Best Books

It’s that time of the year when booksellers, reviewers and critics analyze the year’s published works and choose their “Best Books of 2008”. Here’s several top lists for you to peruse:
Library Journal, Publishers Weekly, Barnes & Noble, Amazon.com, and The New York Times.

I wondered if there was any commonality among the lists and so conducted my own quick poll. Among the fiction titles with appearances on at least four lists were Home by Marilynne Robinson, The Lazarus Project by Aleksandar Hemon, Lush Life by Richard Price, Netherland by Joseph O'Neill, and Unaccustomed Earth: Stories by Jhumpa Lahiri. Non-fiction with four or more citations included: Night of the Gun: a Reporter Investigates the Darkest Story of His Life---His Own by David Carr, The Dark Side: the Inside Story of How the War on Terror Turned into a War on American Ideals by Jane Mayer, The Hemingses of Monticello: an American Family by Annette Gordon-Reed, The Post-American World by Fareed Zakaria, and This Republic of Suffering: Death and the American Civil War by Drew Gilpin Faust.

Other frequently listed titles also recommended by our staff are: The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson, The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows, American Wife by Curtis Sittenfeld, Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout, The Story of Edgar Sawtelle by David Wroblewski, The Brass Verdict by Michael Connelly and The Given Day by Dennis Lehane.

Enjoy a good book as 2008 draws to a close!