Best Books – 2008
Best Books of 2008
Other Years: 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019
The following are the best books of 2008, as determined by book review trade magazines, national newspapers, and popular arts and culture publications. The Top 20 listed below was compiled by tallying the number of Best Books of the Year lists and major award shortlists that included each book (we only counted lists of 30 or less titles in order to ensure selectivity). The parentheses following each book indicate the total number of lists on which the book was included.
Top 20
1. Netherland by Joseph O’Neill (16)
1. 2666 by Roberto Bolano (16)
3. Lush Life by Richard Price (14)
4. The Forever War by Dexter Filkins (13)
5. Home by Marilynne Robinson (11)
6. Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout (10)
6. Unaccustomed Earth by Drew Gilpin Faust (10)
8. The Lazarus Project by Aleksandar Hemon (9)
8. A Mercy by Toni Morrison (9)
8. The Story of Edgar Sawtelle by David Wroblewski (9)
8. This Republic of Suffering: Death and the American Civil War by Drew Gilpin Faust (9)
12. The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family by Annette Gordon-Reed (8)
13. The Dark Side: The Inside Story of How the War on Terror Turned Into a War on American Ideals by Jane Mayer (7)
13. Nixonland: The Rise of a President and the Fracturing of America by Ron Perlstein (7)
13. Pictures at a Revolution: Five Movies and the Birth of the New Hollywood by Mark Harris (7)
17. The Suicide Index: Putting My Father’s Death in Order by Curtis Sittenfeld (6)
18. American Wife by Joan WIckersham (5)
18. Anathem by Neal Stephenson (5)
18. The Boat by Nam Le (5)
18. The Given Day by Dennis Lehane (5)
18. The Likeness by Tana French (5)
18. Lincoln: The Biography of a Writer by Fred Kaplan (5)
18. The Plague of Doves by Louise Erdrich (5)
18. Say You’re One of Them by Uwen Akpan (5)
18. When Will There Be Good News? by Kate Atkinson (5)
18. The World Is What It Is: The Authorized Biography of V.S. Naipaul by Patrick French (5)
Other books on four or more lists:
Atmospheric Disturbances by Rivka Galchen (4), Cost by Roxana Robinson (4), Dangerous Laughter by Steven Millhauser (4), Dear American Airlines by Jonathan Miles (4), An Exact Replica of a Figment of My Imagination by Elizabeth McCracken (4), The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson (4), The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer & Annie Barrows (4), Hurry Down Sunshine: A Father’s Story of Love and Madness by Michael Greenberg (4), Serena by Ron Rash (4), The Snowball: Warren Buffet and the Business of Life by Alice Schroeder (4), The Ten-Cent Plague by David Hadju (4), Traffic: Why We Drive the Way We Do (And What It Says About Us) by Tom Vanderbilt (4), The Wasted Vigil by Nadeem Aslam (4), The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga (4)
