Filed under: thoughtful | Tags: best of 2008, reading, reviews, weekly geeks
I thought this round of Weekly Geeks, picking my 10 favorite books that came out in 2008, would be terribly easy. That’s because I wasn’t aware of exactly how many new books I had read this year. By the end, I had I ended up with 18 +/- (I kept adding and taking some off!) on the list and the following is the result of far too much labor and thought!
My 10 Best of 2008:
The Girl on the Fridge by Etgar Keret
Unaccustomed Earth by Jhumpa Lahiri
A Mercy by Toni Morrison
First Stop in the New World by David Lida
When We Are Engulfed In Flames by David Sedaris
A Golden Age by Tahmima Anam
The Gone Away World by Nick Harkaway
Deportees by Roddy Doyle
Something to Tell You by Hanif Kureishi
City of Widows by Haifa Zangana
And 8 More:
The Sum of Our Days by Isabel Allende
Monsters of Templeton by Lauren Groff
Children’s Literature by Seth Lerer
Slam by Nick Hornby
Sharp Teeth by Toby Barlow
Mortal Syntax by June Casagrande
Mexican High by Liza Monroy
My Mistress’s Sparrow is Dead edited by Jeffrey Eugenides
I would like to note that I am quite dreadful at doing these sorts of lists and it’s quite likely that if I had compiled the list at any other time it could very well look different.
11 Comments
Adventures in Reading 
Okay, I’d gotten tired of The Gone-Away World again, but if it’s one of your 10 best for the whole year, I’ll keep slogging through it.
Comment by Jeanne September 29, 2008 @ 11:43 amI need to read my copy of When We Are Engulfed In Flames, just haven’t had time yet. I love your list because except for a few they are all new titles to me and I am compelled to look them all up.
Comment by Icedream September 29, 2008 @ 12:34 pmI forgot to add the Tahmima Anam book to my list–I too thought it was excellent.
Comment by Katherine September 29, 2008 @ 1:21 pmGone Away World is on my TBR – hopefully this month!
Comment by Lenore September 29, 2008 @ 1:47 pmThat is a great list. And I’m saying this even though I haven’t read any of those books because there are some that I’m sure would be on my list if I’d read them: Unaccustomed Earth, Slam, A Mercy, When We Are Engulfed in Flames and the Jeffrey Eugenides anthology.
Comment by Nymeth September 29, 2008 @ 3:50 pmI couldn’t do this meme myself- too difficult.
I enjoyed Unaccustomed Earth, am looking forward to A Mercy, The Deportees and the love stories and didn’t know ther was a new Keret book out. One more for the list!
Comment by Sarah September 29, 2008 @ 5:59 pmJeanne: I’m going to feel terrible if you don’t like it at this point! ;)
Icedream: It was my first Sedaris and definitely a good one. I’m glad to hear some of the other titles look enticing.
Katherine: It was an afterthought for me as well. Right after posting I tried to think of any other titles. I couldn’t believe I forgot it! I can’t wait for the second title in the trilogy to come out.
Lenore: Fingers are crossed that you will enjoy it too. Word of warning: The first couple pages/chapter are/is deadly. But it’s worth slogging through.
Nymeth: It’s been a pretty good year for books.
Sarah: This has to have been my least liked Weekly Geeks if only because it’s such a challenge. I’m atrocious at these types of lists and I have been doing my best to avoid the temptation to alter it.
Comment by bookchronicle September 30, 2008 @ 2:13 pmThere’s that Nick Haraway book again! I really need to read that soon. Only in the past couple of months have I gotten around to reading the newer fiction of this year.
Comment by Trish October 2, 2008 @ 4:57 pmGreat list, I am looking forward to reading Gone Away World, Slam and Sharp Teeth.
Comment by Joanne October 3, 2008 @ 6:42 pm[…] it too late to add Randa Jarrar’s A Map of Home to my list of best books of 2008? You say no? Well add it to the list! I could not put this book down (even interrupting my Bram […]
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