New York Times (NYT) Most Notable - 2008

Fiction and Poetry

AMERICAN WIFE, by Curtis Sittenfeld

ATMOSPHERIC DISTURBANCES, by Rivka Galchen

BASS CATHEDRAL, by Nathaniel Mackey

BEAUTIFUL CHILDREN, by Charles Bock

BEIJING COMA, by Ma Jian

A BETTER ANGEL: Stories, by Chris Adrian

BLACK FILES, by Shannon Burke

THE BLUE STAR, by Tony Earley

THE BOAT, by Nam Le

BREATH, by Tim Winton

DANGEROUS LAUGHTER: Thirteen Stories, by Steven Millhauser

DEAR AMERICAN AIRLINES, by Jonathan Miles

DIARY OF A BAD YEAR, by J. M. Coetzee

DICTATION: A Quartet, by Cynthia Ozick

ELEGY: Poems, by Mary Jo Bang

THE ENGLISH MAJOR, by Jim Harrison

FANON, by John Edgar Wideman

THE FINDER, by Colin Harrison

FINE JUST THE WAY IT IS: Wyoming Stories 3, by Annie Proulx

THE GOOD THIEF, by Hannah Tinti

HALF OF TE WORLD IN LIGHT: New and Selected Poems, by Juan Felipe Herrera

HIS ILLEGAL SELF, by Peter Carey

HOME, by Marilynne Robinson

INDIGNATION, by Philip Roth

THE LAZARUS PROJECT, by Aleksandar Hemon

LEGEND OF A SUICIDE, by David Vann

LIFE CLASS, by Pat Barker

LUSH LIFE, by Richard Price

A MERCY, by Toni Morrison

MODERN LIFE: Poems, by Matthea Harvey

A MOST WANTED MAN, by John le Carre

MY REVOLUTIONS, by Hari Kunzru

NETHERLAND, by Jospeh O'Neill

OPAL SUNSET: Selected Poems, 1958-2008, by Clive James

THE OTHER, by David Guterson

OUR STORY BEGINS: New and Selected Stories, by Tobias Wolff

THE ROAD HOME, by Rose Tremain

THE SACRED BOOK OF THE WEREWOLF, by Victor Pelevin

THE SCHOOL ON HEART'S CONTENT ROAD, by Carolyn Chute

SIR GAWAIN AND THE GREEN KNIGHT: A New Verse Translation, by Simon Armitage

SLEEPING IT OFF IN RAPID CITY: Poems, New and Selected, by August Kleinzahler

TELEX FROM CUBA, by Rachel Kusner

2666, by Roberto Bolano (Translated by Natasha Wimmer)

UNACCUSTOMED EARTH, by Jhumpa Lahiri

THE UNFORTUNATES, by B. S. Johnson

WHEN WILL THERE BE GOOD NEWS? by Kate Atkinson

THE WIDOWS OF EASTWICK, by John Updike

YESTERDAY'S WEATHER, by Anne Enright

Nonfiction

AMERICAN LION: Andrew Jackson n the White House, by Jon Meacham

ANGLER: The Cheney Vice Presidency, by Barton Gellman

BACARDI AND TEH LONG FIGHT FOR CUBA: The Biography of a Cause, by Tom Gjelten

THE BIG SORT: Why the Clustering of Like-Minded America is Tearing Us Apart, by Bill Bishop

BLOOD MATTERS: From Inherited Illness to Designer Babies, How the World and I found Ourselves in the Future of the Gene, by Masha Gessen

CAPITOL MEN: The Epic Story of Reconstruction Through The Lives of the First Black Congressmen, by Philip Dray

THE CHALLENGE: Hamdan v. Rumsfeld and the Fight Over Presidential Power, by Jonathan Mahler

CHAMPLAIN'S DREAM, by David Hackett Fischer

CHASING THE FLAME: Sergio Vieira de Mello and The Fight to Save the World, by Samantha Power

CONDOLEEZZA RICE: An American Life: A Biography, by Elisabeth Bumiller

THE DARK SIDE: The Inside Story of How the War on Terror Turned Into a War on American Ideals, by Jane Mayer

DELTA BLUES: The Life and Times of the Mississippi Masters Who Revolutionized American Music, by Ted Gioia

DESCARTES' BONES: A Skeletal history of the Conflict Between Faith and Reason, by Russell Shorto

DREAMS AND SHADOWS: The Future of the Middle East, by Robin Wright

THE DRUNKARD'S WALK: How Randomness Rules Our Lives, by Leonard Mlodinow

AN EXACT REPLICA OF A FIGMENT OF MY IMAGINATION: A Memoir, by Elizabeth McCracken

FACTORY GIRLS: From Village to City in a Changing China, by Leslie T. Chang

THE FOREVER WAR, by Dexter Filkins

FREEDOM'S BATTLE: The Origins of Humanitarian Intervention, by Gary J. Bass

A GREAT IDEA AT THE TIME: The Rise, Fall, and Curious Afterlife of the Great Books, by Alex Beam

HALLELUJAH JUNCTION: Composing an American Life, by John Adams

THE HEMINGSES OF MONTICELLO: An American Family, by Annette Gordon-Reed

HOT, FLAT, AND CROWDED: Why We Need A Green Revolution - and How It Can Renew America, by Homas L. Friedman

THE HOUSE AT SUGAR BEACH: In Search of a Lost African Childhood, by Helene Cooper

HOW FICTION WORKS, by James Wood

MORAL CLARITY: A Guide for Grown-Up Idealists, by Susan Neiman

THE NIGHT OF THE GUN: A Reporter Investigates the Darkest Story of HIs Life, His Own, by David Carr

NIXONLAND: The Rise of a President and the Fracturing of America, by Rick Perlstein

NOTHING TO BE FRIGHTENED OF, by Julian Barnes

NUREYEV: The Life, by Julie Kavanagh

PICTURES AT A REVOLUTION: Five Movies and the Birth of the New Hollywood, by Mark Harris

THE POST-AMERICAN WORLD, by Fareed Zakaria

PREDICTABLY IRRATIONAL: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions, by Dan Ariely

THE RACE CARD: How Bluffing About Bias Makes Race Relations Worse, by Richard Thompson

RETRIBUTION: The Battle for Japan, 1944-45, by Max Hastings

A SECULAR AGE, by Charles Taylor

SHAKESPEARE'S WIFE, by Germaine Greer

THE SUPERORGANISM: The Beauty, Elegance, and Strangeness of Insect Societies, by Bert Holldobler and Edward O. Wilson

TELL ME HOW THIS ENDS: General David Petraeus and The Serach for a Way Out of Iraq, by Linda Robinson

THE TEN-CENT PLAGUE: The Great Comic-Book Scare and How it Changed America, by David Hajdu

THEY KNEW THEY WERE RIGHT: The Rise of the Neocons, by Jacob Heilbrunn

THIS REPUBLIC OF SUFFERING: Death and the American Civil War, by Drew Gilpin Faust

THE THREE OF US: A Family Story, by Julia Blackburn

THRUMPTON HALL: A Memoir of Life in My Father's House, by Miranda Seymour

TRAFFIC: Why We Drive the Way We Do (And What It Says About Us), by Tom Vanderbilt

THE TRILLION DOLLAR MELTDOWN: Easy Money, High Rollers, and the Great Creidt Crash, by Charles R. Morris

A VOYAGE LONG AND STRANGE: Rediscovering the New World, by Tony Horwitz

WAKING GIANT: America in the Age of Jackson, by David S. Reynolds

WHILE THEY SLEPT: An Inquiry Into the Murder of a Family, by Kathryn Harrison

WHITE HEAT: The Friendship of Emily Dickinson and Thomas Wentworth Higginson, by Brenda Wineapple

THE WILD PLACES, by Robert Macfarlane

THE WORLD IS WHAT IT IS: The Authorized Biography of V.S. Naipaul, by Patrick French