Christian Science Monitor Best Books of 2008

Each year, the Christian Science Monitor posts it best novels of the year. Here are the picks for 2008:

A Golden Age, by Tahmima Anam

The Konkans, by Tony D’Souza

The Blue Star, by Tony Earley

All Shall Be Well; And All Shall Be Well; And All Manner of Things Shall Be Well, by Tod Wodicka

So Brave, Young, and Handsome, by Leif Enger

The Plague of Doves, by Louise Erdrich

The Story of Edgar Sawtelle, by David Wroblewski

America, America, by Ethan Canin

Netherland, by Joseph O’Neill

Telex from Cuba, by Rachel Kushner

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows

The Likeness, by Tana French

The Black Tower, by Louis Bayard

City of Refuge, by Tom Piazza

When Will There Be Good News? by Kate Atkinson

Home, by Marilynne Robinson

The Given Day, by Dennis Lehane

A Most Wanted Man, by John Le Carré

Exit Music, by Ian Rankin

Driftless, by David Rhodes

The Elegance of the Hedgehog, by Muriel Barbery

Sea of Poppies, by Amitav Ghosh

A Mercy, by Toni Morrison

Serena, by Ron Rash

I See You Everywhere, by Julia Glass

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

2008 Publisher's Weekly (PW) Best Books

Fiction

• When Will There Be Good News? by Kate Atkinson
• Roberto Bolaño, trans. from the Spanish by Natasha Wimmer
• Hold Tight, by Harlan Coben
• The Brass Verdict, by Michael Connelly
• Master of the Delta, by Thomas H. Cook
• The Konkans,by Tony D'Souza
• The Plague of Doves, by Louise Erdrich
• The Likeness, by Tana French
• Sea of Poppies, by Amitav Ghosh
• Ritual, by Mo Hayder
• The Lazarus Project, by Aleksandar Hemon
• Day, by A.L. Kennedy
• My Revolutions, by Hari Kunzru
• Unaccustomed Earth, by Jhumpa Lahiri
• Sway, by Zachary Lazar
• The Boat, by Nam Le
• The Given Day, by Dennis Lehane
• Flesh House, by Stuart MacBride
• How the Dead Dream, by Lydia Millet
• Netherland, by Joseph O'Neill
• Knockemstiff, by Donald Ray Pollock
• Lush Life, by Richard Price
• Serena, by Ron Rash
• Breath, by Tim Winton
• The Story of Edgar Sawtelle, by David Wroblewsk

Mystery

• Wild Inferno, by Sandi Ault
• Lie Down with the Devil, by Linda Barnes
• Ghost at Work, by Carolyn Hart
• The Private Patient, by P.D. James
• The Messengers of Death: A Mystery in Provence, by Pierre Magnan, trans. from the French by Patricia Clancy
• Death's Half Acre, by Margaret Maron
• Salt River, by James Sallis
• Fear of Landing, by David Waltner-Toews
• The Calling, by Inger Ash Wolfe

SF/Fantasy/Horror

• The Living Dead, Edited by John Joseph Adams
• Pump Six and Other Stories, by Paolo Bacigalupi
• Ink and Steel, by Elizabeth Bear
• City at the End of Time, by Greg Bear
• Fallen, by Tim Lebbon
• Filter House, by Nisi Shawl
• Half a Crown, by Jo Walton

Mass Market

• No One Heard Her Scream, by Jordan Dane
• The Face, by Angela Hunt
• Deadly Deceptions, by Linda Lael Miller
• Heart of the Wolf, by Terry Spear
• Private Arrangements, by Sherry Thomas

Nonfiction

• How to Live: A Search forWisdom from Old People(While They Are Still on This Earth), by Henry Alford
• Nothing to Be Frightened Of, by Julian Barnes
• The Journal of Hélène Berr, by Hélène Berr
• The Solitary Vice: Against Reading, by Mikita Brottman
• Abraham Lincoln: A Life, by Michael Burlingame
• The Forever War, by Dexter Filkins
• Outliers: The Story of Success, by Malcolm Gladwell
• The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family, by Annette Gordon-Reed
• Standard Operating Procedure, by Philip Gourevitch and Errol Morris
• Champlain's Dream, by David Hackett Fischer
• The Ten-Cent Plague: The Great Comic-Book Scare and How It Changed America, by David Hajdu
• Pictures at a Revolution: Five Movies and the Birth of the New Hollywood, by Mark Harris
• Maggots in My Sweet Potatoes: Women Doing Time, by Susan Madden Lankford
• God's Crucible: Islam and the Making of Europe, 570–1215, by David Levering Lewis
• The Soloist: A Lost Dream, an Unlikely Friendship, and the Redemptive Power of Music, by Steve Lopez
• The Dark Side, by Jane Mayer
• An Exact Replica of a Figment of My Imagination: A Memoir, by Elizabeth McCracken
• How Beautiful It Is and How Easily It Can Be Broken, by Daniel Mendelsohn
• The Soul of the Rhino: A Nepali Adventure with Kings and Elephant Drivers, Billionaires and Bureaucrats, Shamans and Scientists, and the Indian Rhinoceros, by Hemanta Mishra with Jim Ottaway Jr.
• Rogue Economics: Capitalism's New Reality, by Loretta Napoleoni
• Descent into Chaos, by Ahmed Rashid
• Epilogue: A Memoir, by Anne Roiphe
• The Snowball: Warren Buffett and the Business of Life, by Alice Schroeder
• The Angel of Grozny: Orphans of a Forgotten War, by Asne Seierstad
• Final Salute: A Story of Unfinished Lives, by Jim Sheeler
• Audition: A Memoir, by Barbara Walters
• The Post-American World, by Fareed Zakaria

Religion Fiction

• The Shape of Mercy, by Susan Meissner
• Christ the Lord: The Road to Cana, by Anne Rice

Children's Fiction

• Chains, by Laurie Halse Anderson
• The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Volume 2: The Kingdom on the Waves, by M.T. Anderson
• The Penderwicks on Gardam Street, by Jeanne Birdsall
• Masterpiece, by Elise Broach
• Graceling, by Kristin Cashore
• The Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins
• Little Brother, by Cory Doctorow
• Bog Child, by Siobhan Dowd
• Dark Dude, by Oscar Hijuelos
• Tender Morsels, by Margo Lanagan
• Savvy, by Ingrid Law
• The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks, by E. Lockhart
• Sunrise over Fallujah, by Walter Dean Myers
• Nation, by Terry Pratchett

2008 Interanational Reading Association Notable Books

The International Reading Association's special interest group: Children's Literature and Reading has formed a committee called Notable Books for a Global Society (NBGS). Each year they select outstanding trade books which enhance student understanding of people and cultures throughout the world. The first list was published in 1996. To be eligible, a trade book must be published in the United States for the first time during the year of copyrights under consideration (so books on the 2008 list have a US copyright date of 2007). Winning titles are from fiction, non fiction and poetry written for children in grades K-12.

2008 IRA CL/R Sig Notable Books (Books for A Global Society)

Historical Fiction

• Revolution is Not A Dinner Party, by Ying Chang Compestine (Henry Holt)
• Elijah of Buxton, by Christopher Paul Curtis (Scholastic)
• Harlem Summer, by Walter Dean Myers (Scholastic)
• Keeping Corner, by Kashmira Sheth (Hyperion)
• Hitler's Canary, by Sandi Toksvis (Roaring Brook Press)
• Red Moon at Sharpsburg, by Rosemary Wells (Penguin)

Nonfiction

• Tasting the Sky, by Ibtisam Barakat (Straus & Giroux)
• A Long way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier, by Ishmael Beah (Straus & Giroux)
• Factory Girl, by Barbara Greenwood (ON: Kids Can Press)

Realistic Fiction

• The Absolutely True Diary of A Part-Time Indian, by Sherman Alexie (Little, Brown Young Readers)
• When Heaven Fell, by Carolyn Marsden (Candlewick)
• How to Steal a Dog, by Barbara O'Connor (Straus & Giroux)
• Rickshaw Girl, by Mitali Perkins (Charlesbridge)
  

2008 ALA Notable Books

The American Library Association (ALA) Notable Books List began in 1944. The judging panel is guided by the RASD Board of Directors statement of purpose and list of criteria for Notable Books.

The 2008 ALA Notable Book List

FICTION

• An Arsonist's Guide to Writers' Homes in New England, by Brock Clarke (Algonquin)
• Away, by Amy Bloom (Random)
• Cheating at Canasta, by William Trevor (Viking)
• The Complete Stories, by David Malouf (Pantheon)
• Finn, by Jon Clinch (Random)
• The Five-Forty-Five to Cannes, by Tess Uriza Holthe (Crown)
• Five Skies, by Ron Carlson (Viking)
• The Ministry of Special Cases, by Nathan Englander (Knopf)
• Mister Pip, by Lloyd Jones (Dell)
• On Chesil Beach, by Ian McEwan (Doubleday)
• Out Stealing Horses, by Per Petterson (Graywolf)
• The Pesthouse, by Jim Crace (Doubleday/Nan A Talese)
• The Yiddish Policeman's Union, by Michael Chabon (Harper Collins)

NONFICTION

• Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life, by Barbara Kingsolver (Harper Collins)
• The Canon: A Whirligig Tour of the Beautiful Basics of Science, by Natalie Angier (Houghton)
• Einstein: His Life and Universe, by Walter Isaacson (Simon & Schuster)
• Gertrude Bell: Queen of the Desert, Shaper of Nations, by Georgina Howell (Farrar)
• How Doctors Think, by Jerome Groopman (Houghton)
• Oil on the Brain: Adventures from the Pump to the Pipeline, by LIsa Margonelli (Doubleday/Nan A Talese)
• Super-Crunchers: Why Thinking-by-Numbers Is the New Way to Be Smart, by Ian Ayers (Bantam)
• When A Crocodile Eats the Sun: A Memoir of Africa, by Peter Godwin (Little Brown & Co)
• The World Without Us, by Alan Weisman (Thomas Dunne/St. Martins)
• The Zookeeper's Wife: A War Story, by Diane Ackerman (Norton)

POETRY

• A New Hunger, by Laure-Anne Bosselaar (Ausable)
• In A Prominent Bar in Secaucus: New and Selected Poems, by XJ Kennedy (Johns Hopkins)

2008 Kiriyama Prize Notable Book List

"The Kiriyama Prize was established in 1996 to recognize outstanding books about the Pacific Rim and South Asia that encourage greater mutual understanding of and among the peoples and nations of this vast and culturally diverse region."

The Prize publishes an annual list of notable books in the fiction and nonfiction categories, which are also drawn from the judging process.

2008 Notable List

Fiction

• My South Seas Sleeping Beauty by Guixing Zhang, translated by Valerie Jaffee (Columbia University Press)
• Bird of Another Heaven by James D. Houston (Knopf)
• Tree of Smoke by Denis Johnson (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
• The Indian Clerk by David Leavitt (Bloomsbury)
• God of Luck by Ruthanne Lum McCunn (Soho)
• The Ocean in the Closet by Yuko Tanigushi (Coffee House Press)
• The Elephanta Suite by Paul Theroux (Houghton Mifflin)
• The Assassin's Song by M. G. Vassanji (Doubleday Canada; Knopf USA)

Nonfiction

• The Lost Coast: Salmon, Memory and the Death of Wild Culture by Tim Bowling (Nightwood Editions, Canada)
• Hapa Girl: A Memoir by May-lee Chai (Temple University Press)
• Earth in Flower by Paul Cravath (DatAsia)
• Revolution of Hope: The Life, Faith, and Dreams of a Mexican President by Vicente Fox and Rob Allyn (Viking)
• China Road: A Journey into the Future of a Rising Power by Rob Gifford (Random House)
• Confessions: An Innocent Life in Communist China by Kang Zhenguo, translated by Susan Wilf (W.W. Norton)
• The Thorn of Lion City by Lucy Lum (Perseus)
• The Last Days of the Incas by Kim MacQuarrie (Simon & Schuster)
• Stealing Buddha's Dinner by Bich Minh Nguyen (Penguin)
• Under the Dragon: California's New Culture by Lonny Shavelson and Fred Setterberg (Heyday Books)
• Brother One Cell: An American Coming of Age in South Korea's Prisons by Cullen Thomas (Penguin)
• Beijing Confidential: A Tale of Comrades Lost and Found by Jan Wong (Doubleday Canada)

Notable Children's Books

• Hiromi's Hands written and illustrated by Lynne Barasch (Lee & Low)
• Surfer of the Century: The Life of Duke Kahanamoku by Ellie Crowe, illustrated by Richard Waldrep (Lee & Low)