BookList’s Bests
Booklist has just announced their Editors’ Choice of the best books of 2008, which means all the “Bests” lists are now in.
Of the 23 fiction titles, several have appeared on other lists. The title that showed up on the most national lists, including BookList‘s, is Richard Price’s Lush Life, followed closely by Toni Morrison’s A Mercy (links to the full lists appear at the right, under “Best Books 2008”).
Price, Richard, Lush Life
NYT BR, EW, PW, WSJ, NYT Daily, Time, Wash. Post, BooklistMorrison, Toni, A Mercy
NYT BR, Wash. Post (top 5), Amazon Editors, LJ, LAT, NYT Daily, Booklist
Titles that appeared on many other lists, but not on Booklist‘s include:
Bolaño, Roberto, 2666
NYT BR, Wash. Post (top 5), Amazon Editors, PW, LAT, NYT Daily, Salon, TimeO’Neill, Joseph, Netherland
NYT BR, Amazon Editors, PW, NYT Daily, NYer, PeopleWroblewski, David, The Story of Edgar Sawtelle
Amazon Editors, EW, PW, NYT Daily, People, Wash. PostLe, Nam, The Boat
NYT BR, Amazon Editors, PW, LJ, LATRobinson, Marilynne, Home
NYT BR, Amazon Editors, LJ, LAT, Wash. PostStrout, Elizabeth, Olive Kitteredge
Amazon Editors, EW, LJ, People, Wash. PostRash, Ron, Serena
Amazon Editors, PW, NYT Daily, Wash. PostAkpan, Uwem, Say You’re One of Them
Amazon Editors, PW, NYT Daily, Wash. Post
And, taste being what it is, of Booklist‘s 23 fiction selections, nearly one third did not appear on the other lists:
Levitt, Paul M., Come with Me to Babylon, University of New Mexico
Rhodes, David, Driftless, Milkweed
Marai, Sandor, Esther’s Inheritance, Knopf
Askold, Melnyczuk, House of Widows, Graywolf
Kelman, James, Kieron Smith, boy (this titls is also on James Wood’s very short list — just five fiction — in The New Yorker)
de Bernieres, Louis, A Partisan’s Daughter, Knopf
Hogan, Linda, People of the Whale, Norton
Furnivall, Kate, The Red Scarf, Berkeley
Rebeck, Theresa Three Girls and Their Brother, Crown, Shaye Areheart