Best Books of 2008

My book list isn't necessarily books released in 2008, since being that current on books is more difficult than music or movies. So this is more the best books I read this year.

Recent Fiction (released in the last 5 years)

1. The Post-Birthday World - Lionel Shriver

In this remarkable novel, a device that at first feels like a gimmick is used quite effectively to show that while life is made up of choices, it isn't necessarily so that two different paths won't lead to the same place. That's not to say that life is guided by fate, but our natures (and the nature of others) remains largely the same, and they drive our experiences--how we interpret our choices--more than the choices themselves. That's my take at least on this story which starts with main character Irina, an American living in London with her long-term British companion (but not husband) Lawrence, who is faced one boozy night with the choice of sleeping with the couple's friend Ramsay Action, a sexy edging-past-his-prime snooker player...or not sleeping with him. After the evening in question (Ramsay's birthday) the novel unfolds on parallel tracks--one in which Irina leaves Lawrence to be with Ramsay and another in which she stays faithful to Lawrence. Irina is a wonderfully written character. She is passionate, certain of the rightness of her choices, even if their morality is questionable. She's a flawed yet deeply sympathetic character--in short, very human.

2. A Fraction of the Whole - Steve Toltz

If you're too put off by this book's 711 pages, you'll miss the year's most outlandish and extremely funny epic novel. The Booker short-listed novel tells the story of three Australian men that comprise the Dean family: deeply intellectual Martin, his famous athlete-turned-outlaw brother Terry, and his desperate-to-not-be-like-his-father son Jasper. Narrated in first person between Martin and Jasper, the story begins with Jasper narrating his father's life story from prison. From there we learn how Martin spent much of his first few years in a coma, permanently scarring his golden boy brother Terry. Sydney, Bangkok and a small Australian town comprise the setting for most of this hilarious novel, sprinkled with memorable characters like Anouk, who comes into the Deans' lives as their housekeeper when she keys Martin's car and he won't let it go.

3. Late Nights on Air - Elizabeth Hay

This winner of last year's Giller Prize (Canada's literary award) is about a quirky cast of characters working at a public radio station in Yellowknife, the largest town in Canada's very remote Northwestern Territories. The book takes an interesting turn for its final third, when a group of characters take an adventurous trek across the wilderness. An interesting glimpse into a part of the world few of us have been wrapped around a set of characters who, for varying reasons, have gone to this remote area to get away from something.

4. The Story of Edgar Sawtelle - David Wroblewski

Before it become an Oprah book, The Story of Edgar Sawtelle was just a touching story about a hyper-intelligent, mute boy named Edgar and his dog Almondine set in rural northern Wisconsin. If that sounds a little too saccharine, consider that it is also a murder mystery and an adventure story, all held together by Wroblewski's sensitive prose. [A side note: I got to meet Wroblewski at a book signing, and he was very genuine and charming. I hope he is enjoying his book's major success.]

5. White Tiger - Aravind Adiga

This year's surprise Booker winner was, like Slumdog Millionaire, a voyeuristic glimpse into life in modern India. Like that film, White Tiger portrays an India gripped by western modernization where every man it seems is out for himself. It's main character, Balram Halwai, comes from a small town servant-class family, but moves up in the world, first as a driver for a wealthy family living in Delhi, and then later as a wealthy entrepreneur himself (although at a steep price). A dark and humorous story.

6. Child 44 - Tom Rob Smith

I found out about this book because it was on the Booker longlist. Generally its stocked in the "thriller" section of bookstores, but it's really more involved than your average book from that genre. Main character Leo is a an officer in the Soviet Union's state security force in 1950s, a brutal branch of the government meant to keep the peace by stopping (i.e. covering up) any potential problems. Generally that means imprisoning anyone who could be considered an enemy of the state (i.e. a free thinker), but in this story it also includes murder, uncovering a society so convinced of its perfection that it turns a blind eye to serial killing. That Leo begins to doubt this perfection, and act on that doubt, is what makes this more than just a gripping crime novel.

7. Twlight series - Stephanie Meyer

I read all four of these books in August. They are easy reads and surprisingly compelling. I don't need to say much about them, but I will point out how Meyer cleverly updated the vampire myth in a similar fashion as J.K. Rowling updated the wizard myth, albeit with less depth. The first and last books are the best, for setting up the story so effectively and taking it in an unexpected direction.

8. March - Geraldine Brooks

The Pulitzer Prize winner from 2006 takes a minor character from Little Women--the father, Robin March, and gives him his own Civil War story. Historical fiction at its best.

9. People of the Book - Geraldine Brooks

Brooks' other entry in my top 10 is completely different. This is the story of Hanna Heath, a historian who specializes in restoring old books, who travels to Sarajevo to repair a Jewish religious text, the haggadah. As such discovers mysteries of the book, the story flashes back to tell the book's history. Some of the flashbook stories are more effective than others, but what I really liked was Hanna, a character so fully realized that her story reads more like a memoir than fiction.

10. City of Thieves - David Benioff

This farcical World War II story involves Lev, a young man from Leningrad, and Kolya, a charasmatic army deserter, who in order to escape punishment must travel the countryside in search of a dozen eggs--a difficult task in war-starved Russia. At times funny and harrowing, this was an enjoyable lark of a novel.


Nonfiction

I'm more a fiction reader, but I throw in nonfiction every once in awhile. The best this year was Michael Pollan's The Omnivore's Dilemma, a fascinating look at America's food supply that delves into the myths and mysteries that drive large-scale agriculture, organic foods, and ask whether it's practical to be a hunter-gatherer of your own food (in short, it's not, but it makes a good story). A close second was Matt Frei's Only in America, reflections on life in the United States by a British journalist living in Washington DC, which blended humor and political commentary. It was more insightful than Sarah Lyall's The Anglo Files, which was basically the reverse: Reflections on life in the United Kingdom by an American writer living in London. Lyall's book goes more for humor whereas Frei managed both humor and insight.

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The Gathering - Anne Enright. This was last year's Booker Prize winner, and I didn't like it much at all. I was so glad to get through it. I thought it was dull and I didn't like the characters.