Best of 2008

My father likes to claim that in France it’s perfectly acceptable to send holiday greeting cards until the end of January. I don’t know if this is true, but I like the idea and I’ve certainly used it to justify sending cards after the holidays. In the spirit of this idea, I’ve decided that I can still post my “Best of 2008” list of books, since we haven’t reached the end of January 2009 yet. I was hoping I would have finished reviewing all the books I read in late 2008 by the time I posted this list, but some of them are still to come, unfortunately. The lists are in alphabetical order by title, not in order of preference.

Best New Fiction (published in 2008):

The 19th Wife by David Ebershoff (read review)
Good to a Fault by Marina Endicott (read review)
The Heretic’s Daughter by Kathleen Kent (read review)
Love Walked In by Marisa de los Santos (read review)
No One You Know by Michelle Richmond (read review)

Best Backlist Fiction:

Artificial Things by Karen Joy Fowler (no review)
Farthing by Jo Walton (read review)
Someone Not Really Her Mother by Harriet Scott Chessman (read review)
The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield (no review)
Thus Was Adonis Murdered by Sarah Caudwell (no review)

Best Non-Fiction:

A Perfect Mess: The Hidden Benefits of Disorder by Eric Abrahamson and David H. Freedman (no review)
The Dangerous Joy of Dr. Sex and Other True Stories by Pagan Kennedy (read review)
Storming Heaven’s Gate: An Anthology of Spiritual Writings by Women edited by Patricia Vecchione and Amber Coverdale Sumrall (read review)
The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher by Kate Summerscale (review to come)

Best Book Covers:

Aberrations by Penelope Przekop (read review)
The Late Bloomer’s Revolution by Amy Cohen (read review)

With thanks to Rebecca at The Book Lady’s Blog for inspiring the layout of this post!