The Best Books Of 2008
By Nicole Belle Monday Dec 29, 2008 7:00pm
Per Amazon, here are their editors' choices for the top ten books of 2008:
1. The Northern Clemency by Philip Hensher
2. Hurry Down Sunshine by Michael Greenberg
3. Nixonland by Rick Perlstein
4. The Forever War by Dexter Filkins
5. The Story of Edgar Sawtelle by David Wroblewski
6. The Likeness by Tana French
7. Serena by Ron Rash
8. So Brave, Young, and Handsome by Leif Enger
9. The Lazarus Project by Aleksander Hemon
10. The Ten-Cent Plague by David Hajdu
Of the ten, Nixonland absolutely blew me away. I cannot possibly recommend it highly enough for political junkies like myself. I have The Dark Side by Jane Mayer on my desk, but haven't yet finished it. I'm almost done with Outliers: The Story of Success and like it very much.
I haven't read as many political books this year as I have in years past (I had to have a break from politics during this election year), but most of my fiction reading is catching up from past years--Wally Lamb, Anne Lamott, David Foster Wallace. Much of my current reading comes from introducing my kids to books. Together, we've been reading a lot of Neil Gaiman--his latest, The Graveyard Book is wonderful, Sherman Alexie and Jasper Fforde (whose surrealist literary works appear to be vying for the Douglas Adams title), however, I did love Salman Rushdie's The Enchantress of Florence, which was just lyrically beautiful.
But I'm eager now to add to my reading list, so tell me, what were your favorite books of this year?
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After Bush I'm nostalgic for Nixon.
Got that one for Christmas. Have to finish King's short story book (which isn't too good) and then Barbarians at the Gate first...
Is dat baby momma ever gonna marry dat baby daddy?
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/12/29/bris...
and should be read by all those who care about freedom of the press
the dems in the senate set back the art form that is comics almost 30 years
eff estes kefauver
i hope that when bettie page made it up to heaven, she kicked the crap out of that closet perv
boring Canadian politics, I suggest Rick Mercer Report: The Paperback Book
Without a doubt, one of the funniest most sarcastic Canadian comedians of his time.
Best book of the year, for the 7th consecutive year, is Boyd: The Fighter Pilot Who Changed the Art of War. Best book ever, even better than the MST3K Amazing Colossal Episode Guide. Gave away my dog-eared copy of Boyd in May, but got a new one for FSM-Mas.
The Plot to Sieze the White House by Jukes Archer is my runner-up. And Kill the Messenger by Nick Schou is a helluva read.
They're all so good it's like they were just published in 2008 for the 1st time...
You meant, "Jules" Archer. Look forward to reading it.
I have to admit, there are chapters of Filkins book that border on the unbelievable. The guy put himself in some incredibly dangerous positions. If his recounting of events is even 90% accurate, he is one brave dude. Got to be a little crazy even to take some of the risks he took. Going jogging, at night, outside the Green Zone, is one example.
My library does a great thing. I’m sure other libraries do something similar but in my library all the librarians suggest new books to the patrons, but they never let you know if their being serious or not. I mean they put up political junk food next to a children’s book that sort of explains what the adult book is really about. Or they have a stack of something like the complete works of Stephen King next to a novella by George Orwell. I’ve watched the staff looking at the reactions of different people and have heard them call fellow staff members to tell them what somebody did when they saw their most special book next to something that is 100% opposite. I’ve taken some books that have been sitting side by side and read them together and I swear I can feel the neurons connecting in an all new different way. And when I go to check them out, the librarian smiles and give a slight bow. God that is so cool. Being honored even to so minor a degree by a librarian is a huge thing to a library-phile like me
I love it, because it isn’t the best books of the year, it’s the best reading of the books of the year.
Is totally darned cool!
Some of the more notable books of 2008 that have gone under the wire, so to speak, that I have read are:
The Age of American Unreason by Susan Jacoby where Ms. Jacoby discusses the dumbing down of American culture and reason in today's pop culture world.
Vietnam: The [last] War the U.S. Lost by Joe Allen. Allen perceptively discusses the role of the Vietnamese, the anti-war movement and the how the GI movement helped to bring about an end to that conflict.
The Liberal Defence of Murder by Richard Seymour where Seymour dissects how liberals have been just as complicit as the conservatives in starting unnecessary wars throughout the world.
Savage Mules by Dennis Perrin which, like the above book [though briefer and somewhat more accessible] focuses on how the Democrats, from Wilson to JFK to LBJ and up to the present, have been just as eager as the Republicans in causing the United States to wage war against third world countries.
As in "Ooops, I tripped while drunk fell on some guys d*ck and got pregnant" or "What a long, f*cked trip it's been."
May the youngin' turn out to be less f*cked than the rest of the family...
spent a week locked in Lee Co (FL) jail. Hell if I remember what their titles were, but I was sure glad I had something to read at all!!
dare I ask?
when that prick sheriff (hosted Palin rally) got re-elected.
Worst jail (I've been in a few, not many...) I've been in...
The Billionaire's vinegar by Benjamin Wallace.
Atomic Lobster by Tim Dorsey
Serge Storm rulez!
But I am a die hard Haaisan fan.
Also...
Armageddon in Retrospect by Kurt Vonnegut (posthumous).
None of them new, and in no particular order:
Neil Gaiman "Stardust" (even better than the under-rated movie version)
Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett "Good Omens" (who knew Armageddon could be so laugh-out-loud funny?)
Mark Twain "A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court" (Twain was a Progressive, not to mention hilarious -- amazing how his humor holds up even today)
T.H. White "The Once and Future King" (I first read this some 20 years ago, and it remains one of my very favorite retellings of Arthurian legend. T.H. White wrote from a Progressive point-of-view and with great humor. His version is the basis of Broadway's "Camelot," so it's no wonder the Kennedys adopted this as their theme. "It's not might IS right -- it's might FOR right...")
JoAnne- I was a CH fan before I found Dorsey, and still am. Gueuzewife found "A death in China" by Mantalo/Hiassan (1984) for Christmas. Not the style he's known for, still getting started in it. Tried to read his latest about golf, "The Biggest Lie" and couldn't, as I'm not a golfer.
In his usual style a la Sick Puppy golf or just golf golf?
I looked it up. It is about golf golf.
I love Carl Hiaasen but I don't know if I could get into golf.
http://www.carlhiaasen.com/books/books-downhi...
Not a story, more of a diary, or documentary, but there is humor in it. Just no "story". Oops, "the Downhill Lie", not the biggest lie, that title belongs to GWB and company.
Political books? No thanks, I read for fun. But trying to also slog thru biographies of Ben Franklin and Paul Verlaine. Interesting, edifying, but not fun.
I can't suggest a book I've read recently,...but if you stay on the lookout in early 09 I can suggest a book I've written? The title of the memoir is Webster Groves, and contains the heart-chilling tale of growing up in the city CBS News selected as the perfect American Suburb........with a six-foot-nine-inch, 350 pound, rascist, drunk, corrupt cop for a Dad, and a fairly demented mother......the manuscript is in final copy and polish or whatever they call it, then should be available on B&N and Amazon in Feb/March 09.
Regards,
Robert
What I was still hungry for after seeing "W" movie, this book filled in for me! Thank you, Jacob! A wonderful read.
Look I have about 60 books on the Kennedy assassination, I'm no myopian, I have plenty of books on many other subjects, but BY FAR THE BEST BOOK EVER WRITTEN on the subject came out this past year, 'JFK and the Unspeakable'.
Actually it may just be the best political book of any kind to come out all of last year. Many of the people involved or their progeny (both real and philosophical) are all still very much in the game. A very. very important book.
Thanks for your time here.
His book, The Way of the World connects with astonishing deftness the connection between the random, capricious behavior of governments during the War on Turrrrrrr and how that capriciousness replicates itself totally predictably in the treatment of individuals caught in the crosshairs of the war.
I also loved Arianna Huffington's book Right Is Wrong. Also loved Vincent Bugliosi's methodical, plausible case for the trial of W for murder. Additionally, Eugene Jarecki's Why We Fight is a fascinating historic study of just that question. Jarecki goes back (as I remember) at least to the Spanish-American war. Sadly, the reasons we fight do not seem to change, even while the venue might.
Anyone read Bugliosi's other recent book debunking the JFK conspiracies?
Just in the past 8 years alone, there have been so many, but I'm still processing and loving "The Shock Doctrine", by Naomi Klein. This is an incredible book.
john hodgman's latest almanac is absolutely hilarious..
i enjoyed bob cesca's tome also.. and matt taibbi's "the great derangement".. as well "get your war on"
apart from that i delved more into the writings of yesteryear..
though I think I still prefer Perlstein's BEFORE THE STORM (which is thankfully being resiiused in paperback in February).
Another wonderful '08 book: PICTURES AT A REVOLUTION by Mark Harris, about the making of each of the five 1968 Best Picture Oscar nominated films (BONNIE AND CLYDE, DOCTOR DOOLITTLE, THE GRADUATE, GUESS WHO'S COMING TO DINNER and IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT), at the precise moment Old Hollywood was giving way to a decade of amazing new American film talent.
Roy Blount Jr.'s Alphabet Juice was wonderful. Not just for etymologists, it's full of great stories, good laughs, "aha" moments, and the pleasure of watching Blount glory in the joys of English.
The Prosecution of George W. Bush for Murder by Bugliosi.
He makes the case so cut and dry that I believe I could lead the prosecution though I'm an accountant.
Suskind - Way Of The World. Already mentioned above, but I thought it was wonderful and at the end an extremely hopeful book.
Rashid - Descent Into Chaos. Meticulous, current, great great look at Central Asia in the wake of the Afghan invasion/abandonment, including looking at the inner workings of Pakistan. It's a book I usually describe as "beefy"; only 400 pages, but not one is wasted. Can't recommend it enough.
Thought "Critical" was as good as a policy book gets, can kill it in about 3 hours. Reread "Breaks of the Game" again this year, still a fun read after all these years.
Agreed on the Ten Cent Plague -- it's a great overview of the whole furor over comic books, much of which seems extremely quaint when you consider what's considered mainstream pop culture these days.
I've been reading the softcover version of Schulz (and Peanuts) at the moment and thoroughly enjoying it. Considering the juggernaut that the strip became, and the crazy marketing around it at the end (well the last thirty years of it I guess) it's sometimes hard to remember that the strip actually did have a subversive edge to it a lot of the time.
Best book I read last year was written in 1950. It was "All Honorable Men," by James Stewart Martin. The author was chief of the "decartelization" branch of the US Army at the end of World War II. His (now-rare) book reveals how Wall Street bankers subverted the Roosevelt administration's goal of removing Nazis and their wealthy industrialist supporters from positions of dominance in the German economy. Although written in the late '40s, "All Honorable Men" is relevant today to anyone who wonders how America, a nation ostensibly devoted to the promotion of democracy around the world, came to be the greatest supporter of quasi-fascist dictatorships around the world --- and at home.
A lengthy summation of the book is available at my website:
http://theviewfromthepoopdeck.blogspot.com/
Bugliosi's book on JFK is a travesty. Although it is (intentionally I believe) almost too long to read (plus there are some serious question as to how much of the book he actually wrote).
I could go into more detail but respected JFK researcher, Jim DiEugenio has gone through Bugliosi's whole book on the JFK assassination and ripped it to shreds here's the link:
http://ctka.net/home.html
Scroll about half way down the page you will see the relevant linkage.
I can't believe that Larry the Penguin Searches for the Meaning of Life is not on your list! By far, it is the best work of 2008. It might be a work of fiction, but it is firmly centered in reality. It slams Sarah Palin and the Bush Administration. It got a great review here:
http://www.bookreview.com/$spindb.query.listreview2.booknew.17737m
will be "Time for a NEW Tea Party". Advanced copies can be purchased NOW at www.TimeForANewTeaParty.com
Nicole, I see that you have The Dark Side by Jane Mayer only partially read. It was hard for me to get through it, too. It is not because it was badly written, but it was tearing me up at how evil the Cheney people are and how they supposedly represent our country. I had to put it down and only come back to it later time and time again.
Great book by Muhammad Hanif. Dictators are a strange bunch, and this treatment of the General who ruled Pakistan after the overthrow and murder of Papa Bhutto is outstanding.
I don't read books. Just my short attentionspan. I love short stories and every political development is a story in itself. That why I'm such a great fan of C&L. I usually follow an item up by scouring Wikpedia. And that is where I can get lost. Sometimes I start at one itdem, see links anywhere and before I know it the sun is already down.
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