Site Presented By
Thursday, Jul 9, 2009
Some of our favorite authors weigh in on the best reads of 2008.
Compiled by Abby Margulies
Read more: Books, Lynda Barry, graphic novels, Salon Book Awards, Best Books, Abby Margulies
Dec. 9, 2008 | Yesterday we revealed our favorite books of 2008. Today we've asked a selection of our favorite writers to chime in and tell us what books got them excited this year.
Michael Pollan, author of "In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto"
Try as I might to read about other topics, books on food seem to find their way to my bedside table, and 2008 brought a couple of exceptional ones: "Stuffed and Starved" by Raj Patel and "The End of Food" by Paul Roberts both explore the international dimensions of the food issue, and helped me to understand how decisions made about food and farming (and energy) in the U.S. affect eaters all over the world.
Sandra Tsing Loh, author of "Mother On Fire: A True Motherf%#$@ Story About Parenting!"
Although Henry Alford is a gay New York man and I'm a straight Los Angeles woman, I consider Henry a kind of soul mate, not to mention dear friend and exquisite human being. I say that because hilarious writers are rarely exquisite human beings in practice. Henry is, and his new book reflects both the hilarity and the exquisiteness. "How to Live" extracts wisdom (and some flotsam, duly noted) from an array of American elders, including a startlingly fresh and accurate analysis of my Chinese father (and our relationship) that ... well, reading Henry's account was like a wonderfully loving and in the end restorative chiropractic adjustment. For old people and anyone who has ever known an old person (and you will eventually!).
Malcolm Gladwell, author of "Outliers: The Story of Success"
My favorite book of the year was Stephen Hunter's newest, "Night of Thunder." I'm a fanatical reader of thrillers and Stephen Hunter has always been one of my favorites. This book, though, is his best in years -- unexpectedly funny and bitchy in addition to all the usual thrills and high jinks.
Curtis Sittenfeld, author of "American Wife"
I absolutely loved the new novel "Ms. Hempel Chronicles" by Sarah Shun-Lien Bynum. The book is divided into eight episodic chapters -- almost like short stories -- following Beatrice Hempel, who's a 20-something middle-school English and history teacher in New York. While this might not sound like inherently riveting material, Bynum is a wonderful, practically magical writer and she depicts Ms. Hempel's life in such a hilarious, poignant, quirky way that it's irresistible. The details are all completely perfect -- the tension of watching a dorky girl do a magic act during a talent show, the mood inside the bus on a field trip, the camaraderie among teachers -- and it all rings so true that I want to give this book to everyone I know who has ever taught. (Though I should add that the book, while elegantly written, also frankly discusses subjects such as, say, Ms. Hempel's reluctance to have anal sex with her fiancé, so it's not G-rated.) This is an unusual novel in tone, structure and focus, which I see as a virtue. I was charmed.
Kelly Link, author of "Pretty Monsters"
I grew up loving books about hobbits, horses and dogs (Walter Farley, Alfred Payson Terhune), and while I've stayed a faithful fan of fantasy and science fiction, somehow I seem to have drifted away from the horse genre. Reading Molly Gloss' novel "The Hearts of Horses," about a 19-year-old bronco buster, Martha Lessen, and a ranching community in Oregon in 1917, was one of those reading experiences that made me feel the way I did when I was a kid and reading certain books felt more urgent than remembering to breathe. I'm a huge fan of Gloss' other books, but "The Hearts of Horses" is the one that I'd recommend to start with. It's beautifully written, the characters are heartbreakingly real, and it fleshes out a piece of history that I know relatively little about.
And because I can never just recommend one book, I'll also note that this was a terrific year for graphic novels. I loved the new "Scott Pilgrim" by Bryan Lee O'Malley, Matt Forsythe's beautifully produced, weird and wordless "Ojingogo," and Lynda Barry's "What It Is." For short story collections, I can't stop recommending Joe Hill's "20th Century Ghosts," and for young adults, there's a bounty of riches: Ysabeau Wilce's "Flora's Dare"; Suzanne Collins' page-turning dystopia "The Hunger Games"; the second volume of M.T. Anderson's "Octavian Nothing"; and Margo Lanagan's gorgeous, unsettling fairy tale, "Tender Morsels."
Daniel Handler (aka Lemony Snicket), author of "A Series of Unfortunate Events" and "Adverbs"
Campbell McGrath's "Seven Notebooks" has everything you want in lit -- the passion and the distraction, the studied goofs and the careless formalism, the sentiment and the cynicism, the ebb and the flow and the herky-jerky dance, the anecdote and the epic and the way memory breaks your heart and throws you a lifeline, and two hard-boiled eggs. I had to read more than 300 books this year -- long story -- and this is the one that helped me with all the others. What do you need help with? "Seven Notebooks" will take care of that.
Next page: Rob Walker, Meg Wolitzer and Chuck Klosterman weigh in
Salon Book Awards 2008
Their favorite things
Salon Book Awards 2007
