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 Post subject: NY Times' 100 Notable Books of 2008 -- Fiction & Poetry
PostPosted: Thu Nov 27, 2008 1:49 pm 
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Queen of Obner

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I'm trying to rekindle my love of reading -- of the following, can you recommend any?

100 Notable Books of 2008
The Book Review has selected this list from books reviewed since Dec. 2, 2007, when we published our previous Notables list.

Fiction & Poetry

AMERICAN WIFE. By Curtis Sittenfeld. (Random House, $26.) The life of this novel’s heroine — a first lady who comes to realize, at the height of the Iraq war, that she has compromised her youthful ideals — is conspicuously modeled on that of Laura Bush.

ATMOSPHERIC DISTURBANCES. By Rivka Galchen. (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, $24.) The psychiatrist-narrator of this brainy, whimsical first novel believes that his beautiful, much-younger Argentine wife has been replaced by an exact double.

BASS CATHEDRAL. By Nathaniel Mackey. (New Directions, paper, $16.95.) Mackey’s fictive world is an insular one of musicians composing, playing and talking jazz in the private language of their art.

BEAUTIFUL CHILDREN. By Charles Bock. (Random House, $25.) This bravura first novel, set against a corruptly compelling Las Vegas landscape, revolves around the disappearance of a surly 12-year-old boy.

BEIJING COMA. By Ma Jian. Translated by Flora Drew. (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, $27.50.) Ma’s novel, an important political statement, looks at China through the life of a dissident paralyzed at Tiananmen Square.

A BETTER ANGEL: Stories. By Chris Adrian. (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, $23.) For Adrian — who is both a pediatrician and a divinity student — illness and a heightened spiritual state are closely related conditions.

BLACK FLIES. By Shannon Burke. (Soft Skull, paper, $14.95.) A rookie paramedic in New York City is overwhelmed by the horrors of his job in this arresting, confrontational novel, informed by Burke’s five years of experience on city ambulances.

THE BLUE STAR. By Tony Earley. (Little, Brown, $23.99.) The caring, thoughtful hero of Earley’s engrossing first novel, “Jim the Boy,â€


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PostPosted: Thu Nov 27, 2008 3:12 pm 
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A True Aristocrat of Freedom

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It's funny, I am reasonably well read and curious about the world of books, but I wouldn't consider reading a single book on this list.

The nonfiction list looks great, though.

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Throughout his life, from childhood until death, he was beset by severe swings of mood. His depressions frequently encouraged, and were exacerbated by, his various vices. His character mixed a superficial Enlightenment sensibility for reason and taste with a genuine and somewhat Romantic love of the sublime and a propensity for occasionally puerile whimsy.
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PostPosted: Fri Nov 28, 2008 1:12 am 
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May contain Jesus.
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I'm so consumed with books from the past that a book from this year seems foreign to me. I did buy that Bolano "2666" boxset. Looking forward that down the line.

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PostPosted: Fri Nov 28, 2008 1:40 am 
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Failed Reunion

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Sen LoogarBrines his Bird Wrote:
It's funny, I am reasonably well read and curious about the world of books, but I wouldn't consider reading a single book on this list.

The nonfiction list looks great, though.


Even Richard Price? That guy brings it consistently.

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Kwame Kilpatrick texted to his mistress: "NEXT TIME, JUST TELL ME TO SIT DOWN, SHUT UP, and DO YOUR THING! I'm fucked up now!"


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PostPosted: Fri Nov 28, 2008 11:35 pm 
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Self-Released 7-Inch
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Of the new fiction I read this year, the two I most enjoyed on this list are Netherland by Joseph O'Neill and The Lazarus Project by Aleksandar Hemon. Both are magnificent writers.

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top 5 of 2008:
1. Walkmen - You & Me
2. No Age - Nouns
3. Beach House - Devotion
4. TV on the Radio - Dear Science
5. Deerhoof - Offend Maggie


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