BEST READS OF 2008

-1-
2666
Roberto Bolaño
I have yet to complete 2666, yet it still ranks as my number one reading experience for 2008. It is mysterious and frustrating. It is complex and dense. It is full of literary allusions and insider jokes, some of which I get and some of which I don't. It confounds me and compels me. It is vast and sprawling. I am not sure that it always works. It reminds me of other large and ambitious novels like Melville's Moby Dick or Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath. I think I am in love.

-2-
A Life of Picasso: The Triumphant Years, 1917-1932
John Richardson
This volume chronicles the continued ascension of Picasso as an artist of European and international renown. He is brash. He is arrogant. The ambition that drives his drawing, painting, and sculpting is also the vigor that drives his sexual escapades. He is conflicted and secretive. He is simultaneously overtly public and highly private. Richardson has produced what is the best Picasso biography I have read.

-3-
The Zero
Jess Walter
What happens to individuals and communities in the wake of national catastrophe? What happens if it is so overwhelming that you cannot remember large pieces of your life? What happens when your life continues to unravel even as you try to capitalize on your new found fame and glory? I also read Walter's Every Knee Shall Bow: The Truth & Tragedy of Ruby Ridge and the Randy Weaver Family. Walter has a knack for elaborating detail and seeking truth within the picture he examines. I also went to a reading where he was to read from The Zero but instead talked about the craft of writing. It was a great story about being both an author and a member of an audience.

-4-
Zeroville
Steve Erickson
Another surreal peer into the looking glass from Steve Erickson is always cause for celebration. I felt that Zeroville was one of his most grounded books without sacrificing any of Erickson's favorite themes—loneliness, relationship, apocalypse—or his edge.

-5-
Raw Materials
William Kupinse
This volume of poems by Tacoma's poet laureate is wonderful. Kupinse has a great command of language. He also uses that vocabulary without pretension. The words flow like music. I have read his words on the page, I have heard them read on recordings, and I have heard them read live by Kupinse himself. They sing in whatever way they are presented.

-6-
Vacation
Deb Olin Unferth
I like this book the more and more I think about it. It was a strange experience. A man follows his wife who is following another man, unbeknownst to all who are being followed. The two men went to college together. The first man is pursuing the second man to kill him, even though nothing happened between the wife and the second man, other than the silent pursuit over a lengthy period of time. Everything is falling apart. There are threads of other stories that are weaving themselves in the main narrative. Everyone is on a "vacation" it seems...

-7-
Like You'd Understand Anyway
Jim Shepard
These short stories inhabit the barren landscapes of our environs—urban, suburban, rural, wild—as well as those of our souls. In some sense, each one of these tales is a story of figurative or literal survival. They also pose questions of ambition and drive, of the willingness of some to survive against all odds and the collapse of others at the smallest amount of stress.

-8-
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian
Sherman Alexie
It is too bad that this book is categorized as young adult fiction. That means that a lot of adults will miss a marvelous semi-autobiographical coming-of-age novel. It won well-deserved awards, which will still not recommend it to many readers that need this book. Trust me and read it.

-9-
Riding Toward Everywhere
William T. Vollmann
This collection of meditations and observations of train-hopping, experienced first-hand, is a little less cohesive and somewhat messier than some of Vollmann's other nonfiction. That still means that it is leagues above most of what sits on bookstore shelves. Vollmann has a wonderful gift for helping the reader experience the lives of The Other, especially those on the margins of society. I wish I was able to be as open and adventurous as Vollmann, but I am not and probably never will be. Instead, I will live vicariously through his work.

-10-
The Farther Shore
Matthew Eck
I find it difficult to imagine what it is like to be in a warzone—as either soldier or citizen. Eck manages to convey the chaos and violence of war, having experienced it as a soldier in both Haiti and Somalia. This fictional account of U.S. infantry caught behind enemy lines is harrowing and riveting. I found myself racing through the words and the images of the unnamed African country of the plot right along the main character.

---

Why is it that most blogs, newspapers, and magazines try to get their "best of" lists for a particular year in print prior to the end of that year? They haven't allowed themselves time to reflect on what they've experienced. They haven't allowed themselves time to collect their thoughts.

That is why you are getting the Best Reads of 2008 from Troy's Work Table in early 2009. I wanted to ensure that these truly are my favorite books for an entire year.

---

BEST READS OF 2007.

BEST READS OF 2006.