The New York Times has picked their ten best books of 2008. I still prefer my picks from the Hemmings’ Beat Down Foundation Awards, but at least there weren’t any titles on their list that made me want to throw in the towel and become an Atlanta housewife.

Their top ten:

A MERCY by Toni Morrison
DANGEROUS LAUGHTER, Thirteen Stories by Steven Millhauser
NETHERLAND by Joseph O’Neill
2666 by Roberto Bolaño
UNACCUSTOMED EARTH by Jhumpa Lahiri
THE DARK SIDE: The Inside Story of How the War on Terror Turned Into a War on American Ideals by Jane Mayer
THE FOREVER WAR by Dexter Filkins
NOTHING TO BE FRIGHTENED OF by Julian Barnes
THIS REPUBLIC OF SUFFERING: Death and the American Civil War by Drew Gilpin Faust
THE WORLD IS WHAT IT IS: The Authorized Biography of V. S. Naipaul by Patrick French

My top ten:

More Than It Hurts You by Darin Strauss
The Story of Edgar Sawtelle by David Wroblewski
The Condition by Jennifer Haigh
The House at Riverton: A Novel by Kate Morton
The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family by Annette Gordon-Reed
In Defense of Food: an Eater’s Manifesto by Michael Pollan
The Monster of Florence by Douglas Preston
A Platter of Figs and Other Recipes by David Tanis and Alice Waters
The Descendants (in paperback) by Kaui Hart Hemmings (had to sneak that in)
Mudbound by Hillary Jordan
that’s it