I’m not so interested in when a book is released, so this is a list of the books I read in ‘08 that I enjoyed the most, regardless of when they were published.

  1. “The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao” - Junot Diaz. Fiction. I rarely re-read books until at least a couple of years have passed, but I’ll almost certainly re-read this one in a few months. Mr. Diaz somehow manages to pack a book of epic scope, spanning multiple generations of Dominicans, in a few hundred pages. The humorous references to Star Wars, Tolkien, and comic books were a great counterpoint to the rest of the book, which is often somewhat dark. This won the Pulitzer for a reason.
  2. “The World Without Us“- Alan Weisman. Non-fiction. A book that asks, “What would happen to the earth if humans disappeared tomorrow?” and uses the answers as a way to explore the impermanent (skyscrapers, roads, etc) and vastly more permanent (plastics, nuclear waste, etc) effects that we’ve had on the Earth. It also highlights what we’ve lost - forests filled with birdsong and reefs so thick with fish that vision is obscured. Examples of these may still be found but essentially only in places humanity does not occupy (such as Kingman Reef). I am rarely so happy as when I’m underwater scuba diving, freediving, or just snorkeling around on the surface, and I’ve seen firsthand how badly damaged most of the coral reefs near civilization are. It’s depressing. On the other hand, on a macro level, and ignoring the many species we’ve wiped out, we’re largely just ruining the Earth for ourselves since the Earth and the biosphere around it will recover from anything we can do to it (and then eventually perish when swallowed by our sun).
  3. “The Forge of God” / “Anvil of the Stars” - Greg Bear. Fiction. This is an excellent duology. In Forge I find perhaps the most compelling and poignant end-of-the-world scenario I’ve ever read. It’s incredibly well-done. Anvil is the story of a few of the survivors of the Earth’s destruction seeking justice or revenge (which one is being sought is a key theme) on the alien race that destroyed our home. It’s epic sci-fi at its best. (No, I’m not obsessed with the world ending. It’s a coincidence that I happened to read this and The World Without Us both this year.)
  4. “Altered Carbon” / “Broken Angels” / “Woken Furies” - Richard K. Morgan. Fiction. Pulp sci-fi/noir/cyberpunk at its best. Warning: Extreme violence and sex. And the most horrifying torture I’ve ever read or viewed. Despite that these are just an excellent, excellent read.
  5. “The Last Tycoons - The Secret History of Lazard Freres & Co.” - William D. Cohan. Non-fiction. The definitive history of what was one of the iconic Wall Street banks and its so-called “Great Men,” particularly Felix Rohatyn, the greatest of their number and later U.S. Ambassador to France. Great book but only if you’re fairly interested in finance and the drama surrounding it. I read this at the beginning of the year, and am not sure how the general collapse of Wall Street affected them.