BOOKPATHS

Lit Lists

The New York Times has chosen its “10 best books of 2008.”

Fiction

Dangerous Laughter: Thirteen Stories, by Steven Millhauser

A Mercy, by Toni Morrison

Netherland, by Joseph O’Neill

2666, by Robert Bolaño, translated by Natasha Wimmer

Unaccustomed Earth, by Jhumpa Lahiri

Nonfiction

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, by Patrick French

Charlie English, author of The Snow Tourist, chooses his top 10 snow books.

“I don't remember exactly when I saw my first snow, but I do recall thinking as a child that I could sense, some mornings – perhaps from the mineral scent of frozen water – that snow had fallen overnight. I remember how my heart lifted when I opened the bedroom curtains and found the world transformed. In literature, snow is often used to represent death, but it also brings beauty, romance, happiness and an empty white space in which to reflect upon ourselves.” – Charlie English, The Guardian

Halloween

Peter Washington chooses “the top 10 ghost stories.”

Halloween

Author and journalist Amanda Craig “recommends magical and macabre children’s books for Hallowe’en.”

Christmas is supposed to be the annual feast special to children, but as any parent knows it's really Hallowe'en. Next Friday, small ghouls and ghosts will be bobbing up and down on our doorsteps, demanding chocolates with menaces and shrieking with eldritch laughter. To get us in the mood, there are some lovely books out. – Amanda Craig, The Times

Sebastian Faulks picks the books he “cannot live without.”

“I sat down with a piece of paper and, on a principle of natural self-selection, wrote the first names that came into my head. Then I had to cut back the 80 or so titles to the required 40. Although it was tempting to show off, I first whittled away some of those Bolivian experimentalists. The other lure - to be a crowd-pleaser - was harder to resist, because many of the books I wanted were not in print; so some mainstream choices were promoted just because they are available. Here, I tried to pick books that are not just classics but which offer something different on each reading. Hence The Catcher in the Rye over Gatsby; the latter is always good, but the former is always surprising.” – from “Sebastian Faulks: the Books I Cannot Live Without,” The Times

Former trial lawyer and “the bestselling author of twelve previous novels,” Lisa Scottoline chooses her “top 10 books about justice” for the Guardian.

“I also teach a course I developed called Justice and Fiction at my alma mater, the University of Pennsylvania Law School, in which I trace views of justice in fiction. Here are some of the books I teach. If you read them, you'll get the short course - without the tuition!" – from “Lisa Scottoline's Top 10 Books About Justice,” The Guardian

World

Celebrate Penguins 60th birthday by checking out The Times' “pick of the perfect Penguins.”

“The iconic little black books are 60 years old. In the 1930s E. V. Rieu, an educational publisher who spent his evenings translating Homer for his own amusement, suggested to Allen Lane, founder of the new Penguin imprint, that he publish his translation of The Odyssey. Lane, against the counsel of colleagues, agreed and in 1946 Rieu’s version became the first Penguin Classic. It has sold five million copies and the classics list, including modern classics (books written since the Second World World) runs to some 1,400 titles. Tens of millions have been sold.” – from “Our Pick of the Perfect Penguins,” by Damian Whitworth, The Times

Dan Mullan, author of Gordon Banks : a Hero Who Could Fly, “chooses his top 10 books on his other heroes” for the Guardian.

Still looking for a perfect gift? Molly Ivins offers "A Procrastinator’s Holiday Book List.”

“Look at this, fellow procrastinators -- almost two weeks before the actual day, and here I am to solve all your shopping problems with the annual one-stop, hit-the-bookstore with less than 24-hours-to-go, all-purpose Procrastinator's List.” – Molly Ivins

Elizabeth Kostova, author of The Historian, shares her “top 10 books for winter nights” in The Guardian.

“I have a penchant for the erudite literary mystery.” -- Elizabeth Kostova