15 Comments

YES! Feeling this hard. I send out recommendations in three categories for similar reasons: Current (out in the past year or two), Contemporary (past 15ish years), Of Yore (mostly so I could use the word Yore). I would love to apply all of my non-executive functioning skills to this

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I loved Kate Atkinson's When Will There Be Good News which I think came out that year and I don't think won anything. Also, I think I dated the stock photo awards guy lol

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I know I didn't read much fiction from 2008, in 2008, but looking back on some lists, one I read more recently that would certainly be in the running -- NBA and NBCC finalist -- is The Lazarus Project.

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He actually won the NBCC that year!

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It feels so awkward to do this, but only a finalist. https://www.bookcritics.org/past-awards/2008/

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So Amazon is lying...? "The only novel from MacArthur Genius Award winner, Aleksandar Hemon -- the National Book Critics Circle Award winning The Lazarus Project."

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Dang, they totally ARE lying! Not shocked, it's just super weird since the publisher usually submits the copy... (???)

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How do I get Amazon to say I have a Nobel Prize?

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Depending on metadata oversight, someone at Viking could probably have it show up on retail sites for a time. 😉 They just put something in the database, it gets pushed out, and it appears in the world... until it is changed and overwritten.

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That copy is definitely coming from the publisher, as metadata almost always does. It's pushed out identically to all retailers. You'll see the same copy on B&N (https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/lazarus-project-aleksandar-hemon/1100361780) and even Bookshop (https://bookshop.org/p/books/the-lazarus-project-aleksandar-hemon/587179?ean=9781594483752). Very strange that someone at Riverhead made the mistake, likely years ago.

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You know, 'A Mercy,' happily, won both the Tournament of books for that year and the anniversary all-Time TOB a few years back, which makes a great argument for that online contest that doesn’t take itself too seriously. (Though 'Olive Kitteridge' won the Pulitzer the same year and Strout's career has held up pretty well).

Now I have to figure out which other books published in 2008 I've read.. .

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I love this! I want to reach back one more year (2007) to nominate Thrity Umrigar's The Space Between Us.

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The Story of Forgetting by Stefan Merrill Block

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I went through a list of the 100 most notable books of 2008, and realized with dismay that I hadn't read any of them. This reminded me that I will read a tiny fraction of the books I would like to read before I leave this earthly plane. This makes me sad, so I end up circling back to my theory that the books you really "need" to read will find you.

I support this idea, of course. Wonder if a catchy name might help? Some ideas: "Second Wind Awards" "The Deservees" "The XV Prize".

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Lush Life, Unaccustomed Earth and Home are three books from 2008 that I love.

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