YOUR BEST GIRLYBOOKS OF 2008

Here's a spot to give your own awards out to some the best books you read this year that were authored by women.

My awards:
Best debut novel/American - Where the Line Bleeds by Jesmyn Ward
Best debut novel/UK - The Outcast by Sadie Jones
Best reread - tie! Handmaid's Tale and The Idea of Perfection
Most Intriguing Poetry Collection: The Anatomy Theater by Nadine Meyer
Best Classic - tie! Cranford and Hope Leslie
Most original short fiction collection: Women of Algiers in their Apartment by Assia Djebar
Best Novels - The Hiding Place by Trezza Azzopardi and Sorry by Gail Jones
Best Nonfiction not related to my schoolwork - Thirty Ways of Looking at Hillary: Reflections by Women Writers by Susan Morrison

Most Magical and Luminous Novel - The Ten Thousand Things by Maria Dermoût (The Netherlands)
Best Novel of Spiritual/Ethical Inquiry - The Land of Spices by Kate O'Brien (Ireland)
Most Delightful - The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery (France)
Most Humorous in a Dark Sort of Way - Cassandra at the Wedding by Dorothy Baker (US)
Best Poetry Collection - Thirst by Mary Oliver (US)
Best Retelling of Myth - Lavinia by Ursula K. Le Guin

Oh fun! I haven't finished reading for this year yet, and still plan to read some great books, but here goes for the year so far:

Best memoir: Infidel, Ayaan Hirsi Ali
Best historical fiction: Alias Grace, Margaret Atwood
Best reread: Jane Eyre, Charlotte Bronte
Best non-fiction: London Scene,Virginia Woolf
Best low-brow high-brow read: Lady Audley's Secret, Mary Elizabeth Braddon
Best book that I should have read years and years ago: The Color Purple, Alice Walker
Best classic: Anne of Green Gables, Lucy Maud Montgomery

Honorable mention: Poisonwood Bible, Barbara Kingsolver. I can't think what it's the best of, but it was one of the better books I read in 2008, so needs to be here somewhere.

niiiice lists!

Best historical fiction: tie The Secret River by Kate Grenville and Music and Silence by Rose Tremain

The biggest surprise: The Girls by Lori Lansens – a remarkable book.

Book from a country I hadn’t read: Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Adichie

Best multi-layered novel: The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood

Best graphic memoir: Persepolis 1 and 2 by Marjane Satrapi

Best short story collection (3 way tie):
Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri
Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout
Come to Me by Amy Bloom

Best nonfiction by an author I wish was my history teacher: The Partly Cloudy Patriot by Sarah Vowell

My favourites...

Most enjoyable novel- Excellent Women by Barbara Pym
Best short story collection- Runaway by Alice Munro
Best poetry collection- Minsk by Lavinia Greenlaw
Best YA novel- What I Was by Meg Rosoff
Best crime novel- Toxic Shock by Sara Paretsky
Best memoir- Blue Sky July by Nia Wyn
Best social history- Can any Mother help me? by Jenna Bailey
Best Victorian classic- North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell
Best historical fiction- Affinity by Sarah Waters
Best re-read- Charlotte Sometimes by Penelope Farmer

Memoir: The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls
Blog to Book: Wife in the North by Judith O'Reilly
Novels: Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen, The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger and The Kindness of Strangers by Katrina Kittle
Chick lit: Revenge of the Middle-Aged Housewife by Elizabeth Buchan

Honorable Mention: Stone Creek by Victoria Lustbader

Hmm so many good books:

Best Memoir: Infidel by Ayaan Hirsi Ali
Best Essays: I Was Told There'd Be Cake by Sloane Crosley
Best History: This Republic of Suffering by Drew Gilpin Faust
Best Crime Novel: Haunted Ground by Erin Hart
Best YA: Graceling by Kristin Cashore
Best Classic: North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell
Best Women's Fiction: The Friday Night Knitting Club by Kate Jacobs
Best Fantasy: Fire Study by Maria V. Snyder
Best Historical Fiction: The House at Riverton by Kate Morton

I also second urania's Most Delightful for The Elegance of the Hedgehog.

I didn't read enough books by women this year, but here are some awards for the ones I did (although, alas, I'm not as creative in my award creation as some of you).

Best new novels by writers I should have heard of before: The Condition by Jennifer Haigh and The Clothes on Their Backs by Linda Grant
Best first novel: The Boys in the Trees by Mary Swan
Best classic novel: The Enchanted April by Elizabeth von Arnim
Best novel by well-known author: The Plague of Doves by Louise Erdrich
Best short stories: Don't Look Now by Daphne du Maurier

Many of the books you named sound fascinating -- on to the books to buy list!

adding to my list in message #1

Best historical fiction: A Mercy by Toni Morrison

#10, I heard Toni Morrison talking about this one on NPR. Sounds like a great book!

I changed my mind due to a late-in-the-year read. Therefore, Anne of Green Gables has been bumped from its glory position as Best Classic, and replaced by Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility.

Best narrative poem: Autobiography of Red by Anne Carson
Best historical novel: River in the Wind by Edith Pope
Best memoir: As I Crossed a Bridge of Dreams by Lady Sarashina
Best speculative fiction: Mara and Dann by Doris Lessing
Best fictional travelogue: Saving Fish from Drowning by Amy Tan -- though Mara and Dann could also fit into that category
Best dysfunctional family: Losing Battles by Eudora Welty
Best first novel: Evening Is the Whole Day by Preeta Samarasan

Most anticipated for 2009: A Mercy by Toni Morrison -- I got a copy for Christmas!

Best historical fiction: Can You Hear the Nightbird Call by Anita Rau Badami
Best collection of familiar essays: At Large and At Small by Anne Fadiman
Best short stories: Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri
Best science fiction: The Margarets by Sheri S. Tepper
Best memoir: Lost, a Memoir by Cathy Ostlere
Best comfort read: The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows
Best collection of letters: The Mitfords: Letters Between Six Sisters edited by Charlotte Mosley, tied with 84, Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff
Best quirky book: Tea with Mr. Rochester by Frances Towers
Best fiction by a woman writer: I can't choose...dithering among three

Edited to fix grammatical error - heavens!

Tiffin,

Would you mind elaborating a bit on Tea with Mr. Rochester? I've been contemplating buying that book for a while, but I have mixed feelings about a lot of the Persephone titles and so have held off my purchase. I liked The Margarets as well.

Tea with Mr. Rochester: well, nothing is as it seems in the stories. It's like a series of watercolours with sudden sharp cheekbones here and a flash of eyes there, where reality shifts imperceptibly, making you feel as though you've suddenly landed somewhere else. I described it as fey in my review and that seems the best word for it. If a book had colours, this one would be Larsson hues of green, blue and cream. Sorry to sound so vague about it, urania, but this is how it struck me.

ETA: I closed the book and said "wow, that was really quirky". In a good way.

These are the books by women that made my top 10s this year. Starred items are those that made my total top 10 for the year. Sorry girls, but my top read for the year was by a man! (Andrew Marr's History of Modern Britain)

Top 10 fiction:
J & G Dryansky - Fatima's Good Fortune
Lorna Landvik - Tall Pine Polka
*Dorothy Whipple - The Priory
*Catherine O'Flynn - What Was Lost
*Margaret Mitchell - Gone With The Wind
Honorable mention: Linda Gillard's House of Shadows (read in MSS, 1st chapter available on her website)

Top 10 non-fiction:
*Mary S Lovell - The Mitford Girls
Jenna Bailey - Can Any Mother Help Me?
Isabella Dusi - Vanilla Beans and Brodo

Book I'm most haunted by: We Need to Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver

Best previously unread classic Persuasion by Jane Austen

Most memorable woman character written by a man A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini
--runnerup--Veronika Decides to Die by Paulo Coelho

Best historical fiction Year of Wonders by Geraldine Brooks

Best spiritual journey Traveling Mercies by Anne Lamott

Best "so popular I skipped reading these when they came out" aka shoulda read them sooner
Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood
Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver

Best historical memoir Roughing It in the Bush by Susanna Moodie along with Margaret Atwood's Journals of Susanna Moodie

Wonderful-est debut novel Hope and Other Dangerous Pursuits by Laila Lalami

Other intriguing women authors first read in 2008 whom I want to read more by in 2009:
Karen Armstrong--history of religion
Doris Lessing

edited because I keep finding typos

Now that was a GOOD year, Streamsong.

It really was a wonderful reading year, tiffin. And so many of these authors were mentioned here on LT and this group, especially. I am truly thanksful for all the great recommendations. Thanks, everyone!

Best historical novel
The Heaven Tree trilogy Edith Pargeteer

best re-read Kristin Lavransdatter Sigrid Undset

best modern fiction: The Gathering Anne Enright
Sitting Practice Caroline Adderson Leaving Brooklyn Lynne Sharon Schwartz

Best classic fiction Emma Jane Austin Enchanted April Elizabeth Von Armhin Jest of God Margaret Laurence

Best short stories The view from Castle Rock Alice Monroe

best poetry/creative non-fiction Long Life Mary Oliver

Best memoirs Circling my Mother Mary Gordon Ex Libris Anne Fadiman

Best non-fiction Night Falls Fast Kay redfield Jamison
The proud tower Barbara Tuchman 13 ways of looking at the novel Jane Smiley Writing to change the world Mary Pipher

Best reading when all you want is to relax A Redbird Christmas Fannie Flagg

Best book about a woman that contains her writings compiled by her husband
The woman at the Washington Zoo Marjory Williams

Looking through the books I read in 2008, I was interested to see that I tended to rate those written by women significantly higher than those by men. Now I'm wondering why... Anyway, my diminutive list:

Best escapist fun: Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day by Winifred Watson
Best exposition of the utter stupidity of war: The Regeneration Trilogy by Pat Barker
Best family implosion: The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy
Best classic: Emma by Jane Austen
Best female character by a male author: Natasha Rostov in War and Peace (I know this is cheating, but she is just brilliantly written, and frankly made the book for me.)

Best Fiction: Beloved by Toni Morrison
Best Nonfiction: The Peabody Sisters: Three Women Ignited American Romanticism by Megan Marshall
Best Reread: Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
Best Biography: Charlotte Bronte: A Passionate Life by Lyndall Gordon
Best Classic: Persuasion by Jane Austen
Best Historical Fiction: People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks
Best Just-plain-fun Read: House at Riverton by Kate Morton

Best Coming of Age: That Night by Alice McDermott
Best Classic: The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton
Best Lesbian and Best Historical Fiction: Fingersmith by Sarah Waters
Best Psychopath I'd Love to Know (not that she'd allow that): We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson
Best Love Story (and just all-around Best Book): The Idea of Perfection by Kate Grenville
Best Creepy Book I Loved Even Though I Don't Completely Know Why: Disquiet by Julia Leigh
Best Nonfiction: Take This Bread by Sarah Miles

Other really good Girly Books I read in 2008:
Suits Me: The Double Life of Billy Tipton by Diane Wood Middlebrook
Hotel du Lac by Anita Brookner
Purple Hibiscus by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Excellent Women by Barbara Pym
The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Satterfield
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spark

I'm sorry that was so long, but I have to say that without LT and this group as well as some other groups on here, I wouldn't have read most of these and my life would absolutely be the poorer for it. Happy New Year!

Edited for typos

Yummy lists, everyone! And the 'best of' awards are wonderfully clever and adds to the recommendation (i.e. "Best Psychopath I'd Love to Know")

Here is my list for 2008:

Best World Historical Fiction (China and Japan): The Private Papers of Eastern Jewel by Maureen Lindley
Best Non-Fiction - Payback: Debt and the Shadow Side of Wealth by Margaret Atwood
Best New Fiction by Canadian Author - The Flying Troutmans by Miriam Toews
Best Surprise - The Island of Eternal Love by Daina Chaviano
Best YA Fiction - Life on the Refrigerator Door: Notes between a Mother and Daughter, a novel by Alice Kuipers
Best Modern Classic - The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Sparks
Best Mystery - Daphne: A Novel by Justine Picardie