Publishers Weekly named its best books of 2018, in a number of categories. Their overall top ten leads with Lisa Halliday’s Asymmetry, Tara Westover’s Educated, and Kiese Laymon’s Heavy. The rest of the list:
How to Write an Autobiographical Novel, by Alexander Chee
Insurrecto, by Gina Apostol
The Largess of the Sea Maiden, by Denis Johnson
Melmoth, by Sarah Perry
Reagan, by Bob Spitz
The Shape of Ruins, by Juan Gabriel Vasquez
She Has Her Mother’s Laugh, by Carl Zimmer
Indigo also announced their Best of 2018 list earlier in the month, naming Westover’s Educated the best book of the year. The other picks:
Then She Was Gone, by Lisa Jewell
Washington Black, by Esi Edugyan
21 Lessons for the 21st Century, by Yuval Noah Harari
Sea Prayer, by Khaled Hosseini
The Clockmaker’s Daughter, by Kate Morton
I’ll Be Gone in the Dark, by Michelle McNamara
The Woman in the Window, by A.J. Finn
Dare to Lead, by Brene Brown
Children of Blood and Bone, by Tomi Adeyemi
Westover’s book was Amazon’s No. 1 title halfway through the year and is already a strong favorite for the the final nonfiction aggregated “best of the best of 2018” list already. (Her book was an Indie Next No. 1 pick on release as well.) Halliday and Johnson were also popular on the mid-year “best so far” lists, and Edugyan is the most nominated fiction writer across the big fall awards (on shortlists for the Carnegie Medal, the Giller Prize, the Writers’ Trust fiction prize, and the now-awarded Booker prize).