Year-End Lists

Spectrum Culture: Favorite Books of 2018, including "any book we read in 2018, regardless of release date"

[see also 2019]

• Nothing to Be Frightened Of
  Julian Barnes
• Believe Me

  The Evangelical Road to Donald Trump
  John Fea
• Amberlough
  Lara Elena Donnelly
• Fragile Things

  Short Fictions and Wonders
  Neil Gaiman
• How to Read Nancy

  The Elements of Comics in Three Easy Panels
  Paul Karasik and Mark Newgarden
• Kingdom Come
  J.G. Ballard
• The Fall of Wisconsin

  The Conservative Conquest of a Progressive Bastion and the Future of American Politics
  Dan Kaufman
• Housekeeping
  Marilynne Robinson
• Ambiguity Machines and Other Stories
  Vandana Singh
• Robin
  Dave Itzkoff
• Paradiso Diaspora
  John Yau
• Circe
  Madeline Miller
• My Year of Rest and Relaxation
  Ottessa Moshfegh
• The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay
  Michael Chabon

Christian Science Monitor: Best Fiction Reads of 2018

[see also 2017]

• Transcription
  Kate Atkinson
• Daughter of a Daughter of a Queen
  Sarah Bird
• Becoming Mrs. Lewis

  The Improbable Love Story of Joy Davidman and C. S. Lewis
  Patti Callahan
• The Cloister
  James Carroll
• The Mere Wife
  Maria Dahvana Headley
• Our Homesick Songs
  Emma Hooper
• Greeks Bearing Gifts
  Philip Kerr
• Unsheltered
  Barbara Kingsolver
• Circe
  Madeline Miller
• Gateway to the Moon
  Mary Morris
• All the Lives We Never Lived
  Anuradha Roy
• Clock Dance
  Anne Tyler
• The Map of Salt and Stars
  Jennifer Zeynab Joukhadar

The Wall Street Journal: Best Fiction and Nonfiction of 2018

[see also 2021 • 2020 • 2019]

• Asymmetry
  Lisa Halliday
• Churchill

  Walking With Destiny
  Andrew Roberts
• Cloudbursts

  Collected and New Stories
  Thomas McGuane
• The Consciousness Instinct

  Unraveling the Mystery of How the Brain Makes the Mind
  Michael S. Gazzaniga
• Frederick Douglass

  Prophet of Freedom
  David W. Blight
• Godsend
  John Wray
• Lament from Epirus

  An Odyssey into Europe's Oldest Surviving Folk Music
  Christopher C. King
• A Life of My Own
  Claire Tomalin
• Patriot Number One

  American Dreams in Chinatown
  Lauren Hilgers
• Season of the Shadow
  Léonora Miano

Powell's Books: Best Fiction of 2018

[see also Best Nonfiction of 2023 • Best Fiction of 2023 • Best Nonfiction of 2022 • Best Fiction of 2022 • The 14 Best Nonfiction Books of 2021 • The 18 Best Novels of 2021 • Best Fiction of 2020 • Best Nonfiction of 2020 • Best Fiction of 2019 • Best Nonfiction of 2019 • Best Nonfiction of 2018 • Best Nonfiction of 2017 • Best Fiction of 2017 • Best Fiction of 2016 • Best Nonfiction of 2016 • Best Nonfiction Books of 2015 • Best Fiction Books of 2015 • Best Fiction of 2014 • Best Nonfiction of 2014]

• The Pisces
  Melissa Broder
• The Third Hotel
  Laura van den Berg
• Smoke City
  Keith Rosson
• Poso Wells
  Gabriela Alemán
• Washington Black
  Esi Edugyan
• There There
  Tommy Orange
• The Map of Salt and Stars
  Jennifer Zeynab Joukhadar
• The Great Believers
  Rebecca Makkai
• Heads of the Colored People
  Nafissa Thompson-Spires
• Jonny Appleseed
  Joshua Whitehead
• The Silence of the Girls
  Pat Barker
• Killing Commendatore
  Haruki Murakami
• Whiskey When We're Dry
  John Larison
• Census
  Jesse Ball
• Little Fish
  Casey Plett
• The Line That Held Us
  David Joy
• Virgil Wander
  Leif Enger
• Notes from the Fog
  Ben Marcus

Claire Fallon: Best Fiction Of 2018, as published by HuffPost

[see also 2020]

1. The Third Hotel
   Laura van den Berg
2. There There
   Tommy Orange
3. Confessions of the Fox
   Jordy Rosenberg
4. Asymmetry
   Lisa Halliday
5. Comemadre
   Roque Larraquy
6. The Pisces
   Melissa Broder
7. Friday Black
   Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah
8. My Year of Rest and Relaxation
   Ottessa Moshfegh
9. Heads of the Colored People
   Nafissa Thompson-Spires
10. Red Clocks
    Leni Zumas
11. Severance
    Ling Ma

Christian Lorentzen: 10 Best Books of 2018, as published by New York Magazine’s Vulture

[see also 2017]

1. Motherhood
   Sheila Heti
2. The Largesse of the Sea Maiden
   Denis Johnson
3. Kudos
   Rachel Cusk
4. Cherry
   Nico Walker
5. A Handbook of Disappointed Fate
   Anne Boyer
6. A Terrible Country
   Keith Gessen
7. American Histories
   John Edgar Wideman
8. How to Write an Autobiographical Novel
   Alexander Chee
9. Inappropriation
   Lexi Freiman
10. The Earth Dies Streaming
    A.S. Hamrah

Powell's Books: Best Nonfiction of 2018

[see also Best Nonfiction of 2023 • Best Fiction of 2023 • Best Nonfiction of 2022 • Best Fiction of 2022 • The 14 Best Nonfiction Books of 2021 • The 18 Best Novels of 2021 • Best Fiction of 2020 • Best Nonfiction of 2020 • Best Fiction of 2019 • Best Nonfiction of 2019 • Best Fiction of 2018 • Best Nonfiction of 2017 • Best Fiction of 2017 • Best Fiction of 2016 • Best Nonfiction of 2016 • Best Nonfiction Books of 2015 • Best Fiction Books of 2015 • Best Fiction of 2014 • Best Nonfiction of 2014]

• And Now We Have Everything

  On Motherhood Before I Was Ready
  Meaghan O'Connell
• Dead Girls

  Essays on Surviving an American Obsession
  Alice Bolin
• Fear

  Trump in the White House
  Bob Woodward
• Give People Money

  How a Universal Basic Income Would End Poverty, Revolutionize Work, and Remake the World
  Annie Lowrey
• Heavy

  An American Memoir
  Kiese Laymon
• Heart Berries
  Terese Marie Mailhot
• How to Change Your Mind

  What the New Science of Psychedelics Teaches Us About Consciousness, Dying, Addiction, Depression, and Transcendence
  Michael Pollan
• I’ll Be Gone in the Dark

  One Woman’s Obsessive Search for the Golden State Killer
  Michelle McNamara
• Impossible Owls
  Brian Phillips
• I Wrote This Book Because I Love You
  Tim Kreider
• The Line Becomes a River

  Dispatches from the Border
  Francisco Cantú
• On Desperate Ground

  The Marines at The Reservoir, the Korean War’s Greatest Battle
  Hampton Sides
• Playing Changes

  Jazz for the New Century
  Nate Chinen
• Priestdaddy
  Patricia Lockwood
• Rising Out of Hatred

  The Awakening of a Former White Nationalist
  Eli Saslow
• So You Want to Talk About Race
  Ijeoma Oluo
• The Third Reich

  A History of Nazi Germany
  Thomas Childers
• Vanishing Twins

  A Marriage
  Leah Dieterich
• What Is Real?

  The Unfinished Quest for the Meaning of Quantum Physics
  Adam Becker

Entertainment Weekly: 10 Best Books of 2018, compiled by David Canfield and Leah Greenblatt

[see also 2022 • 2021 • 2020 • 2010s • 2019 • 2017 • 2016 • 2015]

1. My Year of Rest and Relaxation
   Ottessa Moshfegh
2. The Recovering

   Intoxication and Its Aftermath
   Leslie Jamison
3. The Great Believers
   Rebecca Makkai
4. The Mars Room
   Rachel Kushner
5. Washington Black
   Esi Edugyan
6. Flights
   Olga Tokarczuk
7. There There
   Tommy Orange
8. Circe
   Madeline Miller
9. Heavy

   An American Memoir
   Kiese Laymon
10. The Immortalists
    Chloe Benjamin

David's honorable mentions

• Asymmetry
  Lisa Halliday
• Educated
  Tara Westover
• The Friend
  Sigrid Nunez
• That Kind of Mother
  Rumaan Alam
• The Third Hotel
  Laura van den Berg

Leah's honorable mentions

• An American Marriage
  Tayari Jones
• Florida
  Lauren Groff
• Milkman
  Anna Burns
• The Perfect Nanny
  Leila Slimani
• White Houses
  Amy Bloom

The A.V. Club: 10 Favorite Books of 2018

[see also 2021 • 2020 • 2017 • 2015]

• The Largesse of the Sea Maiden
  Denis Johnson
• I Wrote This Book Because I Love You
  Tim Kreider
• The Gone World
  Tom Sweterlitsch
• Circe
  Madeline Miller
• My Year of Rest and Relaxation
  Ottessa Moshfegh
• Comemadre
  Roque Larraquy
• The Incendiaries
  R.O. Kwon
• Severance
  Ling Ma
• The Collected Stories of Diane Williams
  Diane Williams
• The Best Bad Things
  Katrina Carrasco

Katy Waldman: Best Books of 2018, as published by The New Yorker

[see also 2020 • 2019 • 2017]

• Asymmetry
  Lisa Halliday
• Confessions of the Fox
  Jordy Rosenberg
• Ordinary People
  Diana Evans
• Small Fry
  Lisa Brennan-Jobs
• Convenience Store Woman
  Sayaka Murata
• Florida
  Lauren Groff
• Kudos
  Rachel Cusk
• Freshwater
  Akwaeke Emezi
• Immigrant, Montana
  Amitava Kumar