I collected over 15 lists of the Best Books of 2018 from the Internet, newspapers and magazines and combined them into one meta-list. Here are the results, every book on at least three of the original source lists, organized by rank (that is, with the books on the most lists at the top). The list is divided into three sections: (1) Fiction; (2) Nonfiction; (3) Poetry.
NOTE: These are not my personal opinions and I have not read all these books.
FICTION
On 14 lists
THERE THERE. By Tommy Orange.
CIRCE. By Madeline Miller.
THE LARGESSE OF THE SEA MAIDEN: Stories. By Denis Johnson.
On 13 lists
ASYMMETRY. By Lisa Halliday.
MY YEAR OF REST AND RELAXATION. By Ottessa Moshfegh.
On 12 lists
AN AMERICAN MARRIAGE. By Tayari Jones.
THE MARS ROOM. By Rachel Kushner.
FRIDAY BLACK: Stories. By Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah.
On 10 lists
THE OVERSTORY. By Richard Powers.
FLORIDA. By Lauren Groff.
THE GREAT BELIEVERS. By Rebecca Makkai.
On 9 lists
WASHINGTON BLACK. By Esi Edugyan.
On 8 lists
NORMAL PEOPLE. By Sally Rooney.
SEVERANCE. By Ling Ma.
On 7 lists
MILKMAN.By Anna Burns.
THE SILENCE OF THE GIRLS. By Pat Barker.
FRESHWATER. By Akwaeke Emezi.
THE IMMORTALISTS. By Chloe Benjamin.
EVERYTHING UNDER. By Daisy Johnson.
On 6 lists
CRUDO. By Olivia Laing.
KUDOS. By Rachel Cusk.
THE FRIEND. By Sigrid Nunez.
LAKE SUCCESS. By Gary Shteyngart.
MY SISTER, THE SERIAL KILLER. By Oyinkan Braithwaite.
THE INCENDIARIES. By R.O. Kwon.
THE PERFECT NANNY. By Leila Slimani. Translated By
Sam Taylor.
FLIGHTS. By Olga Tokarczuk. Translated by Jennifer Croft.
TRANSCRIPTION. By Kate Atkinson.
On 5 lists
THE FEMALE PERSUASION. By Meg Wolitzer.
YOUR DUCK IS MY DUCK: Stories. By Deborah Eisenberg.
WARLIGHT. By Michael Ondaatje.
CHERRY. By Nico Walker.
UNSHELTERED. By Barbara Kingsolver.
HEADS OF THE COLORED PEOPLE. By Nafissa Thompson-Spires.
CHILDREN OF BLOOD AND BONE. By Tomi Adeyemi.
THE PISCES. By Melissa Broder.
YOU THINK IT, I’LL SAY IT: Stories. By Curtis Sittenfeld.
LAST STORIES. By William Trevor.
THE WITCH ELM. By Tana French.
CONVENIENCE STORE WOMAN. By Sayaka Murata. Translated by Ginny Tapley Takemori.
On 4 lists
SABRINA. By Nick Drnaso.
NOW WE SHALL BE ENTIRELY FREE. By Andrew Miller.
THE HOUSE OF BROKEN ANGELS. By Luis Alberto Urrea.
SMALL FRY. By Lisa Brennan-Jobs.
THE THIRD HOTEL. By Laura Van Den Berg.
NOVEMBER ROAD. By Lou Berney.
On 3 lists
SPINNING SILVER. By Naomi Novik.
THE WINTER SOLDIER. By Daniel Mason.
THAT KIND OF MOTHER. By Rumaan Alam.
ETERNAL LIFE. By Dara Horn.
FRENCH EXIT. By Patrick Dewitt.
CENSUS. By Jesse Ball.
THE WORD IS MURDER. By Anthony Horowitz.
A LADDER TO THE SKY. By John Boyne.
MIDDLE ENGLAND. By Jonathan Coe.
MELMOTH. By Sarah Perry.
THE MERMAID AND MRS HANCOCK. By Imogen Hermes Gowar.
THE LONG TAKE. By Robin Robertson.
GIRLS BURN BRIGHTER. By Shobha Rao.
THE KISS QUOTIENT. By Helen Hoang.
DRIVE YOUR PLOW OVER THE BONES OF THE DEAD. By Olga Tokarczuk. Translated by Antonia Lloyd-Jones.
MOTHERHOOD. By Sheila Heti
RED CLOCKS. By Leni Zumas.
THE MERE WIFE. By Maria Dahvana Headley.
IF YOU LEAVE ME. By Crystal Hana Kim.
NONFICTION
On 13 lists
FREDERICK DOUGLASS: Prophet of Freedom. By David W. Blight.
On 11 lists
EDUCATED: A Memoir. By Tara Westover.
HEAVY: An American Memoir. By Kiese Laymon.
On 10 lists
HOW TO WRITE AN AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL NOVEL. By Alexander Chee.
On 9 lists
THESE TRUTHS: A History of the United States. By Jill Lepore.
THE LIBRARY BOOK. By Susan Orlean.
BAD BLOOD: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup. By John Carreyrou.
On 8 lists
BECOMING. By Michelle Obama.
On 7 lists
DOPESICK: Dealers, Doctors, and the Drug Company That Addicted America. By Beth Macy.
CALYPSO. By David Sedaris.
FEEL FREE: Essays. By Zadie Smith.
ALL YOU CAN EVER KNOW: A Memoir. By Nicole Chung.
On 6 lists
THE SPY AND THE TRAITOR: The Greatest Espionage Story of the Cold War. By Ben Macintyre.
BARRACOON: The Story of the Last “Black Cargo”. By Zora Neale Hurston.
CHURCHILL: Walking with Destiny. By Andrew Roberts.
SHE HAS HER MOTHER’S LAUGH: The Powers, Perversions, and Potential of Heredity. By Carl Zimmer.
GOOD AND MAD: The Revolutionary Power of Women’s Anger. By Rebecca Traister.
On 5 lists
WINNERS TAKE ALL: The Elite Charade of Changing the World. By Anand Giridharadas.
NINETY-NINE GLIMPSES OF PRINCESS MARGARET. By Craig Brown.
THE SOULS OF YELLOW FOLK: Essays. By Wesley Yang.
THE LINE BECOMES A RIVER: Dispatches From The Border. By Francisco Cantú.
I’LL BE GONE IN THE DARK: One Woman’s Obsessive Search for the Golden State Killer. By Michelle McNamara.
HEART BERRIES: A Memoir. By Terese Marie Mailhot.
THE RECOVERING: Intoxication and Its Aftermath. By Leslie Jamison.
THE BIG FELLA: Babe Ruth and the World He Created. By Jane Leavy.
AMERICAN PRISON: A Reporter’s Undercover Journey Into the Business of Punishment. By Shane Bauer.
On 4 lists
HOW TO CHANGE YOUR MIND: What The New Science of Psychedelics Teaches Us About Consciousness, Dying, Addiction, Depression, and Transcendence. By Michael Pollan.
THE FIFTH RISK. By Michael Lewis.
OUR PLACE: Can We Save Britain’s Wildlife Before It Is Too Late? By Mark Cocker.
FEAR: Trump in the White House. By Bob Woodward.
LOOK ALIVE OUT THERE: Essays. By Sloane Crosley.
CHESAPEAKE REQUIEM: A Year with the Watermen of Vanishing Tangier Island. By Earl Swift.
HOW DEMOCRACIES DIE. By Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt.
THE POISON SQUAD: One Chemist’s Single-Minded Crusade for Food Safety at the Turn of the Twentieth Century. By Deborah Blum.
On 3 lists
THE CODDLING OF THE AMERICAN MIND: How Good Intentions and Bad Ideas Are Setting Up a Generation For Failure. By Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt.
THE FIELD OF BLOOD: Violence in Congress and the Road to Civil War. By Joanne B. Freeman.
REAGAN: An American Journey. By Bob Spitz.
LEADERSHIP: In Turbulent Times. By Doris Kearns Goodwin.
DIRECTORATE S: The C.I.A. and America’s Secret Wars in Afghanistan and Pakistan. By Steve Coll.
HEARTLAND: A Daughter of the Working Class Reconciles an American Divide. By Sarah Smarsh.
BOOM TOWN: The Fantastical Saga of Oklahoma City, Its Chaotic Founding, Its Apocalyptic Weather, Its Purloined Basketball Team, and the Dream of Becoming a World-Class Metropolis. By Sam Anderson.
SEDUCTION: Sex, Lies and Stardom in Howard Hughes’ Hollywood. By Karina Longworth.
MAD, BAD, DANGEROUS TO KNOW: The Fathers of Wilde, Yeats, and Joyce. By Colm Tóibín.
ENLIGHTENMENT NOW: The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism, and Progress. By Steven Pinker.
NERVOUS STATES: How Feeling Took Over the World. By William Davies.
CREATIVE QUEST. By Questlove.
THE REAL LOLITA: The Kidnapping of Sally Horner and the Novel that Scandalized the World. By Sarah Weinman.
AIR TRAFFIC: A Memoir of Ambition and Manhood in America. By Gregory Pardlo.
THE TANGLED TREE: A Radical New History of Life. By David Quammen.
BEAUTIFUL COUNTRY BURN AGAIN: Democracy, Rebellion and Revolution. By Ben Fountain.
THE GOOD NEIGHBOR: The Life and Work of Fred Rogers. By Maxwell King.
INTO THE RAGING SEA: Thirty-Three Mariners, One Megastorm, and the Sinking of El Faro. By Rachel Slade.
A LIFE OF MY OWN: A Biographer’s Life. By Claire Tomalin.
WE THE CORPORATIONS: How American Businesses Won Their Civil Rights. By Adam Winkler.
ONE PERSON, NO VOTE: How Voter Suppression Is Destroying Our Democracy. By Carol Anderson.
WHY ART? By Eleanor Davis.
POETRY
On 4 lists
AMERICAN SONNETS FOR MY PAST AND FUTURE ASSASSIN. By Terrance Hayes
On 3 lists
NEW POETS OF NATIVE NATIONS. Edited by Heid E. Erdrich.
WADE IN THE WATER: Poems. By Tracy K. Smith.
THE ODYSSEY. By Homer. Translated by Emily Wilson.
On 2 lists
BROWN: Poems. By Kevin Young.
IF THEY COME FOR US: Poems. By Fatimah Asghar.
FEELD. By Jos Charles.