Year-End Lists

BuzzFeed: Best Books of 2018, Nonfiction and Fiction, "in no particular order" but numbered as follows.

[see also 2022 • 2021 • 2010s • 2019]

Nonfiction

1. Barracoon

   The Story of the Last “Black Cargo”
   Zora Neale Hurston
2. The Library Book
   Susan Orlean
3. All You Can Ever Know
   Nicole Chung
4. How to Write an Autobiographical Novel
   Alexander Chee
5. Retablos

   Stories From a Life Lived Along the Border
   Octavio Solis
6. Impossible Owls
   Brian Phillips
7. Amateur

   A True Story About What Makes a Man
   Thomas Page McBee
8. The Real Lolita

   The Kidnapping of Sally Horner and the Novel That Scandalized the World
   Sarah Weinman
9. Never Ran, Never Will

   Boyhood and Football in a Changing American Inner City
   Albert Samaha
10. Passing for Human

    A Graphic Memoir
    Liana Finck
11. Heartland

    A Memoir of Working Hard and Being Broke in the Richest Country on Earth
    Sarah Smarsh
12. Heavy

    An American Memoir
    Kiese Laymon
13. Red Card

    How the U.S. Blew the Whistle on the World's Biggest Sports Scandal
    Ken Bensinger
14. Small Fry
    Lisa Brennan-Jobs
15. Sharp
    Michelle Dean
16. Heart Berries
    Terese Marie Mailhot
17. I Can't Date Jesus

    Love, Sex, Family, Race, and Other Reasons I've Put My Faith in Beyoncé
    Michael Arceneaux
18. I’ll Be Gone in the Dark

    One Woman’s Obsessive Search for the Golden State Killer
    Michelle McNamara
19. Would You Rather?

    A Memoir of Growing Up and Coming Out
    Katie Heaney
20. Looking for Lorraine

    The Radiant and Radical Life of Lorraine Hansberry
    Imani Perry
21. Spying on Whales

    The Past, Present, and Future of Earth's Most Awesome Creatures
    Nick Pyenson
22. Insomnia
    Marina Benjamin
23. Educated
    Tara Westover

Fiction

1. Severance
   Ling Ma
2. Freshwater
   Akwaeke Emezi
3. Belly Up
   Rita Bullwinkel
4. There There
   Tommy Orange
5. Circe
   Madeline Miller
6. Insurrecto
   Gina Apostol
7. A Place for Us
   Fatima Farheen Mirza
8. The Deeper the Water the Uglier the Fish
   Katya Apekina
9. The Overstory
   Richard Powers
10. The Incendiaries
    R.O. Kwon
11. My Year of Rest and Relaxation
    Ottessa Moshfegh
12. My Sister, the Serial Killer
    Oyinkan Braithwaite
13. The House of Broken Angels
    Luis Alberto Urrea
14. Confessions of the Fox
    Jordy Rosenberg
15. The Wildlands
    Abby Geni
16. An American Marriage
    Tayari Jones
17. Friday Black
    Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah
18. Kudos
    Rachel Cusk
19. French Exit
    Patrick deWitt
20. Speak No Evil
    Uzodinma Iweala
21. MEM
    Bethany C. Morrow
22. She Would Be King
    Wayétu Moore
23. The Pisces
    Melissa Broder
24. The Friend
    Sigrid Nunez
25. A Lucky Man
    Jamel Brinkley
26. Milkman
    Anna Burns
27. Convenience Store Woman
    Sayaka Murata
28. The Great Believers
    Rebecca Makkai