I expect three of these are worth reading: the most acclaimed books of 2008

Based on 11 year-end lists I Googled, ranked according to a formula you don't care about:

1. Jhumpa Lahiri, Unaccustomed Earth
2. Dexter Filkins, The Forever War
3. Joseph O'Neill, Netherland
4. Roberto Bolano, 2666
5. Toni Morrison, A Mercy
6. David Wroblewski, The Story of Edgar Sawtelle
7. Richard Price, Lush Life
8. Philip Hensher, The Northern Clemency
9. Mary Ann Shaffer, The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society
10. Jane Mayer, The Dark Side

Also mentioned multiple times: Kate Atkinson, When Will There Be Good News; Drew Gilpin Faust, This Republic of Suffering; Tana French, The Likeness; Mark Harris, Pictures at a Revolution; Ron Rash, Serena; Matt Weiland and Sean Wilsey (eds), State by State; Joan Wickersham, The Suicide Index.