The Best Books, CDs, Comics, DVDs and Video Games of 2008

The Spanish Game, By Charles Cumming (St. Martin's, $24.95)

Telex From Cuba, By Rachel Kushner (Scribner, $25)

Thanking the Monkey: Rethinking the Way We Treat Animals, By Karen Dawn (Harper, $19.95)

What Happened to Anna K., By Irina Reyn (Simon & Schuster, $24)

What Was Lost, By Catherine O'Flynn (Henry Holt, $14)

The White Tiger, By Aravind Adiga (Free Press, $24)

CDs

@#%&*! Smilers, Aimee Mann (SuperEgo, $16.98)

808s & Heartbreak, Kanye West (Roc-A-Fella/Def Jam, $13.98)

Accelerate, R.E.M. (Warner Bros., $18.98)

All Rebel Rockers, Michael Franti & Spearhead (Anti-, $16.99)

Berlin: Live at St. Ann's Warehouse, Lou Reed (Matador, $14.98)