The 2008 PODBRAM Awards

The PODBRAM review team read and reviewed fifty-three books in 2008. To select the award nominees, each of the five reviewers selected his or her two best choices for the year and I added another two as Editor's Choices. These last two included selections for the best cover and the best traditionally published book by a big-name author. If twelve choices out of fifty-three doesn't seem like much of an honor, consider this. The books selected for review at PODBRAM in the first place had to survive our prescreening research process to ascertain if they met our high quality standards. Then each one took a dip in the dunk tank and submitted to our famous strip search. The twelve we have selected are the cream of the nominees, at least within the categories selected for them. Yes, you read it right. Here at PODBRAM, we do things the old-fashioned, backward way. With the sole exception of the selection of the best cover design, we choose the best and most deserving books first, and then make up the award categories to suit them.

Cover Design: God Outside the Box by Patricia Panahi

Proofreading: The Mozart Forgeries by Daniel N. Leeson

Nostalgia: The Rock Star's Homecoming by Linda Gould

2008 Relevancy Award: American Theocracy by Kevin Phillips

The Obama Award: The Court-Martial of Charlie Newell by Gerard Shirar

Historical Characterization: To the Ends of the Earth by Frances Hunter

Plotting: Solemnly Swear by Joe Porrazzo

Science Fiction: Cyberdrome by Joseph & David Rhea

Western: God's Thunderbolt by Carol Buchanan

Memoir: The Protected Will Never Know by Don Meyer

Fiction: The i Tetralogy by Mathias B. Freese

Nonfiction: Reflections of a Khmer Soul by Navy Phim