Person of the Year 2008

In one of the craziest elections in American history, Barack Obama overcame a lack of experience, a funny name, two candidates who are political institutions and the racial divide to become the 44th President of the United States

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Stephenie Meyer

Bob Stefko for TIME
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Maybe Americans aren't ready for a Mormon presidential nominee yet. But they're more than ready to anoint a Mormon as the best-selling novelist of the year. The hero of Meyer's Twilight series — and hit movie — is a vampire named Edward who doesn't kill people and declines to sleep with, or bite, his girlfriend Bella. Meyer's religious upbringing taught her something few writers grasp, that fantasies can be about restraint as well as excess. Sometimes nice girls do finish first.

Lev Grossman

See pictures of Barack Obama on Flickr.

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