Welcome to my roundup of the Best Books of 2023! Wow, can you believe it’s nearly 2024? I’ve mostly had a pretty good year, packed with great reading, a good amount of writing, and a little bit of blogging, although not as much as I would have liked in each of those categories. This was also the first year in a while that I did not meet my Goodreads goal to read 52 books. Instead, I’m going to end up around 46 books read. Meanwhile, I didn’t reach my goal of seeing 100 new-to-me movies, though I did watch 80 new-to-me movies. But I welcome any progress.
Throughout the year, I noticed a few patterns with my reading. First, I read more in the spring and summer than I did during the rest of the year, especially when I started scheduling 90 minutes of uninterrupted reading time into my night. Second, my reading was a little scatterbrained… I look back at the list of books I read this year, and I don’t feel like I had a coherent strategy for what I read what I read. Going forward into 2024, I want to be a little more mindful of what I want to read about and define some choice fiction genres, selected authors, and nonfiction topics to explore in more depth. Maybe it’s because I was born in January, but I always look forward to the start of the new year and the blank slate it promises. Here’s hoping next year I’ll finally crack my longterm goal of reading 100 books in a year and seeing 100 new-to-me movies in a year.
In this post, I’m sharing my best books of 2023. These were my favorite books that were published in 2023, ranked. As you can see, it’s a bit eclectic. There’s representation from several genres here, including nonfiction, literary fiction, romance, mystery, and memoir.
And now for the Best Books of 2023!
1 – The Best Minds by Jonathan Rosen (NF)
The Best Minds was the best book I read this year. Jonathan Rosen spins an engrossing, devastating, and urgent book about the wreckage of schizophrenia, which his childhood best friend, Michael Laudor, developed. As Laudor overcame the odds and graduated from Yale Law following a long hospitalization, it seemed like he was destined to live up to the glowing profile of him in The New York Times that portrayed him as an inspiring poster child for thriving despite mental health challenges. But Laudor was far sicker than he appeared, and eventually his illness took a tragic turn.
You can read my book review of The Best Minds here on the blog.
How to read it: Purchase The Best Minds on Amazon
2 – Yellowface by R.F. Kuang (F)
R.F. Kuang’s Yellowface is a scathing indictment of Book World. When her up-and-coming writer friend Athenia Liu dies in front of her eyes, white author Juniper Song steals Athena’s manuscript and passes it off as her own. Kuang satirizes the problems of the publishing industry, the feverish appetite for cancel culture, and our hunger to feed literary trends at any cost.
How to read it: Purchase Yellowface on Amazon
3 – Doppelganger by Naomi Klein (NF)
Political scientist Naomi Klein describes her personal journey of being mistaken for anti-vaccine activist Naomi Wolf. Klein invites readers on a trip into what she calls Wolf’s “Mirror World,” where misinformation, conspiracy, and anti-science beliefs have launched a powerful movement that operates in parallel to the progressive, liberal bubble that Klein called home.
This book was included in my October 2023 Recommended Reads recap.
How to read it: Purchase Doppelganger on Amazon
4 – The Vulnerables by Sigrid Nunez (F)
I have a soft spot for zeitgeist stories, which is how I’d describe Sigrid Nunez’s The Vulnerables. This novel is part of “Pandemic Lit,” meaning books set during the COVID era, and it makes a crucial argument for the necessity of storytelling even when—or perhaps especially when— it feels like the world is falling apart. Nunez shines when she’s writing stories about connections, whether between people or between humans and animals, and this book carries with it an important and uplifting message: you are not alone.
How to read it: Purchase The Vulnerables on Amazon
5 – Tom Lake by Ann Patchett (F)
I didn’t read a cozier book this year than Ann Patchett’s Tom Lake. This soothing story is set in the early days of COVID, when Lara recounts for her three adult daughters, who have recently moved back home, her fling with Peter Duke, a famous actor with whom she co-starred in a summer stock production of Our Town long, long ago. Tom Lake is the perfectly spellbinding escape we all need.
How to read it: Purchase Tom Lake on Amazon
6 – You, Again by Kate Goldbeck (F)
This year’s best debut romance novel is a retelling of When Harry Met Sally that feels fresh and of-the-moment. Cook Josh and comedian Ari begin their relationship as enemies, then become close friends, then turn into something more. Kate Goldbeck gets readers invested in her flawed characters and their messy lives, leading to an emotionally cathartic ending.
How to read it: Purchase You, Again on Amazon
7 – Fatherland by Burkhard Bilger (NF)
In this haunting biography-memoir, Burkhard Bilger looks back at the career of his father, Karl, who was a school teacher and the local Nazi party chief in a small Alsatian village during World War II. Karl’s culpability in the horrors of the war is complicated by his alternate efforts to thwart the Nazi regime. Bilger’s book attempts to find where Karl’s loyalties ultimately lay only to discover that the truth isn’t so easily pinned down.
This book was featured in my June 2023 Recommended Reads recap.
How to read it: Purchase Fatherland on Amazon
8 – All the Sinners Bleed by S. A. Cosby (F)
All the Sinners Bleed was my favorite mystery of 2023. Our dogged detective is Titus Crowne, the first Black sheriff in his small rural Virginia town, who finds himself chasing down a serial killer on the loose. This novel blends the literary style of Tana French with the kind of complicated heroes you’d find in novels by Michael Connelly, Dennis Lehane, and Walter Mosley.
How to read it: Purchase All the Sinners Bleed on Amazon
9 – The Wager by David Grann (NF)
David Grann is a master of narrative nonfiction, and his latest book is first rate. Grann’s story is set in the 18th century, when the ship The Wager became stranded on the rugged coast of Chile. Grann’s book tells a spellbinding tale of murder, mutiny, and maritime law written with riveting prose.
This book was featured in my June 2023 Recommended Reads recap.
How to read it: Purchase The Wager on Amazon
10 – The True Love Experiment by Christina Lauren (F)
Christina Lauren’s The True Love Experiment is a page-turning contemporary romance you’ll devour. Starring Felicity “Fizzy” Chen, an unforgettable heroine, this novel hooks you and won’t let you go. Will Fizzy overcome her self-destructive tendencies and finally allow herself to fall in love? You’ll race through this one to find out.
How to read it: Purchase The True Love Experiment on Amazon
See any of your favorites here in this list of the Best Books of 2023?
Here’s to a great 2024 packed with good reads!
