The best bookish season is here! I’m jumping into the best-of book list fray and sharing not just my favorite books of the year, but all 66 books I read this year in order of my favorite to least favorite. The best of each genre and honorable mentions are noted so you don’t miss any great books as you skim.
A few notes before we start:
- I rate books based on how enjoyable or impactful the reading experience was.
- If I finished a book, I at least somewhat enjoyed it. I’m not afraid to abandon books that are dragging me down. (Case in point, I abandoned 13 books this year – I’m not including those titles below.)
- These are the books I read in 2023, not books published in 2023.
- Book recs are never sponsored, and I don’t know any of these authors personally. If you want to send a few cents my way to say thank you for the recommendations, feel free to buy through my affiliate links for Amazon and Bookshop. It sends a small commission my way but does not raise the cost for you. No obligation there! I’d be equally delighted if you gave your local library some love.
Okay, enough intro – fire up your library holds list, your Kindle, or your Bookshop account, and let’s get cracking!
Fiction
Best of 2023
1. Cloud Cuckoo Land – Anthony Doerr. The title and the premise of this book sound strange, but trust me here, this book is excellent. The story follows multiple perspectives: a girl on a spaceship, two sisters in Constantinople in 1453, and a children’s theater production in a library, to name a few. It’s not exactly a light and breezy read — Anthony Doerr is not shy about delving straight into sorrow and tragedy — but it’s ultimately threaded with hope, and there’s something for just about every kind of reader in these pages. Highly, highly recommend.
2. The Marriage Portrait – Maggie O’Farrell. This book is incredible. It follows Lucrezia de Medici, the daughter of the grand duke of Florence in the 1550s. The timelines alternate between the “present,” where Lucrezia realizes that her husband is about to kill her, and the backstory of Lucrezia’s childhood and how her marriage came about. If you’re even remotely a historical fiction fan, this book is worthy of your time: the details are downright sumptuous but don’t bog down the plot, and the ending is excellent.
3. Trust – Hernan Diaz. This is the story of a marriage between two high-society people in the 1920s and 30s. It’s told in four parts, and not everything is as it seems. That’s all I’m going to say so I don’t spoil any of this fantastic book. If you pick this one up, don’t judge it by Part 1 — get about halfway through the book before you decide whether to keep reading. The first half is the slowest, and then the story picks up speed and interest and becomes so compelling. This would be another excellent book club pick.
4. The Lincoln Highway – Amor Towles. I think Amor Towles is a writer of modern classics. Everything I’ve read by him has been timeless and beautifully written without being boring, and The Lincoln Highway was no exception. This book follows eighteen-year-old Emmett and his eight-year-old brother Billy. Their family farm has been foreclosed on, their parents are gone, and they decide to undertake a great American road trip on the Lincoln Highway to start over. Of course, nothing goes as planned. The characters here are incredible, and I’m dying for Adam to read this so I can talk about the ending with him.
5. Search: A Novel – Michelle Huneven. This was the most unlikely page-turner I read this year: the plot follows a Unitarian church committee as they search for a new minister. As anyone who’s ever served on a board or committee might anticipate, it’s full of gossipy drama that’s surprisingly believable – because I read this on Kindle, I missed the “A Novel” subtitle and fully thought this was a nonfiction account for most of the book. This was also a great book club pick with lots of avenues for discussion.
Honorable Mentions
6. How Not To Drown in a Glass of Water – Angie Cruz. This one makes my top picks because of the interesting structure – the story is told through interviews with an elderly immigrant woman getting help from an employment service. That narration style separates you from the tough events of this woman’s life just enough so the book doesn’t feel overly heavy while still allowing you a peek at her day-to-day. Loved it.
7. The Candy House – Jennifer Egan. This book is written in vignettes with interconnected characters. There’s not a plot, exactly, but there is overall movement to what’s happening in the book, and I loved drawing threads between the characters and their relationships. This felt vivid and bold and almost a little trippy, and I zipped right through it. The author has a previous book similar to this one – see that one at number 18 below.
8. The Adventures of Amina Al-Sirafi – Shannon Chakrabodi. This book follows a former pirate who, despite her best attempts to retire, is called out on one last voyage. This storytelling is FUN, with lots of twists and turns. It’s a little like Pirates of the Caribbean if Jack Sparrow were a female on the Indian Ocean, and it was a wild and entertaining romp.
9. Everyone In My Family Has Killed Someone – Benjamin Stevenson. This is a delightful meta-mystery, in which an author who writes about how to write mysteries effectively finds himself in the middle of a real-life mystery. The narrator breaks the fourth wall to drop clues throughout that are so entertaining (and made me feel a little incompetent, honestly). Combine that with the Knives Out vibes of a chaotic family stranded at a ski chalet by a snowstorm, and you’ve got an absolute delight for mystery lovers.
All the Rest
10. No Two Persons – Erica Bauermeister. This book is composed of interconnected character studies that all share the common thread of a book and its impact on the characters’ lives. It’s heartfelt and sometimes a little cheeky – if you love books about books, it’s a winner.
11. Sea of Tranquility – Emily St. John Mandel. Emily St. John Mandel writes such atmospheric books, and this one is no exception. The plot is hard to explain, but if you’re drawn to time-hopping stories with ethically challenging dilemmas and a capital-m Mood, or if you like any of Blake Crouch’s books, it’s definitely worth your time.
12. Killers of a Certain Age – Deanna Raybourn. This story about a crew of female assassins being forced into retirement is extremely fun. The characters’ relationships are entertaining, I didn’t hate the ending (which often happens with frothy mysteries), and overall this gets two thumbs up. If you love an heist-y Oceans Eight-style story, this would be a great fit.
13. A Town Called Solace – Mary Lawson. This book follows the stories of a young girl whose sister has disappeared, her next-door neighbor who is in the hospital after an operation, and the mysterious man who takes up residence in the neighbor’s house. It’s heartfelt and tender, in the vein of One Hundred Years of Lennie and Margot and Remarkably Bright Creatures, and I really enjoyed reading it.
14. Under the Whispering Door – T.J. Klune. In this book, Wallace has died, and he’s peeved. Before he proceeds on to the afterlife, he’s brought Charon’s Crossing, a tea shop for dead people to make the transition to the afterlife. Because this is T.J. Klune, the tone of this leans whimsical while still dealing with regret and loss, and it’s a wonderful combination. If you enjoyed The House in the Cerulean Sea, of course you’ll love this.
15. The Collected Regrets of Clover – Mikki Brammer. This book follows Clover, a death doula who is trying to figure out how to live her own life well. Despite Clover’s job title, this book doesn’t feel excessively heavy – while sad things happen, at its heart, it’s a feel-good story, with characters you’ll love. If you enjoyed A Man Called Ove or The Maid: A Novel, this falls in a similar vein.
16. The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches – Sangu Mandanna. This book is fun if you want a cutesy, not spooky, book about witches. Mika Moon has always been told to hide her magic, but then she’s brought on to help prevent disasters caused by a trio of magical girls. If you enjoyed The House in the Cerulean Sea, this has similar found family and magic and gentle romance and charm.
17. The Stranger Diaries – Elly Griffiths. I read this book, which describes a string of murders connected with an English teacher at an old English school, on a chilly fall day. It was the perfect setting. If you’re in the mood for a dark academia mystery, this is a good one.
18. A Visit from the Goon Squad – Jennifer Egan. This only ended up this low on the list because I read The Candy House first. I read this one too soon afterward, so similar interconnected scenes felt like more of the same. That was not unwelcome! It just felt less novel the second time around. If you read and like The Candy House, this also gives interesting back story for some of the characters.
19. Meet Me at the Museum – Anne Youngson. This is a quick little epistolary novel between a woman living on an English farm and the curator of a museum that the woman has always wanted to visit. Similar to Love and Saffron by Kim Fey, It’s quick and sweet, with characters whom you will absolutely root for.
20. The Atlas Six – Olivie Blake. Apparently this book, about a crew of magicians who are invited to join in a secret society, is all over the Internet. I read it with my book club, and I was the outlier in not 100% loving this book. I can understand where the hype comes from — this is a bit like Harry Potter for adults, the characters are interesting, and there’s lots of dishy tension between the characters — and this was a good book to discuss with other people. I just thought it dragged in the middle, and I didn’t like the lack of conclusion at the end (even though it does kick off a trilogy).
21. Black Cake: A Novel – Charmaine Wilkerson. There was nothing at all wrong with this story, about two estranged siblings who meet after their mother’s death and learn more about her life. But while I remember enjoying the reading experience and the shifts in timeline, I could remember almost nothing about the plot until looking it up again, so it apparently didn’t stick with me.
22. The Bodyguard – Katherine Center. I really enjoyed the gender role reversal of this rom-com, with a female bodyguard who takes on a famous male client. It was cute, with an element of the ending that actually did take me by surprise.
23. Romantic Comedy – Curtis Sittenfeld. This story, about a late-night sketch show writer who falls for a guest on the show, was just fun. It’s not super deep, but there is a little social critique that’s entertaining. Be aware there are both spicy scenes and a pandemic setting if you’re not up for either of those.
24. Saturday Night at the Lakeside Supper Club – J. Ryan Stradel. This book wins points for J. Ryan Stradel’s wit, the Minnesota setting, and the multigenerational perspective switching. My biggest critique is that I just knew the characters were going to make stupid decisions, which can make me dread picking up a book and engaging with the newest way they’ve ruined their lives.
25. The Undertaking of Hart and Mercy – Megan Bannen. I really enjoyed this reading experience, which follows a demigod who protects a realm and the undertaker to whom he takes the dead bodies he finds. The first half of the book was so strong, especially once mysterious letters became involved, but I lost the thread of the story and thought the characters acted with unexpected haste in the back half. However, I don’t regret reading this at all – the book is fantasy lite, where the world-building very much takes a back story to the character interactions, and the book doesn’t feel dark at all despite its subject matter. Warning that it’s surprisingly spicy.
26. Pieces of Blue – Holly Goldberg Sloan. I’ve read and enjoyed a number of Holly Goldberg Sloan’s young adult books. But I enjoyed this book, about a woman who starts over after her husband’s death by buying a rundown hotel in Hawaii, a little less than I expected. Nothing really happens until all of a sudden everything happens, and then the book is over.
27. The Awakening of Miss Prim – Natalie Sanmartin Fenollera. This quick little story, about a woman who becomes the librarian for a cantankerous man, almost read like a fairytale or allegory. It was sweet but not that memorable.
28. The People We Keep – Allison Larkin. This book, about a musical girl who runs away from her hometown, had sweet moments but was also sadder than I expected. There were a lot more people the main character left and not a lot that she kept. If you’re looking for something that’s charming but with characters who make disappointing decisions (I’m selling this, I know), this will work for you.
29. The Road Trip – Beth O’Leary. I love the other books I’ve read by Beth O’Leary (The Flatshare made my favorites list in 2021), but this one, about two exes forcibly united on a road trip, fell a little flat for me. I need a little more slow build in a rom-com, plus I didn’t love the male characters – the male lead didn’t seem worth the attention, and his best friend was absolutely infuriating. Spiciness warning.
30. The Hundred and One Dalmations – Dodie Smith. This was a charming little audiobook, but the story gets bumped down several notches down the ranking because of the weird sexist portrayal of Missus (the female dog) as an absolute idiot. I cannot fathom what the author – a woman herself – was thinking.
31. Daddy-Long-Legs – Jean Webster. This epistolary novel centers on a girl who gets a scholarship to university on the condition that she writes her benefactor letters about her progress. Maybe it’s my modern sensibilities, but the ending felt a bit creepy to me? I have the modern retelling Dear Mr. Knightely on my nightstand right now, so we’ll see if that fares better.
32. Fake: A Novel – Erika Katz. This book about an artist who gets roped into an art heist was initially good, but the main character was so absolutely dumb that it took me out of the story.
33. The House on Vesper Sands – Padraic O’Donnell. The back cover and opening of this book was so intriguing – a maid with mysterious letters stitched into her actual skin?! Creepily enticing. But the character development wasn’t very satisfying, and the way the plot was wrapped up was…a lot. And not that believable, even given the story’s fantastical nature.
34. Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul – Douglas Adams. I chose this book prior to a family trip to Norway, as it centers around Norse gods coming to earth and wreaking some havoc. It was weird and almost nonsensical, so not entirely my thing.
Middle Grade and YA
Best of 2023
1. The Girl Who Drank the Moon – Kelly Barnhill. This book has been on my to-read list since it won the Newberry Medal in 2017, and I’m so glad I finally read it. It’s wonderful. A good witch, a tiny dragon, a swamp monster, a magical little girl, a kind-hearted boy, and a grieving mother’s stories all collide, and there are so many characters to root for. If you like Kate DiCamillo, this will be right up your alley. Just be aware that if you’re reading this with kids, there are parts that could be a bit scary for young, sensitive readers
Honorable Mentions
2. The Graveyard Book – Neil Gaiman. This story follows Nobody Owens, a boy who is raised by the ghosts in a graveyard. It’s clever and witty, with a not-too-spooky setting and more characters you’ll love. While the story took me a little while to get into, I raced through the second half. This one is great for adults and slightly older kids as there are some scarier parts (especially if your brood is sensitive).
All the Rest
3. A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder – Holly Jackson. In this YA mystery, a high school senior investigates a murder case that she thinks was incorrectly solved. The multiple perspectives, including her research notes, kept things interesting. Though I was annoyed by the main character’s dumb choices at times and the ending seemed like a stretch, I overall enjoyed reading this one.
Nonfiction
Best of 2023
1. How to Keep House While Drowning: A Gentle Approach to Cleaning and Organizing – K.C. Davis. Everyone who lives in a home and is not Martha Stewart would benefit from this book. K.C. kindly reframes housekeeping for the rest of us — those with neurodivergence, depression, or just limited amounts of time and energy from work or children. If you’ve ever bemoaned your lack of time or shamed yourself for not being able to keep up with the dishes, this book is for you.
2. All My Knotted-Up Life: A Memoir – Beth Moore. This memoir is excellent. Beth Moore’s story is vulnerable and heartbreaking at times, and I came away from reading this wanting to listen to every one of her recent interviews. Highly recommend — if you’ve had some Beth Moore skepticism, I’d gently encourage you to read it and hear her heart, and if you’re already a Beth Moore fan, you’ll love her even more.
3. Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals – Oliver Burkeman. Okay, sure, facing your own mortality through the lens of time management book seems weird at best, nearly traumatizing at worst? But of all time management and productivity books I’ve read, this one is thus far the one that has been most influential in how I think about both day to day tasks and the bigger meaning of my life overall. It’s more philosophical than most self-help, but I didn’t find it slow or inaccessible at all — in fact, I tore through it, and plan to return to my copy regularly.
Honorable Mentions
4. Period Power: Harness Your Hormones and Get Your Cycle Working for You – Maisie Hill. File this book under “why did no one teach me this?!” Maisie Hill walks through how the different parts of the female cycle and how hormones influence, well, everything. I bought a paper copy of this because there was so much I wanted to be able to reference, and understanding my body through this lens has absolutely made me kinder to myself. Fair warning, I did ignore the “Self-Care” chapter that went into food elimination and “detoxing,” and there is a fair bit of swearing here, so tread carefully if either of those elements are sensitive for you or for someone you’d recommend this to.
5. I’m Glad My Mom Died – Jeannette McCurdy. This book is brutal, but in a can’t-look-away-from-the-train-wreck way that makes you want to keep reading. Jeannette McCurdy, who became famous from the Nickelodeon show iCarly, shares about the trauma of her abusively controlling mother and being a child star. I’m not usually someone who reads about people’s traumatic childhoods, but this one was just as compelling and well-written as all the hype made it out to be (though I do hope that McCurdy is okay – I honestly wasn’t sure at the end of the book). Also big trigger warnings for disordered eating.
6. On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft – Stephen King. This book opens with moments from Stephen King’s life that shaped him into the writer he is, then goes into his tips on the act of writing. While Stephen King comes off as a bit curmudgeonly, his tips are exceedingly helpful, and he clearly knows what he’s talking about. This didn’t make the tip-top of my favorites list only because I thought the structure was a little disjointed and something only Stephen King could get away with. That said, I can credit this book with helping me refresh my morning writing routine, and I will absolutely be adding it into my rotation of writing books that I revisit regularly.
7. Real Self-Care: A Transformative Program for Redefining Wellness (Crystals, Cleanses, and Bubble Baths Need Not Apply) – Pooja Lakshmin. Yup, that subtitle got me. Lakshmin breaks down how women have been sold the lie that we’re just not making time for massages, personal care products, and other forms of pampering, when really, there are much more powerful ways to care for ourselves that have ripple effects across our workplaces and families. It is a breath of helpful, practical fresh air among the noise of social media.
All the Rest
8. Good Morning, Monster: A Therapist Shares Five Heroic Stories of Emotional Recovery – Catherine Gildiner. I went into this expecting something like Maybe You Should Talk to Someone by Lori Gottlieb. This has the same eavesdropping-on-private-conversations feeling but with stories that are a LOT more intense. It was an interesting read, but if you’re not in a good mental place, maybe skip this one.
9. Hourglass: Time, Memory, and Marriage – Dani Shapiro. This is a beautifully written book about the author’s life and marriage. If you’re a fan of lovely, reflective memoir, it’s a great pick, though it’s not ranked more highly because months later, I remember really enjoying the reading experience but not too much else.
10. My Life in France – Julia Child. I grew up watching Julia Child’s cooking shows on road trips, so this one had big nostalgia points from me before I even cracked it open. As is evident from the title, it chronicles Julia’s life in France and the beginning of her cooking career. While it’s not a page-turner, I loved learning more about this absolute icon and found it the perfect pre-bedtime read.
11. The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny, and Murder – David Grann. Killers of the Flower Moon, one of David Grann’s other books, is one of my favorite books of all time, so I had extremely high expectations for this one. It was impressively researched, with some very memorable details about traveling around Cape Horn and survival on an uninhabited island, but the narrative structure felt super unbalanced to me. If you’re at all intrigued by the subtitle, you’ll likely still enjoy it.
12. Here for It: How to Save Your Soul in America – R. Eric Thomas. This memoir from online writer R. Eric Thomas was enjoyable — he is self-deprecating and funny, and I was surprised by how much I enjoyed his more sincere reflections on faith. His next book, Congratulations, The Best is Over! is now on my list.
13. The Great Sex Rescue: The Lies You’ve Been Taught and How to Recover What God Intended – Shelia Wray Gregoire. Shelia Wray Gregoire’s work online, in her podcast, and through this book is all about dismantling evangelical teachings about marriage and sex that harm women. If you lived through purity culture or have read basically any of the Christian marriage bestsellers, this book will likely be extremely helpful for untangling hidden messages that are not benefiting your relationship. This would also be a great book club pick if you’ve got the right group — having a friend or two to discuss this with would likely enrich the reading experience tenfold.
14. The Life Council: 10 Friends Every Woman Needs – Laura Tremaine. This book discusses friendship by describing the ten categories of friends that many women have. Don’t fret if you feel like you don’t have 10 friends total — this is more fun fodder for discussion about female friendship than shaming about the quality of your friendships. Overall, while you won’t find a ton of practical tips here, this topic is a great one to discuss with a book club, and it’s given me some helpful language to think about friendships.
15. The Kingdom of Prep: Inside the Rise (and Near) Fall of J.Crew – Maggie Bullock. The audience for this book is maybe a little niche, but if reading about how J.Crew came to be, its progression through the Jenna Lyons days, and its recent identity crisis sounds at all interesting to you, this is a great read. I really enjoyed it and found myself surprised at how often I found relevant moments to spout off surprising facts at Adam.
16. This Is Not A Book About Benedict Cumberbatch: The Joy of Loving Something — Anything — Like Your Life Depends on It – Tabitha Carver. If you’ve ever felt disparaged for your love of Taylor Swift, or Harry Styles, or k-pop, or Tom Hiddleston, or anything else that other people deem silly or unworthy, this book is for you. While the structure felt a little wonky and repetitive in places, overall it’s an entertaining read, and the ideas about loving what you love unapologetically are something every woman would benefit from hearing.
17. Strong Like Water: Finding the Freedom, Safety, and Compassion to Move Through Hard Things — and Experience True Flourishing – Aundi Kobler. I absolutely loved Kobler’s first book Try Softer — my biggest critique of this book is that it felt too similar. If you’ve read Try Softer and enjoyed it, though, this book may still be worth reading solely for the exercises at the ends of the chapters. I found those cathartic and enlightening.
18. Tell Me Everything: The Story of a Private Investigation – Erika Crouse. This true crime book is infuriating. If you want to be absolutely ticked off by big university athletics culture, read it.
19. The Little Book of Hygge: Danish Secrets to Happy Living – Meik Wiking. This is a quick little read about the principles behind hygge, the Danish word for a sense of cozy togetherness. Since that concept has taken the Internet by storm, there wasn’t a lot in this book that I didn’t know or wasn’t already practicing. However, if you’re looking for inspiration for thriving in hibernation season, it’s charming, aesthetically pleasing, and a great one to keep on a coffee table or nightstand.
20. Sleeping with Bread: Holding What Gives You Life – Dennis, Sheila, and Matthew Lin. This illustrated book walks through a family’s experience with the practice of Examen, or daily reflection on the things for which you’re most and least grateful, and its benefits. I’ve read a lot about the Examen so there wasn’t a lot that was new for me, but if you’re curious about the practice, it’s a good primer.
21. Boundaries in Marriage – Dr. Henry Cloud and Dr. John Townsend. The idea that you may have to have boundaries in your marriage isn’t something I feel like many people talk about. If that principle sounds helpful, if you haven’t read Cloud and Townsend’s other Boundaries books, or if you don’t have access to therapy (where I’ve received even more practical advice on this topic), this could be beneficial.
22. Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation – Kristin Kobles Du Mez. There was a lot of interesting — and infuriating — information in this book. If you’re frustrated by the evangelical church, it will certainly add fuel to that fire. However. The reason I ranked it this low is that the author threw in some of what we call in SAT tutoring land “extreme and absolute language.” I personally was open to and in agreement with a lot the subject matter and perspectives described by the author, but I found myself turned off by some of the relatively blatant bias in tone. That tone potentially could alienate an audience who would benefit from some of this background, limiting who I would recommend this book to, which is frustrating.
23. We Keep the Dead Close: A Murder at Harvard and a Half-Century of Silence – Becky Cooper. I expected this to be a gripping true crime novel, and instead I thought that the story dragged way, way too much. This felt like it had potential and had some interesting moments, but I had to convince myself to finish it.
24. The Preacher’s Wife: The Precarious Power of Evangelical Woman Celebrities – Kate Bowler. I enjoyed Everything Happens for a Reason: And Other Lies I’ve Loved by Kate Bowler, so I was curious about her more academic work. I think my expectations were off going into this — I wanted something juicier with more current names, and less of a historical exploration with women I’d never heard of. If you’re a generation older than I am, this might have more for you.
25. Effortless: Make It Easier to Do What Matters Most – Greg McKeown. Ironically for its subject matter, this book is the definition of “could have been a blog post.” While I have found myself asking “how could I make this as simple as possible?” more often after reading, I got that takeaway from the first chapter and found myself skimming most of the rest.
Rereads & Books that Defy Rankings
1. Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life – Anne Lamott. A classic for a reason. I return to this one every year or two, and it feels fresh every time.
2. Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear – Elizabeth Gilbert. I read this book and listened to the accompanying podcast years ago, and it remained inspirational upon rereading. This is a great book for anyone wanting to pursue any form of creativity, and I think about Gilbert’s thoughts on the muse and inspiration often.
3. Feed These People – Jen Hatmaker. This is a cookbook that I read straight through like a memoir, but the contents are different enough from the rest of the nonfiction that it feels hard to rank. The anecdotes are entertaining and the photos are beautiful, but as lots of the recipes require a decent amount of prep and cook time, I haven’t made anything from it yet.
4. H.P. Lovecraft short stories. My husband went on an H.P. Lovecraft kick this fall and wanted me to read a few of his short stories so we could discuss them. They’re not really my genre, but if you’re interested in reading some of the roots of the horror movement, you’ll likely find these interesting. “The Temple” was my favorite of the ones I read.