The best books of 2023

This list is part of the best books of 2023.

Join 1,707 readers and share your 3 favorite reads of the year.

My favorite read in 2023

Book cover of Demon Copperhead

A. R. Silverberry Why did I love this book?

When I reached the end of The Lacuna, I cried out five times in surprise and wonder. No other author has made me do that, so when I heard about Demon Copperhead, I had to read it.

Let a book whisk me off somewhere I’ve never been and I’m happy. Usually this is a fantasy world, but with Demon Copperhead, it’s Appalachia America and a people forgotten, ignored, or misunderstood. I wanted to get lost in Damon’s world, with all the colorful characters, who I already knew from Dickens’s David Copperfield but was also meeting for the first time as Kingsolver put a modern spin on them.

It was doubly fun watching Damon’s journey unfold while having Dickens’s plot in my mind. I kept telling myself, “This should win a Pulitzer.” Lo and behold, it did!

By Barbara Kingsolver,

Why should I read it?

81 authors picked Demon Copperhead as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Demon's story begins with his traumatic birth to a single mother in a single-wide trailer, looking 'like a little blue prizefighter.' For the life ahead of him he would need all of that fighting spirit, along with buckets of charm, a quick wit, and some unexpected talents, legal and otherwise.

In the southern Appalachian Mountains of Virginia, poverty isn't an idea, it's as natural as the grass grows. For a generation growing up in this world, at the heart of the modern opioid crisis, addiction isn't an abstraction, it's neighbours, parents, and friends. 'Family' could mean love, or reluctant foster…


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My 2nd favorite read in 2023

Book cover of The Color of Money

A. R. Silverberry Why did I love this book?

I love a story that pulls me in from the beginning and never lets go. The Color of Money caught me hook, line, and sinker.

Walter Tevis is one of the few authors who keeps me reading long into the night and finds me reaching for my Kindle early the next morning. His characters are always struggling, talented, and huge underdogs. And, well, I have a soft spot for underdog tales. I’ll bite my nails to the quick until I see them triumph.

And what characters. So iconic, they strode larger-than-life into American culture. Really, how could I resist the unflappable and unbeatable Minnesota Fats?

By Walter Tevis,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked The Color of Money as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

In the sequel to the cult classic THE HUSTLER, Eddie Felson returns to the poolroom to give the game one last shot. From the bestseller author of THE QUEEN'S GAMBIT - NOW A MAJOR NETFLIX SERIES

The Color of Money was adapted for the screen by Martin Scorsese and starred Paul Newman and Tom Cruise

It has been twenty years since the epic match-up between Eddie Felson and Minnesota Fats. Having gone from bona fide stardom to playing in exhibition matches for cable television, Eddie decides that he'd like to give the game one more shot. With a failed marriage…


My 3rd favorite read in 2023

Book cover of Before the Big Bang: The Origin of the Universe and What Lies Beyond

A. R. Silverberry Why did I love this book?

I love to keep growing and learning and this book blew my mind.

The author took complex concepts and made them understandable. The way she wove in her experience growing up under a dictatorship in Albania—the impact on her family and living under dire and frightening circumstances—enriched the book and put a human stamp on how she formed her theory. It turned the book into a quest just as exciting as any fantasy adventure.

The vast universe suddenly became infinitely greater: an endless multiverse. It’s not difficult to feel a hushed reverence and awe for the world we live in and our place in it.

By Laura Mersini-Houghton,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked Before the Big Bang as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

One of the world's most celebrated cosmologists presents her breakthrough explanation of our origins in the multiverse.

In recent years, Laura Mersini-Houghton's ground-breaking theory, spectacularly vindicated with observational evidence, has turned the multiverse from philosophical speculation to one of the most compelling and credible explanations of our universe's origins.

In Before the Big Bang, she interweaves the story of how she arrived at this theory with her journey from communist Albania, where she was born and brought up, to the West, showing how her unconventional path helped her to challenge orthodoxies and become one of the most courageous thinkers on…


Don‘t forget about my book 😀

The Tear of Tybaleth: A Chronicles of Purpura Novel

By A. R. Silverberry,

Book cover of The Tear of Tybaleth: A Chronicles of Purpura Novel

What is my book about?

A Fiery Heroine, A Ruthless Queen, A Dark and Deadly Magic…

Lonely and trapped in her father’s loveless house, Briar longs to flee as far away as she can with Vance. Who taught her swordplay, who left her breathless, who vanished without a trace. But the sorceress queen of Purpura plots to sell her off to the highest bidder. When Briar thwarts the plan, she’s cast to a fate from which she may never survive.

She’d better. Or thousands of her countrymen will die…

Book cover of Demon Copperhead
Book cover of The Color of Money
Book cover of Before the Big Bang: The Origin of the Universe and What Lies Beyond

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