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 Septology

Adin Dobkin Why did I love this book?

Jon Fosse’s prose is incantatory. I’ve heard him once describe it as “mystical realism,” and in Septology, it reaches its pinnacle: the sublime becomes quotidian, and the quotidian becomes sublime.

I will return to it, I’m sure, as I get older and its pages reveal another, previously hidden portion of themselves to me.

By Jon Fosse, Damion Searls (translator),

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Septology as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

WINNER OF THE 2023 NOBEL PRIZE IN LITERATURE

2022 International Booker Prize, Finalist
2022 National Book Award, Finalist
2022 National Book Critics Circle Award, Finalist
New York TimesEditors’ Choice
Named a Best Book of the Year by The New Yorker and Bookforum

What makes us who we are? And why do we lead one life and not another? Asle, an ageing painter and widower who lives alone on the southwest coast of Norway, is reminiscing about his life. His only friends are his neighbour, Åsleik, a traditional fisherman-farmer, and Beyer, a gallerist who lives in the city. There, in Bjørgvin,…


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My 2nd favorite read in 2023

Book cover of The Last Samurai

Adin Dobkin Why did I love this book?

I've recently felt down about American publishing with the closing of critical outlets and the conglomeration of publishers. This isn't the first time I've turned to Helen DeWitt's pin-sharp debut when thinking those thoughts. The book is as brilliant as the author is. I wish more contemporary writers challenged their readers in that way.

By Helen DeWitt,

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

Helen DeWitt's 2000 debut, The Last Samurai, was "destined to become a cult classic" (Miramax). The enterprising publisher sold the rights in twenty countries, so "Why not just, 'destined to become a classic?'" (Garth Risk Hallberg) And why must cultists tell the uninitiated it has nothing to do with Tom Cruise?

Sibylla, an American-at-Oxford turned loose on London, finds herself trapped as a single mother after a misguided one-night stand. High-minded principles of child-rearing work disastrously well. J. S. Mill (taught Greek at three) and Yo Yo Ma (Bach at two) claimed the methods would work with any child; when…


My 3rd favorite read in 2023

Book cover of Ghost Stories of Henry James

Adin Dobkin Why did I love this book?

A friend found a first edition of this book in one of my favorite used bookstores. It has a gorgeous purple cover, reminiscent of horror movie posters from the 1930s, and it collects many, if not all, of James’s haunting stories beyond the typical The Turn of the Screw.

As a horror fan who all-too-often must give up a measure of aesthetic satisfaction for genre conventions, it’s nice to refresh myself with these.

By Henry James, David Stuart Davies (editor),

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked Ghost Stories of Henry James as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

With an Introduction and Notes by Martin Scofield, University of Kent at Canterbury.

Henry James was arguably the greatest practitioner of what has been called the psychological ghost story. His stories explore the region which lies between the supernatural or straightforwardly marvellous and the darker areas of the human psyche. This edition includes all ten of his ghost stories, and as such is the fullest collection currently available.

The stories range widely in tone and type. They include 'The Jolly Corner', a compelling story of psychological doubling; 'Owen Wingrave', which is also a subtle parable of military tradition; 'The Friends…


Don‘t forget about my book 😀

Sprinting Through No Man's Land: Endurance, Tragedy, and Rebirth in the 1919 Tour de France

By Adin Dobkin,

Book cover of Sprinting Through No Man's Land: Endurance, Tragedy, and Rebirth in the 1919 Tour de France

What is my book about?

Sprinting Through No Man’s Land tells the story of the first Tour de France after World War I, and one of the most difficult iterations of the race in history.

67 cyclists, whittled down as they rode kilometer after kilometer, encounter the absolute destruction of the war and the process of rebuilding that’s gradually starting in the summer of 1919.