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 The Wolf and the Watchman

A.M. Potter Why did I love this book?

The Wolf and the Watchman took me by surprise. I don’t usually fall for historical crime/mystery fiction (the story is set in 1793, in Sweden). However, this novel grabbed me immediately and didn’t let go.

The Wolf and the Watchman delivers a captivating whodunit with literary flare. The plotline is utterly convincing. The descriptions are lyrical yet on point. You get a heartrending page-turner peopled by characters you won’t forget, driven by motivations as dark as a Stockholm winter night.

As for the whodunit angle, the twists and red herrings will hook even the most exacting mystery lover.

By Niklas Natt Och Dag,

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

'A remarkable debut novel' Sunday Times

'The best historical thriller I've read in twenty years' A.J. Finn

'A thrilling, unnerving, clever and beautiful story. Reading it is like giving a little gift to oneself' Fredrik Backman

The year is 1793, Stockholm. King Gustav of Sweden has been assassinated, years of foreign wars have emptied the treasuries, and the realm is governed by a self-interested elite, leaving its citizens to suffer. On the streets, malcontent and paranoia abound.

A body is found in the city's swamp by a watchman, Mickel Cardell, and the case is handed over to investigator Cecil Winge,…


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My 2nd favorite read in 2023

Book cover of The Sweet Goodbye

A.M. Potter Why did I love this book?

The Sweet Goodbye weaves a powerful story of duplicity and loss.

It gave me exactly what I want in a crime thriller, a triumvirate of psychological veracity, physical presence, and page-turning suspense. What’s a crime thriller without complex perpetrators and victims, powerful descriptive passages that pull me into the action, and subterfuge that keeps me guessing until the end?

A book I put down. No danger of that with The Sweet Goodbye. Corbett has been nominated for both the Edgar and Arthur Ellis awards. In this novel, he draws readers deep into the Maine timberlands and holds them there with a riveting plot.

By Ron Corbett,

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

In this thrilling new series from Edgar®-nominated author Ron Corbett, the most dangerous predator in the Maine wilderness walks on two feet—and it is Danny Barrett's job to bring him down.

Something is not right in the North Maine Woods.

A small family-run lumber company should not have more than two hundred million unaccountable dollars on their books. Money like that comes from moving something other than wood across the border.

The first agent the FBI sent undercover was their best man—sure to get the answers that were needed. He was dead within a month.

Now, Danny Barrett is taking…


My 3rd favorite read in 2023

Book cover of The Tao of Travel: Enlightenments from Lives on the Road

A.M. Potter Why did I love this book?

For years, I’ve been rereading my favorite travel writers—not the guidebook purveyors but traveloguers such as Robert Macfarlane, Pico Iyer, Jan Morris, and Paul Theroux.

In 2023, I reread Theroux’s The Tao of Travel, a compendium of pithy quotes that spans the globe. Some consider Theroux curmudgeonly. I find him refreshingly honest. In The Tao of Travel, he shines a light on writers-on-the-road as diverse as Kerouac, Twain, Flaubert, Orwell, Marco Polo, and Garcia Marquez.

The Tao of Travel isn’t constrained by a linear narrative. You can open it at any page and instantly enjoy the banquet you encounter. No need for aperitifs or digestifs. The dishes are satiating on their own. When you’re hungry again, turn the page.

By Paul Theroux,

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

Paul Theroux celebrates fifty years of wandering the globe by collecting the best writing on travel from the books that shaped him, as a reader and a traveler. Part philosophical guide, part miscellany, part reminiscence, The Tao of Travel enumerates “The Contents of Some Travelers’ Bags” and exposes “Writers Who Wrote about Places They Never Visited”; tracks extreme journeys in “Travel as an Ordeal” and highlights some of “Travelers’ Favorite Places.” Excerpts from the best of Theroux’s own work are interspersed with selections from travelers both familiar and unexpected: 

Vladimir Nabokov           J.R.R. Tolkien 
Samuel Johnson               Eudora Welty
Evelyn Waugh                  Isak…


Don‘t forget about my book 😀

The Color Red

By A.M. Potter,

Book cover of The Color Red

What is my book about?

The Color Red brings the twisted Balkans to Boston and Cape Cod. A Slovenian-born billionaire and his second wife are found dead, hanging side-by-side at their pool. Some say the man was giving away his fortune; others say he was once an oligarch. Who’s the killer? Old Soviet operatives? His butler, his son? Balkan relatives? Detective Ivy Bourque and her team encounter many suspects, but none of them have a motive. Why would someone kill a benevolent rich man without an apparent enemy in the world?

The Color Red is the first novel in a contemporary detective/mystery series set in New England. Publishers Weekly: “Impressive series launch. Fans of intelligent procedurals will hope for a long series run.”

Book cover of The Wolf and the Watchman
Book cover of The Sweet Goodbye
Book cover of The Tao of Travel: Enlightenments from Lives on the Road

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