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The best books of 2023

This list is part of the best books of 2023.

We've asked 1,627 authors and super readers for their 3 favorite reads of the year.

Shepherd is reader supported. When you buy books, we may earn an affiliate commission.

My favorite read in 2023…

Book cover of Boulder

Anthony Carinhas Why did I love this book?

The narrator in this book reminds me of Lise, the main character in Muriel Spark’s The Driver’s Seat. Boulder is tired of life and her job, leaving her washed out. 

This book explores the lives of women in a triptych first-person style with little men in sight. The cynical unnamed narrator also happens to be a young lesbian navigating her life through sex and depression.

Routine affects peoples’ lives differently, and love has no boundaries, so as the story evolves over ten years, we find Boulder and Samsa discussing the possibility of having a child. A solid read about an existential crisis.

By Eva Baltasar, Julia Sanches (translator),

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

Working as a cook on a merchant ship, a woman comes to know and love Samsa, a woman who gives her the nickname 'Boulder'. When Samsa gets a job in Reykjavik and the couple decides to move there together, Samsa decides that she wants to have a child. She is already forty and can't bear to let the opportunity pass her by. Boulder is less enthused, but doesn't know how to say no - and so finds herself dragged along on a journey that feels as thankless as it is alien.
With motherhood changing Samsa into a stranger, Boulder must…


My 2nd favorite read in 2023…

Book cover of 3 a.m. Austin Texas

Anthony Carinhas Why did I love this book?

Based on a true story in 1982, when Klecko was a young man from Minnesota, he threw away his life only to reclaim it while hitchhiking to Texas in the dead of winter.

Various passages define all the hunger and untrustworthy people Klecko encounters during his travels.Nevertheless, he ends up encountering more random acts of kindness than negativity, thus enriching his life by meeting strangers and rekindling old friendships that taught him how to be resilient and confident.

Above all, the message is a positive one.

By Klecko,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked 3 a.m. Austin Texas as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

"3 a.m. Austin Texas" is based on a true story of the author, Klecko. In 1982, when he was a young Minnesota man, still in his late teens, he threw away his life only to reclaim it while hitchhiking to Texas in the dead of winter. Long before the days of cellphones, this journey, made in abject solitude, save for a few people he met along the way, taught him how to be resilient and gain confidence.


My 3rd favorite read in 2023…

Book cover of A Black and Endless Sky

Anthony Carinhas Why did I love this book?

Jonah, who’d been married for 12 years, decides to leave California and head back home on the open road to Albuquerque with his sister Nell. As Nell and Jonah cross the American West, is there an underlying message that happiness can be found anywhere, even for those who’ve left home in search of greater things?

As siblings, Nell and Jonah’s rocky relationship is the centerpiece of the story. It showcases a mythological and supernatural element fans of dark fantasy will relish. As the novel climaxes, we find Nell possessed by an ancient spirit, and the deeper this mysterious possession latches onto her, the desolation of the Nevada desert cannot save them from the ghastly violence that unexpectedly finds them.

For horror fans, this is an intense story of blood, gore, action, and phantasmagoria.

By Matthew Lyons,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked A Black and Endless Sky as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

One of Tor Nightfire's "Horror Books We're Excited About in 2022"!

"Lyons burnishes his reputation as a rising horror star . . . [and] keeps the pages flying with fast-paced chills." -Publishers Weekly (starred review)


From the author of The Night Will Find Us comes a white-knuckled horror-thriller set across the American Southwest.

Road trips can be hell.

Siblings Jonah and Nell Talbot used to be inseparable, but ever since Jonah suddenly blew town twelve years ago, they couldn't be more distant. Now, in the wake of Jonah's divorce, they embark on a cross-country road trip back to their hometown…


Plus, check out my book…

Sorrow's Garden: A Novel

By Anthony Carinhas,

Book cover of Sorrow's Garden: A Novel

What is my book about?

My book is an intriguing tale of manipulation. The novel chronicles the activities of Radulf, an architect and writer living in Germany, a man whose psyche is in a state of constant trauma about the fact that he has no real moral compass.

He vents this frustration by viewing the world as a selfish place despite his success. In a kind of desire for revenge, Radulf perfects his skills of manipulation by gaining the trust of victims by exploiting their innocence and dreams with promise and illusion.

Radulf’s actions reveal shocking truths about the trusting nature of humanity and about our own perspectives on what’s actually real in the world we live. This is a cautionary narrative about covert narcissism and a progressive elitist who concedes to nihilism.