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 Young Mungo

Barbara Elsborg Why did I love this book?

I couldn’t stop reading. It’s a raw, gritty, and unflinching story of a teenage boy who finds forbidden love against the odds in a deprived area of Glasgow.

The two boys are divided by so much that a future seems impossible. The world the author describes is both beautiful and ugly and the camping trip just about broke my heart. I was just enthralled the whole way through. The ending isn’t as unclear as some think, at least not to me. I closed the book with a smile on my face.

It feels wrong to enjoy a book like this because of the subject matter but it is so good!

By Douglas Stuart,

Why should I read it?

3 authors picked Young Mungo as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

A story of queer love and working-class families, Young Mungo is the brilliant second novel from the Booker Prize-winning author of Shuggie Bain

Douglas Stuart's first novel Shuggie Bain, winner of the 2020 Booker Prize, is one of the most successful literary debuts of the century so far. Published or forthcoming in forty territories, it has sold more than one million copies worldwide. Now Stuart returns with Young Mungo, his extraordinary second novel. Both a page-turner and literary tour de force, it is a vivid portrayal of working-class life and a deeply moving and highly suspenseful story of the dangerous…


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My 2nd favorite read in 2023…

Book cover of A Gentleman in Moscow

Barbara Elsborg Why did I love this book?

The Count has been sentenced to house arrest by the Russian regime. But he’s ejected from his usual hotel suite and has to live in an attic room for decades.

It was a delight from beginning to end. Even without the trappings of luxury, the Count still lived an amazing life. Humour, threats, spies, and amidst it all a nine-year-old girl who befriends the Count. I was almost sorry when it finished. I could have kept reading! 

By Amor Towles,

Why should I read it?

38 authors picked A Gentleman in Moscow as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

The mega-bestseller with more than 2 million readers, soon to be a major television series

From the #1 New York Times-bestselling author of The Lincoln Highway and Rules of Civility, a beautifully transporting novel about a man who is ordered to spend the rest of his life inside a luxury hotel

In 1922, Count Alexander Rostov is deemed an unrepentant aristocrat by a Bolshevik tribunal, and is sentenced to house arrest in the Metropol, a grand hotel across the street from the Kremlin. Rostov, an indomitable man of erudition and wit, has never worked a day in his life, and…


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My 3rd favorite read in 2023…

Book cover of Project Hail Mary

Barbara Elsborg Why did I love this book?

I loved it for the humour, which is amazing in such a bleak set up, where the fate of mankind depends on this lone survivor’s mission.

That the author could make his character laugh and me along with him, was amazing. I still chuckle thinking about some of the lines. I am not a reader of sci-fi generally, but I loved this and immediately read The Martian too. Weir makes science fiction accessible. I didn’t even skip bits! 

By Andy Weir,

Why should I read it?

31 authors picked Project Hail Mary as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Ryland Grace is the sole survivor on a desperate, last-chance mission—and if he fails, humanity and the earth itself will perish.

Except that right now, he doesn’t know that. He can’t even remember his own name, let alone the nature of his assignment or how to complete it.

All he knows is that he’s been asleep for a very, very long time. And he’s just been awakened to find himself millions of miles from home, with nothing but two corpses for company.

His crewmates dead, his memories fuzzily returning, Ryland realizes that an impossible task now confronts him. Hurtling through…


Don‘t forget about my book 😀

The Story of Us

By Barbara Elsborg,

Book cover of The Story of Us

What is my book about?

On a hot summer’s day, the lives of two boys are changed forever. A rebel and a risk taker, Caspian doesn’t give a damn for the consequences. Studious and obedient, Zed is the good boy who is never good enough. The two couldn’t be more different, but there’s one thing they share, a need to belong to someone who understands them, someone who cares. Their friendship goes deeper than either can possibly imagine. They’re young, in love, and planning their future when an act of betrayal tears them apart.

The Story of Us is a tale of love and survival, and the triumph of good over evil against the odds. 

My 5-year-old's favorite read in 2023…

Book cover of Oi Cat!

Barbara Elsborg Why did they love this book?

She loves the whole series and can read them herself. The basis is what certain animals can sit on – it has to be something that rhymes with what they are – e.g. dog on a frog. Hilarious fun.

By Kes Gray, Jim Field (illustrator),

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked Oi Cat! as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it. This book is for kids age 3, 4, and 5.

What is this book about?

The laughter never ends with Oi Frog and Friends!

This absurdly funny, rhyming read-aloud picture book is guaranteed to get children giggling!
From the bestselling, multi-award-winning creators of Oi Frog. *Over 1 million copies sold*

According to Frog ...
Cats sit on gnats,
Dogs sit on logs,
Alpacas sit on cream crackers,
Armadillos sit on pillows and
Chicks sit on bricks.

But wait! Cat doesn't like sitting on gnats, they keep biting his bottom! Will Frog and Dog help him change the rules?

'This animal rhyming silliness goes from strength to strength.' The Guardian
'Will have children in fits of…


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My 7-year-old's favorite read in 2023…

Book cover of The Bad Guys

Barbara Elsborg Why did they love this book?

This is fun, easy to read, has lots of characters, and the author gives each one a distinctive voice. He’s always asking for the next in the series.

By Aaron Blabey,

Why should I read it?

4 authors picked The Bad Guys as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it. This book is for kids age 7, 8, 9, and 10.

What is this book about?

NOW A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE!

"I wish I'd had these books as a kid. Hilarious!" -- Dav Pilkey, creator of Captain Underpants and Dog ManThis New York Times bestselling illustrated series is perfect for fans of Dog Man and Captain Underpants.They sound like bad guys, they look like bad guys . . . and they even smell like bad guys. But Mr. Wolf, Mr. Piranha, Mr. Snake, and Mr. Shark are about to change all of that...Mr. Wolf has a daring plan for the Bad Guys' first good mission. They are going to break two hundred dogs out of the…


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My 10-year-old's favorite read in 2023…

Book cover of Hatchet

Barbara Elsborg Why did they love this book?

My 10-year-old loved the descriptions of what Brian had to do to survive. We tried the film but gave up. He liked the book better, and I agree with him. The book is more exciting and informative.

By Gary Paulsen,

Why should I read it?

8 authors picked Hatchet as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it. This book is for kids age 10, 11, 12, and 13.

What is this book about?

This award-winning contemporary classic is the survival story with which all others are compared—and a page-turning, heart-stopping adventure, recipient of the Newbery Honor. Hatchet has also been nominated as one of America’s best-loved novels by PBS’s The Great American Read.

Thirteen-year-old Brian Robeson, haunted by his secret knowledge of his mother’s infidelity, is traveling by single-engine plane to visit his father for the first time since the divorce. When the plane crashes, killing the pilot, the sole survivor is Brian. He is alone in the Canadian wilderness with nothing but his clothing, a tattered windbreaker, and the hatchet his mother…


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