The best books of 2023

This list is part of the best books of 2023.

We've asked 1,707 authors and super readers for their 3 favorite reads of the year.

My favorite read in 2023…

Book cover of Fire Weather: A True Story From a Hotter World

Bruce Grierson I ❤️ loved this book because...

On May 3, 2016, the entire population of Fort MacMurray, Alberta—an oil town of 90,000—was evacuated as a wildfire dubbed “the Beast” jumped the river, rolled through town, and laid waste to pretty much every stick of those people’s built lives, leaving incalculable grief and a dark cloak of portent over the 21st century.

Valliant’s read-it-through-your-fingers account of the fire itself, plus his dissection of the devil’s deals we’ve made with the petrochemical industry, make this book an instant classic. It’ll be talked about in 100 years. (If, that is, people are still around to talk about it.)

Okay, that’s hyperbole. But Fire Weather gets you thinking that way – in extremities. Which is arguably the way we should be thinking. Because complacency isn’t working for us all that great.

By John Vaillant,

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

***AN INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER***
*Longlisted for the BAILLIE GIFFORD PRIZE FOR NON-FICTION*

'Astounding on every page. John Vaillant is one of the great poetic chroniclers of the natural world' David Wallace-Wells

'No book feels timelier than John Vaillant's Fire Weather . . . an adrenaline-soaked nightmare that is impossible to put down' Cal Flyn, The Times

A gripping account of this century's most intense urban fire, and a panoramic exploration of the rapidly changing relationship between humanity and fire's fierce energy.

In May 2016, Fort McMurray, Alberta, the hub of Canada's oil industry, was overrun by wildfire. The multi-billion-dollar disaster turned…


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My 3rd favorite read in 2023…

Book cover of Invisible Boy: A Memoir of Self-Discovery

Bruce Grierson I ❤️ loved this book because...

I first encountered Mooney’s writing when he was a sports reporter covering my local squad, the Vancouver Canucks, and in that role he was milk-out-your-nose hilarious. It oughtn’t to be surprising that all that inconsequential mirth came from a darker place.

In this memoir, Mooney describes the life of a Black boy growing up in a white household in 1980s British Columbia. His birth mom, a teenager in the foster system, gave him up for adoption, and that’s all he was told until he one day decided to do some sleuthing.

The book explores the moral crime of transplanting people into a new culture without their consent. The graft may look like it’s taking, but that’s only because you aren’t looking at the level of the soul: the damage redounds down the generations. A hard and important read. (And, mercifully, funny too at times.)

By Harrison Mooney,

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

WINNER - 2023 Rakuten Kobo Emerging Writers Prizes for Nonfiction

FINALIST - Hurston/Wright Legacy Award for Nonfiction

An unforgettable coming-of-age memoir about a Black boy adopted into a white, Christian fundamentalist family

Perfect for fans of Educated, Punch Me Up to the Gods, and Surviving the White Gaze

“An affecting portrait of life inside the twin prisons of racism and unbending orthodoxy.” --Kirkus Reviews

A powerful, experiential journey from white cult to Black consciousness: Harrison Mooney’s riveting story of self-discovery lifts the curtain on the trauma of transracial adoption and the internalized antiblackness at the heart of the white evangelical…


Don‘t forget about my book 😀

What Makes Olga Run? The Mystery of the 90-Something Track Star and What She Can Teach Us about Living Longer, Happier Lives

By Bruce Grierson,

Book cover of What Makes Olga Run? The Mystery of the 90-Something Track Star and What She Can Teach Us about Living Longer, Happier Lives

What is my book about?

A social-science writer, sagging in middle age, encounters a twinkly-eyed former teacher who is burning up the master’s track circuit. Olga Kotelko seems to hold the secret of, if not eternal life, at least preternatural vitality. The writer merges into her lane and for five years, on the track and in the labs of various sports scientists, they together explore every facet of human aging, becoming fast friends along the way. Turns out the things Olga is doing right—by luck or by design—map uncannily onto what the science tells us are optimal strategies for human flourishing.