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The best books of 2023

This list is part of the best books of 2023.

We've asked 1,686 authors and super readers for their 3 favorite reads of the year.

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My favorite read in 2023…

Book cover of Divinity 36: Tinkered Starsong Book 1

Caitlin Rozakis Why did I love this book?

I loved this SF spin on K-pop culture with aliens because it’s a gorgeous blend of hilarity and heart.

Carriger does fantastic found family and queer romance, and her characters tend to be the kind of engaging that promise to draw me back for countless re-reads because I want to nestle in with them again. There’s just enough pathos to give it an edge, but a pervading sense of love and optimism. Also, the fundamental concept is brilliant.

By Gail Carriger,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Divinity 36 as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it. This book is for kids age 13, 14, 15, and 16.

What is this book about?

The aliens are coming for us and they want our voices.

New York Times bestselling author Gail Carriger brings you a gloriously warm and unique scifi about the power of art, celebrity, and found family.

Phex is a barista on a forgotten moon. Which is fine – he likes being ignored and he’s good at making drinks. Until one day an alien hears him singing and recruits him to become a god. Now Phex is thrust headfirst into the galaxy’s most cutthroat entertainment industry, where music is visible, the price of fame can kill, and the only friends he has…


My 2nd favorite read in 2023…

Book cover of Nettle & Bone

Caitlin Rozakis Why did I love this book?

This book starts with such a delightfully creepy image of a woman building herself a canine sidekick out of bones and just launches off from there. Horror and rom-coms shouldn’t go together, but Kingfisher balances it perfectly. She also turns a dozen tropes on their heads as her heroine barrels through a carefully woven plot. 

By T. Kingfisher,

Why should I read it?

5 authors picked Nettle & Bone as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

An Instant USA Today & Indie Bestseller
An Oprah Daily Top 25 Fantasy Book of 2022
An NPR Best Sci Fi, Fantasy, & Speculative Fiction Book of 2022
A Goodreads Best Fantasy Choice Award Nominee

From Hugo, Nebula, and Locus award-winning author T. Kingfisher comes an original and subversive fantasy adventure.

*A very special hardcover edition, featuring gold foil stamp on the casing and custom endpapers illustrated by the author.*

This isn't the kind of fairytale where the princess marries a prince.
It's the one where she kills him.

Marra never wanted to be a hero.

As the shy, convent-raised,…


My 3rd favorite read in 2023…

Book cover of Light From Uncommon Stars

Caitlin Rozakis Why did I love this book?

This book somehow manages to blend violin competitions, deals with the devil, multiple kinds of refugees, AND aliens?

It shouldn’t work. It really shouldn’t. I love that it did. And that the solution to everyone’s unsolvable problems is so much richer and more complex than I could have imagined – the author doesn’t take any expected or easy routes. Also, there are donuts.

By Ryka Aoki,

Why should I read it?

4 authors picked Light From Uncommon Stars as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Good Omens meets The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet in Ryka Aoki's Light From Uncommon Stars, a defiantly joyful adventure set in California's San Gabriel Valley, with cursed violins, Faustian bargains, and queer alien courtship over fresh-made donuts.

Shizuka Satomi made a deal with the devil: to escape damnation, she must entice seven other violin prodigies to trade their souls for success. She has already delivered six.

When Katrina Nguyen, a young transgender runaway, catches Shizuka's ear with her wild talent, Shizuka can almost feel the curse lifting. She's found her final candidate.

But in a donut shop…


Plus, check out my book…

Dreadful

By Caitlin Rozakis,

Book cover of Dreadful

What is my book about?

It’s bad enough waking up in a half-destroyed evil wizard’s workshop with no eyebrows, no memories, and no idea how long you have before the Dread Lord Whomever shows up to murder you horribly and then turn your skull into a goblet or something. It’s a lot worse when you realize that Dread Lord Whomever is… you. Gav has a looming castle, a tasteless wardrobe, a lot of goblin minions, a kidnapped princess, and an evil plan he can no longer remember. But as he fakes his way along with his own scheme, he has to face the hardest question of all—does he even want to do this anymore?

Dreadful is about the nature of evil, second chances, toxic masculinity…and moat squid.

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