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 A Gentleman in Moscow

Chris Goff Why did I love this book?

This book is a brilliant novel, full of humor, history, and bigger-than-life characters, set against the background of the USSR. I ordered this book because it was my grandson’s favorite novel of 2022. He worried that he’d overhyped it. He had nothing to fear. 

After the main character, Count Alexander Rostov, is deemed an unrepentant aristocrat by a 1927 Bolshevik tribunal. The man, who had never worked a day in his life, suddenly finds himself living in an attic room, confined to the walls of the Metropol hotel in Moscow. 

Experiencing the Count’s emotional discovery while some of the most tumultuous decades in Russian history play out, teaches us all lessons in adapting to the circumstances that life mets out. A must read!

By Amor Towles,

Why should I read it?

41 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 2nd favorite read in 2023

Book cover of Family Business

Chris Goff Why did I love this book?

No matter what city you’re in, visiting Chinatown is like stepping into a different world, and S.J. Rozan is one of the best at bringing it to life.

S.J. Rozan is one of my favorite authors. Not only does she write great PI novels, her Lydia Chin and Bill Smith series highlight the difficulties of blending Chinese and American culture using Lydia’s own family dynamics. A fascinating read.

By S. J. Rozan,

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

The death of a powerful Chinatown crime boss thrusts private eye Lydia Chin and her partner Bill Smith into a world of double-dealing, subterfuge, murder, and-because this is New York City-real estate in this new mystery by Edgar Award-winning novelist S. J. Rozan.

Choi has left the Tong headquarters building to his niece, who hires Lydia and her partner, Bill Smith, to accompany her to inspect it. The building is at the center of a tug-of-war between Chinatown preservation interests-including Lydia's brother Tim-and a real estate developer who's desperate to get his hands on it.

When Lydia, Bill, and Choi's…


My 3rd favorite read in 2023

Book cover of Calico

Chris Goff Why did I love this book?

As a writer, you come up with a lot of ideas, and some of them don’t fit the mold.

The message is usually not to mix genres. But in his new book, Calico, Lee Goldberg melds a police procedural with an old-fashioned western, and created an explosive time-travel thriller everyone’s going to want to read. 

Any Goldberg novel entertains, but this one will blow your mind.

By Lee Goldberg,

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

From #1 New York Times bestselling author Lee Goldberg, comes an explosive, page-turning investigative thriller - with a mind-blowing twist.

There's a saying in Barstow, California, a decaying city in the scorching Mojave desert . . .

The Interstate here only goes in one direction: Away.

But it's the only place where ex-LAPD detective Beth McDade, after a staggering fall from grace, could get another badge . . . and a shot at redemption.

Over a century ago, and just a few miles further into the bleak landscape, a desperate stranger ended up in Calico, a struggling mining town, also hoping for…


Don‘t forget about my book 😀

Dark Waters

By Chris Goff,

Book cover of Dark Waters

What is my book about?

Raisa "Rae" Jordan, an agent for the United States Diplomatic Security Service, isn't in Israel for more than a day before her predecessor is gunned down in a Tel Aviv square by a sniper. Assigned to investigate the assassination of one of her own, she must also protect Judge Ben Taylor and his teenage daughter. They may be the sniper's next targets and are most certainly being threatened by a desperate cadre of terrorists with their sights set on the secretary of state's upcoming visit. But is an attack on the secretary of state all that they have planned, or is that just the beginning?

To subvert an attack that could crush the fledgling peace in the Middle East, Jordan must trust her instincts and bring together a contentious team of agents.

Book cover of A Gentleman in Moscow
Book cover of Family Business
Book cover of Calico

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