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 The Accursed

Christopher Conlon I ❤️ loved this book because...

When this book appeared in 2013, it was advertised as Joyce Carol Oates’s “vampire novel,” but that’s misleading. There is a vampire of sorts in it, and certainly, a curse that affects many in the story, but it’s far more than just a horror tale—this is an exhilarating historical Gothic fantasia set in the early 20th century and featuring, among others, Upton Sinclair, Jack London, and Mark Twain.

I found it so gripping and unputdownable that I skipped work to finish reading it and promptly picked up Sinclair’s novel King Coal afterward simply because I was so fascinated with his character in the book. King Coal turned out to be good, but The Accursed is extraordinary.

By Joyce Carol Oates,

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

This eerie tale of psychological horror sees the real inhabitants of turn-of-the-century Princeton fall under the influence of a supernatural power. New Jersey, 1905: soon-to-be commander-in-chief Woodrow Wilson is president of Princeton University. On a nearby farm, Socialist author Upton Sinclair, enjoying the success of his novel 'The Jungle', has taken up residence with his family. This is a quiet, bookish community - elite, intellectual and indisputably privileged. But when a savage lynching in a nearby town is hushed up, a horrifying chain of events is initiated - until it becomes apparent that the families of Princeton have been beset…


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My 2nd favorite read in 2023…

Book cover of Click Song

Christopher Conlon I ❤️ loved this book because...

I’ve long been interested in the African-American authors of the mid-20th century—James Baldwin and Chester Himes are particular favorites—but until the past year, I’d never gotten around to the masterful John A. Williams.

!Click Song tells the story, in fluid, sensuous prose, of a black writer whose career begins just after World War II, and while he does enjoy some success, he is hampered, demeaned, and diminished in the New York publishing world of the time because of his race.

This book is about the terrible hidden costs and pains of racism among seemingly successful people. The fact that the protagonist’s career resembles Williams’s own only adds to the power and poignancy of this beautiful, unheralded gem of a novel.

By John A Williams,

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

At lunch in a restaurant on the East Side, Cato Douglas, a black novelist, learns that Paul Cummings, a white Jewish novelist and a friend for thirty years, has just committed suicide


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My 3rd favorite read in 2023…

Book cover of The Night Ocean

Christopher Conlon I ❤️ loved this book because...

This wonderful dark novel about H.P. Lovecraft’s relationship with a young fan, R.H. Barlow, implicitly makes the case for Lovecraft’s continuing relevance in popular culture—even as he is widely condemned for his undoubted racism.

I found one of the most human and multi-dimensional portraits of Lovecraft I’ve ever read in this book. Barlow himself is no less compelling in these pages. The prose is vivid and immaculate. If you love language and are interested in Lovecraft, The Night Ocean is a fantastic read.

By Paul La Farge,

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

From the award-winning author and New Yorker contributor, a riveting novel about secrets and scandals,  psychiatry and pulp fiction, inspired by the lives of H.P. Lovecraft and his circle.

Marina Willett, M.D., has a problem. Her husband, Charlie, has become obsessed with H.P. Lovecraft, in particular with one episode in the legendary horror writer's life: In the summer of 1934, the "old gent" lived for two months with a gay teenage fan named Robert Barlow, at Barlow's family home in central Florida. What were the two of them up to? Were they friends--or something more? Just when Charlie thinks he's…


Don‘t forget about my book 😀

Savaging the Dark

By Christopher Conlon,

Book cover of Savaging the Dark

What is my book about?

Mona Straw has it all—a good marriage, a beautiful daughter, and a fulfilling job as a middle-school teacher.

But one day, a blonde, green-eyed stranger steps into Mona’s life and turns it upside down, leading her to the frenzied edge of madness and murder. The stranger’s name is Connor…and he’s eleven years old.