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 The Avoidable War: The Dangers of a Catastrophic Conflict between the US and Xi Jinping's China

Colin Wright Why did I love this book?

This book filled in many of my understanding-gaps related to China’s seeming priorities and overt behaviors in global politics.

The author has credible authority on the subject, and he broke down the prime motivations for those in charge of the CCP concisely and comprehensively, and after finishing the book, some of the things the Chinese government does (and prioritizes) made a lot more sense.

Working in journalism, anything that bolsters my understanding of big-picture forces that exert gravity on global events is appreciated, and that was absolutely the case with The Avoidable War.

By Kevin Rudd,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Avoidable War as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

The relationship between the US and China, the world's two superpowers, is peculiarly volatile. It rests on a seismic fault-of cultural misunderstanding, historical grievance, and ideological incompatibility. No other nations are so quick to offend and be offended. Their militaries play a dangerous game of chicken, corporations steal intellectual property, intelligence satellites peer, and AI technicians plot. The capacity for either country to cross a fatal line grows daily.

Kevin Rudd, a former Australian prime minister who has studied, lived in, and worked with China for more than forty years, is one of the very few people who can offer…


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My 3rd favorite read in 2023

Book cover of The Story of Art Without Men

Colin Wright Why did I love this book?

The story of art history that most of us are taught is superficial and incomplete, but it can be a non-trivial task figuring out who else (and which sub-movements) should be looked into, and how to find more information about those people and happenings when so much of the field’s scholarship has been aimed at one group of people.

This book does a great job of expanding the lens so that more people (and their work and other contributions) become visible and legible, and though not everyone could receive as much attention as they should arguably get (the book is only so long), I found it to be an incredible starting point for new research; when I finished the book I had a long list of artists that I’d only heard about in passing, or had never heard of before, to look into.

By Katy Hessel,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked The Story of Art Without Men as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

How many women artists do you know? Who makes art history? Did women even work as artists before the twentieth century? And what is the Baroque anyway?

Guided by Katy Hessel, art historian and founder of @thegreatwomenartists, discover the glittering paintings by Sofonisba Anguissola of the Renaissance, the radical work of Harriet Powers in the nineteenth-century United States and the artist who really invented the "readymade." Explore the Dutch Golden Age, the astonishing work of postwar artists in Latin America, and the women defining art in the 2020s. Have your sense of art history overturned and your eyes opened to…


Don‘t forget about my book 😀

Some Thoughts about Relationships

By Colin Wright,

Book cover of Some Thoughts about Relationships

What is my book about?

Relationships have the potential to drastically improve our lives, or to sucker punch us in the emotional gut. Impactful as these interpersonal ties can be, it’s worth the effort to become more familiar with them, question a lot of our default notions that surround them, and calibrate them to best suit our needs and those of the people we care about.

This is a book for people who want it all when it comes to relationships: something tailor-made for their unique beliefs, goals, desires, and lifestyles. This is a book for people who aren’t afraid to ask, “How might we do this better?”

Includes a foreword by Joshua Fields Millburn, author of Everything That Remains and The Minimalists.

Book cover of The Avoidable War: The Dangers of a Catastrophic Conflict between the US and Xi Jinping's China
Book cover of Valuable Humans in Transit and Other Stories
Book cover of The Story of Art Without Men

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