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 Where the Crawdads Sing

David Kubicek Why did I love this book?

I identified more deeply with Kya—whom the locals call “the marsh girl”—than with any character in my long reading career. The thing that speaks to me is her isolation and that she overcomes so many obstacles that would have crushed most people’s spirits.

She is abandoned by her parents when very young, lives alone in the marsh and learns to make a living from the marsh, educates herself despite being driven from public school on her first day, and ultimately because of her intelligence and knowledge of the plants and animals that live in the marsh she is able to support herself by writing books.

By Delia Owens,

Why should I read it?

54 authors picked Where the Crawdads Sing as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

OVER 12 MILLION COPIES SOLD WORLDWIDE
NOW A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE
A NUMBER ONE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

For years, rumours of the 'Marsh Girl' have haunted Barkley Cove, a quiet town on the North Carolina coast. So in late 1969, when handsome Chase Andrews is found dead, the locals immediately suspect Kya Clark, the so-called Marsh Girl. But Kya is not what they say. Sensitive and intelligent, she has survived for years alone in the marsh that she calls home, finding friends in the gulls and lessons in the sand. Then the time comes when she yearns to be…


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My 2nd favorite read in 2023

Book cover of Project Hail Mary

David Kubicek Why did I love this book?

I loved the alien, Rocky (the nickname given to him by the astronaut from Earth because he looks like a big spider made out of stone). I literally could not put it down.

It was fascinating watching the two learn to communicate with each other and work together to solve a common problem, which was the reason their respective races sent them on this mission.

The biggest question they have to answer is why each of them survived while all of their other shipmates perished. I fell so much in love with Rocky that my heart stopped when it seemed that Rocky had been killed midway through the book.

By Andy Weir,

Why should I read it?

43 authors picked Project Hail Mary as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Ryland Grace is the sole survivor on a desperate, last-chance mission—and if he fails, humanity and the earth itself will perish.

Except that right now, he doesn’t know that. He can’t even remember his own name, let alone the nature of his assignment or how to complete it.

All he knows is that he’s been asleep for a very, very long time. And he’s just been awakened to find himself millions of miles from home, with nothing but two corpses for company.

His crewmates dead, his memories fuzzily returning, Ryland realizes that an impossible task now confronts him. Hurtling through…


My 3rd favorite read in 2023

Book cover of Fledgling

David Kubicek Why did I love this book?

The Ina are an ancient race known as vampires to humans.

They have coexisted with humans and have entered into symbiotic relationships with humans to the point that they depend on humans for survival.

I fell in love with Shori, the young Ina main character, who wakes up in a cave barely alive with no memory of her past life.

Her perseverance and her loyalty to her own human symbionts as she searches for the answers to her past—while she is still a target of those who murdered her family— are what endeared her to me.

By Octavia E. Butler,

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

'The Octavia Butler novel for our times' THE ATLANTIC

'My book of the year . . . completely devours the genre which gave rise to it' JUNOT DIAZ

The final ground-breaking novel from renowned, bestselling author Octavia E. Butler.

A young girl wakes up in the woods, gravely injured and alone, with no memory of what happened or who she is.

As Shori heals, she realises that she isn't like the people around her, which leads to a shocking discovery. She is a fifty-three-year-old vampire, and in terrible danger.

To save herself, Shori must learn anew everything about the power…


Don‘t forget about my book 😀

In Human Form

By David Kubicek,

Book cover of In Human Form

What is my book about?

Wendy longs to fit in. An android built for companionship by a marooned alien, she had lived for three years in this quiet Nebraska community until a brutal attack left her creator dead and destroyed her memory.

She doesn’t even remember that she’s an android. Her friends who have nursed her back to health have discovered that she is an android, but they allow her to continue to believe she is human.

Soon Wendy’s struggle for acceptance turns deadly when ruthless millionaire UFO hunter Earl Vaughn learns her secret and plans to use her as his ticket to unlimited power.

Book cover of Where the Crawdads Sing
Book cover of Project Hail Mary
Book cover of Fledgling

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