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 God, Human, Animal, Machine: Technology, Metaphor, and the Search for Meaning

David W. Stowe Why did I love this book?

I read this book over the summer, a few months after it seemed that every pundit and podcaster was ruminating about A.I. Would ChatGPT take over vast swaths of creative industries, making most of us obsolete or relegating us to the galleys? Would A.I. even doom us as a species? 

This book came out a couple of years earlier, but it helped me get my head around all the suddenly urgent questions about human minds, consciousness, and technology. O’Gieblyn brings to bear the insights of major figures in Western philosophy on some fairly abstruse issues in a way that sets a new standard for lucidity. She convinced me that the current crisis over A.I. has been in the works for a while. 

And within her elegant reflections on modern philosophy and cybernetics, O’Gieblyn nestles a compelling memoir. She traces her own evolution from a conservative Christian upbringing to atheism, a background that helped her recognize traces of fundamentalist religion in the wild speculations of the visionaries of the transhuman.

You will learn a lot from this book and feel much smarter afterward.

By Meghan O'Gieblyn,

Why should I read it?

4 authors picked God, Human, Animal, Machine as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

A strikingly original exploration of what it might mean to be authentically human in the age of artificial intelligence, from the author of the critically-acclaimed Interior States.

"Meghan O’Gieblyn is a brilliant and humble philosopher, and her book is an explosively thought-provoking, candidly personal ride I wished never to end ... This book is such an original synthesis of ideas and disclosures. It introduces what will soon be called the O’Gieblyn genre of essay writing.” —Heidi Julavits, author of The Folded Clock
 
For most of human history the world was a magical and enchanted place ruled by forces beyond our…


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My 2nd favorite read in 2023

Book cover of When You Greet Me I Bow: Notes and Reflections from a Life in Zen

David W. Stowe Why did I love this book?

Western Buddhism has had more than its share of fine explicators, from Stephen Batchelor to Sharon Salzberg, but this volume ranks with the most informative of them. It collects the best writings published over recent decades by the very wise Jewish-American Zen priest Norman Fischer. 

For me, these far-ranging articles make better sense of Zen than anything I've ever read. In humorous, down-to-earth prose, these essays unpack some of the thorniest issues raised by Zen, that bundle of paradoxes.

Using personal examples drawn from his long activity in and around various Buddhist centers, Fischer makes Zen sound both approachable and worth approaching. In the final section, he thinks through how a religion that stresses the fluid nature of the self can speak to an era that places fixed identity (racial, sexual, ethnic, gendered) at the center of our personhood. 

It's too late now, but this book made me want to start my adulthood over and experience the same Zen education that Fischer has (in some of the most beautiful locations in California!)

By Norman Fischer,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked When You Greet Me I Bow as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

From beloved Zen teacher Norman Fischer, a collection of essays spanning a life of inquiry into Zen practice, relationship, social engagement, and spiritual creativity.

"Looking backwards at a life lived, walking forward into more life to live built on all that, trying not to be too much influenced by what's already been said and done, not to be held to a point of view or an identity previously expressed, trying to be surprised and undone and maybe even dismayed by what lies ahead."--Norman Fischer

Norman Fischer is a Zen priest, poet, and translator whose writings, teachings, and commitment to interfaith…


My 3rd favorite read in 2023

Book cover of The Odyssey of Phillis Wheatley: A Poet's Journeys Through American Slavery and Independence

David W. Stowe Why did I love this book?

I admit that I picked up this book mainly because I’m researching the musical scene of revolutionary-era Boston. I figured this new book would offer some state-of-the-art context I could learn from. But even apart from my pragmatic motive, it was a stimulating read.

Wheatley is such an unlikely figure you would almost have to make her up. Kidnapped at around age seven from West Africa, she was shipped to America and purchased by a genteel Boston couple. They quickly recognized her genius.

Within a few years, she was reading the Bible, of course, but also English poets Pope and Milton, not to mention Virgil, Ovid, Terence, and Homer. All the while working as an enslaved servant. 

Wheatley’s first poem was published when she was thirteen. She received national acclaim three years later for an elegy she wrote for the British evangelist George Whitefield. At eighteen, Wheatley sailed to London to find a publisher for her first poetry collection, published in 1773, the year of the Boston Tea Party. She was the talk of literary Boston, praised by George Washington but disparaged as a poet by Thomas Jefferson. 

Waldstreicher does a superb job teasing out Wheatley’s subtle engagement in anti-slavery efforts through very careful readings of her poems and social interactions. The book is an inspiring reminder of how creativity can flourish even in the most difficult life circumstances.

By David Waldstreicher,

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

“[An] erudite, enlightening new biography . . . [Waldstreicher’s] interpretations equal Wheatley’s own intentional verse, making it a joy to follow along as he unpacks her words and their arrangement.” ―Tiya Miles, The Atlantic

“Thoroughly researched, beautifully rendered and cogently argued . . . The Odyssey of Phillis Wheatley is [. . .] historical biography at its best.” ―Kerri Greenidge, The New York Times Book Review (Editors’ Choice)

A paradigm-shattering biography of Phillis Wheatley, whose extraordinary poetry set African American literature at the heart of the American Revolution.

Admired by George Washington, ridiculed by Thomas Jefferson, published in London, and…


Don‘t forget about my book 😀

How Sweet the Sound: Music in the Spiritual Lives of Americans

By David W. Stowe,

Book cover of How Sweet the Sound: Music in the Spiritual Lives of Americans

What is my book about?

Musical expression is at the heart of the American spiritual experience. And nowhere can you gauge the depth of spiritual belief and practice more than through the music that fills America's houses of worship. Most amazing is how sacred music has been shaped by the exchanges of diverse peoples over time. 

How Sweet the Sound traces the evolution of sacred music from colonial times to the present, from the Puritans to Sun Ra, and shows how these cultural encounters have produced a rich harvest of song and faith. Pursuing the intimate relationship between music and spirituality in America, Stowe focuses on the central creative moments in the unfolding life of sacred song. 

You will learn a lot from this book and feel quite erudite afterward.