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The best books of 2023

This list is part of the best books of 2023.

We've asked 1,608 authors and super readers for their 3 favorite reads of the year.

Shepherd is reader supported. When you buy books, we may earn an affiliate commission.

My favorite read in 2023…

Book cover of My Brother's Keeper

D.J. Butler Why did I love this book?

My Brother’s Keeper is a thrilling gothic fantasy novel swirling with family curses, megaliths, folk magic, buried demons, sects of one-eyed French werewolf hunters, the werewolves they’re hunting, ruined temples to the goddess Minerva, Minerva herself, ghost dogs, the Yorkshire moors, double-bladed daggers, and haunted churchyards. And the protagonist is Emily Brontë.

By Tim Powers,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked My Brother's Keeper as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

This is a ghost story. It is a story about werewolves, and things that go bump in the night. It is a story of an ill-fated land, the pathless moors of Northern England so well chronicled in Wuthering Heights. And it is the story of a real family whose des


My 2nd favorite read in 2023…

Book cover of Empire of Silence

D.J. Butler Why did I love this book?

Empire of Silence kicks off an epic space fantasy in the style of Gene Wolfe or Frank Herbert.

If you think Dune started well but went off the rails, try Empire of Silence. If you think the Book of the New Sun needed more sword duels and ship to ship space combat, try Empire of Silence. If you think Star Wars was pretty good, but that maybe Darth Vader is the unappreciated hero… Empire of Silence is the book for you.

By Christopher Ruocchio,

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

Hadrian Marlowe, a man revered as a hero and despised as a murderer, chronicles his tale in the galaxy-spanning debut of the Sun Eater series, merging the best of space opera and epic fantasy.

It was not his war.

On the wrong planet, at the right time, for the best reasons, Hadrian Marlowe started down a path that could only end in fire. The galaxy remembers him as a hero: the man who burned every last alien Cielcin from the sky. They remember him as a monster: the devil who destroyed a sun, casually annihilating four billion human lives--even the…


My 3rd favorite read in 2023…

Book cover of The Fourth Turning: What the Cycles of History Tell Us About America's Next Rendezvous with Destiny

D.J. Butler Why did I love this book?

The Fourth Turning is an analysis of why history seems to repeat in cycles.

Strauss and Howe look at the two-beat cycle of Spiritual Awakening following by Political Crisis and root it in a four-generation pattern of youths reacting against their parents and their own circumstances. The analysis suggests that now (2023) we are deep into the Crisis of our saeculum, and can expect a reordering of the fundamental socio-political deal along with a large public sacrifice.

Let us hope that we can avoid the wars that have accompanied some Crises (e.g., the American Revolution, the Civil War, World War II)! 

By William Strauss, Neil Howe,

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • Discover the game-changing theory of the cycles of history and what past generations can teach us about living through times of upheaval—with deep insights into the roles that Boomers, Generation X, and Millennials have to play.
 
First comes a High, a period of confident expansion. Next comes an Awakening, a time of spiritual exploration and rebellion. Then comes an Unraveling, in which individualism triumphs over crumbling institutions. Last comes a Crisis—the Fourth Turning—when society passes through a great and perilous gate in history.

William Strauss and Neil Howe will change the way you see the world—and your…


Plus, check out my book…

Book cover of Witchy Eye

What is my book about?

Sarah Calhoun is the fifteen-year-old daughter of the Elector Andrew Calhoun, one of Appalachee’s military heroes and one of the electors who gets to decide who will next ascend as the Emperor of the New World. She has a natural talent for hexing and one bad eye, and all she wants is to be left alone.

But Sarah’s world gets turned on its head at the Nashville Tobacco Fair when a Yankee wizard-priest tries to kidnap her. Sarah fights back with the aid of a mysterious monk named Thalanes, who's one of the not-quite-human Firstborn, the Moundbuilders of the Ohio. Now on a desperate quest with Thalanes to claim this heritage, she's hunted by the Emperor’s bodyguard of elite dragoons. If Sarah cannot claim her heritage, it may mean the end to her.