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 Kaiju Preservation Society

Douglas Phillips Why did I love this book?

Godzilla (who ravaged Japan in the 1960s) was a real, living, breathing animal. It’s true, I swear! Crazier still, there are more like him, though not easy to find.

Contact the Kaiju Preservation Society; they know how to get there. You see, kaiju means “strange beast” in Japanese, and you’ll meet quite a few in this thoroughly entertaining story.

Don’t worry, it’s not a horror story. Author John Scalzi’s knack for clever humor made me laugh from beginning to end. Don’t miss the fun!

By John Scalzi,

Why should I read it?

5 authors picked The Kaiju Preservation Society as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

The Kaiju Preservation Society is John Scalzi's first standalone adventure since the conclusion of his New York Times bestselling Interdependency trilogy.

When COVID-19 sweeps through New York City, Jamie Gray is stuck as a dead-end driver for food delivery apps. That is, until Jamie makes a delivery to an old acquaintance, Tom, who works at what he calls “an animal rights organization.” Tom’s team needs a last-minute grunt to handle things on their next field visit. Jamie, eager to do anything, immediately signs on.

What Tom doesn't tell Jamie is that the animals his team cares for are not here…


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My 2nd favorite read in 2023…

Book cover of Before the Big Bang: The Origin of the Universe and What Lies Beyond

Douglas Phillips Why did I love this book?

I’m a scientist with an imagination. Where theory and evidence lead, I follow—even if the path ventures into exotic territory.

A routine description of the Big Bang isn’t enough for me. I already understand how our universe began. I want to know why it’s here. Where did it come from? Impossible to know, you may say, but hear me out.

Dr. Mersini-Houghton is a respected physicist on the cutting edge of cosmology who knows a lot about quantum fields (submicroscopic fluctuations that permeate our universe). As she dives into the world of the ultra-small, you’ll see, like I did, that she and her colleagues are onto something big.

By Laura Mersini-Houghton,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked Before the Big Bang as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

One of the world's most celebrated cosmologists presents her breakthrough explanation of our origins in the multiverse.

In recent years, Laura Mersini-Houghton's ground-breaking theory, spectacularly vindicated with observational evidence, has turned the multiverse from philosophical speculation to one of the most compelling and credible explanations of our universe's origins.

In Before the Big Bang, she interweaves the story of how she arrived at this theory with her journey from communist Albania, where she was born and brought up, to the West, showing how her unconventional path helped her to challenge orthodoxies and become one of the most courageous thinkers on…


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My 3rd favorite read in 2023…

Book cover of The Map of Tiny Perfect Things

Douglas Phillips Why did I love this book?

I love time loop stories. This one was first penned as a short novella, and it’s now a movie. You probably know the setup: seventeen-year-old Mark is caught in a time loop, repeating the same day over and over, a la Groundhog’s Day.

But unlike other time loop stories, Mark accepts his fate; he even enjoys it. After all, there are no consequences for skipping class or telling his dad he’s thinking about a tattoo. Mark just goes with the flow. Until he meets Margaret, she’s the only other person in this time box who remembers the day before.

As they get to know each other, we see that Margaret is hiding something, and there’s more to this story than we knew. When the reveal comes, that’s when the writing in this story really shines.

Don‘t forget about my book 😀

Quantum Chaos

By Douglas Phillips,

Book cover of Quantum Chaos

What is my book about?

My books are fictional but often based on real, modern-day science that hasn’t yet entered our public discourse. I especially love big questions like: what came before the Big Bang? If you think the answer is “we will never know,” you might be surprised at how far the science of cosmology has come.

Laura Mersini-Houghton’s Before the Big Bang was eye-opening for me, and it became the basis for my latest book, Quantum Chaos, a science fiction adventure that spans the immensity of our universe. The story begins with a tantalizing clue from beyond the cosmic horizon, a place so remote that light itself has not yet reached us.

Although it is the 5th book in the Quantum series, it can be read independently.