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 Vet's Daughter

Emily Midorikawa Why did I love this book?

I’ve never read anything quite like The Vet’s Daughter. First published in 1959, this Gothic novel—set half a century before, in Edwardian London—has both period character and a decidedly modern feel.

Its heroine, Alice Rowlands, endures a bleak existence in the home of her diabolical veterinarian father, who fills their house with animals and treats his family with such vicious contempt that I was hoping the tables would turn on him from the very start of the book. And turn they do, in a very unexpected way that sends the story veering into fantastical territory.

I won’t say more about the plot for fear of ruining the ending. I’ll just add that this was the first book I’d read by Barbara Comyns and that I’ll be seeking out more of her work.

By Barbara Comyns,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Vet's Daughter as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

INTRODUCED BY JANE GARDAM

'A small Gothic masterpiece . . . I have read it many times, and with every re-read I marvel again at its many qualities' SARAH WATERS

'It projects its fantastic story with a tangible realness . . . A wonderful and original novel' ALAN HOLLINGHURST

'She shows mastery of the structures of a fast-moving narrative and a consistent backdrop to the ecstasies and agonies of the human condition' JANE GARDAM, SPECTATOR

Growing up in Edwardian South London, Alice Rowlands longs for romance and excitement, for a release from a life that is dreary, restrictive and lonely.…


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My 2nd favorite read in 2023

Book cover of Diary of a Void

Emily Midorikawa Why did I love this book?

I loved the quirky premise of Diary of a Void, which tells the story of Ms. Shibata, a Japanese single woman who fakes a pregnancy to take a leave of absence from her dull office job—a role in which she makes many cups of tea but finds her intelligence consistently overlooked.

Emi Yagi’s witty prose, translated by David Boyd and Lucy North, brilliantly captures Japan’s workplace culture, expectations of men and women, and the seemingly inescapable loneliness of modern-day society.

Since Ms. Shibata’s ruse hardly seemed to be one she could keep up forever, I wondered as I turned the pages about how her increasingly complicated deception would end. I was very interested to discover how things worked out for her.

By Emi Yagi, David Boyd (translator), Lucy North (translator)

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

A woman in Tokyo avoids harassment at work by perpetuating, for nine months and beyond, the lie that she’s pregnant in this prizewinning, thrillingly subversive debut novel about the mother of all deceptions, for fans of Convenience Store Woman and Breasts and Eggs

When thirty-four-year-old Ms. Shibata gets a new job to escape sexual harassment at her old one, she finds that as the only woman at her new workplace—a manufacturer of cardboard tubes—she is expected to do all the menial tasks. One day she announces that she can’t clear away her coworkers’ dirty cups—because she’s pregnant and the smell…


My 3rd favorite read in 2023

Book cover of How the Word Is Passed: A Reckoning with the History of Slavery Across America

Emily Midorikawa Why did I love this book?

Clint Smith takes on a huge subject in this book—part memoir, part record of slavery in the United States and beyond. How the Word is Passed is structured around a series of visits Smith makes to sites associated with enslaved people and those who exploited them.

At each place he visits, he delves into its harrowing past, writes of his encounters with people he meets there, and notes his personal responses. The results are enlightening, intimate, and moving.

Smith questions the versions of history that many of his readers will have been taught and asks them to think critically about how we can do things better. I also used How the Word is Passed in classes I taught university students. It was an excellent book for a group discussion.

By Clint Smith,

Why should I read it?

12 authors picked How the Word Is Passed as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

ONE OF BARACK OBAMA'S FAVOURITE BOOKS OF THE YEAR
A NUMBER ONE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
LONGLISTED FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FOR NON-FICTION

'A beautifully readable reminder of how much of our urgent, collective history resounds in places all around us that have been hidden in plain sight.' Afua Hirsch, author of Brit(ish)

Beginning in his hometown of New Orleans, Clint Smith leads the reader on an unforgettable tour of monuments and landmarks - those that are honest about the past and those that are not - which offer an intergenerational story of how slavery has been central in…


Don‘t forget about my book 😀

Out of the Shadows: Six Visionary Victorian Women in Search of a Public Voice

By Emily Midorikawa,

Book cover of Out of the Shadows: Six Visionary Victorian Women in Search of a Public Voice

What is my book about?

Out of the Shadows tells the stories of six enterprising nineteenth-century women whose apparent ability to contact the dead brought them fame, fortune, and astonishing social and political influence.

The Fox sisters inspired some of the era’s best-known political activists and set off a transatlantic séance craze. Emma Hardinge Britten delivered controversial speeches to crowds of thousands while seemingly in a trance.

Former childhood clairvoyant Victoria Woodhull, a Wall Street trailblazer, became America’s first female presidential candidate. Georgina Weldon, whose beliefs nearly saw her confined to an asylum, went on to establish herself as a successful campaigner against archaic lunacy laws. Drawing on diaries, letters, and rarely-seen memoirs and texts, Out of the Shadows illuminates a radical history of unusual female power.

Book cover of The Vet's Daughter
Book cover of Diary of a Void
Book cover of How the Word Is Passed: A Reckoning with the History of Slavery Across America

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