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 Shards

Emilya Naymark Why did I love this book?

Ellis’s prose immediately pulled me in and allowed me to inhabit the world of early 80s LA, and even better, put me into the head of a seventeen-year-old boy.

Nostalgic and dark, the repetitiveness of thoughts and events was like falling into a whirlpool of experiences I could never have. It was the perfect combination of nightmare, beauty, and carnality. Ultimately, it took me out of my own life, deposited me somewhere fantastic, faded, gorgeous, and dangerous, and let me feel and think in a completely different way from my own. When I was done, I felt I could easily go right back and start again. 

By Bret Easton Ellis,

Why should I read it?

3 authors picked The Shards as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

NEW YORK TIMES BEST SELLER • A novel of sensational literary and psychological suspense from the best-selling author of Less Than Zero and American Psycho that tracks a group of privileged high school friends in a vibrantly fictionalized 1980s Los Angeles as a serial killer strikes across the city

“A thrilling page turner from Ellis, who revisits the world that made him a literary star with a stylish scary new story that doesn't disappoint.” –Town & Country

Bret Easton Ellis’s masterful new novel is a story about the end of innocence, and the perilous passage from adolescence into adulthood, set…


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My 2nd favorite read in 2023

Book cover of Milkman

Emilya Naymark Why did I love this book?

In this case, I listened to the audiobook, and the narrator’s voice was so vivid, I felt like I was sitting in a front parlor in Northern Ireland, having a cup of tea, while this smart, thoughtful, and very self-aware young person told me her story.

I absolutely loved the specificity of the descriptions and the depth of thought in this book. The author did not stop with a simple depiction of a subject, but went deeper into its meaning to the main character and placed everything within the context of the Troubles and small-town mentality. I felt I got to witness a young woman come to certain understandings about herself and the world, all of it packaged in, sometimes, laugh-out-loud prose.

By Anna Burns,

Why should I read it?

7 authors picked Milkman as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Liberty fabric covered editions bring classics from the Faber backlist together with important modern titles, putting them in conversation and celebrating both the history and the future of Faber & Faber.

In this unnamed city, to be interesting is dangerous. Middle sister, our protagonist, is busy attempting to keep her mother from discovering her maybe-boyfriend and to keep everyone in the dark about her encounter with Milkman. But when first brother-in-law sniffs out her struggle, and rumours start to swell, middle sister becomes 'interesting'. The last thing she ever wanted to be. To be interesting is to be noticed and…


My 3rd favorite read in 2023

Book cover of Rain Dogs

Emilya Naymark Why did I love this book?

The fifth installment in the Sean Duffy detective series, Rain Dogs is as compelling, intelligent, and dark as the others.

Duffy is an Irish Catholic policeman in a mostly Protestant police force, solving crimes in 80s Northern Ireland. (Yes, I was on a Northern Ireland kick this year). He is smart and knows it, but he’s also flawed and very decent. He fights valiantly for what he believes is right, regardless of the side that lands him on politically.

But mostly, I love this book, and the series, for the gorgeous, spare prose and, in audiobook, for Gerard Doyle’s superbly dry, acerbic narration.

By Adrian McKinty,

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

New York Times Bestselling author Adrian McKinty won an Edgar Award for this “standout in a superior series” (Booklist).

“Shot through with a smart, crackling humor that manages to be both dark and witty…”―The Boston Globe

It’s just the same things over and again for Sean Duffy: riot duty, heartbreak, cases he can solve but never get to court. But what detective gets two locked-room mysteries in one career?

When journalist Lily Bigelow is found dead in the courtyard of Carrickfergus Castle, it looks like a suicide. Yet there are a few things that bother Duffy just enough to keep…


Don‘t forget about my book 😀

Book cover of Behind the Lie

What is my book about?

A transplant to the upstate New York hamlet of Sylvan, all Laney wants is a peaceful life for herself and her son. But things rarely remain calm in Laney’s life—and when her neighborhood summer block party explodes in shocking violence and ends with the disappearance of her friend and another woman, she’ll need all her skills as a PI to solve a mystery that reaches far beyond her small town.

As people closest to Laney fall under suspicion, the local authorities and even her colleagues question her own complicity. And then there’s fifteen-year-old Alfie, her complicated and enigmatic son, obviously hiding something. Even as Laney struggles to bury evidence of her boy’s involvement, his cagey behavior rings every maternal alarm.

Book cover of The Shards
Book cover of Milkman
Book cover of Rain Dogs

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