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 Impossible Creatures

Gita Ralleigh Why did I love this book?

We read for many different reasons: to be entertained, to learn about the world, to walk in another person’s shoes. When I’m having an overwhelmingly stressful time, I want to escape into a book – as if I’d opened the cover and stepped inside. Impossible Creatures was the perfect choice for an escape.

Katherine Rundell’s exquisite writing spans children’s fiction, academia, and non-fiction. In her first book of fantasy, we enter a world both familiar and strange – familiar to us because the titular ‘impossible creatures’ who populate the world are the stuff of myth and legend – and strange because in this world, impossible creatures really exist.

References to classic children’s literature don’t slow the pace of Rundell’s storytelling, and her fierce girl hero Mal, accompanied by a boy from our world, Christopher, animate this story afresh for both old and young readers.

By Katherine Rundell,

Why should I read it?

4 authors picked Impossible Creatures as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it. This book is for kids age 9, 10, 11, and 12.

What is this book about?

'There was Tolkien, there is Pullman and now there is Katherine Rundell. Wondrous invention, marvellous writing.' - Michael Morpurgo 'Rundell's first foray into fantasy is both a deft, rich homage to the greats of children's literature and an absorbing, profoundly poignant quest story for those aged 9+ - quite possibly her best yet' - The Guardian 'A book stuffed full of fantastical, magical delight, and a world of richly imagined wonder' - Cressida Cowell THE TIMES CHILDREN'S BOOK OF THE WEEK * THE INDEPENDENT CHILDREN'S BOOK OF THE WEEK * THE DAILY TELEGRAPH CHILDREN'S BOOK OF THE WEEK * SUNDAY…


When you buy books, we may earn a commission that helps keep our lights on (or join the rebellion as a member).

My 2nd favorite read in 2023

Book cover of Forbidden Notebook: A Novel

Gita Ralleigh Why did I love this book?

This is a book you will love or hate. I loved it and found it frighteningly relatable despite being originally published in Italy in the 1950s.

Forbidden Notebook, newly translated into English, is an intimate, almost claustrophobic, account of how our protagonist, Valeria, begins writing her thoughts and feelings in a notebook, which she keeps hidden. Only in the act of hiding it does she realize that she has nowhere of her own in the shared family apartment, and only by writing does she gain a sense of her own self after years devoted to her family.

To quote the poet Muriel Rukeyser, "What would happen if one woman told the truth about her life? The world would split open." And for Valeria, it does.

By Alba de Céspedes, Ann Goldstein (translator),

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

"Powerful." -The New Yorker
"Brilliant." -The Wall Street Journal
"Astounding." -NPR
"Forceful, clear and morally engaged." -The Washington Post
"Subversive." -The New York Times Book Review
"An exquisite, tormented howl." -The Financial Times
"Quick, propulsive, and addictive." -Los Angeles Review of Books
"Gripping." -Minneapolis Star Tribune
"A remarkable story." -Publisher's Weekly (starred review)
"Wrenching, sardonic." -Kirkus (starred review)
"As relevant today as it was in postwar Italy." -Shelf Awareness (starred review)

"In her diary de Cespedes confides, "I will never be a great writer." Here I take her to task for not knowing something about herself-for she was a great…


My 3rd favorite read in 2023

Book cover of The Bandit Queens: A Novel

Gita Ralleigh Why did I love this book?

There are times when I crave a book that makes me laugh. The Bandit Queens tells the darkly funny, madcap adventures of a group of women in a small Indian village.

Geeta, our protagonist, is rumored to have murdered her husband – and now the other unhappy wives in the village want her to do the same for them. Serious issues of misogyny and violence against women, as well as caste and religion, are handled lightly.

Nothing goes as planned, but in the end, Geeta, along with a lovable cast of lively women friends, somehow triumphs over the obstacles stacked against them. I listened to this on audiobook, and the delightful narrator really brought the characters to life. 

By Parini Shroff,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked The Bandit Queens as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Longlisted for the Women's Prize for Fiction 2023

A BBC Radio 2 Book Club Pick 2023

'Not since Aravind Adiga's The White Tiger has the rotten core of modern India been exposed in quite such blackly antic fashion as Parini Shroff manages here in this intermittently absurd, feminist revenge caper about a group of snarky, much-abused, predominantly Hindu wives...sheer gutsy verve.' The Times

'A darkly funny revenge drama rooted in the reality of rural India . . . [A] vivid, unsentimental story that succeeds in being both satirical and moving.' Guardian

'A radically feel-good story about the murder of no-good…


Don‘t forget about my book 😀

The Destiny of Minou Moonshine

By Gita Ralleigh,

Book cover of The Destiny of Minou Moonshine

What is my book about?

The beautiful queendom of Moonlally has fallen under a tyrant's rule. Their queen is dead, worship of their goddess, the Dark Lady, is forbidden, and the precious black diamond that protects the city - a rare fragment of a fallen star ­- has gone missing.

When fierce orphan girl Minou Moonshine's life is unexpectedly shattered, she joins the ragtag band of rebels, the Green Orchids, who are plotting to overthrow the General.

Armed with a secret and a map, Minou sets off with her friends and a mechanical elephant through the lush jungles of Indica in search of a queen, a goddess, and her destiny.

Book cover of Impossible Creatures
Book cover of Forbidden Notebook: A Novel
Book cover of The Bandit Queens: A Novel

Share your top 3 reads of 2024!

And get a beautiful page showing off your 3 favorite reads.

1,479

readers submitted
so far, will you?