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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.

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My favorite read in 2023…

Book cover of How to Avoid a Climate Disaster: The Solutions We Have and the Breakthroughs We Need

Greg Hickey Why did I love this book?

Gates provides a straightforward, numbers-based account of the scope of climate change, breaks down current carbon emissions by sectors of our society and economy, and dissects the technologies we need to employ and invent to cut global carbon emissions to zero and halt global warming.

This is a must-read, especially for those curious and hopeful about practical solutions to climate change. As a science fiction author, I was inspired by this book’s detailed descriptions of technologies that will likely shape our future.

By Bill Gates,

Why should I read it?

6 authors picked How to Avoid a Climate Disaster as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

In this urgent, authoritative book, Bill Gates sets out a wide-ranging, practical - and accessible - plan for how the world can get to zero greenhouse gas emissions in time to avoid a climate catastrophe.

Bill Gates has spent a decade investigating the causes and effects of climate change. With the help of experts in the fields of physics, chemistry, biology, engineering, political science, and finance, he has focused on what must be done in order to stop the planet's slide toward certain environmental disaster. In this book, he not only explains why we need to work toward net-zero emissions…


My 2nd favorite read in 2023…

Book cover of The Big Sleep

Greg Hickey Why did I love this book?

Two aspects of this novel really shine: Philip Marlowe, the fearless, dogged private detective with unshakable integrity; and 1930s Los Angeles, with its wide variety of neighborhoods, landscapes, and the diverse socioeconomic classes who inhabit those places.

Throw in an intriguing mystery plot, and it’s easy to see why Chandler is considered a master of the genre. But mostly, I kept reading to see how far Marlowe would go to unravel the puzzle and how he would maintain his principles in a world that, by and large, doesn’t share them.

It’s rare to find a mystery in which a character drives the action so effectively.

By Raymond Chandler,

Why should I read it?

18 authors picked The Big Sleep as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Raymond Chandler's first three novels, published here in one volume, established his reputation as an unsurpassed master of hard-boiled detective fiction.

The Big Sleep, Chandler's first novel, introduces Philip Marlowe, a private detective inhabiting the seamy side of Los Angeles in the 1930s, as he takes on a case involving a paralysed California millionaire, two psychotic daughters, blackmail and murder.

In Farewell, My Lovely, Marlowe deals with the gambling circuit, a murder he stumbles upon, and three very beautiful but potentially deadly women.

In The High Window, Marlowe searches the California underworld for a priceless gold coin and finds himself…


My 3rd favorite read in 2023…

Book cover of The Three-Body Problem

Greg Hickey Why did I love this book?

Cixin Liu’s The Three-Body Problem is an imaginative and engaging sci-fi novel that seamlessly blends real science and history with a riveting story.

The novel is densely packed with details of China’s Cultural Revolution and its aftereffects and plenty of hard science from physics, astronomy, and computer science. Yet it’s also compulsively readable. I’m currently reading the second book in the series (The Dark Forest) and loving it just as much, if not more.

By Cixin Liu, Ken Liu (translator),

Why should I read it?

11 authors picked The Three-Body Problem as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Read the award-winning, critically acclaimed, multi-million-copy-selling science-fiction phenomenon - soon to be a Netflix Original Series from the creators of Game of Thrones.

1967: Ye Wenjie witnesses Red Guards beat her father to death during China's Cultural Revolution. This singular event will shape not only the rest of her life but also the future of mankind.

Four decades later, Beijing police ask nanotech engineer Wang Miao to infiltrate a secretive cabal of scientists after a spate of inexplicable suicides. Wang's investigation will lead him to a mysterious online game and immerse him in a virtual world ruled by the intractable…


Plus, check out my book…

To Build a Dream

By Greg Hickey,

Book cover of To Build a Dream

What is my book about?

He could be dead, dreaming, or painfully alive. Does he really want to find out which?

Timothy Smit is sick. He’s stuck in middle management at a second-rate news aggregator when an intense coughing fit causes him to pass out at his desk. Tim wakes up in the ICU to a diagnosis of a rare and aggressive form of lung cancer and the news that he likely has no more than a few months left to live.

Confined to a hospital bed with his deteriorating health, Tim is immersed in a series of vivid dreams. As he becomes increasingly captivated by this enigmatic fantasy world, he realizes his dreams just might be keeping him alive.

My book recommendation list