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 Free World: Art and Thought in the Cold War

James M. Banner Jr. Why did I love this book?

History doesn’t ride only on the backs of soldiers and politicians. It’s also formed by thought and art, which reciprocally reflect historical circumstances.  

In this splendid book of vast coverage, Menand takes on thought and artistic expression in the entire Western world from 1945 into the 21st century. Heavies like Martin Heidegger are joined on stage by the likes of Elvis Presley. 

In Menand’s hands — light of touch, his style unbrokenly lucid—the most profound books and musical compositions are comprehensible. All sorts of subjects—science, Hollywood, existentialism, consumerism—come alive and move along with the smoothness of a French railroad car.

All centers on the Cold War and how it affected everything. Those who lived through it will recognize it. Those who didn’t will learn more than they ever knew.

By Louis Menand,

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

"An engrossing and impossibly wide-ranging project . . . In The Free World, every seat is a good one." ―Carlos Lozada, The Washington Post

"The Free World sparkles. Fully original, beautifully written . . . One hopes Menand has a sequel in mind. The bar is set very high." ―David Oshinsky, The New York Times Book Review | Editors' Choice

One of The New York Times's 100 best books of 2021 | One of The Washington Post's 50 best nonfiction books of 2021 | A Mother Jones best book of 2021

In his follow-up to the Pulitzer Prize–winning The Metaphysical…


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My 2nd favorite read in 2023

Book cover of Making History: The Storytellers Who Shaped the Past

James M. Banner Jr. Why did I love this book?

Meant to be entertaining as well as informative, this book romps without reverence through the lives and writings of historians, some from beyond the Western world, from ancient Greece to today. That’s 2500 years of written history!

You'll discover that, rather than being just the sober history that teachers may have taught you, historians have come in all forms and with all kinds of minds. They’ve argued with each other, sometimes been fools, showed themselves entirely human—and yet left us some of the world’s greatest texts of religion, literature, and learning.

Cohen defines “historian” controversially as well as liberally, to include Shakespeare, novelists, political figures, and television personalities. But then, as humans, don’t we all have a past and think historically? Food for thought—and fun along the way.

By Richard Cohen,

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

'A huge, fizzing omnium-gatherum of a book . . . marvellous' Daily Telegraph
'Witty, wise and elegant . . . a classic of history itself' The Spectator
'Grave and witty, suave yet pointed . . . full of energy' Hilary Mantel
'An enthralling investigation . . . consistently entertaining' The Times
'Epic . . . whatever Cohen writes about he writes about with brio' New Yorker

Who writes the past? And how do the biases of storytellers - whether Julius Caesar, William Shakespeare or Simon Schama - influence our ideas about history today?

Epic, authoritative and entertaining, Making History delves…


My 3rd favorite read in 2023

Book cover of Watergate: A New History

James M. Banner Jr. Why did I love this book?

This is the best book on the first great American political crisis of recent memory. It’s unlikely ever to be surpassed. 

Its author, an experienced journalist, offers up almost 700 pages of propulsively brisk prose about the astonishing corruption, amateurishness, and stunning incompetence of the presidential administration of Richard Nixon. Even for someone who knows much of the scandal, it’s revelatory.

Were the book’s characters for real? Why did such a natively intelligent president fall prey to such destructive paranoia and surround himself with such fools?

Read as an adventure story, the book equals such rip-snorting classics as Treasure Island, such noir novels as the best of Raymond Chandler, and such comedies as those of the preposterous ones of P. G. Wodehouse. Hard to put down, it’s as close to being definitive as possible. Unfortunately, it remains timely.  

By Garrett M. Graff,

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

From Garrett Graff, the New York Times bestselling author of The Only Plane in the Sky, comes the first definitive narrative history of Watergate-"the best and fullest account of the crisis, one unlikely to be surpassed anytime soon" (Kirkus Reviews, starred review)-exploring the full scope of the scandal through the politicians, investigators, journalists, and informants who made it the most influential political event of the modern era.

In the early hours of June 17, 1972, a security guard named Frank Wills entered six words into the log book of the Watergate office complex that would change the course of history:…


Don‘t forget about my book 😀

Presidential Misconduct: From George Washington to Today

By James M. Banner Jr. (editor),

Book cover of Presidential Misconduct: From George Washington to Today

What is my book about?

This is “my” book since I contributed to its first version—a 1974 report to the Impeachment Inquiry of the US Congress occasioned by the “Watergate Era” impeachment of President Richard Nixon.

I was then asked 45 years later to bring it up to date, as editor, through the presidency of Barack Obama because of the similar, continuing crisis caused by Donald Trump. It’s a strange work of history—more like an ancient chronicle than a modern history: purposefully, like its 1974 predecessor, ruthlessly factual, episodic, without interpretation, devoid of connective narrative tissue.

Then why note it here? Because it is a potentially useful record, it provides the historical context for yet another American political crisis and offers an example to other countries seeking similar accountings.