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The best books of 2023

This list is part of the best books of 2023.

We've asked 1,641 authors and super readers for their 3 favorite reads of the year.

Shepherd is reader supported. When you buy books, we may earn an affiliate commission.

My favorite read in 2023…

Book cover of Hello Beautiful

Jonathan R. Copulsky Why did I love this book?

Hello Beautiful is the artfully crafted story of complex multi-generational familial and romantic relationships, told from the perspectives of multiple characters.

This structure highlights the book’s message that a change in perspective is often necessary to unravel the difficult truths of our own stories. The Chicagoland setting was a bonus for me.

By Ann Napolitano,

Why should I read it?

8 authors picked Hello Beautiful as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

From the New York Times bestselling author of Dear Edward comes a poignant and engrossing family story that asks: Can love make a broken person whole?

“Hello Beautiful is exactly that: beautiful, perceptive, wistful. It’s a story of family and friendship, of how the people we are bound to can also set us free. I loved it.”—Miranda Cowley Heller, author of The Paper Palace

William Waters grew up in a house silenced by tragedy, where his parents could hardly bear to look at him, much less love him—so when he meets the spirited and ambitious Julia Padavano in his freshman…


My 2nd favorite read in 2023…

Book cover of King: A Life

Jonathan R. Copulsky Why did I love this book?

This recently published biography offers a far more nuanced view of King than I had previously.

By accessing newly available resources and utilizing new research techniques such as computer-assisted textual analysis, the author reveals aspects of King’s life that make him more human (e.g., a history of plagiarism, an aversion to allowing women to assume leadership roles in the civil rights movement) but also show his resilience.

When I finished this book, I found myself in awe of what he accomplished, flaws and all, in a life that lasted only 39 years.

By Jonathan Eig,

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

Vividly written and exhaustively researched, Jonathan Eig's King is the first major biography in decades of the civil rights icon Martin Luther King Jr. - and the first to include recently declassified FBI files.

In this revelatory new portrait of the preacher and activist who shook the world, the bestselling biographer gives us an intimate view of the courageous and often emotionally troubled human being who demanded peaceful protest for his movement but was rarely at peace with himself.

He casts fresh light on the King family's origins as well as MLK's complex relationships with…


My 3rd favorite read in 2023…

Book cover of The Covenant of Water

Jonathan R. Copulsky Why did I love this book?

This is another great tale of complex, multigenerational family and romantic relationships, but this one is set in Kerala, not Chicagoland!

The novel tells the story of one family’s tragic destiny and allows us to understand that destinies can be changed. The novel also gives us insight into an Indian ethno-demographic group, the St. Thomas Christians, whose origins date back to the 1st century when Thomas the Apostle evangelized in the Kerala region.

So, a lot of great history and family dynamics, with a good dose of medical knowledge, as we learn to disentangle the various threads related to the deaths of family members across several generations. 

By Abraham Verghese,

Why should I read it?

19 authors picked The Covenant of Water as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

OPRAH’S BOOK CLUB PICK • INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • SUBJECT OF A SIX-PART SUPER SOUL PODCAST SERIES HOSTED BY OPRAH WINFREY

From the New York Times-bestselling author of Cutting for Stone comes a stunning and magisterial epic of love, faith, and medicine, set in Kerala, South India, following three generations of a family seeking the answers to a strange secret

“One of the best books I’ve read in my entire life. It’s epic. It’s transportive . . . It was unputdownable!”—Oprah Winfrey, OprahDaily.com

The Covenant of Water is the long-awaited new novel by Abraham Verghese, the author of…


Plus, check out my book…

The Transformation Myth: Leading Your Organization Through Uncertain Times

By Gerald C. Kane, Rich Nanda, Anh Nguyen Phillips , Jonathan R. Copulsky

Book cover of The Transformation Myth: Leading Your Organization Through Uncertain Times

What is my book about?

When COVID-19 hit, businesses had to respond almost instantaneously, shifting employees to remote work, repairing broken supply chains, and keeping pace with dramatically fluctuating customer demand. They were forced to adapt to a confluence of multiple disruptions inextricably linked to a longer-term, ongoing digital disruption.

This book shows that companies that use disruption as an opportunity for innovation emerge from it stronger. Companies that merely attempt to "weather the storm" until things go back to normal (or the next normal), on the other hand, miss an opportunity to thrive.

The book argues that transformation is not a one-and-done event, but a continuous process of adapting to a volatile and uncertain environment and offers a framework for understanding disruption and tools for navigating it.