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 Oppermanns

Julie Salamon Why did I love this book?

This was one of those extraordinary books that help you see history in a different way. It tells the story of the Nazi takeover of society in the early 1930s. 

What makes The Oppermans astonishing is that it was written in real-time and published in 1933, just as Hitler assumed power. Its author, part of a Jewish family living in Berlin, recognized what was happening and created an urgent, mesmerizing page-turner.

The book is an excellent and compelling narrative on its own. But knowing when it was written adds extraordinary power, as well as a remarkable insight into human self-deception, especially when reality seems too horrifying to be true.

By Lion Feuchtwanger,

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

"Extraordinary . . . No single historical or fictional work has more tellingly or insightfully depicted . . . the insidious manner in which Nazism began to permeate the fabric of German society than Lion Feuchtwanger's great novel." -- New York Times

First published in 1934 but fully imagining the future of Germany over the ensuing years, The Oppermanns tells the compelling story of a remarkable German Jewish family confronted by Hitler's rise to power. Compared to works by Voltaire and Zola on its original publication, this prescient novel strives to awaken an often unsuspecting, sometimes politically naive, or else…


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My 2nd favorite read in 2023…

Book cover of Demon Copperhead

Julie Salamon Why did I love this book?

Barbara Kingsolver has an incredible ability to get inside her characters’ heads and give them voices that feel authentic.

In this revisiting of David Copperfield by Charles Dickens, she writes about the lives of Appalachian people in the US today, struggling with poverty and addiction, told from the point of view of an adolescent boy.

It is a painful story, yet the book is impossible to put down. Kingsolver empathizes with her characters’ plights and depicts a society that has ill-served them, over and over. But you never feel lectured to or as if you are observing the characters from above.

Kingsolver places the reader in the middle of the action with impeccable craft and a responsible heart.

By Barbara Kingsolver,

Why should I read it?

64 authors picked Demon Copperhead as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Demon's story begins with his traumatic birth to a single mother in a single-wide trailer, looking 'like a little blue prizefighter.' For the life ahead of him he would need all of that fighting spirit, along with buckets of charm, a quick wit, and some unexpected talents, legal and otherwise.

In the southern Appalachian Mountains of Virginia, poverty isn't an idea, it's as natural as the grass grows. For a generation growing up in this world, at the heart of the modern opioid crisis, addiction isn't an abstraction, it's neighbours, parents, and friends. 'Family' could mean love, or reluctant foster…


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My 3rd favorite read in 2023…

Book cover of Dopesick: Dealers, Doctors, and the Drug Company That Addicted America

Julie Salamon Why did I love this book?

It’s hard to say I love this book because it is not an easy book to read—even though I read it compulsively.

Beth Macy is a great journalist who spent years covering the opioid crisis as it was developing. It is tricky to turn social ills into narratives in non-fiction, but Macy doesn’t use cheap tricks to grab her readers by the throat.

Her research and compassion—and well-placed anger—drive this investigation of a terrible epidemic driven by greed. Yet Macy paints with a nuanced brush, delving into the complexity of modern life that paved the way for this heartbreaking and horrifying scourge.

By Beth Macy,

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

Journalist Beth Macy's definitive account of America's opioid epidemic "masterfully interlaces stories of communities in crisis with dark histories of corporate greed and regulatory indifference" (New York Times) -- from the boardroom to the courtroom and into the living rooms of Americans.
In this extraordinary work, Beth Macy takes us into the epicenter of a national drama that has unfolded over two decades. From the labs and marketing departments of big pharma to local doctor's offices; wealthy suburbs to distressed small communities in Central Appalachia; from distant cities to once-idyllic farm towns; the spread of opioid addiction follows a tortuous…


Don‘t forget about my book 😀

Unlikely Friends

By Julie Salamon,

Book cover of Unlikely Friends

What is my book about?

In Unlikely Friends, Salamon tells the intimate story about a conservative backwater in Southern Ohio that brought together three girls from different backgrounds - Julie, June, and Candee - respectively, Jewish, Black, and Appalachian. Girls who, in all likelihood, wouldn’t have become friends if they had lived anywhere else.

While it might appear to be a small tale, as the country’s political divide widens, this personal history of unlikely connection is more pressing, more universal than ever.

This is a story about race and religion, country and community, and the legends people create to make sense of their lives.