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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.

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

My favorite read in 2023…

Book cover of The Housekeepers

Julie Walker Why did I love this book?

A heist story set in the glamourous world of the best addresses of 1900s London, setting the servants against the owners of the house? Yes, please!

This is like nothing I've ever read before – it’s a fabulous story with vivid and memorable characters that will have you on the edge of your seat. It's one of those 'just one more chapter, and Then I'll sleep' books. I still miss the women I met in those pages.

By Alex Hay,

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

The night of London's grandest ball, a bold group of women downstairs plot a daring revenge heist against Mayfair society in this dazzling historical novel about power, gender, and class

Named a Best Book of Summer by The Washington Post * Good Housekeeping * Harper's Bazaar * Reader's Digest

“Rollicking fun and entirely original... Anyone who relishes a good party gone wrong will devour this.”
—Sarah Penner, New York Times bestselling author of The Lost Apothecary

Mrs. King is no ordinary housekeeper. Born into a world of con artists and thieves, she’s made herself respectable, running the grandest home in…


My 2nd favorite read in 2023…

Book cover of Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow

Julie Walker Why did I love this book?

Three separate people that I trust when it comes to books recommended this to me. Despite all the hype I’d already seen, it still exceeded expectations—a great story with wonderful characters and some interesting moral questions to get to grips with, too.

I felt immersed in an entirely different world, and I was reluctant to leave it. You won’t regret reading this one.

By Gabrielle Zevin,

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

* AMAZON'S #1 BOOK OF 2022 *

Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow takes us on a dazzling imaginative quest, examining identity, creativity and our need to connect.

This is not a romance, but it is about love.

'I just love this book and I hope you love it too' JOHN GREEN, TikTok

Sam and Sadie meet in a hospital in 1987. Sadie is visiting her sister, Sam is recovering from a car crash. The days and months are long there, but playing together brings joy, escape, fierce competition -- and a special friendship. Then all too soon that time is…


My 3rd favorite read in 2023…

Book cover of The Truth Has Arms and Legs

Julie Walker Why did I love this book?

I’ve never really been a fan of short stories, but then I read this book. Alice Fowler has the most extraordinary gift for language, and these beautiful, sparse stories are moving and engaging in turn.

There is no spare word in them; they are there to be enjoyed and revisited over and over.

Human and compassionate, the world needs this collection of stories right now. I’ve gifted copies to friends and family already – you’ll find yourself doing the same.

By Alice Fowler,

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

Delve into a world of change and reinvention.

Where relationships are as delicate as turtle eggs, and just as easily smashed.

This poignant short story collection explores the pivotal moments that transform our lives. Jenny, whose life is defined by small disasters, discovers a bigger, more generous version of herself. A traveller girl might just win her race and alter her life's course. A widow, cut off in a riverside backwater, opens her heart to a stranger.

In this captivating collection by award-winning writer, Alice Fowler, readers will be moved by the raw vulnerability of human connection, and the resilience…


Plus, check out my book…

Bonny & Read

By Julie Walker,

Book cover of Bonny & Read

What is my book about?

Caribbean, 1720. Two extraordinary women are on the run - from their pasts, from the British Navy and the threat of execution, and from the destiny that fate has written for them.

Plantation owner's daughter, runaway wife, and pirate - Anne Bonny has forged her own story in a man's world. But when she is involved in the capture of a British merchant ship, she is amazed to find another woman amongst the crew with a history as unconventional as her own.

Dressed as a boy from childhood, Mary Read has been a soldier, a sailor, a widow - but never a woman in charge of her own destiny.