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 War Came To Us: Life and Death in Ukraine

Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch Why did I love this book?

I am of Ukrainian heritage, and this current war has brought back a grieving that I didn’t know I had.

You see, I don’t even have relatives to mourn or worry about in Ukraine anymore because all my family was killed by the last genocidal dictator. Instead, I worry about every Ukrainian. Sometimes, just walking down the street, I begin to weep. I cannot get my head around the fact that this is all happening again.

This war has generated a ton of crap published by so-called pundits. This book is not that.  

Christopher Miller is an American who arrived in eastern Ukraine as a Peace Corps worker in the mid-2000s and stayed there as a journalist afterward. He gives Western readers a survey of contemporary Ukrainian life under the shadow of the genocidal dictator next door. 

This eyewitness history of contemporary Ukraine is a must-read for any Westerner trying to understand what it means to be Ukrainian right now. 

By Christopher Miller,

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

'Vivid... Shocking... [Miller] brings a seasoned, personal perspective to his account of both the 16-month conflict and its wider roots.' Daily Telegraph 'A beautiful blend of memoir, reportage and history...superb.' Irish Times A breathtaking exploration of Ukraine's past, present, and future, and a heartbreaking account of the war against Russia, written by the leading journalist of the conflict. When Russian President Vladimir Putin launched his unprovoked, full-scale invasion of Ukraine just before dawn on 24 February 2022, it marked his latest and most overt attempt to brutally conquer the country, and reshaped the world order. Christopher Miller, the Ukraine correspondent…


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My 2nd favorite read in 2023

Book cover of Homecoming

Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch Why did I love this book?

As a novelist myself, reading novels is often a workman’s holiday. Recognizing the tropes and guessing the ending way too soon. That doesn’t happen with Kate Morton’s Homecoming, though.

The characters were as complex as my own family members, and the story unraveled in unexpected ways.

Reading this book was like enjoying a luscious hard candy that melts on the tongue slowly, and in layers. The ending was oh-so-perfect and not at all expected. 

By Kate Morton,

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

'Captivating . . . a sweeping yet intimate tale of motherhood and belonging, loss and longing' - Mail on Sunday

'It is a treat; it is a big deep dive, twisty turny yarn. It is fantastic' - Graham Norton, broadcaster and bestselling author of Home Stretch

From the bestselling author of The Clockmaker's Daughter, Kate Morton, comes a breathtaking mystery of love, lies and a cold case come back to life, told with her trademark intricacy and beauty.

Adelaide Hills, Christmas Eve, 1959. At the end of a scorching hot day, beside a creek in the grounds of a grand…


My 3rd favorite read in 2023

Book cover of I'll Tell You No Lies

Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch Why did I love this book?

There are no spare words here, and I dare you just to read one page.

I enjoyed McCrina’s earlier books, but with each new book she writes, her craft keeps on getting tighter.

She’s always written about those bits of WWII and the Cold War that no one seems to know about. She’s always done it with authority. But with this book, my gosh. So breathless. My eyes were glued to the page, and I was powerless to do anything other than read it. I didn’t even get up to pee.

By Amanda McCrina,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked I'll Tell You No Lies as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it. This book is for kids age 12, 13, 14, and 15.

What is this book about?

July 1955. Eighteen-year-old Shelby Blaine and her father, an Air Force intelligence officer, have just been wrenched away from their old life in West Germany to New York's Griffiss Air Force Base, where he has been summoned to lead the interrogation of an escaped Russian pilot. Still in shock from the car accident that killed her mother barely a month earlier, Shelby struggles as much with her grief and the emotional gulf between her and her father as having to start over in a new home. Then a chance meeting with the would-be defector spirals into a deadly entanglement, as…


Don‘t forget about my book 😀

Book cover of Stolen Girl

What is my book about?

This novel isn’t my most recent (that would be Winterkill), but it is eerily relevant right now because of the thousands of kids who are being kidnapped from Ukraine and brainwashed into thinking they’re Russian.

Putin got this idea from Hitler’s WWII Lebensborn program, and that’s what Stolen Girl is about.

This novel was inspired by my Ukrainian mother-in-law’s childhood.

Book cover of The War Came To Us: Life and Death in Ukraine
Book cover of Homecoming
Book cover of I'll Tell You No Lies

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