The best books of 2023

This list is part of the best books of 2023.

We've asked 1,707 authors and super readers for their 3 favorite reads of the year.

My favorite read in 2023…

Book cover of The Satanic Verses

Max Davine I this book because...

It’s tough competition here—I read War and Peace, GilgameshThe Grapes of Wrath, Ovid’s Metamorphoses, Sheridan Le Fanu’s Carmilla in the same twelve months. For me to choose anything over ancient poetry is almost unheard of.

But I think the state of socio-politics right now has played a hand in influencing me—we can see what fanaticism is doing to the world everywhere we look, and Rushdie’s The Satanic Verses not only shreds the notions of religious and political fanaticism but does so with great humanity and intellectual savagery.

Blasphemy is a human right. And only through tragic comedy like this book can free thinkers stand against the rising tide of darkness that comes in the guise of piety and patriotism.

By Salman Rushdie,

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

'A masterpiece' Sunday Times

Just before dawn one winter's morning, a aeroplane blows apart high above the English Channel and two figures tumble, clutched in an embrace, towards the sea: Gibreel Farishta, India's legendary movie star, and Saladin Chamcha, the man of a thousand voices.

Washed up, alive, on an English beach, their survival is a miracle. But there is a price to pay. Gibreel and Saladin have been chosen as opponents in the eternal wrestling match between Good and Evil. But chosen by whom? And which is which? And what will be the outcome of their final confrontation?

'A…


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My 2nd favorite read in 2023…

Book cover of Metamorphoses

Max Davine I this book because...

Metamorphoses is like a compact classic for the classical era. If you’re interested in the works of Apollonius of Rhodes, Homer, or Virgil, but the idea of epic poetry is a bit intimidating, or if you love them and want to get an early start introducing your kids to them—Metamorphoses is a great start.

Ovid takes all the beautiful mythology—Perseus, Argonautica, Iliad, Odyssey, Aeneid, Romulus and Remus, Atalanta—and presses them down to easily-digestible bites that are written with such levity and humour that nobody can walk away unmoved.

I love the classics. Jason and the Argonauts is probably the story where you can find the most inspiration for my works.

By Ovid, David Raeburn (translator),

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

'Still remarkably vivid. It is easier to read this for pure pleasure than just about any other ancient text' Nicholas Lezard, Guardian

Ovid's sensuous and witty poem begins with the creation of the world and brings together a dazzling array of mythological tales, ingeniously linked by the idea of transformation - often as a result of love or lust - where men and women find themselves magically changed into extraordinary new beings. Including the well-known stories of Daedalus and Icarus, Pyramus and Thisbe, Pygmalion, Perseus and Andromeda, and the fall of Troy, the Metamorphoses has influenced writers and artists from…


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My 3rd favorite read in 2023…

Book cover of The Grapes of Wrath

Max Davine I this book because...

The historically inspired migration of Oklahoma farmers to find work in California during the Great Depression and Dustbowl forms the basis of honesty and goodness struggling against greed and cruelty.

I think Tolkien would have loved this book. I hope he read it. Since Reagan and Thatcher, we’ve had in the west this insane idea of libertarianism—complete deregulation of the private sector—as though it’s in any way a foil to communism. But what’s the difference between a politburo and a handful of monopolies controlling every industry?

Steinbeck gives amazing truth in fiction to the timeless consequences greed has not for the greedy but for the honest.

By John Steinbeck,

Why should I read it?

17 authors picked The Grapes of Wrath as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

'I've done my damndest to rip a reader's nerves to rags, I don't want him satisfied.'

Shocking and controversial when it was first published, The Grapes of Wrath is Steinbeck's Pultizer Prize-winning epic of the Joad family, forced to travel west from Dust Bowl era Oklahoma in search of the promised land of California. Their story is one of false hopes, thwarted desires and powerlessness, yet out of their struggle Steinbeck created a drama that is both intensely human and majestic in its scale and moral vision.


Don‘t forget about my book 😀

Spirits of the Ice Forest

By Max Davine,

Book cover of Spirits of the Ice Forest

What is my book about?

This is the story of the last attempt by Icelandic Vikings to conquer what is now Newfoundland, Canada, led by a shieldmaiden whose name, fierceness, intelligence, and ruthlessness would echo through the centuries – Freydis Eiriksdottir.

The Native Dorset people are forced into a war they never asked for against an aggressor that they don’t understand who has come to take everything from them.

Three young friends, Demasduit, Madawaak, and Shanawdithit, are plunged into the middle of their people’s struggle for survival. Only their love and devotion to each other will save them.