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…

A Waiter in Paris: Adventures in the Dark Heart of the City

By Edward Chisholm,

Book cover of A Waiter in Paris: Adventures in the Dark Heart of the City

Steve Haberman I ❤️ loved this book because...

It's a superbly written tale about a Brit waiter in the City of Light.

The author, Edward Chisholm, is, frankly, much, much better at the craft of writing than many hyped fiction authors. I also like his vivid showing—in the manner of Orwell's Down and Out in Paris and London—a grim, truthful side of Paris beneath the glamour.

Frankly, I don't understand how he survived his brutal ordeal as a Parisian server. Maybe the resiliency of youth.

A Waiter in Paris: Adventures in the Dark Heart of the City

By Edward Chisholm,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked A Waiter in Paris as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

SHORT LISTED FOR THE ACKERLEY PRIZE FOR AUTOBIOGRAPHY

***
'This astonishing book describes a cruel, feral existence and is worthy of standing on the shelf next to George Orwell's Down And Out In Paris And London (1933) as another classic about human exploitation.' - Daily Mail

'Chisholm's story is immersive and often thrilling ... He's a fine writer.' - WSJ

'Kitchen Confidential for Generation Z' - Fortune

'An English waiters riveting account of working in Paris' - Daily Mail

'Visceral and unbelievably compelling' - Emerald Fennell

'Vividly written and merciless in its detail' - Edward Stourton

'An excellent book' -…

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My 2nd favorite read in 2023…

Last Call at the Hotel Imperial: The Reporters Who Took On a World at War

By Deborah Cohen,

Book cover of Last Call at the Hotel Imperial: The Reporters Who Took On a World at War

Steve Haberman I ❤️ loved this book because...

This much-praised book is about the legends of journalism (Dorothy Thompson, John Gunther, 'Knick' Knickerbocker, among others) who wrote about the earth-shaking events of the last century, Hitler's rise to power, Stalin's brutality in pursuit of a new Soviet Russia, the collapse of empires, the Second World War. 

They saw it all, wrote about it, and tried to warn a not-always-receptive America to the dangerous world we live in. 

Last Call at the Hotel Imperial: The Reporters Who Took On a World at War

By Deborah Cohen,

Why should I read it?

3 authors picked Last Call at the Hotel Imperial as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

NEW YORK TIMES EDITORS’ CHOICE • A prize-winning historian’s “effervescent” (The New Yorker) account of a close-knit band of wildly famous American reporters who, in the run-up to World War II, took on dictators and rewrote the rules of modern journalism

“High-speed, four-lane storytelling . . . Cohen’s all-action narrative bursts with colour and incident.”—Financial Times

ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: The New Yorker, NPR, BookPage

They were an astonishing group: glamorous, gutsy, and irreverent to the bone. As cub reporters in the 1920s, they roamed across a war-ravaged world, sometimes perched atop mules on wooden saddles,…

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My 3rd favorite read in 2023…

The Spy Who Came in From the Cold

By John le Carré,

Book cover of The Spy Who Came in From the Cold

Steve Haberman I ❤️ loved this book because...

What can I state about the late author, John Le Carre, that hasn't always been said by others, critics and readers alike.   

All I can say is that when I first read The Spy Who Came in From the Cold years ago, I was riveted from the very first page. My initial reading occurred in the heyday of the James Bond insulting nonsense, and Le Carre's spy novel was a refreshing, truthful telling about some ugly facts about Western spy agencies. My impression after my second reading remains the same.

The Spy Who Came in From the Cold

By John le Carré,

Why should I read it?

17 authors picked The Spy Who Came in From the Cold 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 Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy; Our Kind of Traitor; and The Night Manager, now a television series starring Tom Hiddleston.

The 50th-anniversary edition of the bestselling novel that launched John le Carre's career worldwide

In the shadow of the newly erected Berlin Wall, Alec Leamas watches as his last agent is shot dead by East German sentries. For Leamas, the head of Berlin Station, the Cold War is over. As he faces the prospect of retirement or worse-a desk job-Control offers him a unique opportunity for revenge. Assuming the guise of an embittered…

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Don‘t forget about my book 😀

Where the Bones Lie

By Steve Haberman,

Book cover of Where the Bones Lie

What is my book about?

A famous American woman journalist goes missing in 1946 post-war Berlin. Her equally famous lover, a former Winston Churchill spy, sets out in the smashed capital of Germany to find her.