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 Wired for Love: A Neuroscientist's Journey Through Romance, Loss, and the Essence of Human Connection

Susannah Marren Why did I love this book?

Neuroscientist Dr. Stephanie Cacioppo was single at 37 and content with focusing on the neuroscience of romantic love.

However, everything changed when she met a neuroscientist whose work was on the neuroscience of loneliness, John Cacioppo. After falling in love, they married and shared an office while working at the University of Chicago. Seven years after their wedding, John died of cancer.

Wired for Love not only breaks down Cacioppo’s research about love but is about her own personal experience that she shared with her late husband. Cacioppo’s book shows us how we process love that is lost and how grief and healing affect us. 

By Stephanie Cacioppo,

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

From the world’s foremost neuroscientist of romantic love comes a personal story of connection and heartbreak that brings new understanding to an old truth: better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all.

At thirty-seven, Dr. Stephanie Cacioppo was content to be single. She was fulfilled by her work on the neuroscience of romantic love―how finding and growing with a partner literally reshapes our brains. That was, until she met the foremost neuroscientist of loneliness. A whirlwind romance led to marriage and to sharing an office at the University of Chicago. After seven years of being…


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My 2nd favorite read in 2023

Book cover of Sister Stardust

Susannah Marren Why did I love this book?

In this novel that takes place in the 1960s, Talitha Getty, the young wife of Paul Getty, a famous oil heir, had a dream existence from an outsider's perspective.

She was a known model and actress in her twenties and lived in a palace in Marrakesh with her husband. Life was lavish and had no bounds.

It is through the eyes of newcomer Claire, who instantly hits it off with Talitha, that we realize there is darkness beneath the alluring veneer. As the two women continue to grow closer, the precarious realities of Talitha's life threaten to alter Claire.

We are drawn into the center of Talitha's drama, secrets, and the tragic end.

By Jane Green,

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

*NATIONAL BESTSELLER*

A PARADE MOST ANTICIPATED BOOK OF THE YEAR
A NEW YORK POST BEST BOOK OF THE WEEK

In her first novel inspired by a true story, Jane Green re-imagines the life of troubled icon Talitha Getty in this transporting story from a forgotten chapter of the Swinging '60s

From afar Talitha's life seemed perfect. In her twenties, and already a famous model and actress, she moved from London to a palace in Marrakesh, with her husband Paul Getty, the famous oil heir. There she presided over a swirling ex-pat scene filled with music, art, free love and a…


My 3rd favorite read in 2023

Book cover of You Can Trust Me: A Novel

Susannah Marren Why did I love this book?

Heard’s thriller introduces readers to Summer and Leo, two close friends who travel around California in Summer’s Land Cruiser. Both young women are escaping their pasts and lost connections to their mothers. They have become con artists to survive.

Everything changes when Leo sets her sights on self-made billionaire Michael Forrester as her next scheme for the ‘con.’ Once she is invited to his private island off the California coastline, it seems like a smooth plan… yet she is in over her head and disappears soon after.

Summer determines to find out what really happened and travels to Michael’s Island. Once there, she quickly learns that no one knows who Leo is and there is no way to leave. Has Summer finally entered too dangerous an arena? 

By Wendy Heard,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked You Can Trust Me as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

In a “thriller with a sharp take on wealth and privilege” (People, Book of the Week), two best friends grift their way through the California elite—until a scam goes awry.

“A blazingly sharp, sexy, feminist thriller for those who wished The White Lotus season two was told from the POV of Mia and Lucia.”—Halley Sutton, author of The Hurricane Blonde

A Glamour Best New Summer Thriller • A Paste Must-Read Thriller • A Crime Reads Most Anticipated Crime Novel

Summer and Leo would do anything for each other. Inspired by the way each has had to carve her place in…


Don‘t forget about my book 😀

A Palm Beach Scandal

By Susannah Marren,

Book cover of A Palm Beach Scandal

What is my book about?

Veronica and Simon Cutler and their dazzling adult daughters, Elodie and Aubrey, strike an enviable pose, the ultimate Palm Beach family. While the sisters are opposites, they are fiercely loyal to each other. When Elodie receives the shocking news that she is no longer able to conceive a baby, she turns to Aubrey.

Aubrey, a free spirit, isn’t interested in marriage or children, yet when her sister asks her to carry her child, she can’t say no despite her mother’s warnings. And then one stupefying secret, meant to be buried forever, is unearthed, and no one in the Cutler clan can turn back.

As the family is shaken, Aubrey and Elodie must realize their places in the world and the lives they want to lead.

Book cover of Wired for Love: A Neuroscientist's Journey Through Romance, Loss, and the Essence of Human Connection
Book cover of Sister Stardust
Book cover of You Can Trust Me: A Novel

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