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 Love, Loss, and What We Ate: A Memoir

Tanmeet Sethi Why did I love this book?

For me, food is a gateway to this moment, to radical gratitude (I can trace one piece of food to all those who touched and grew it, the elements of the earth that ripened it), and above all, connection. Growing up in a South Asian immigrant home that felt like it was displaced in the deep American south, we held on to food the way you hold on for safety. It connected us back to our ancestors and our stories.

In this memoir, Padma Lakshmi shows us how food was not only her anchor but also her path to forging a life of meaning and, ultimately, unthinkable success.

Her retracing of this geography reveals so much of her biography that it will leave you wondering how your favorite childhood dish may just be the link to learning more about who you are. 

By Padma Lakshmi,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Love, Loss, and What We Ate as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

A vivid memoir of food and family, survival and triumph, Love, Loss, and What We Ate traces the arc of Padma Lakshmi's unlikely path from an immigrant childhood to a complicated life in front of the camera-a tantalizing blend of Ruth Reichl's Tender at the Bone and Nora Ephron's Heartburn Long before Padma Lakshmi ever stepped onto a television set, she learned that how we eat is an extension of how we love, how we comfort, how we forge a sense of home-and how we taste the world as we navigate our way through it. Shuttling between continents as a…


When you buy books, we may earn a commission that helps keep our lights on (or join the rebellion as a member).

My 2nd favorite read in 2023

Book cover of The Immortality Key: The Secret History of the Religion with No Name

Tanmeet Sethi Why did I love this book?

This book is like a Da Vinci code for the modern-day question of how humans seek spiritual enlightenment.

As a physician who practices and researches psychedelic medicine, this book is essential reading for anyone who wants to understand how the modern resurgence of psychedelics is actually an age-old quest. But even much more, it invokes the questions of which roles might have been suppressed in the quest for power, particularly those of women.

I learned so much and was left wanting to understand more.

By Brian C. Muraresku,

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

The world's biggest religion has a problem. There is zero archaeological evidence for the original Eucharist - the sacred wine said to guarantee life after death for those who drink the blood of Jesus. The Holy Grail and and its miraculous contents have never been found. In the absence of any hard data, whatever happened at the Last Supper remains a mystery for today's 2.5 billion faithful. The Immortality Key attempts to crack the best-kept secret in history by examining the archaic roots of the ritual that is performed every Sunday for nearly one third of the planet. Two thousand…


My 3rd favorite read in 2023

Book cover of Inciting Joy: Essays

Tanmeet Sethi Why did I love this book?

This collection of essays feels so intimate in the author’s heart yet universal in all of ours. It’s a collection of essays that explore connection and meaning in our lives as a path to Joy.

It’s exactly why I describe Joy as so different than happiness. Each exploration the author offers shows how Joy can spring from whatever is happening in our life, not from a cognitive evaluation of how it is going. He speaks of how Joy springs from our pain and sorrow, which I deeply believe.

They live so close to each other, and each essay invites us to recognize this.

By Ross Gay,

Why should I read it?

4 authors picked Inciting Joy as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

A collection of gorgeously written and timely pieces in which prize-winning poet and author Ross Gay considers the joy we incite when we care for each other, especially during life's inevitable hardships.

In "We Kin" he thinks about the garden (especially around August, when the zucchini and tomatoes come on) as a laboratory of mutual aid; in "Share Your Bucket" he explores skate-boarding's reclamation of public space; he considers the costs of masculinity in "Grief Suite"; and in "Through My Tears I Saw," he recognizes what was healed in caring for his father as he was dying.

In an era…


Don‘t forget about my book 😀

Joy Is My Justice: Reclaim What Is Yours

By Tanmeet Sethi,

Book cover of Joy Is My Justice: Reclaim What Is Yours

What is my book about?

If you think finding Joy is too much to hope for or only for people who are resilient enough,Joy Is My Justice is a radical exploration of your healing and liberation. Joy is not a commodity, a destination, or contrived positivity. It is within you, the deepest justice you will ever know.

You can reclaim Joy despite this unjust world, past traumas, or what a whitewashed wellness world says about your capacity to do so.

Joy is your birthright. And It’s this book’s mission to make sure you find yours.

My book recommendation list

Book cover of Love, Loss, and What We Ate: A Memoir
Book cover of The Immortality Key: The Secret History of the Religion with No Name
Book cover of Inciting Joy: Essays

Share your top 3 reads of 2024!

And get a beautiful page showing off your 3 favorite reads.

1,225

readers submitted
so far, will you?