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The best books of 2023

This list is part of the best books of 2023.

We've asked 1,608 authors and super readers for their 3 favorite reads of the year.

Shepherd is reader supported. When you buy books, we may earn an affiliate commission.

My favorite read in 2023…

Book cover of Poison for Breakfast

Zachary Austin Behlok Why did I love this book?

Poison for Breakfast is a marvelous collaboration of Snicket’s wit, wisdom, and fictitious excellency.

This book pushes the reader to examine their life in novel ways while also pushing them to take a step back and make sure not to overanalyze the simplicity. Snicket combines fiction with philosophy and humor with knowledge in ways not commonly found today.

It is both insightful and eye-opening while charming and funny at the same time. 

By Lemony Snicket,

Why should I read it?

6 authors picked Poison for Breakfast as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

In the years since this publishing house was founded, we have worked with an array of wondrous authors who have brought illuminating clarity to our bewildering world. Now, instead, we bring you Lemony Snicket.

Over the course of his long and suspicious career, Mr. Snicket has investigated many things, including villainy, treachery, conspiracy, ennui, and various suspicious fires. In this book, he is investigating his own death.

Poison for Breakfast is a different sort of book than others we have published, and from others you may have read. It is different from other books Mr. Snicket has written. It could…


My 2nd favorite read in 2023…

Book cover of Mary Ventura and the Ninth Kingdom

Zachary Austin Behlok Why did I love this book?

The sheer simplicity and elegance found within Mary Ventura and the Ninth Kingdom by Sylvia Plath is unmatched.

The reader is taken on a journey to the ninth kingdom; however, whether or not we truly make it there is up to the reader. What is the ninth kingdom? How do we get there? What does it mean to go to the ninth kingdom? Are we all headed there? If so, can we escape such a fate? 

My answers to all of these questions and more differ with time. That is why this short work fascinates me.

By Sylvia Plath,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Mary Ventura and the Ninth Kingdom as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

“[Plath’s] story is stirring, in sneaky, unexpected ways. . . . Look carefully and there’s a new angle here — on how, and why, we read Plath today.”— Parul Sehgal, New York Times

Never before published, this newly discovered story by literary legend Sylvia Plath stands on its own and is remarkable for its symbolic, allegorical approach to a young woman’s rebellion against convention and forceful taking control of her own life. 

Written while Sylvia Plath was a student at Smith College in 1952, Mary Ventura and The Ninth Kingdom tells the story of a young woman’s fateful train journey.…


My 3rd favorite read in 2023…

Book cover of One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich

Zachary Austin Behlok Why did I love this book?

One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich highlights the harshness of human life, particularly those experienced by prisoners during World War 2 in the Soviet Union.

The tale follows the life of a man, Ivan Denisovich, and although we are only met with the reality of a day in his life, we can only assume that not much differs day by day. This book is a powerful portrayal of what human beings can endure in order to be who they are.

It explores how people will cling to their ideologies, and, in the case of the author himself, promote an understanding of the inequalities that plague the people of the world, which, more often than not, are derivatives of the political situation of the area which a person is subjected to.

By Alexander Solzhenitsyn,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Foreshadowing his later detailed accounts of the Soviet prison-camp system, Solzhenitsyn's classic portrayal of life in the gulag is all the more powerful for being slighter and more personal than those later monumental volumes. Continuing the tradition of the great nineteenth-century Russian novelists, especially Dostoevsky and Tolstoy, Solzhenitsyn is fully worthy of them in narrative power and moral authority. His greatest work.


Plus, check out my book…

The Advancement of Humanity

By Zachary Austin Behlok,

Book cover of The Advancement of Humanity

What is my book about?

The Advancement of Humanity is an essay relating human creativity and intellect to the perspectives needed for humanity to move forward positively toward societal advancement.