My Favorite Books of 2023

A look back at a year of deep dives and reading obsessions.

It's not technically the end of 2023 just yet, but I'm feeling ready to put a pin in my reading for the year and start looking to 2024… so here we are!

When I think back on reading in 2023, I’m going to think of all the times I found something I loved and then read ALL OF IT… whether that’s an entire author’s backlist; each book in a duology, trilogy, or series; or back-to-back reads in the same genre. That hasn't been my reading pattern for a long time, so it was fun to just follow those impulses when they came up.

Instead of favorites, maybe it would be more accurate to say that this is a list of books that shaped my year, the stories and ideas that dug into my brain and wouldn’t let go. In no particular order, here are my books of 2023:

Fiction

The Winners by Fredrick Backman

Fredrik Backman’s Beartown is about a small town’s obsession with a youth hockey team, and what happens when the team’s star player commits a terrible crime. From there, the trilogy widens to feature other people and stories around the team, including all sorts of small-town politics and relationships. These are perfect winter reads, the kind of stories you can just sink into and look up from hours later. They are slow and dark and moody and heartbreaking, but with deep affection for the characters at the center of each story. I sobbed through the last quarter of the final book, The Winners, and wish so much I could revisit these for the first time all over again.

Fourth Wing and Iron Flame by Rebecca Yarros

It turns out I might be obsessed with dragons. While I can objectively see flaws in both of these books, I am not interested in actually acknowledging them in any meaningful way – I love these both so, so much, and I am thrilled to have a new series to be deeply invested in. As I said in my November reading recap, “It’s been a while since a series captured my imagination as much as this one has, and has made me want to do reread upon reread digging for clues and putting puzzles together. I honestly wouldn’t be surprised if I end up with a dragon-themed murder board ahead of the next book in the series.” I stand by that prediction and am already looking for some wall space to get going.

A Court of Silver Flames and Kingdom of Ash by Sarah J. Maas

This year will always be the year where I read nearly all of Sarah J. Maas. I can’t remember why I decided to start the audiobook of A Court of Thornes and Roses back in March, but it set off a year where I finished that series, read the two Crescent City novels, and then finished the Throne of Glass novels after abandoning that series back in 2021. If I had to pick favorites, the most emotionally impactful book was Kingdom of Ash, and the most satisfying character arc was Nesta in A Court of Silver Flames. If you’re trying to decide where to start with the Maasverse, TOG leans young adult fantasy (especially in terms of spiciness), ACOTAR is more of a traditional fantasy novel, and Crescent City is urban fantasy with a ton of intricate world-building before you get into the plot.

Shades of Magic Trilogy and The Fragile Threads of Power by V.E. Schwab

V.E. Schwab’s Shades of Magic trilogy has long been one of my favorite fantasies, so I was delighted to return to that world with the start of a new trilogy, The Fragile Threads of Power. These novels are each works of art. The world-building is impeccable. The writing is gorgeous. The relationships are well-crafted, believable, and utterly swoon-worthy in places. The characters dig into your heart and stay there, long after the last page of the book. If Sarah J. Maas books are movie theatre candy, these books are a fine French patisserie, decadent and crafted and beautiful. I just love them so much.

Hello, Beautiful by Ann Napolitano

This book is the story of four sisters, told largely through the lens of a lonely young man, William, who becomes part of the family after falling in love with the oldest Padavano sister, Julia. The story is much more complicated than that, but when I think back on what I loved about this book, it was the relationships among the characters and how they come apart and back together throughout their lives. I stayed up very late, and shed a lot of tears, reading this one.

Nonfiction

You Could Make This Place Beautiful: A Memoir by Maggie Smith

This stunning memoir is the most beautiful book I read this year. In it, poet Maggie Smith explores “the disintegration of her marriage and her renewed commitment to herself.” Within that narrative, she explores grief and loss and love and divorce and work and family in some inventive, creative, and tender ways. I loved the way the story built slowly through small observations and passages into a really beautiful whole. 

On Our Best Behavior by Elise Loehnen

I found this book challenging to read – I am out of practice with philosophical nonfiction! – but it’s the book that has stuck with me the most this year. In it, Elise Loehnen explores how the Seven Deadly Sins have been used to control women and distort the reality of the world we all operate within. It’s such a clear articulation of the binds that women experience, how you are always too much or not enough no matter how carefully you try to move through the world. It’s on this list because ever since I read it, I have seen examples of what she wrote about in books, pop culture, the news, and my life. I think this book changed the way I think the most this year, and I’m so grateful for it.

The Wisdom of Your Body by Hillary McBride

One of the things I’ve been learning about this year outside of books is embodiment, and how to identify, name, and make space for feelings, and coming to terms with what it means to live in, love, and care for the body that I have. This book brought together a lot of the things I’ve learned in a clear and digestible way, so it was one of this year’s most beneficial books

What My Bones Know: A Memoir of Healing from Complex Trauma by Stephanie Foo

On the surface, Stephanie Foo had all the pieces of a perfect life but was privately having panic attacks and other serious health concerns. After years of therapy and self-doubt, Foo was diagnosed with complex PTSD. That diagnosis sent her down a path of trying to understand what that means. In this memoir, she combines reporting, memoir, and cultural commentary perfectly, to put together a book that’s both deeply personal and also widely curious about topics from intergenerational trauma to wellness culture. It’s amazing (and full of just about every trigger warning you might imagine for a book about complex PTSD). 

Doppelganger: A Trip Into the Mirror World by Naomi Klein

I love the opening description for this book: “What if you woke up one morning and found you'd acquired another self — a double who was almost you and yet not you at all? What if that double shared many of your preoccupations but, in a twisted, upside-down way, furthered the very causes you'd devoted your life to fighting against?” That’s the experience that starts Naomi Klein on her personal exploration of twisted doubles, which ends up covering so many different things that it’s hard to even describe. This book surprised me so much in how many topics Klein was able to pull together, and what living in this kind of off-kilter reality can mean for the rest of us. It gave me so much to think about!

Honorable Mentions

These are books I loved reading and highly recommend, but didn’t have quite the same overall impact on my life or brain as the books mentioned above: 

• Exit Interview: The Life and Death of My Ambitious Career by Kristi Coulter (memoir)

• The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman (mystery)

• The Great Escape: A True Story of Forced Labor and Immigrant Dreams in America by Saket Soni (nonfiction)

• True Biz by Sara Noviç (contemporary fiction)

• The Invisible Hour by Alice Hoffman (fantasy-ish)

• A Living Remedy: A Memoir by Nicole Chung (memoir)

I would love to hear some of your favorite books of the year — please share in the comments!