Recommend the best books you read 2023

[Dazrin]

I've got to add to my anticipation list for next year: Demon Daughter by Lois McMaster Bujold, Penric & Desdemona book 12

She announced a new Penric & Desdemona novella coming in January 2024 early this month. Instantly to the top of my want-to-read list even though I still have books in the Murderbot, Cinder Spires (in progress), and Skyward series to complete already.

[John F]

What were the best books you read this year?

Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin
A Song for a New Day by Sarah Pinsker
series: The Invisible Library by Genevieve Cogman

What excellent books do you recommend that were published in 2023?

Sword Catcher by Cassandra Clare

[jviscosi]

I rated three books ★★★★★ this year:

• Perhaps the Stars, Terra Ignota #4, by Ada Palmer
• New Watch, World of Watches #5, by Sergei Lukyanenko
• The Murders of Molly Southbourne, by Tade Thompson

I did have a couple of ★★★★½ books, too, which I would've bumped to five stars on Goodreads, but since The StoryGraph actually understands that fractions of stars are a thing, I can now keep track of them:

• All the Light We Cannot See, by Anthony Doerr
• Doomsday Book, by Connie Willis

I have no recommendations for books published in 2023 on account of I'm still working through books I acquired in 2019. Yeah my TBR list is a little bit out of control ...

[astrangerhere]

Originally Posted by jviscosi

I rated three books ★★★★★ this year:

• Perhaps the Stars, Terra Ignota #4, by Ada Palmer
• New Watch, World of Watches #5, by Sergei Lukyanenko
• The Murders of Molly Southbourne, by Tade Thompson

I did have a couple of ★★★★½ books, too, which I would've bumped to five stars on Goodreads, but since The StoryGraph actually understands that fractions of stars are a thing, I can now keep track of them:

• All the Light We Cannot See, by Anthony Doerr
• Doomsday Book, by Connie Willis

I have no recommendations for books published in 2023 on account of I'm still working through books I acquired in 2019. Yeah my TBR list is a little bit out of control ...

So good to see someone else loving Ada Palmer! Also great Connie Willis pick!

[jviscosi]

Originally Posted by astrangerhere

So good to see someone else loving Ada Palmer! Also great Connie Willis pick!

Oh, yeah, I loved how everything came together in "Terra Ignota" #4. Ada Palmer has some big, big ideas!

[SteveEisenberg]

Nita Prose's Moily the Maid books have such a strong and distinctive first person voice as to rise above almost all award winners in the mystery genre. This year I read both the original (The Maid) and the new one (The Mystery Guest).

Richard Russo is my favorite contemporary literary fiction writer. His worthy new one this year was Somebody's Fool.

Nonfiction: A Good Provider Is One Who Leaves: One Family and Migration in the 21st Century by Jason DeParle. This book about the Philippines and Filipinos was published in 2019. There was another book about the Philippines published this year that maybe got even stronger rave reviews, Some People Need Killing by Patricia Evangelista, and that is good. But I learned more from, and, if I can say it about books containing a lot of unhappiness, was more entertained by, DeParle.

Somewhat older nonfiction: Richard Gwyn, John A: The Man Who Made Us (Vol. 1) and Sir John A. Macdonald : His Life, Our Times (Vol.2). Canadians should read these, and the compare and contrast, with the U.S. founding, was mind-opening for me.

This year I read more of the Rev. Clare Fergusson/Russ Van Alstyne mystery series by Julia Spencer-Fleming. It is way above the norm.

[issybird]

I look forward to this thread every year and yet I'm really late to it. I've had holiday company for the past two weeks (leaving tomorrow) and I was reading a couple of books that had "ten best" possibilities, but once the jollity started I wasn't able to finish them. So here's how it fell out:

Nonfiction

• The Broken House: Growing Up Under Hitler
• Daughter of the Dragon: Anna May Wong's Rendezvous with American History
• Twelve Caesars: Images of Power from the Ancient World to the Modern
• A Search for Solitude: Pursuing the Monk's True Life, The Journals of Thomas Merton, Volume 3
• Home Fires Burning: Food, Politics, and Everyday Life in World War I Berlin

Fiction

• The Radetzky March (Joseph Roth)
• Uncle Dynamite (P.G. Wodehouse)
• Irretrievable (Theodor Fontane)
• Diana Tempest (Mary Cholmondeley)
• The Fortnight in September (R.C. Sherriff)

I usually try to discern a few themes or commonalities, but it beats the heck out of me this year. Two nonfiction books set in wartime Berlin (different wars). The fiction's all dated; the Wodehouse is the most recent at 1948, a mere 75 years ago. Only one of the authors is/was American by birth (Belinda Davis, Home Fires Burning), although two were naturalized (Merton and Wodehouse).

Overall, I didn't like most of the books published in 2023 that I read. A couple were dnfs; others were a weak two stars. Two exceptions were Claire North's House of Odysseus and the Anna May Wong bio that made my ten-best list. The North book was also an exception to the mostly terrible retellings of classical myths that I read/abandoned this past year. It's a concept I love but the execution tends to stink. IMO, of course.

The book I'm most looking forward to this year is published today, Divine Might: Goddesses in Greek Myth by Natalie Haynes. I love her nonfiction, dislike her fictionalized myths.

[John F]

Originally Posted by issybird

Uncle Dynamite (P.G. Wodehouse)
...

With a blurb of "... This bust busting gut buster ..." it goes on my TBR pile.

[issybird]

Originally Posted by John F

With a blurb of "... This bust busting gut buster ..." it goes on my TBR pile.

I love Wodehouse and Uncle Fred is my favorite Wodehouse character.

[Uncle Robin]

Originally Posted by issybird

I love Wodehouse and Uncle Fred is my favorite Wodehouse character.

That's great to hear, as I have Uncle Fred on my TBR this year, thanks.

[John F]

Originally Posted by issybird

I love Wodehouse and Uncle Fred is my favorite Wodehouse character.

Do I need to read previous Uncle Fred's before this one?

[DiapDealer]

In no particular order (and with no regard to their date of publication), a few of the standout novels I read in 2023:

The Overstory by Richard Powers (even though I thought it was too long). https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh...postcount=3398

Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel

Barbara Kingsolver’s Demon Copperhead https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh...postcount=3371

Trust by Hernan Diaz https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh...postcount=3452

[issybird]

Originally Posted by John F

Do I need to read previous Uncle Fred's before this one?

Nope. They're all standalones and fleeting references to earlier events won't spoil you if you decide to pursue it.

[fduniho]

Originally Posted by Dazrin

What were the best books you read this year?

Super Powereds: Year 1 by Drew Hayes. This begins a four-book series following five college students in a college program for training superheroes. Unlike their classmates, they have lived without being in control of their powers, but thanks to a new process, they have gained control. I finished the 4th book today, and in the meantime, I had little interest in other books. Each book follows them through a full year of college. Unlike the TV show Gen V, it's slower paced, focuses more on training than on fighting villains, and focuses more on character development.

Hidden Pictures by Jason Rekulak. This is a horror novel I read in October. It is about a babysitter for a child who is drawing eerie, disturbing pictures, which are included in the book and help propel the story along.

Raising Steam by Terry Pratchett. One of the last books of his Discworld series, this one focuses on development of a railroad system. It's interesting to see the development of technology in a fantasy world with dwarf, troll, and goblin characters involved.

What excellent books do you recommend that were published in 2023?

Earthside by Dennis E. Taylor. This is a sequel to his 2019 book Outland, which I happened to read earlier in 2023. It follows college students who survived an explosion of the volcano in Yellowstone National Park by escaping to a parallel Earth, where they have started to build a new civilization.

Heir of Uncertain Magic (Whimbrel House Book 2) by Charlie N. Holmberg. This is a sequel to her earlier book Keeper of Enchanted Rooms. It follows a man who inherited a magical house and the woman who has been helping him manage it. It takes place in a 19th century version of America in which magic is commonplace. It's interesting to see how they use magic to do things we might do with technology, and Holmberg usually comes up with interesting magical systems.

How did your anticipated 2023 books hold up this year?

I don't really line up a bunch of new books for the coming year.

And, what books are you looking forward to in 2024?

I have plans to read the next book in Charlie N. Holmberg's Whimbrel House series and the next book in Sarina Dorie's Vega Bloodmire series, which both just came out in February. I also have plenty of older books I plan to get around to reading.

[haertig]

Originally Posted by Karellen

150 books read so far in 2023
...

@Karellen, I always appreciate the posts you make listing books you've read. Your choices, more than anyone else on these forums, seem to match my interests in books the best. I usually research the books you mention to see if they might be something I'd be interested in. Thank you.