I've rounded up my favorite books of 2023 to create a list of books you need to read in 2024! These are the best books (the must reads) across several categories - fiction, non-fiction, fantasy, and a new blended category!
I LOVE to read, and I want to help you find the best of the best books for your limited time reading! So how did I come across the books I read this year? For the most part, I only read recommended books. Life's too short! This means recommendations from family, friends, and sometimes social media...but most of my recommendations actually come from book store staff and librarians! Makes sense, right?
So I've taken these recommendations and further refined into what I think are the very best! If you can't make it through the whole post and just need the top three really quick, here you are:
1. Underland 2. Demon Copperhead 3. Circe
And without further ado.. my favorites by category!
Best Fiction (Well-Written)
Demon Copperhead - This book is truly epic. And it's designed to be. It was written as a modern-day version of one of Charles Dickens' books, and it literally feels like a book that will be a classic for years to come. It's long, but it covers the better part of a boys' life from the Appalachian Mountains - digging into all kinds of dark modern day issues (foster care, drug addiction) and all the related love and loss along the way. It's unforgettable!
Tin Man - To counteract the above, this is a short read and also beautifully written. It's actually somewhat simple - covering two people over the course of their lives - but powerful in the way that it describes their small pivotal moments in such a vivid and relatable way that you find yourself really getting to know the characters. The author really draws you into feeling deeply for everything life throughs at them - whether it's passion, uncertainty, disappointment, confusion, defeat, or heartbreak... it's all there! It reminded me of some of the European films I've seen... simple but attention to detail makes it magical.
Our Wives Under the Sea - This book was honestly so strange. I don't want to give anything away, but it's mostly a love story but under really mysterious circumstances. It's a juxtaposition of details about mundane life highlighting small relatable details and then stretches into the actually strange and unbelievable - and right back to everyday life detail. Also a quick read!
Best Fiction (Funny)
Lessons in Chemistry - I'm not a real 'laugh out loud' person, but this book did it! It was actually really well-written, including all the dark humor. Clearly I'm not alone - everyone loved it so much that it's already a TV show!
Rules for Visiting - This isn't a laugh out loud book, but instead has quiet humor thread throughout the story. The main character is a botanist who is visiting old friends, and she pulls in information about plants and also reflections on etiquette in the modern day.
Best Fiction (Fastest Read)
Any Colleen Hoover Book - I read It Ends with Us, It Starts with Us, Ugly Love, Reminders of Him, and Verity... they are super (duper) fast reads.
Best Non-Fiction
Underland - This was my top favorite book of 2023! It's a non-fiction book about a guy who has explored all types of underground places - from catacombs to caves to a nuclear waste facility - each chapter is a story about a different spot. The author's vivid description makes this book a page-turner, and I learned so much about areas I didn't even know existed - plus the new knowledge of the vast world underground will stay on the edge of your mind forever. Note that my dad warned me that maybe (definitely) it's not mainstream enough to be my top recommendation... so I gut-checked myself by looking at reviews on Amazon (which are spectacular, of course) and I'm sticking to it!
The Last Unicorn - I wrote all about this one here. This nature writer talks about exploring Laos looking for a mythical creature that's near extinction (or maybe already extinct or maybe never existed)... I've loved visiting this area of the world in real life, and the author does a beautiful job of describing the adventure.
Best Fantasy
Circe - This was one of the books on the 'best books ever' table at The Strand in NYC and it lived up to the hype. You likely already know how how ends, as she's re-telling an Ancient Greek story, but it's from the perspective of a lesser know goddess, and she adds so much detail around her character and her life that it feels like a whole new story!
A Court of Thorns and Roses - This was a social media influence! Feyre is the crazy strong human female character in a mysterious fantasy world - and what starts with her hunting animals quickly moves into a romantic novel. And then it honestly took me about 20 pages (over like a week) to really get into this (I almost gave up!), but once I got in the groove, I really got into it! And I'm not the only one. It seems like this series (and Fourth Wing - on my list for 2024) is everywhere you look right now.
Best Fiction/Non-Fiction
When We Cease to Understand the World - The book highlights some of the greatest minds of our time - who have both changed our lives for the better and quite nearly destroyed us. I said "fiction/non-fiction" not because it's historical fiction... BUT this is quite literally both non-fiction and fiction. It starts as completely non-fiction, and then the author slowly adds embellishments and as you read along, the line is blurred but suddenly it's believable but it's a lot of fiction. Honestly I haven't read anything like it and started Googling all the little details to figure out if they were non-fiction or fiction because it was fascinating. It's also very short book, so it takes a bit of energy (thinking) to read it but then it goes by fast.
Before I move into the honorable mentions, it seems appropriate to credit the top three small book shops from which I got the majority of these great recommendations this year!
Changing Hands - My favorite local bookshop in Phoenix, the shop has a mix of used and new books, and it has some great staff recommendations - plus super friendly people! They even have staff recommendations for the kids' books - including short reviews by kids about the kids' books and even a kids' monthly book club. The space is also part coffee shop and... wait for it.. part BAR, so that brings it up a few notches as well! :)
The Strand - I had a long-ish layover in New York this fall, and I made an entire itinerary (and space in my luggage) specifically for finally going to this shop. It's been around for almost 100 years, so it's an official NYC establishment. They tout having '18 miles of books' in the shop and also being a hangout for famous writers. And boy was my trip there (with my luggage) worth it! I spent almost the entire time at the tables near the front highlight 'best books of all time', and it was so hard to narrow my selection down to what could fit in my carry on!
Bright Side Bookshop - We stop here every time we're in Flagstaff! And a note that it's not necessarily the books at the front that have ended up being excellent recommendations. In fact, sometimes their front tables seem to be more about political messaging (with less than well-reviewed books)... don't let that turn you off! It's the staff selections in the actual bookshelves that are diverse AND selective, and I got some really exceptional recommendations from these sections!! Plus if they aren't super busy, their staff members are so great with the kids - really listening to our oldest kids to hear what they like to read and helping them discover new books based on interpreting their interests!
Of the other books that I read this year, there are several that also deserve "honorable mentions" - even if they were't my personal favorites.
Fiction (Well-Written)
Sea of Tranquility - People (including well-respected editors) just love this book, and I wanted to love it too. But it took me a bit to get into it, and then I liked it but didn't LOOVE it. I honestly don't know why. The story stretches across time (early 1900s to the future) and locations (including a moon colony) - threading the story together with a sci-fi type angle. I did buy another book by this author that got rave reviews, so I'll update you as I read that one!
Remarkably Bright Creatures - This is another one that people loved. I thought it was a cute story (centered around an octopus in a local aquarium), but the way it suspended reality felt a little off. I did like it, but it also felt slightly below the quality of the writing in Tin Man and Demon Copperhead above.
Running in the Family: Although beautifully written, this book about going back to visit the author's home in Sri Lanka (one of my all-time favorite trips!) was a little hard to follow (and therefore hard to keep my attention).
Filthy Animals - Alright so I like an edgy book, but this one was just a little much. It's short portraits of teenagers in various (often difficult) stages of exploring life... and I think maybe it was also a little too disconnected without enough depth in the characters? I'm not sure, but it wasn't my favorite.
Fiction (Humor):
Killers of a Certain Age - OK so this one would have made the "best" list if I didn't stop at 2 per category. It's about a group of retired assassins and it was fun, well-written, and fast-paced. It was vivid enough that I honestly thought it was a MOVIE I saw until I looked back on my Kindle to remind myself of all the books I read this year and saw it... so I think that speaks to it being well-written too. :) I recommended it to my mom and her friends who loved it (as it's about retired assassins).
Fiction (Fast Read)
In Five Years - If it weren't for the Colleen Hoover books, this would have definitely made the fast fiction list. As it was good - but Colleen definitely edged it out of the top this year because I very literally could not put her books down! (I read 5 in a row - like reading while walking through the airport... it was insane.)
Best Fiction/Non-Fiction
There There - Another one that got edged out by others but was still good. It's about a Native American community today, and it follows the lives of so many people... like so many characters that the author put in a cheat sheet at the beginning of the book that you have to refer back to as they flip characters from chapter to chapter). It was good and really interesting to learn about a community that is often underrepresented in literature, but I think because it had just SO many characters it didn't get deep with any of them - making it hard to get super invested in the story.
In Cold Blood - This is a book about a murder in a small town in the 1950s. I didn't realize this was a classic book until I finished it. But then it all made a lot of sense. I'm glad I read it... but it was pretty slow...
West with Giraffes - This one is based on the true story of two giraffes being transported across the country to the San Diego Zoo during the Great Depression, and the author describes the trip and all the characters along for the ride in fascinating detail. But it's only on the honorable mentions because I am pretty sure I read it in December 2022 (not 2023)... so it would be cheating to put it on here. :)
OK and now I'm tired from all that writing (queue even more respect for all the real authors I'm writing about - even the ones that weren't my favs!). Hope this helps you find a book you can LOVE this year!!
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