The Best Books We Read This Year - 2023

Even while we love summer (and all the great beach reads that went along with it), October is quickly approaching, which is an even better season for books. There's nothing better than cuddling up with a fantastic book, and 2023 has seen a ton of fantastic new books. Without ever leaving the comforts of a warm blanket and hot apple cider, lose yourself in a book while the leaves change color. 

Take pleasure in a unique and humorous look at the Victorian era, an unparalleled immigrant story, an ecological thriller testing the dynamics of friendship within a group, or an engrossing historical account of peril on the high seas, shipwreck, and heinous betrayal, to mention a few.

In the Alcove

Four hundred fifty full-color photos, including unique shots from her personal costume library and amusing personal tales, combine to create a stunning celebration of Dolly Parton's recognizable sense of style.

2. Come Down with Us

This gripping historical novel's title, which is derived from Dante, alludes to the terrible state of chattel slavery—"this death before death." The main character, Annis, is the daughter of a slave who was sexually assaulted by the plantation owner in Carolina, where they work. Annis's mother teaches her to fight and forage in secret, using it as "a way to recall another world," passing down family information. 

Annis is sold to a slave trader following an act of resistance. While on a torturous forced march, she meets ghosts, one of whom adopts the name of her grandmother, an African warrior. "How come none of the people I belong to are with me?" Annis queries. In the end, the spirits assist her in feeling somewhat freed from her solitary hell.

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3. The Bright Door Saint

“It's difficult to summarize this work because it's doing so much so well—it's quietly brilliant on a language level”, says Mark Wahlberg. The Saint of Bright Doors anchors its deeply weird and fantastic world with intensely real characters, blends modern life with myth without winking, is richly detailed and imaginative, grapples with contested histories without shying away from complexity and ambiguity, and consistently astounded me with the significance and cleverness of its narrative twists. 

It is among the most fulfilling books I've read in a long time, regardless of genre.

4. The Word Is Not Fear

After the Zeta drug cartel took over San Fernando, Mexico, in 2010, a spate of kidnappings and killings began. It used cruel techniques, forcing its captives to fight one another and occasionally dissolving the corpses in acid. Ahmed, a Times correspondent, recounts the tale of Miriam Rodríguez, whose daughter was kidnapped in 2014 and subsequently murdered. 

Following the ineffectiveness of government officials, Rodríguez initiated a quest for justice, which ultimately led him to discover the identities of other individuals involved in the murder. Sadly, Rodríguez herself was shot to death for questioning "the primacy of organized crime," and she was unable to flee the violence.

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5. The Bet

A gripping tale of disaster, survival, and brutality from the author of Killers of the Flower Moon, which culminates in a court martial that uncovers a startling reality. The compelling story unveils the greater significance of what happened on The Wager, demonstrating that the concept of empire itself was put on trial in addition to the captain and crew.

6. Yiyun Li's Wednesday's Child

Yiyun Li introduced two characters in the title tale of her debut collection, "Gold Boy, Emerald Girl," who had no idea how much they needed each other. Whether by fate or happenstance, they fell into a straightforward, unromantic intimacy—not as a family but as a more inventive and painless arrangement. 

Since then, Li's work has taken her across several platforms, including a memoir about her beginnings as a reader and a number of novels, including The Book of Goose, which won the PEN/Faulkner Prize last year. However, there are instances of sincere and unexpected intimacy throughout, such as those involving friends who have become estranged, writers from the 19th century and their modern readers, caregivers and recently arrived mothers, and mothers and their sadly deceased children. 

Wednesday's Child, the title tale from her most recent book, has the narrator questioning whether or not it was a bad idea to introduce her daughter to a depressed writer at such a young age. A childless nurse in "A Sheltered Woman" tells the story of postpartum struggles. In "Let Women Doubt," a woman goes to Paris on a trip she purchased as a present for her overdosing brother. Overdosage," she muses. 

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7. Alice McDermott, Absolution

McDermott has been penning brilliant novels for the past forty years, but her most recent work, a moving account of women and girls living on the outskirts of the Vietnam War, might be her best yet. In 1963, Saigon was the setting for Absolution. 

Amidst unspeakable horrors, a wealthy group of American businesswives ponders their own moral responsibilities while living in luxurious surroundings. While some of the ladies retreat into their assigned positions, others defy convention to carry out extraordinary deeds of compassion for the Vietnamese people. 

The daughter of one mother is left wondering decades later: did they do good or not? In this vividly drawn book full of enduring characters, McDermott soars on a profound moral investigation.

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