Presenting the 2023 Commonly-Agreed-by-the-People-Who-Publish-Best-of-2023-Book-Lists-Before-December-31 top 55 books.
(This is my annual community service to book-bloggers – a list of the books that appear most frequently on the 49 lists that I listed on Best Books of 2023 – A List of Lists – enjoy!).
Books that made six lists –
Big Swiss by Jen Beagin
The Rediscovery of America by Ned Blackhawk
The Art Thief by Michael Finkel
Small Mercies by Dennis Lehane
August Blue by Deborah Levy
Prophet Song by Paul Lynch
Vengeance Is Mine by Marie Ndiaye
Same Bed Different Dreams by Ed Park
The Best Minds by Jonathan Rosen
Ordinary Notes by Christina Sharpe
Romantic Comedy by Curtis Sittenfeld
Master Slave Husband Wife by Ilyon Woo
Books that made seven lists –
Old God’s Time by Sebastian Barry
Tremor by Teju Cole
Day by Michael Cunningham
Monsters by Claire Dederer
Wifedom by Anna Funder
This Other Eden by Paul Harding
Pineapple Street by Jenny Jackson
Age of Vice by Deepti Kapoor
Doppelganger by Naomi Klein
Bright Young Women by Jessica Knoll
The Maniac by Benjamín Labatut
I Am Homeless If This Is Not My Home by Lorrie Moore
The Rachel Incident by Caroline O’Donoghue
Fire Weather by John Vaillant
Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros
Books that made eight lists –
Poverty by America by Matthew Desmond
Crook Manifesto by Colson Whitehead
Books that made nine lists –
All the Sinners Bleed by S.A. Cosby
Our Share of Night by Mariana Enriquez
My Name is Barbra by Barbra Streisand
Books that made ten lists –
The Wren, the Wren by Anne Enright
I Have Some Questions for You by Rebecca Makkai
North Woods by Daniel Mason
How to Say Babylon by Safiya Sinclair
Blackouts by Justin Torres
The Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese
Books that made 11 lists –
King: A Life by Jonathan Eig
The Vaster Wilds by Lauren Groff
Lone Women by Victor LaValle
Absolution by Alice McDermott
Land of Milk and Honey by C Pam Zhang
Books that made 12 or 13 lists –
The Guest by Emma Cline
The Wager by David Grann
The Bee Sting by Paul Murray
Hello Beautiful by Anna Napolitano
Books that made 15 lists –
Biography of X by Catherine Lacey
Let Us Descend by Jesmyn Ward
The book that made 17, 18, 19 lists –
Birnam Wood by Eleanor Catton
The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store by James McBride
Tom Lake by Ann Patchett
The Fraud by Zadie Smith
Yellowface by R. F. Kuang
The book that made 20 lists –
Chain-Gang All-Stars by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah
————————————————————————————
I’ve read six (Beagin, Sittenfeld, Funder, Jackson, Patchett and Kuang); DNF one (Smith); have another three in the TBR stack (Murray, O’Donoghue and Enright) and I am busting to read another four (Levy, Cunningham, Klein and McDermott). Will I read the ‘winner’? I’m not sure… probably not! (It doesn’t appeal to me at all).
Do you agree with the critics – will any of these titles make your ‘Best of 2023’ list?