The Best Books of 2023
Last updated: November 18, 2024
Award-Winning Novels of 2023, recommended by Cal Flyn
The enormous variety of new, beautifully-blurbed books being published every month presents an agony of choice for the casual reader. Luckily, literary prize shortlists offer a shortcut to discovering some of the best novels of the year. Here, Five Books deputy editor Cal Flyn offers a helpful round-up of the award-winning novels of the 2023 season and a few notable runners-up. Read more fiction recommendations on Five Books
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1
Material World: The Six Raw Materials That Shape Modern Civilization
by Ed Conway -
2
Right Kind of Wrong: Why Learning to Fail Can Teach Us to Thrive
by Amy Edmondson -
3
How Big Things Get Done: The Surprising Factors That Determine the Fate of Every Project, from Home Renovations to Space Exploration and Everything In Between
by Bent Flyvbjerg & Dan Gardner -
4
Elon Musk
by Walter Isaacson -
5
Cobalt Red: How the Blood of the Congo Powers Our Lives
by Siddharth Kara -
6
The Coming Wave: Technology, Power, and the Twenty-first Century's Greatest Dilemma
by Michael Bhaskar & Mustafa Suleyman
The Best Business Books of 2023: the Financial Times Business Book of the Year Award, recommended by Andrew Hill
The Best Business Books of 2023: the Financial Times Business Book of the Year Award, recommended by Andrew Hill
If you like nonfiction books that will get you up to speed with what’s going on in the world, the Financial Times annual book prize is a great place to start. If you run a business, one or two useful books also feature. Andrew Hill, the newspaper’s senior business writer, talks us through the books that made the 2023 shortlist, from cobalt extraction in the Congo to how to manage the AI genie that’s out of the bottle and coming towards us at speed.
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1
G-Man: J. Edgar Hoover and the Making of the American Century
by Beverly Gage -
2
The Grimkés: The Legacy of Slavery in an American Family
by Kerri K. Greenidge -
3
Mr. B: George Balanchine’s Twentieth Century
by Jennifer Homans -
4
Metaphysical Animals: How Four Women Brought Philosophy Back to Life
by Clare Mac Cumhaill & Rachael Wiseman -
5
Up from the Depths: Herman Melville, Lewis Mumford, and Rediscovery in Dark Times
by Aaron Sachs
The Best Biographies of 2023: The National Book Critics Circle Shortlist, recommended by Elizabeth Taylor
The Best Biographies of 2023: The National Book Critics Circle Shortlist, recommended by Elizabeth Taylor
Talented biographers examine the interplay between individual qualities and greater social forces, explains Elizabeth Taylor—chair of the judges for the 2023 National Book Critics Circle award for biography. Here, she offers us an overview of their five-book shortlist, including a garlanded account of the life of J. Edgar Hoover and a group biography of post-war female philosophers.
The Best Science Fiction of 2023: The Arthur C. Clarke Award Shortlist, recommended by Tom Hunter
Every year, the judges of the Arthur C Clarke Award select the best sci-fi novels of the previous twelve months. We asked prize director Tom Hunter to talk us through the six science fiction books that made the 2023 shortlist—including a space opera romance and a high-concept action thriller that has already won the most prestigious award in Francophone literature.
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1
Your Brain on Art: How the Arts Transform Us
by Ivy Ross & Susan Magsamen -
2
How to Be a Renaissance Woman: The Untold History of Beauty & Female Creativity
by Jill Burke -
3
Bring No Clothes : Bloomsbury and the Philosophy of Fashion
by Charlie Porter -
4
Art Monsters: Unruly Bodies in Feminist Art
by Lauren Elkin -
5
Talk Art The Interviews: Conversations on art, life and everything
by Robert Diament & Russell Tovey
The Best Art Books of 2023, recommended by Francesca Ramsay
The Best Art Books of 2023, recommended by Francesca Ramsay
From the latest research on what art does to the brain to how women in Renaissance times used cosmetics, this year saw a range of accessible and authoritative books about art. Art historian Francesca Ramsay recommends her best art books of 2023—and argues that for all the doom and gloom, it’s an exciting time to be an artist.
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1
Humanly Possible: Seven Hundred Years of Humanist Freethinking, Inquiry, and Hope
by Sarah Bakewell -
2
The Dangerous Life and Ideas of Diogenes the Cynic
by Jean-Manuel Roubineau, Malcolm DeBevoise & Phillip Mitsis -
3
Parfit: A Philosopher and His Mission to Save Morality
by David Edmonds -
4
The Experience Machine: How Our Minds Predict and Shape Reality
by Andy Clark -
5
For F*ck's Sake: Why Swearing is Shocking, Rude, and Fun
by Rebecca Roache
The Best Philosophy Books of 2023, recommended by Nigel Warburton
The Best Philosophy Books of 2023, recommended by Nigel Warburton
The genre of philosophical biography is flourishing, as we pay attention not only to what philosophers said and wrote but also to how they lived and the intellectual context in which they developed their ideas. Nigel Warburton, our philosophy editor, picks out some of the best philosophy books of the year, from the man who lived in a storage jar in 5th century Athens to the latest contributions of cognitive science to our understanding of how we experience the world. Read more philosophy book recommendations on Five Books
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1
An Immense World: How Animal Senses Reveal the Hidden Realms Around Us
by Ed Yong -
2
Breathless: The Scientific Race to Defeat a Deadly Virus
by David Quammen -
3
Jellyfish Age Backwards: Nature's Secrets to Longevity
by Nicklas Brendborg -
4
Nuts and Bolts: Seven Small Inventions That Changed the World in a Big Way
by Roma Agrawal -
5
Taking Flight: The Evolutionary Story of Life on the Wing
by Lev Parikian -
6
The Exceptions: Nancy Hopkins, MIT, and the Fight for Women in Science
by Kate Zernike
The Best Science Books of 2023: The Royal Society Book Prize, recommended by Rebecca Henry
The Best Science Books of 2023: The Royal Society Book Prize, recommended by Rebecca Henry
The Royal Society, set up in the 1660s, is a fellowship of some of the world’s most eminent scientists. It also has an annual book prize, celebrating the best popular science writing. Neuroscientist Rebecca Henry, one of this year’s judges, talks us through the fabulous books that made the 2023 shortlist—and explains how good science writing can change the way you see the world around you.
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1
Vera Wong's Unsolicited Advice for Murderers
by Jesse Q. Sutanto and narrated by Eunice Wong -
2
Code Gray: Death, Life, and Uncertainty in the ER
by Farzon Nahvi and narrated by Aden Hakimi -
3
I Have Some Questions for You
by Rebecca Makkai and narrated by Julia Whelan and JD Jackson -
4
The Survivalists
by Kashana Cauley and narrated by Bahni Turpin -
5
Pineapple Street: A Novel
by Jenny Jackson and narrated by Marin Ireland
Best Audiobooks of 2023 (so far), recommended by Michele Cobb
Best Audiobooks of 2023 (so far), recommended by Michele Cobb
As summer kicks off in the northern hemisphere, it’s a great time to relax and listen to a good audiobook. Michele Cobb, publisher of AudioFile magazine, shares her favourite new audiobooks from the first half of 2023—from cozy mysteries and beach reads to the memoir of an ER doctor during Covid.
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1
The Skull
Jon Klassen, Fairuza Balk (narrator) -
2
Stuntboy, In-Between Time
Jason Reynolds, Raúl the Third (illustrator), Guy Lockard (narrator) -
3
Nic Blake and the Remarkables: The Manifestor Prophecy
by Angie Thomas & Joniece Abbott-Pratt (narrator) -
4
Ander & Santi Were Here
Jonny Garza Villa, Avi Roque (narrator) -
5
Warrior Girl Unearthed
by Angeline Boulley & Isabella Star LaBlanc (narrator)
The Best Audiobooks for Kids of 2023, recommended by Emily Connelly
The Best Audiobooks for Kids of 2023, recommended by Emily Connelly
From the USA to Germany to China, audiobooks are growing in popularity, especially with young people. AudioFile’s Emily Connelly talks us through her selection of the five best audiobooks for children and teens in 2023.
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1
Sparks: China's Underground Historians and their Battle for the Future
by Ian Johnson -
2
Red Memory: The Afterlives of China's Cultural Revolution
by Tania Branigan -
3
Invitation to a Banquet: The Story of Chinese Food
by Fuchsia Dunlop -
4
Made in Taiwan: Recipes and Stories from the Island Nation
by Clarissa Wei -
5
Waiting to Be Arrested at Night: A Uyghur Poet's Memoir of China's Genocide
by Tahir Hamut Izgil and translated by Joshua Freeman
The Best China Books of 2023, recommended by Jeffrey Wasserstrom
The Best China Books of 2023, recommended by Jeffrey Wasserstrom
The rise of China has led to an ever broader range of books about the country becoming available in English. There’s also a greater focus on its diversity, which the country’s Communist leadership likes to downplay. Jeffrey Wasserstrom, a professor of Chinese history at UC Irvine, talks us through his favourite books of 2023, from painful historical episodes to the harsh policies targeting a largely Muslim ethnic group in Xinjiang today—by way of two lighter books that focus on food and cooking.