The 10 Best Books of 2023

When people ask me what kinds of books I like to read, it doesn’t seem practical to tell them, “Anything that captures my attention.” While my regular reading choices do tend to pull from the same few genres, I will legitimately read anything that keeps me wanting more after reading the description on the dust jacket. Of course, there are only so many hours in a day, and then when you throw in adult responsibilities, there isn’t always time to read every single book whose premise leaves me wanting more. But I do my best, and since I started working in a library this year, it does allow me a wider reach of titles that I want to read. Every year, it’s hard to narrow down the best books published that year that I read, but it’s always a fun challenge. Feast your eyes on my picks for the 10 best books of 2023.

Spare by Prince Harry
It was one of the most searing images of the twentieth century: two young boys, two princes, walking behind their mother’s coffin as the world watched in sorrow — and horror. As Princess Diana was laid to rest, billions wondered what Prince William and Prince Harry must be thinking and feeling — and how their lives would play out from that point on. For Harry, this is that story at last. For the first time, Prince Harry tells his own story, chronicling his journey with raw, unflinching honesty. A landmark publication, Spare is full of insight, revelation, self-examination, and hard-won wisdom about the eternal power of love over grief.

Superfan: How Pop Culture Broke My Heart by Jen Sookfong Lee
For most of Jen Sookfong Lee’s life, pop culture was an escape from family tragedy and a means of fitting in with the larger culture around her. Anne of Green Gables promised her that, despite losing her father at the age of twelve, one day she might still have the loving family of her dreams, and Princess Diana was proof that maybe there was more to being a good girl after all. And yet as Lee grew up, she began to recognize the ways in which pop culture was not made for someone like her — the child of Chinese immigrant parents who looked for safety in the invisibility afforded by embracing model minority myths. Ranging from the unattainable perfection of Gwyneth Paltrow and the father-figure familiarity of Bob Ross, to the long shadow cast by The Joy Luck Club and the life lessons she has learned from Rihanna, Lee weaves together key moments in pop culture with stories of her own failings, longings, and struggles as she navigates the minefields that come with carving her own path as an Asian woman, single mother, and writer. Check out my 20 Questions interview with the author here.

The Secret Book of Flora Lea by Patti Callahan Henry
In the war-torn London of 1939, 14-year-old Hazel and five-year-old Flora are evacuated to a rural village to escape the horrors of the Second World War. Living with the kind Bridie Aberdeen and her teenage son, Harry, in a charming stone cottage along the River Thames, Hazel fills their days with walks and games to distract her young sister, including one that she creates for her sister and her sister alone—a fairy tale about a magical land, a secret place they can escape to that is all their own. But the unthinkable happens when young Flora suddenly vanishes while playing near the banks of the river. Shattered, Hazel blames herself for her sister’s disappearance, and she carries that guilt into adulthood as a private burden she feels she deserves. 20 years later, Hazel is in London, ready to move on from her job at a cozy rare bookstore to a career at Sotheby’s. With a charming boyfriend and her elegantly timeworn Bloomsbury flat, Hazel’s future seems determined. But her tidy life is turned upside down when she unwraps a package containing an illustrated book called Whisperwood and the River of Stars. Hazel never told a soul about the imaginary world she created just for Flora. Could this book hold the secrets to Flora’s disappearance? Could it be a sign that her beloved sister is still alive after all these years? As Hazel embarks on a feverish quest, revisiting long-dormant relationships and bravely opening wounds from her past, her career and future hang in the balance. An astonishing twist ultimately reveals the truth in this transporting and refreshingly original novel about the bond between sisters, the complications of conflicted love, and the enduring magic of storytelling.

Tell Me Everything by Minka Kelly
Fans know her as the spoiled, rich cheerleader Lyla Garrity on Friday Night Lights or as the affluent, mysterious Samantha on the HBO megahit Euphoria. But as revealed for the first time in these pages, Minka Kelly’s life has been anything but easy. Raised by a single mother who worked as a stripper and struggled with addiction, Kelly spent years waking up in strange apartments as she and her mom bounced around the country, relying on friends and relatives to take them in. At times they even lived in storage units. She reconnected with her father, Aerosmith’s Rick Dufay, and eventually made her way to Los Angeles, where she landed the role of a lifetime on Friday Night Lights. Now an established actress and philanthropist, Kelly takes this next step in her career as a writer.

The Wishing Game by Meg Shaffer
Lucy Hart knows better than anyone what it’s like to grow up without parents who loved her. In a childhood marked by neglect and loneliness, Lucy found her solace in books, namely the Clock Island series by Jack Masterson. Now a 26-year-old teacher’s aide, she is able to share her love of reading with bright, young students, especially 7-year-old Lucy would give anything to adopt Christopher, but even the idea of becoming a family seems like an impossible dream without proper funds and stability. Just when Lucy is about to give up, Jack Masterson announces he’s finally written a new book. Even better, he’s holding a contest at his home on the real Clock Island, and Lucy is one of the four lucky contestants chosen to compete to win the one and only copy. For Lucy, the chance of winning the most sought-after book in the world means everything to her and Christopher. But first she must contend with ruthless book collectors, wily opponents, and the distractingly handsome (and grumpy) Hugo Reese, the illustrator of the Clock Island books. Meanwhile, Jack “the Mastermind” Masterson is plotting the ultimate twist ending that could change all their lives forever.

Hi Honey, I’m Homo!: Sitcoms, Specials, and the Queering of American Culture by Matt Baume
There’s a secret storyline hidden across some of the most popular sitcoms of the 20th century. For decades, amidst the bright lights, studio-audience laughs, and absurdly large apartment sets, the real-life story of American LGBTQ+ liberation unfolded in plain sight in front of millions of viewers, most of whom were laughing too hard to mind. From flamboyant relatives on Bewitched to network-censor fights over Barney Miller, from military secrets on M*A*S*H to a little-known man behind The Muppet Show to a primetime power-kiss on Roseanne, Hi Honey, I’m Homo! is not only the story of how subversive queer comedy transformed the American sitcom, from its inception through today, but how our favorite sitcoms transformed, and continue to transform, America.

Pageboy by Elliot Page
Pageboy is the groundbreaking coming-of-age memoir from the Academy Award-nominated actor Elliot Page. A generation-defining actor and one of the most famous trans advocates of our time, Elliot will now be known as an uncommon literary talent, as he shares never-before-heard details and intimate interrogations on gender, love, mental health, relationships, and Hollywood.

One Sunny Afternoon: A Memoir of Trauma and Healing by Rowan Jetté Knox
From the bestselling author of Love Lives Here, a deeply personal memoir about facing life-long trauma head on, and bravely healing the scars that endure. One Sunny Afternoon is a searing testament to Rowan Jetté Knox’s extraordinary reckoning with their past and present, to find hope in their future. Triggered by online harassment, they wade through their personal history and details the incidents of violence, addiction, and sexual assault that have haunted them. When Rowan eventually receives a diagnosis of Anxiety Disorder and Mood Disorder (also known as complex PTSD) and dedicates themself to recovery, they emerge with newfound strength, resiliency, and confidence. One Sunny Afternoon is a profoundly moving and candid account of how trauma can shape us, but not define us, and reveals how even in our darkest moments — and on our most hopeless days — light can find its way in.

Madonna: A Rebel Life by Mary Gabriel
With her arrival on the music scene in the early 1980s, Madonna generated nothing short of an explosion, as great as that of Elvis or the Beatles, taking the nation by storm with her liberated politics and breathtaking talent. Within two years of her 1983 debut album, a flagship Macy’s store in Manhattan held a Madonna lookalike contest featuring Andy Warhol as a judge, and opened a department called “Madonna-land.” But Madonna was more than just a pop star. Everywhere, fans gravitated to her as an emblem of a new age, one in which feminism could shed the buttoned-down demeanor of the 1970s and feel relevant to a new generation. Amid the scourge of AIDS, she brought queer identities into the mainstream, fiercely defending a person’s right to love whomever and be whoever they wanted. Despite fierce criticism, she never separated her music from her political activism. And, as an artist, she never stopped experimenting. Madonna existed to push past boundaries by creating provocative, visionary music, videos, films, and live performances that changed culture globally. Deftly tracing Madonna’s story from her Michigan roots to her rise to super-stardom, biographer Mary Gabriel captures the dramatic life and achievements of one of the greatest artists of our time.

The Woman in Me by Britney Spears
The Woman in Me is a brave and astonishingly moving story about freedom, fame, motherhood, survival, faith, and hope. In June 2021, the whole world was listening as Britney Spears spoke in open court. The impact of sharing her voice, her truth, was undeniable, and it changed the course of her life and the lives of countless others. This highly anticipated memoir reveals for the first time her incredible journey and the strength at the core of one of the greatest performers in pop music history. Written with remarkable candor and humor, Spears’s groundbreaking book illuminates the enduring power of music and love, and the importance of a woman telling her own story, on her own terms, at last.