My Favorite Books I Read in 2023

I get a free eBook every month with Amazon Prime.

I love love love renting eBooks for Kindle or Libby from my local library.

I typically read about one book every week or two.

I love historical fiction and scifi.

I’ve read lots of books this year, but these stood out as my favorites.

Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert Heinlein

I highlighted so much of this book and I think about the messages and characters all the time. Heinlein is one of my favorite authors.

Raised by Martians on Mars, Valentine Michael Smith is a human who has never seen another member of his species. Sent to Earth, he is a stranger who must learn what it is to be a man. But his own beliefs and his powers far exceed the limits of humankind, and as he teaches them about grokking and water-sharing, he also inspires a transformation that will alter Earth’s inhabitants forever…

Master Class by Christina Dalcher

As a mother and educator, this book really resonated with me and I realize how easily we could slip down this slope in our society. It was very disturbing to me.

It’s impossible to know what you will do…

Every child’s potential is regularly determined by a standardized measurement: their quotient (Q). Score high enough, and attend a top tier school with a golden future. Score too low, and it’s off to a federal boarding school with limited prospects afterwards. The purpose? An improved society where education costs drop, teachers focus on the more promising students, and parents are happy.

When your child is taken from you.

Elena Fairchild is a teacher at one of the state’s elite schools. When her nine-year-old daughter bombs a monthly test and her Q score drops to a disastrously low level, she is immediately forced to leave her top school for a federal institution hundreds of miles away. As a teacher, Elena thought she understood the tiered educational system, but as a mother whose child is now gone, Elena’s perspective is changed forever. She just wants her daughter back.

And she will do the unthinkable to make it happen.

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid

This book really surprised me with all the connections and the shocking ending. I was actually surprised and that seldom happens!

Aging and reclusive Hollywood movie icon Evelyn Hugo is finally ready to tell the truth about her glamorous and scandalous life. But when she chooses unknown magazine reporter Monique Grant for the job, no one is more astounded than Monique herself. Why her? Why now?

Monique is not exactly on top of the world. Her husband has left her, and her professional life is going nowhere. Regardless of why Evelyn has selected her to write her biography, Monique is determined to use this opportunity to jumpstart her career.

Summoned to Evelyn’s luxurious apartment, Monique listens in fascination as the actress tells her story. From making her way to Los Angeles in the 1950s to her decision to leave show business in the ‘80s, and, of course, the seven husbands along the way, Evelyn unspools a tale of ruthless ambition, unexpected friendship, and a great forbidden love. Monique begins to feel a very real connection to the legendary star, but as Evelyn’s story near its conclusion, it becomes clear that her life intersects with Monique’s own in tragic and irreversible ways.

Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese

Such a poignant historical fiction across decades and continents. I learned a lot about this culture.

Marion and Shiva Stone are twin brothers born of a secret union between a beautiful Indian nun and a brash British surgeon. Orphaned by their mother’s death and their father’s disappearance, bound together by a preternatural connection and a shared fascination with medicine, the twins come of age as Ethiopia hovers on the brink of revolution.

Moving from Addis Ababa to New York City and back again, Cutting for Stone is an unforgettable story of love and betrayal, medicine and ordinary miracles—and two brothers whose fates are forever intertwined.

The Cemetery of Forgotten (4 book series) by Carlos Ruiz Zafon

The Shadow of the Wind, The Angel’s Game, The Prisoner of Heaven, The Labyrinth of the Spirits

I love how magical and literary these books are! I wish we had more from this author!

Book1 – Barcelona, 1945: A city slowly heals in the aftermath of the Spanish Civil War, and Daniel, an antiquarian book dealer’s son who mourns the loss of his mother, finds solace in a mysterious book entitled The Shadow of the Wind, by one Julián Carax. But when he sets out to find the author’s other works, he makes a shocking discovery: someone has been systematically destroying every copy of every book Carax has written. In fact, Daniel may have the last of Carax’s books in existence. Soon Daniel’s seemingly innocent quest opens a door into one of Barcelona’s darkest secrets—an epic story of murder, madness, and doomed love.

What was your favorite book this year?

You might also like:

• My Favorite Books 2022
• My Favorite Books 2021
• My Favorite Books 2020
• My Favorite Books 2019
• My Favorite Books 2018
• My Favorite Life Changing Books
• Apocalyptic Media to Binge
• 10 Classics to Read When the World Seems Too Bleak
• Top 10 Books for Homeschoolers
• Great Books for Writers
• 5 Best Life Skills Books for Teens

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