Possibly, these books will help you find new and interesting stories that will capture your attention and not let go until the last page. Books have their own special magic that can transport you to different worlds and experiences. Don’t be afraid to try something new and discover new authors and genres. Books can be a great way to spend time and broaden your horizons.
2023 is coming to an end and we are summing up the year. In this article, you will see some of the best books of this year. Our top list includes books from different genres, but they are all interesting in their own way. Each author has put their heart into their book and it has not gone unnoticed. Here is our list of the best books of this year:
Megan Nolan
“Acts of Desperation”
Megan Nolan’s debut novel is a story of not love, but emotional dependency. The unnamed protagonist meets a charismatic but distant intellectual who quickly turns their relationship into a cycle of breakups and reunions. And the higher the amplitude of these emotional swings, the harder it is to get off them. Megan Nolan writes from the perspective of a girl losing her own identity: she equally destroys herself and allows others to do so. The success of the novel is not only due to how candidly Nolan tells the story of the trap of toxic relationships, but also to the character of the main heroine, who continues to evoke sympathy even when she goes through hardships or treats her loved ones poorly.
Kai Bird, Martin J. Sherwin “Oppenheimer: Triumph and Tragedy of the American Prometheus”
Why do you think Christopher Nolan chose this book for his adaptation? The director himself stated that he had never heard a more dramatic story: “Like it or not, Robert Oppenheimer is the most important person who ever lived on Earth.” The monumental, detailed story of the life of a great physicist who created the atomic bomb and regretted it is still painful and relevant. It is important to read the Pulitzer Prize-winning biography of Oppenheimer, firstly, so as not to forget the lessons of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and secondly, to understand how a person who amazed his loved ones with his kindness and exceptional talent ultimately contributes to one of the most monstrous catastrophes of the 20th century.
Julie Otsuka
“The Swimmers”
The fading of a loved one is a topic as foolproof as it is risky and manipulative. The author conscientiously describes how the connection with a close and beloved person is severed, and the reader feels like they are being played like an accordion. Julie Otsuka (a 61-year-old American writer of Japanese descent; “The Swimmers” is only her third book) perceives this danger like any true artist – as a creative challenge. Her solution is to develop a special, brutally sentimental intonation that allows her to speak about the terrible and unbearable piercingly, honestly, and artistically at the same time. An excellent novel about relationships with elderly parents. About the victims of the war between the US and Japan. About the peculiarities of life in psychiatric hospitals: the chapter “Bellevista” is the most terrifying fictional text you will read this year. About how to write a novel about loss (the book reaches a meta-level on its very last pages). And, of course, about swimming.
Liu Cixin
“Holding Up the Sky”
An anthology of stories by China’s leading science fiction writer Liu Cixin. The texts included in the collection were written from 1999 to 2017, which makes it a kind of overview of 18 years of his writing career. From this perspective, you can trace not only the author’s evolution but also the development of Liu Cixin’s key idea – the interconnection of the small and insignificant (or only seemingly so) with the grand and eternal.
Liu Cixin draws inspiration from the best examples of classic science fiction – books by Arthur C. Clarke, Philip K. Dick, Isaac Asimov, Frank Herbert – skillfully weaving in Eastern flavor and his own reflections on how progress will change individuals and society as a whole. If you want to get acquainted with Liu Cixin’s fantastic worlds but find it difficult to approach the “Remembrance of Earth’s Past” trilogy, then this collection of short and concise texts is perfect for you.
Michelle Houellebecq
“Destroy”
A novel that starts as a cyber-thriller turns first into a family drama about loneliness and survival in a modern city, then into a suspenseful prose about election technologies and the dishonesty of politicians, and finally into a philosophical parable. It seems like a typical text by Houellebecq about a gloomy hero who doesn’t quite understand why he is alive; his life lacks warmth, happiness, sex, and meaning. And at the same time, there are almost detective intrigues popping up here and there. And it’s also a novel about rock, destiny, and redemption – everything as in classic 19th-century prose.
M.L. Rio
“We Like Villains”
A classical tragedy set in modern settings. The plot unfolds within the walls of a closed university, where students can be so impressed by Shakespeare’s texts that they allow themselves to kill someone (even if it’s in the name of saving their fellow students). Throughout the novel, the reader listens to the story of a protagonist who has been convicted of murder but did not commit it, and the intrigue is maintained by the anticipation: when will the real killer be revealed? This book became the first for the new publishing house “Dom istoriy” (House of Stories), created by the team behind the Russian audiobook service Storytel, and it was hard to come up with a better premiere.
This is only a small part of the worthy books of this year, all of them are very interesting and captivating. Take note of these books, as they are likely to interest you. If you don’t like reading, it just means that you haven’t found a worthy book yet. Books convey the plot better than any movies. Consider whether you or your acquaintances can find something special for themselves in these books!
