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Best Books of 2023

The Bentley Library's 15th annual Best Books display.

Introducing the Best Books of 2023

The Best Books of 2023 display was featured January 19 - March 2, 2024 at the Bentley Library. This page is a snapshot of the items included in that display and is no longer updated. Availability of items listed below may vary. If an item is not in our collection that you would like to read, consider placing an Interlibrary Loan request.

We’re celebrating the best of 2023 – best books, that is! Browse below by category (fiction or nonfiction) and format (print or electronic) to see more than 250 titles that appeared on 17 year-end best books lists.* 

Click on any book cover image to check current availability and/or place holds. Bentley students, staff, and faculty can access the titles on the e-books and digital audiobooks lists with a Bentley email address and password. Happy reading!

Fiction (E-Books)

Above Ground
After That Night
All the Sinners Bleed
The Bandit Queens
The Breakaway
Brotherless Night
The Burnout
Chain Gang All Stars
Check & Mate
The Chinese Groove
The Covenant of Water
Crook Manifesto
A Disappearance in Fiji
Exiles
The First Ladies
The Five-Star Weekend
Fourth Wing
The God of Endings
The Guest
Hang the Moon
Happy Place
The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store
Hell Bent
Hello Beautiful
Highly Suspicious and Unfairly Cute
Holly
How to Sell a Haunted House
I Have Some Questions for You
Immortal Longings
Iron Flame
Let Us Descend
Love, Theoretically
Murder Your Employer
Murtagh
None of This Is True
North Woods
Rogue Justice
Small World
Someone Else's Shoes
Tom Lake
We Are All So Good at Smiling
The Wind Knows My Name
Yellowface
Zero Days

Nonfiction (E-Books)

24/7 Politics
Art of Custom Sneakers
The Best Minds
The Case for Good Jobs
The Deadline
The Declassification Engine
Elon Musk
Emperor of Rome
Enough
Fire Weather
Going Infinite
Good Power
Hidden Potential
How to Know a Person
How to Say Babylon
LeBron
The Many Lives of Mama Love
Nearer My Freedom: The Interesting Life of Olaudah Equiano by Himself
The Perfection Trap
Power and Progress
Say the Right Thing
Some People Need Killing
To Free the Captives: A Plea for the American Soul
Traffic
The Underworld
Unsupervised
The Worlds I See

Fiction (Print): A-L

Absolution
The Adventures of Amina Al-Sirafi
After Sappho
After That Night
Age of Vice
All the Sinners Bleed
All You Have to Do Is Call
Amazing Grace Adams
The Armor of Light
The Art of Scandal
The Bee Sting
Beholder
The Berry Pickers
Beyond the Door of No Return
Biography of X
Birnam Wood
Blackouts
The Blackwoods
The Breakaway
Bright Young Women
The Brothers Hawthorne
Chain Gang All Stars
Champion of Fate
Crook Manifesto
Day
Don't Fear the Reaper
Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries
The End of Drum-Time
Evil Eye
Exiles
Family Lore
The Five-Star Weekend
Forged by Blood
Fourth Wing
Fractal Noise
The Fraud
From From
The God of Endings
Greek Lessons
Hang the Moon
Happy Place
The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store
Hello Beautiful
Holly
The House of Doors
I Am Homeless If This Is Not My Home
I Have Some Questions for You
The Iliad
Immortal Longings
In Ascension
Iron Flame
Kairos
Land of Milk and Honey
The Last Devil to Die
The Late Americans
Let Us Descend
Lone Women
Love, Theoretically

Fiction (Print): M-Z

The Maniac
Monica
Murder Your Employer
Murtagh
The Naked Tree
The New Naturals
North Woods
Old God's Time
On a Woman's Madness
Promise
Prophet Song
The Puzzle Master
The Reformatory
Roaming
Romantic Comedy
Same Bed Different Dreams
A Shining
Silver Nitrate
Small Mercies
Someone Else's Shoes
A Soul of Ash and Blood
A Spell of Good Things
Study for Obedience
Temple Folk
This Other Eden
To Shape a Dragon's Breath
Tom Lake
Tremor
The Unsettled
The Vaster Wilds
Victory City
The Vulnerables
Wade in the Water
Warrior Girl Unearthed
The Water Outlaws
Wednesday's Child
Wellness
Western Lane
The Wind Knows My Name
Witch King
Witness
The Wolves of Eternity
The World and All That It Holds
The Wren, the Wren
Y/N
Yellowface
Zero Days

Nonfiction (Print): A-L

The 272
Against the World: Anti-Globalism and Mass Politics Between the World Wars
Althea
American Gun
American Inheritance: Liberty and Slavery in the Birth of a Nation, 1765-1795
The Art Thief
Astor
Better Living Through Birding
Biting the Hand
Black AF History
Black Ball
Build the Life You Want
Built from the Fire
The Case for Good Jobs
A City on Mars
The Country of the Blind
The Cult of Creativity
A Darker Wilderness
Daughter of the Dragon
The Deadline
Doppelganger
Economics in America
Elon Musk
Emperor of Rome
Empireland
Enough
Eve
The Exceptions
Fire Weather
Going Infinite
Good for a Girl
Good Power
The Half Known Life
He/She/They
Hi Honey, I'm Homo!
Hidden Potential
Hijab Butch Blues
Hip Hop Family Tree
How Infrastructure Works
How to Know a Person
The Humanity Archive
Humanly Possible
Into the Amazon
King: a Life
The Land of Hope and Fear
Latin American Artists
LeBron
Leg
The Life and Times of Hannah Crafts
A Life of One's Own
The Long Reckoning
Look for Me There

Nonfiction (Print): M-Z

Madonna: A Rebel Life
Make It Japanese: Simple Recipes for Everyone
A Man of Two Faces
Master Slave Husband Wife
Milton Friedman: The Last Conservative
Monsters: A Fan's Dilemma
Mott Street: A Chinese American Family's Story of Exclusion and Homecoming
My Name Is Barbra
Ordinary Notes
Oscar Wars
Our Migrant Souls
Pageboy
The Parrot and the Igloo
The Perfection Trap
Poverty, by America
The Race to Be Myself
Red Memory
The Rediscovery of America
Revolutionary Spring
Rivermouth: A Chronicle of Language, Faith, and Migration
Road to Surrender
A Rome of One's Own
The Russo-Ukrainian War
Say the Right Thing
Serving Herself: The Life and Times of Althea Gibson
The Six
The Soviet Century
Sure, I'll Join Your Cult
The Talk
The Teachers
Tomorrow Perhaps the Future
Traffic
UFO
V Is for Victory
Visions of Inequality
The Wager
Waiting to Be Arrested at Night
War and Punishment
We Could Have Been Friends, My Father and I
Weathering
We've Got You Covered
When Crack Was King
Why the Bible Began
Wild Girls
The Woman in Me
The World Central Kitchen Cookbook
The World
Worm
Worthy
Young Queens

Audiobooks

Chain Gang All Stars
The Covenant of Water
Crook Manifesto
Differ We Must
The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store
King: a Life
Making It So: A Memoir
None of This Is True
Pageboy
Poverty, By America
Promises of Gold
To Shape a Dragon's Breath
Tom Lake
Vera Wong's Unsolicited Advice for Murderers
The Wager
Warrior Girl Unearthed
The Wind Knows My Name

Sources

*Sources consulted: Audible, AudioFile, Barnes & Noble, Bloomberg, Booklist, The Boston Globe, The Christian Science Monitor, The Economist, The Financial Times, The Guardian, Kirkus Reviews, Library Journal, The New York Times, NPR, Publishers Weekly, The Wall Street Journal, and The Washington Post.

Best Books Display Archives

Take  a look back at our previous Best Books displays!