March 27, 2024

Books You May Have Missed in 2023

About Nicole Pajer

Nicole Pajer is a Los Angeles-based freelance published in The New York Times, Woman's Day, AARP, Parade, Wired, Glamour, People and more.

Love reading? Keeping up on what’s hot can be hard – especially with all the good books that come out every year. It’s 2024 now, but that doesn’t mean you can’t venture back a year and hop into the popular books everyone was talking about. Here are 10 books that were all the rage in 2023. From old timey cookbooks to royal memoirs—and several page-turning novels – this list has something for everyone!

The Seven Year Slip by Ashley Poston
Romance fans get ready! This book is a fresh and magical take on the genre. Meet Clementine. She’s down on her luck for myriad reasons, but the one thing she does have going for her is that she’s inherited her aunt’s apartment, a cozy place that her aunt warned her can have some magical surprises. One day Clementine comes home from work to find a man standing in her kitchen. The catch? He’s from a different time than she is. He exists seven years in the past. The duo keeps finding their way back to each other and the book poses the ultimate question: is love really just a matter of timing?

The Bee Sting by Paul Murray
This fast-paced novel follows the Barnes Family through an array of troubles. One family member is struggling with their business. Another is busy building an apocalypse-proof bunker in the woods. One is selling her jewelry on eBay to pay the bills, while the kids are drinking away their troubles and threatening to leave town. With so much family drama wrapped up into one novel it’s a big juicy read.

My Name is Barbra by Barbra Streisand
If you’re a fan of “Babs,” you’ll want to read all about her life – in her own words. In her long-awaited memoir, the icon with a career spanning six decades talks about everything from growing up in Brooklyn to her first big break and her struggles to make it along the way. She talks about her singing career, friendships with everyone from Marlon Brando to Madeleine Albright, political advocacy – and yes, her marriage to James Brolin.

Fourth Wing (The Empyrean, #1) by Rebecca Yarros
With over 1.3 million ratings on Goodreads, this book currently averages an impressive 4.6 out of 5 rating. In this book, you meet 21-year-old Violet Sorrengail who was set to follow in her father’s footsteps and join the “Scribe Quadrant,” where she’d live a quiet life alongside books and history. But her mother orders her to instead enter the “Riders Quadrant” of the Basgiath War College and become a dragon rider. It’s a fun mystical journey through a very exciting world.

Happy Place by Emily Henry
Author Emily Henry came onto the scene with her book Beach Read, a fun summer romance that is currently being developed into a film. If you were a fan of that book, you’ll love this one. This instant New York Times Bestseller follows a couple who broke up months ago as they head off on an annual friends vacation and pretend to still be together – for the sake of keeping the peace during the trip. What could go wrong? And what could go right?

Yellowface by R.F. Kuang
This New York Times bestseller caught the attention of many, including actress Reese Witherspoon, who selected it as one of her book club picks. The story follows June Hayward, an author who witnesses the death of a fellow author, Athena Liu. As an act of impulse, June steals Athena’s finished manuscript, edits it, and pretends it’s her own work. Yellowface takes readers on a wild ride as they find out if June gets away with it – and more importantly if she learns any important lessons along the way.

The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store by James McBride
Barnes & Noble deemed this “the best book of the year” for 2023, and for good reason. It takes place in 1972 where a group of workers in Pennsylvania dig up a new development and an unexpected skeleton. The book, which features several character stories that intertwine as you go, has been described by the New York Times Book Review as “a murder mystery locked inside a Great American Novel.”

Spare by Prince Harry, the Duke of Sussex
If you’ve ever found yourself intrigued by the British Royal Family, you won’t be able to put this one down. After marrying Meghan Markle and fleeing the crown for Southern California, Prince Harry opens up and lets it all out. He talks about everything from his relationship with his brother to joining the British Army, meeting the love of his life, navigating life in the public eye, memories of his mother, and his decision to go royal rogue.

Baking Yesteryear by B. Dylan Hollis
If you like to bake and are a fan of nostalgia, this is the perfect cookbook for you. When B. Dylan Hollis got his hands on some vintage cookbooks, there was no turning back. He hopped right in, making everything from chocolate potato cake from the 1910s to avocado pie from the 1960s. This book is filled with all sorts of interesting recipes from the 20^th century, many of which you’d never dream of whipping up. Tomato soup cake or potato chip cookies anyone?

Trust by Hernan Diaz
This book was the winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for 2023 and was hugely buzzed about in 2022. But it got a second wave of accolades when came out in paperback in 2023. It follows legendary Wall Street tycoon Benjamin Rask and his wife Helen, the daughter of eccentric aristocrats. They’ve risen to the top but at what cost? The book follows their journey through the lens of four different characters each providing their own accounts of how things with the Rasks went down.

Need more recommendations? Check out the top books in 2022 and 2021.