Picks of the Season 2023

Starling House

Alix E. Harrow

“Alix E. Harrow is an exceptional, undeniable talent, and Starling House, with its gentle reassurances of the homes we make and the love we deserve, is more than satisfying. It’s pure loveliness in book form.” – Olivie Blake

The Unsettled

Ayana Mathis

“The Unsettled crosses generations and landscapes, digs in the Southern soil and walks mean Northern city streets. Expansive and explosive, this beauty of a novel showcases Ayana Mathis’s grace on the page, as writer, as storyteller. A book to be read and re-read.” – Jesmyn Ward

The MANIAC

Benjamin Labatut

“Labatut’s unique framing of John von Neumann’s brilliance and his descriptions of the transcendent power of computers and AI creates a disturbing, awe-inspiring, and inevitable vision, one foreseen by von Neumann, of an ominous future dominated by near infinite technological possibilities.” – Booklist (Starred Review)

Land of Milk and Honey

C Pam Zhang

C Pam Zhang’s latest novel is a meditation on appetite, on merit, on resilience, on identity and inheritance, on evolution, on planning and chaos. And, it’s a love letter to food and craft and pleasure, in the face of overwhelming bleakness. I loved every word. – Michelle C.

Happy

Celina Baljeet Basra

“Playful, funny, and wildly free, Happy inhabits the seam between beauty and tragedy. A miraculous novel.” – Megha Majumdar

Monica

Daniel Clowes

This graphic novel about a woman’s life is told in stylish vignettes, adding up to a rich portrait of the forces that prey on lost people. This book is nothing short of astonishing. I’m still buzzing, months after I finished it. I’m calling it: Monica is a masterpiece. – Keith M.

North Woods

Daniel Mason

“North Woods is a sui generis work of pure brilliance, an epic written with a miniaturist’s precision. Daniel Mason has unearthed, in the centuries-spanning history of a single New England home, a universal story of loss and reclamation. It’s the best book I’ve read in ages” – Anthony Marra

The Liberators

E. J. Koh

Ever since reading E. J. Koh’s transcendent memoir, The Magical Language of Others, I knew I’d read anything she writes. Her debut novel, The Liberators, is a sweeping, incredible debut that spans continents and generations. You won’t be able to put it down — I promise. – Kelsey F.

People Collide

Isle McElroy

Isle McElroy has taken a well-used trope and breathed fresh life into it. People Collide has exactly what I look for in literary fiction: intriguing characters, keen insights, and great pacing, all in service of addressing big themes. This is an immensely enjoyable and thought-provoking novel. – Keith M.

Let Us Descend

Jesmyn Ward

“Every time you think this novel is taking you places you’ve been before, Ward startles you with an image, a metaphor, a rhetorical surge that makes both Annis and her travails worth your attention. And admiration.” – Kirkus Reviews

Roman Stories

Jhumpa Lahiri

“Stunning...A finely calibrated collection about insiders and outsiders, natives and foreigners... Rome with its echoing past and mercurial present is a potently evocative setting for Lahiri’s exquisitely incisive, richly empathetic, and profoundly resonant stories.” – Booklist (Starred Review)

Roaming

Jillian Tamaki and Mariko Tamaki

Roaming is a beautiful graphic novel about coming of age while on a road trip to the city with friends. There are arguments and self-discoveries, unexpected kisses and plenty of sightseeing. Written by cousins Jillian and Mariko Tamaki, co-authors of the lovely and awarding-winning This One Summer. – Kelsey F.

Brooklyn Crime Novel

Jonathan Lethem

“The levels of mystery here astound.... Lethem is not only interrogating the form of the crime novel, but the venture of storytelling itself. All of this while remaining a joy to read, full of strange characters and expertly rendered place. This brilliant, genre-defying work will leave certainly a mark.” – Percival Everett

Blackouts

Justin Torres

Blackouts, the long-awaited second book from Justin Torres, doesn’t give its secrets away easily, or for free. Torres demands your time and focus, and earns your respect and awe. This is an experimental and moving book, sure to be read and reread in the years to come. – Adam P.

The Vaster Wilds

Lauren Groff

“Extraordinary.... Groff builds and maintains suspense on multiple levels, while offering an unflinching portrayal of her heroine’s desperation and will to survive. This is a triumph.” – Publishers Weekly (Starred Review)

Death Valley

Melissa Broder

Melissa Broder’s novel about an author dealing with her ailing dad and husband while being lost in the desert searching for a magical cactus speaks to me. Grief is a weird desert that allows you to get lost and parched while you’re trying to find magic you thought you lost. – Vicky K.

The Secret Hours

Mick Herron

“A deft knockout of a story, with an arc of history, written with humor and style. Mick Herron is one of the best writers of spy fiction working today.” – Martin Cruz Smith

The Future

Naomi Alderman

“How can a novel of big ideas be such compulsively readable entertainment? A nail-biting love story and a witty page-turner about the pros and cons of human civilization, The Future is a wow.” – Emma Donoghue

Menewood

Nicola Griffith

“Menewood is a searing depiction of a world at war, and the ferocious and complicated woman at the center of it.” – Maria Dahvana Headley

Do You Remember Being Born?

Sean Michaels

A famed poet gets an offer to collaborate with an advanced AI on a book length poem for a large sum of money. She accepts. This exhilarating novel explores what it really means to be an artist, a parent, and a consciousness. Anyone anxious about AI should read this book. – Keith M.

The Vulnerables

Sigrid Nunez

Sigrid Nunez’s work is such a heartbreaking balm. The Vulnerables, like her other books, aches with pathos and brims with humor, as the narrator dissects what it means to build a life at this moment in time. The Vulnerables goes down easy, but you’ll be thinking about it long after you finish. – Kelsey F.

The House of Doors

Tan Twan Eng

Tan Twan Eng has given us a smart and moving novel about colonialism’s impacts on societies and individuals; this beautifully written novel is an incredible pleasure to read. – Keith M.

Bookshops & Bonedust

Travis Baldree

Travis Baldree’s Bookshops & Bonedust hits like a warm cup of cocoa on a stormy day. From fixing up and uplifting a struggling bookstore to fighting a necromancer, you’ll want to spend some time cuddled up with this low-stakes, high-comfort book. Also: Potroast! (you'll get it...) – Vicky K.

The Fragile Threads of Power

V. E. Schwab

“Schwab’s pacing is confident, assured, and the book weaves a masterful spell on the reader. A delicious treat for fans of the Shades of Magic series and a lush, suspenseful fantasy in its own right.” – Kirkus Reviews

This Is Salvaged

Vauhini Vara

“A haunting, moving, and wise story collection that leads us to and through the blood-slippery true nature of mourning, commitment, sisterhood, mothering, love, and death, amidst all the strangeness and lostness of the world.” – Sarah Thankam Mathews

The Fraud

Zadie Smith

A rollicking work of historical fiction, Zadie Smith takes readers from Charles Dickens’s London to colonial Jamaica and back. Asking big questions about social roles, public morality, the value of art, and the usefulness of truth; Smith’s latest is entertaining and thought-provoking. A joy to read! – Keith M.

Artificial

Amy Kurzweil

This astonishing graphic novel about family, memory, and the dream that technology might grant a kind of immortality is so impressively smart that I was blindsided by how moving it turned out to be in the end. – Keith M.

Alfie and Me

Carl Safina

“Little Alfie unleashed a meditation about life itself and how our culture has shaped our way of seeing the world and our place in it. A unique book that is scientific and spiritual at the same time.” – Isabella Rossellini

White Holes

Carlo Rovelli

“White Holes edifies, excites, and even transforms me. Rovelli summons us to novel forms of knowledge while also breathing life into questions that affect all sentient beings, such as: how do we proceed when our guides no longer suffice? I’m grateful for the warm invitation to the journey.” – Maggie Nelson

Eve

Cat Bohannon

“Bohannon offers a bracing corrective to male-centric evolutionary accounts. She balances scientific rigor with entertaining prose....It’s an illuminating and fresh take on how human evolution unfolded.” – Publishers Weekly

The Internet Con

Cory Doctorow

“This book is the instruction manual Big Tech doesn’t want you to read. It deconstructs their crummy products, undemocratic business models, rigged legal regimes, and lies. Crack this book and help build something better.” – Astra Taylor

Everything I Learned, I Learned in a Chinese Restaurant

Curtis Chin

Curtis Chin’s memoir of growing up in his family’s Detroit Chinese restaurant is by turns moving and hilarious as he recounts the growing pains that come with being the third son in a large immigrant family amidst a time of national economic, racial, and health crises. – Keith M.

How to Know a Person

David Brooks

“A hands-on guide to making meaningful human connections” – Kirkus Reviews

Behind the Seams

Dolly Parton

“In this effervescent full-color volume, Parton recounts the vivid tales behind the clothes...[her] personal style shines brightly...An unforgettable personal and professional history of a beloved country music performer...[and] a must-have treasury for diehard Dolly fans and armchair fashionistas.” – Kirkus Reviews

The Upstairs Delicatessen

Dwight Garner

“One of the most eccentric memoirs I’ve read in years: Garner, a longtime New York Times critic, boils (dices and purées) his existence down to a pair of obsessions — books and food — so completely, it’s both honest and hard to say where the man ends and M.F.K. Fisher begins.” – Christopher Borrelli, Chicago Tribune

The World According to Joan Didion

Evelyn McDonnell

“Evelyn McDonnell has written a wonderfully fitting tribute to Joan Didion: one that avoids simple platitudes, approaching the great writer with a fierce, probing intelligence, flawless language, and the impulse, which drove Didion’s finest work, to understand the dreams of another.” – Hua Hsu

Klan War

Fergus M. Bordewich

“As searing as it is suspenseful, Klan War delivers an incisive angle into a horrific chapter in American history, one that requires knowing today.” – Ilyon Woo

UFO

Garrett M. Graff

“An entertaining tour through the world of flying saucers, aliens, and weird science.” – Kirkus Reviews

World Within a Song

Jeff Tweedy

“In the same way that Jeff Tweedy is just miraculously there in every line he sings, he’s here in these pages: disarmingly frank, relentlessly exploratory; funny, earnest, wide-open, and brilliant....Tweedy is a generous, insanely gifted national treasure.” – George Saunders

The Golden Screen

Jeff Yang

The Golden Screen celebrates Asian American cinema through profiles of iconic films. It’s required reading for cinephiles, or anyone who wants to consider the question of Asian American film canon in a stunningly gorgeous and delightfully explorable book. – Michelle C.

Why We Love Baseball

Joe Posnanski

“Journalist Posnanski (The Baseball 100) hits it out of the park in this rousing celebration of baseball. With the colorful banter of a play-by-play announcer...Posnanski recounts the ‘50 most magical baseball moments’ from across all levels of the game. This will have readers cheering from their seats.” – Publishers Weekly (Starred Review)

Kung Food

Jon Kung

“Kung Food flings open the gates to cultural cuisine and invites all of us to a stunning and sumptuous meal of delicious food and powerful storytelling, as well as Jon’s joyous pursuit of home cooking.” – Joanne Lee Molinaro

A City on Mars

Kelly and Zach Weinersmith

“There is simply no more engrossing, entertaining, or thorough way to understand the intense challenge of humanity’s off-Earth future than A City on Mars. I laughed the whole way through.” – Hank Green

Leslie F*cking Jones

Leslie Jones

“This refreshingly uncensored book will appeal to Jones’ many fans and to anyone who appreciates the struggles Black female comics face on the road to success.” – Kirkus Reviews

The Sisterhood

Liza Mundy

“A rip-roaring read about spycraft and the CIA’s inner workings...an inspiring group portrait of extraordinary CIA women whose careers are multisided profiles in courage.” – Steve Coll

Sure, I’ll Join Your Cult

Maria Bamford

“As life affirming and ingeniously strange as everything else she’s done. Having lived through disordered eating, inpatient psychiatric care, and more, Bamford explores the comfort of rigid belief systems, the difficulty of being in the world (and, sometimes, wanting to be in it), and the drive to keep going.” – Claire A.

Emperor of Rome

Mary Beard

“Bookshelves groan under the weight of accounts of Roman emperors, but when Beard decides to add another, readers should perk up.” – Kirkus Reviews

Going Infinite

Michael Lewis

Michael Lewis has always been smart about the people he chooses to profile. He started shadowing Sam Bankman-Fried for what was sure to be an interesting book about cryptocurrency and philanthropy. Then his subject’s empire crumbled and the result is a much more interesting book than he set out to write. – Keith M.

Fly

Mitchell S. Jackson

Brilliant wordsmith/storysmith Mitchell S. Jackson is coming to us with what on the surface looks like a beautifully made sports fashion book — it’s that, and more. It’s a fascinating history, a well-organized timeline, and most of all, an expansive celebration of a unique and empowering culture. This book is cool. – Gigi L.

More Is More

Molly Baz

As a self-proclaimed cookbook addict, More Is More has quickly become one of my top picks this year. I love the personal stories Baz shares throughout the book, and the QR codes linking to instructional videos are a game-changer. I’ll definitely be cooking from this book all winter! – Rudy K.

Pie is Messy

Rebecca Grasley

Learn how to make 100 perfectly imperfect pies with time-honored techniques to maximize taste from the founder of Los Angeles’s beloved Pie Hole bakery.

The Book of (More) Delights

Ross Gay

“Enchanting...These unforgettable vignettes will enhance readers’ appreciation for their own surroundings” – Publishers Weekly

I Must Be Dreaming

Roz Chast

Supposedly, describing your dreams is a faux pas that will bore anyone unlucky enough to be within earshot. This is just another rule that doesn’t apply to Roz Chast. Her new book explores the experience and meaning of dreams with characteristic wit and insight. – Keith M.

How to Say Babylon

Safiya Sinclair

“Dazzling. Potent. Vital. A light shining on the path of self-deliverance.” – Tara Westover

Shitty Craft Club

Sam Reece

I’m obsessed with this hilarious, feel-good craft book! Crafters are often perfectionists, and it’s good to be reminded why we got into craft in the first place — the pure joy of making (shitty) things! Any crafter you know will get a huge kick out of this delightful book. – Leah B.

Every Season Is Soup Season

Shelly Westerhausen Worcel

Each recipe is crafted to let abundant, delicious, hearty vegetables shine (with optional instructions on adding meat), and includes two spinoffs (a remix to dress things up for a fancy dinner party, and a way to turn the leftovers into something totally new). Grab a spoon! – Michelle C.

Start Here

Sohla El-Waylly

Sohla El-Waylly is absolutely necessary for your kitchen. Start Here doesn’t presume you know what your doing — it says “that’s ok” and helps you learn not only recipes but also the foundational hows and whys that will inspire you to become the home-chef of your dreams. – Sarah R.

Class

Stephanie Land

“A beautiful memoir that’s an honest portrayal [of] persistence and life and writing and children. Stephanie Land did the work, and it shows.” – Neil Gaiman

Ten Birds That Changed the World

Stephen Moss

“Moss writes with the scope of a scholar and the confidence of a careful observer, finding fresh and fascinating insights into the lives and legacies of ten iconic birds. A thoughtful, thought-provoking, and thoroughly enjoyable book.” – Thor Hanson

The Upcycled Self

Tariq Trottern

“One of hip-hop’s greatest MCs, unpacking his harrowing, remarkable journey in his own words, with enough insights for two lifetimes.” – Lin-Manuel Miranda

Sonic Life

Thurston Moore

“Downtown scientists rejoice! For Thurston Moore has unearthed the missing links, the sacred texts, the forgotten stories, and the secret maps of the lost golden age. This is history — scuffed, slightly bent, plenty noisy, and indispensable.” – Colson Whitehead

Juke Joints, Jazz Clubs, and Juice

Toni Tipton-Martin

“Tipton-Martin’s dedication to researching African American foodways is unparalleled; paired with her glorious cocktail recipes, this is a perfect mix for the home bar.” – Sarah Tansley, Library Journal

A Man of Two Faces

Viet Thanh Nguyen

“A Man of Two Faces is a searing and sensitive memoir on the long shadow that war casts on those who manage to survive it. This book is a work of love and anger and care and it will resonate with everyone who has lost a home.” – Laila Lalami

Black Friend

Ziwe Fumudoh

“One of the smartest, funniest voices in modern America.” – Kirkus Reviews

If I Was a Horse

Sophie Blackall

What would you do if you were a horse? The imaginative narrator of this delightful new picture book from Caldecott Medalist Sophie Blackall has some ideas! Classic, playful, and charming — sure to garner many a suggestion for your horse-ish to-do list at story time. – Sarah R.

More Tall Tales (BONE Companion)

Jeff Smith with Tom Sniegoski

Jeff Smith’s bestselling, award-winning Bone saga returns with this hilarious companion to Tall Tales!

Cat on the Run in Cat of Death! (Cat on the Run #1)

Aaron Blabey

A hilarious look at the precarity of fame, this action-packed book is purr-fect for fans of cute cat videos and big explosions. Litter-ally, something for everyone! – Keith M.

Duel

Jessixa Bagley and Aaron Bagley

“I loved this book and found myself rooting for both sisters. I adored their complex, funny, and realistic relationship. Kids are going to love this story of sibling rivalry set in the fascinating world of competitive fencing. En garde!” – Victoria Jameson

The Wilderness

Steve McCarthy

Oktober Vasylenko is part of a giant family that loves to explore in the wild — but Oktober loves to read books about how scary it is Out There. When Oktober ventures out and meets the Wilderness face-to-face, the ensuing adventure proves that “scared is how you feel and bravery is what you do.” The Wilderness is so charming and cozy and beautiful and brave, and I will be personally gifting it to all the Oktobers and Mays in my life. Whooft! – Michelle C.

There Was a Party for Langston

Jason Reynolds, Jerome Pumphrey & Jarrett Pumphrey

There Was a Party for Langston celebrates Langston Hughes, “whose ABC’s became drums, bumping jumping thumping / like a heart the size of the whole wide world.” This book bumps and thumps, too, using rhythmic words, expressive art, and loads of heart to pay tribute to an important man. – Gigi L.

Wonderful Seasons

Emily Winfield Martin

I am obsessed with Portland local Emily Winfield Martin’s dreamy artwork, which never fails to feel like it came from from a forgotten, beloved childhood fairytale. This charming board book follows The Wonderful Things You Will Be and Wonderful Babies, highlighting wonderful wee ones in all four seasons. – Madeline S.

Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Chalice of the Gods

Rick Riordan

I’m a big fan of Rick Riordan. I’ll try anything he writes, and his Rick Riordan Presents imprint is always quality (and a great example of true allyship), but it all started with Percy — and now he’s graduating! I feel like Mushu in Mulan: “My little baby’s all grown up!” – Madeline S.

Remember Us

Jacqueline Woodson

“Woodson draws on her experiences growing up in Bushwick in the 1970s and ’80s to craft a nostalgic-feeling ode to the unexpected.” – Publishers Weekly (Starred Review)

Zilot & Other Important Rhymes

Bob Odenkirk and Erin Odenkirk

“Everyone should have a family like the Odenkirks, who, in this delightful book, share their love of reading, art, and whimsy with all of us.” – Carol Burnett

The Wild Robot Protects

Peter Brown

“Hugely entertaining, timely, and triumphant.” – Kirkus Reviews

What You Need to Be Warm

Neil Gaiman

“Envisioning warmth as both a baked potato and a blanket knit by a loved one, the thoughtful free verse lines build to a powerful final expression: ‘You have the right to be here.’” – Publishers Weekly

Something, Someday

Amanda Gorman and Christian Robinson

The difficulty of making change can be overwhelming. Amanda Gorman’s beautiful poetry and Christian Robinson’s gorgeous art will inspire readers of any age who want to help make a better world. – Keith M.

The Puppets of Spelhorst

Kate DiCamillo and Julie Morstad

“DiCamillo’s storytelling is as effortless as always, and Morstad’s frequent pencil illustrations elevate it further.... This collaboration by two masters of their craft — a Newbery Medalist and a Governor General’s Literary Award finalist — will prove irresistible.” – Booklist (Starred Review)

Superpowered Animals

Soledad Romero Mariño and Sonia Pulido

With striking, graphic, tarot-card-inspired design, this collection of record-breaking animals is for all animal lovers and would-be zoologists.

Legends of Norse Mythology

Tom Birkett and Isabella Mazzanti

Legends of Norse Mythology is a fully illustrated anthology of Norse gods, giants, monsters, and heroes retold anew.

An Anthology of Our Extraordinary Earth

Cally Oldershaw

This striking book won’t fail to excite budding geologists, geographers, environmentalists, and all-round planet Earth enthusiasts everywhere!

Godly Heathens

Leslie Jones

In PNW author Edgmon’s series starter, a nonbinary Seminole teen happens to be a reincarnated god. With the weight of lifetimes on their shoulders, Gem needs to face down their pasts to choose their future. But what futures do you have when the world will only see you as a monster? – Madeline S.

Here, and Only Here

Christelle Dabos (tr. Hildegarde Serle)

“Imagine all your middle-school nightmares made manifest. Add to that an eerie paranormal aspect that elevates the whole to the maximum level and you have this wildly creative and engaging tale of the middle school from hell.” – Eric Boss

The Spirit Bares Its Teeth

Andrew Joseph White

Andrew Joseph White blew me away with Hell Followed With Us, so I was on board for this one before ever reading the synopsis. Somehow, AJW has asserted a new corner of queer horror that is retrograde, demented, and deeply personal. Del Toro but make it YA, trans, and more bloody. This book! – Stacy Wayne D.

Love in Winter Wonderland

Abiola Bello

“Love in Winter Wonderland sparkles and shines right off the page thanks to gorgeous writing, witty dialogue, a magical setting, and two characters you’ll fall head over heels for as they’re falling for each other. I love, love, love this book!” – Jennifer Niven

Gwen & Art Are Not in Love

Lex Croucher

Arthur and Gwendoline attempt to live up to their namesakes in this medieval romcom that is, delightfully, not an “enemies-to-lovers” tale, but an “enemies-to-queer-solidarity-that-bucks-tradition-and-arguably-fate” romp. If you thought the only thing A Knight’s Tale was missing was a queer love story, this one’s for you. – Madeline S.

The Way I Am Now

Amber Smith

“A magnificent and tenderly crafted novel that brings Eden’s journey to a fitting and honest close. Smith’s sequel is an empathetic and unflinching look at the journey through trauma to a place of healing and hope.” – Kathleen Glasgow

The Scarlet Veil

Shelby Mahurin

“[A] rollicking fantasy duology starter...horror-inflected action, puckish humor, and heady romance enliven both the twisty central mystery and Célie’s journey of self-discovery.” – Publishers Weekly