The best books we read in 2023

to famous authors to help me remember the best books of 2023 and books from past years that caught their attention. This list includes works across genres, authors, and eras.

Imagine this list as our own Spotify Wrapped for books. Here's everything the HuffPost editorial staff is reading in 2023.

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Amazon

'Tom''Lake' by Ann PatchettAG/h4>

You may know Ann Patchett from her bestselling books like Bel Canto or State of Wonder, or maybe you've seen her endorse books and authors at her popular Nashville bookstore in person or on social media. But by now, you probably know Patchett from her new book 2023 Tom Lake, a story about motherhood and how much of our lives we keep for ourselves or share with our children. The novel focuses on Lara, a mother of three grown daughters, who, as she tells stories about her past, begins to pick out only certain details of her former romance. Returning from the family fruit orchard in northern Michigan, the daughters persuade their mother to tell them about Peter Duke, the famous actor with whom Lara''One day finds herself in a theater company called Tom Lake. The girls begin to rethink their own relationships and the relationships of the people around them as they learn more about their mother's past and how it may have affected their lives even in the present. Patchett's book is a great look at how many chapters our lives can contain and the different kinds of love a person can have. - Suggested by Maryann Taylor, a salesperson at Powell'\''s Books, and described in HuffPost Books

Amazon

"Deception" by Zadie Smith

From acclaimed British author Zadie Smith comes Deception, an eccentric and history-based novel that begins with Georgian housekeeper Eliza Touchet, the rugged Scottish mistress of the celebrated novelist''William Ainsworth, takes it upon himself to find someone to repair a large hole in the second floor of his estate. Eliza has always been a staunch supporter of William's family and home and, at the moment, both are crumbling as his literary career. Eliza, however, is a woman with a peculiar set of interests, and like many in England, she has a crush on William. There is a mysterious historical event, the Great Tichborne Trial, unfolding in a real historical event where a non-combat taxidermied Australian, Sir Roger Tichborne, claimed to be the heir to a large British estate and title, or he could be a fraud. You see Roger was thought to have drowned off the Brazilian coast in 1854. Twelve years later, it begins''A trial, and the main witness is a former slave from Jamaica named Andrew Bogle. Now, in the land of cream tea, Andrew is acutely aware that every lump of sugar in a cup of tea costs a human life. He knows that his future depends on the story he tells on the witness stand, and that the rich stay rich through manipulation and deception. Shortly after the trial ends, Eliza is forced to confront Bogle.