Best Books of 2023

For the first time, EVER, I managed to get this down to an actual “Top Ten” list. A couple of years back, I added the A++ rating in the hopes of making this easier. It didn’t exactly work the way I planned, as I intended the A++ rating to be special and rare, and that’s pretty much been how it has worked.

So there really shouldn’t be 10 A++ books in a year. And there aren’t. But I remember full well which of the A+ books really caught my heart or my imagination, the ones that I kept referencing and shoving into people’s actual hands as appropriate. So those are here as well because that’s what makes those books their own special kind of ‘best’.

(For the full and complete list of A+ reads, just click HERE.)

There’s usually an ‘Honorable Mention’ or two in these lists, titles where I learned just how excellent they are way too late for them to be considered as part of the ‘best books’ of the current year – and this year is no exception. I recently discovered the Barker & Llewelyn series of historical mysteries, and have been utterly captivated by the first two book books in the series which I read this year. So if you’re looking to sink your reading teeth into a long-running mystery series that will keep you enthralled for weeks if not months, consider Barker & Llewelyn.

Without further ado, in these waning days of 2023 (as represented by the above photo by Engin Akyurt via Unsplash) Reading Reality’s Best Books of 2023!