What was your favourite book of 2023?

[BrandyandGinger]

It doesn't have to have been published in 2023, just read by you in the last year.
I think mine was Saints for All Occasions by J. Courtney Sullivan. I also loved The Great Alone by Kristin Hannah and Amy and Lan by Sadie Jones.
Disclaimer: I bought myself Demon Copperhead for Christmas so it's not impossible that I might change my top choice later.

In the same area as Yellowface/The Plot, there's also A Ladder to the Sky by John Boyne and The Truth and Other Lies by Sascha Arango. Sort of, maybe, Death of a Bookseller by Alice Slater.

Ooh I'm excited to read this thread - I have Demon Copperhead and Tomorrow and Tomorrow and tomorrow to read over Christmas!

I loved Strange Sally Diamond! And really enjoyed The Trial by Rob Rinder.

In Memoriam by Alice Winn

A Heart That Works, by Rob Delaney.

Oh I read The Plot this year too, and also loved The Latecomer, by the same author. We All Want Impossible Things, by Catherine Newman, is probably the book I’ve recommended most this year, and in non-fiction Hadley Freeman’s memoir of anorexia Good Girls was incredibly powerful.

American Dirt was great. Also just finished Pearl by Sian Hughes and it made me a bit weepy at the end, lovely writing.

Jane Austen: Emma (loved it, and actually preferred it to P&P)

Dickens: Bleak House (I can see why Harold Bloom and Nabokov both thought it was his masterpiece)

Patrick Leigh Fermor: A Time of Gifts (re-read...loved it even more this time around)

Virginia Woolf: Mrs Dalloway (preferred it to To the Lighthouse)

Roald Dahl: Collected Short Stories

Kipling: The Jungle Book

Edward St Aubyn: Dunbar

Ian McEwan: A Child in Time

Philip Larkin: Letters to Monica

@tobee I read The Children of Dynmouth more than 25 years ago and it stayed with me. It's a fantastic book.

@CatChant I have Celestial Navigation borrowed from the library to read over Christmas. I love Anne Tyler but somehow missed that one.

Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow
Sorrow and bliss

Non-fiction: Trans by Helen Joyce

Circe is still one of my most favourite books ever. Who knew Greek mythology could be so compelling?

Taking note of suggestions here!

A few weeks ago I would have said Demon Copperhead no question. But I’ve nearly finished Strange Sally Diamond and have loved that so much.
Also really liked O, Brother by John Niven.

@pastypirate - felt the same way about Shuggie. Hated it.

His Invisible hold. Also transfusion saga books 13/14.

I've read some books that I've absolutely loved this year, it's too hard to choose!

There's been times I've struggled to get into books or relax and read this year but these books were absolute gems!

A Terrible Kindness by Jo Browning Wroe

Love Will Tear Us Apart by C.K McDonnell

The Running Grave by Robert Galbraith

Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt.

Lessons in Chemistry. Couldn't put it down, read it in 2 days, and gave it to loads of friends as well. Fab.

Favourite books this year are A Man Called Ove by Fredrick Backman and Isaac and the Egg by Bobby Palmer. Both deal with very similar themes but in different ways.

Am reading this thread off the back of the 'worst read of the year' one. It's great to see certain books crop up on both (e.g. Lessons in Chemistry. Personally, it was meh from me, so I'm sitting firmly on the fence!)

Brat - Gabriel Smith, Martyr - Kaveh Akbar, Interesting facts about space - Emily Austin, Went to London took the dog - Nina Stibbe, Greta and Valdin - Rebecca Reilly, The vulnerables - Sigrid Nunez, Big Swiss - Jen Beagin, Green dot - Madeleine Gray, I meant it once - Kate Doyle, Tom lake - Ann Patchett, The wren wren - Anne Enright, Mrs S - K Patrick, The Rachel incident - Caroline O'Donoghue, Soldier sailor - Claire Kilroy, Blue hunger - Viola di Grado, Speak to me - Paula Cocozza, Games and rituals - Katherine Heiny, The imposters - Tom Rachman, All this could be different - Sarah Thankam Mathews, The dog of the north - Elizabeth Mckenzie, Really good actually - Monica Heisey, The anniversary - Stephanie Bishop, August blue - Deborah Levy.