Our Best Books of 2023

Explore our list of bestselling titles of the year, just in time for the holiday season!

Learn more about our gift guide, which offers suggestions for every reader on your list. From sweeping histories to lavish art books, compelling biographies to books for young minds, and more.


The Rediscovery of America
Native Peoples and the Unmaking of U.S. History

Ned Blackhawk

A sweeping and overdue retelling of U.S. history that recognizes that Native Americans are essential to understanding the evolution of modern America

Buy the book: AmazonBarnes & Noble | Bookshop | Indiebound | Indigo | Powell’s | Seminary Co-Op    


Murakami
Unfamiliar People—Swelling of Monsterized Human Ego

Edited by Laura W. Allen

This fresh look at artist Takashi Murakami takes on the “monstrous” themes of rampant consumerism, human fallibility, and the perils of life in the digital fast lane, in works from the past decade

Buy the book: AmazonBarnes & Noble | Bookshop | Indiebound | Indigo | Powell’s | Seminary Co-Op    


Why Empires Fall
Rome, America, and the Future of the West

Peter Heather and John Rapley

A new perspective on parallels between ancient Rome and the modern world, and what comes next

Buy the book: AmazonBarnes & Noble | Bookshop | Indiebound | Indigo | Powell’s | Seminary Co-Op    


Look at the Lights, My Love

Annie Ernaux

A revelatory meditation on class and consumer culture, from 2022 Nobel laureate Annie Ernaux

Buy the book: AmazonBarnes & Noble | Bookshop | Indiebound | Indigo | Powell’s | Seminary Co-Op    


Mixed Signals
How Incentives Really Work

Uri Gneezy

An informative and entertaining account of how actions send signals that shape behaviors and how to design better incentives for better results in our life, our work, and our world

Buy the book: AmazonBarnes & Noble | Bookshop | Indiebound | Indigo | Powell’s | Seminary Co-Op    


Homelands
A Personal History of Europe

Timothy Garton Ash

Drawing on half a century of firsthand experience and exemplary scholarship, Timothy Garton Ash tells the story of postwar Europe’s triumphs and tragedies

Buy the book: AmazonBarnes & Noble | Bookshop | Indiebound | Indigo | Powell’s | Seminary Co-Op    


Karl Lagerfeld
A Line of Beauty

Andrew Bolton

“The Met’s latest tome expertly narrates the journey that earned Lagerfeld his seat at the hallowed throne of modern high fashion.”—V Magazine

Buy the book: AmazonBarnes & Noble | Bookshop | Indiebound | Indigo | Powell’s | Seminary Co-Op    


The Tragic Mind
Fear, Fate, and the Burden of Power

Robert D. Kaplan

A moving meditation on recent geopolitical crises, viewed through the lens of ancient and modern tragedy

Buy the book: AmazonBarnes & Noble | Bookshop | Indiebound | Indigo | Powell’s | Seminary Co-Op    


Manet/Degas

Stephan Wolohojian and Ashley Dunn

The first publication on the personal and professional relationship between Manet and Degas, two giants of nineteenth-century French art

Buy the book: AmazonBarnes & Noble | Bookshop | Indiebound | Indigo | Powell’s | Seminary Co-Op    


Tudor England
A History

Lucy Wooding

A compelling, authoritative account of the brilliant, conflicted, visionary world of Tudor England

Buy the book: AmazonBarnes & Noble | Bookshop | Indiebound | Indigo | Powell’s | Seminary Co-Op    


Liberalism against Itself
Cold War Intellectuals and the Making of Our Times

Samuel Moyn

The Cold War roots of liberalism’s present crisis

Buy the book: AmazonBarnes & Noble | Bookshop | Indiebound | Indigo | Powell’s | Seminary Co-Op    


Roe
The History of a National Obsession

Mary Ziegler

The leading U.S. expert on abortion law charts the many meanings associated with Roe v. Wade during its fifty-year history

Buy the book: AmazonBarnes & Noble | Bookshop | Indiebound | Indigo | Powell’s | Seminary Co-Op    


Psychonauts
Drugs and the Making of the Modern Mind

Mike Jay

A provocative and original history of the scientists and writers, artists and philosophers who took drugs to explore the hidden regions of the mind

Buy the book: AmazonBarnes & Noble | Bookshop | Indiebound | Indigo | Powell’s | Seminary Co-Op    


Golda Meir
Israel’s Matriarch

Deborah E. Lipstadt

A balanced biography of Golda Meir, who was both adored and abhorred, from award-winning author Deborah E. Lipstadt

Buy the book: AmazonBarnes & Noble | Bookshop | Indiebound | Indigo | Powell’s | Seminary Co-Op    


The Art of Colour
The History of Art in 39 Pigments

Kelly Grovier

A captivating new history of art told through the storied biographies of colors and pigments

Buy the book: AmazonBarnes & Noble | Bookshop | Indiebound | Indigo | Powell’s | Seminary Co-Op    


A Little History of Music

Robert Philip

A lively, engaging guide to music around the world, from prehistory to the present

Buy the book: AmazonBarnes & Noble | Bookshop | Indiebound | Indigo | Powell’s | Seminary Co-Op    


The Wounded Storyteller
The Traumatic Tales of E. T. A. Hoffmann

E. T. A. Hoffmann

E. T. A. Hoffmann’s classic tales of Gothic horror and fantasy are presented in a new translation accompanying the beguiling drawings of Natalie Frank

Buy the book: AmazonBarnes & Noble | Bookshop | Indiebound | Indigo | Powell’s | Seminary Co-Op    


Remedios Varo
Science Fictions

Edited by Caitlin Haskell and Tere Arcq

An exploration of the captivating work and mystical outlook of the modern artist Remedios Varo, focusing on her years in Mexico City

Buy the book: AmazonBarnes & Noble | Bookshop | Indiebound | Indigo | Powell’s | Seminary Co-Op    


Armada
The Spanish Enterprise and England’s Deliverance in 1588

Colin Martin and Geoffrey Parker

The definitive history of the Spanish Armada, lavishly illustrated and fully revised

Buy the book: AmazonBarnes & Noble | Bookshop | Indiebound | Indigo | Powell’s | Seminary Co-Op    


Risky Business
Why Insurance Markets Fail and What to Do About It

Liran Einav, Amy Finkelstein and Ray Fisman

An engaging and accessible examination of what ails insurance markets—and what to do about it—by three leading economists

Buy the book: AmazonBarnes & Noble | Bookshop | Indiebound | Indigo | Powell’s | Seminary Co-Op    


Enheduana
The Complete Poems of the World’s First Author

Sophus Helle

The complete poems of the priestess Enheduana, the world’s first known author, newly translated from the original Sumerian

Buy the book: AmazonBarnes & Noble | Bookshop | Indiebound | Indigo | Powell’s | Seminary Co-Op    


How States Think
The Rationality of Foreign Policy

John J. Mearsheimer and Sebastian Rosato

A groundbreaking examination of a central question in international relations: Do states act rationally?

Buy the book: AmazonBarnes & Noble | Bookshop | Indiebound | Indigo | Powell’s | Seminary Co-Op    


They Flew
A History of the Impossible

Carlos M. N. Eire

An award-winning historian’s examination of impossible events at the dawn of modernity and of their enduring significance

Buy the book: AmazonBarnes & Noble | Bookshop | Indiebound | Indigo | Powell’s | Seminary Co-Op    


The Year That Broke Politics
Collusion and Chaos in the Presidential Election of 1968

Luke A. Nichter

The unknown story of the election that set the tone for today’s fractured politics

Buy the book: AmazonBarnes & Noble | Bookshop | Indiebound | Indigo | Powell’s | Seminary Co-Op    


Art of the Grimoire
An Illustrated History of Magic Books and Spells

Owen Davies

A copiously illustrated global history of magic books, from ancient papyri to pulp paperbacks

Buy the book: AmazonBarnes & Noble | Bookshop | Indiebound | Indigo | Powell’s | Seminary Co-Op    

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