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The best books of 2023

This list is part of the best books of 2023.

We've asked 1,641 authors and super readers for their 3 favorite reads of the year.

Shepherd is reader supported. When you buy books, we may earn an affiliate commission.

My favorite read in 2023…

Book cover of A Bridge Too Far

Leila Sen Why did I love this book?

With the discerning eye of an experienced war correspondent, Ryan draws a picture of this massive WWII undertaking that turned into a tragic Allied disaster despite the courage and heroism required by the many thousands of men in the field.

The pathos and futility, so masterly portrayed, stay with you long after you have closed the book and returned it to your bookshelf.

The unforgivable waste of war brought to mind my father’s stories of his WWII desert campaign as the doctor of a Gurkha Battalion in the British Indian Army, making this story a very personal one for me.

By Cornelius Ryan,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked A Bridge Too Far as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Reprint of a classic collection. with a new critical introduction by Kartar Singh Duggal. Best set available in the market.


My 2nd favorite read in 2023…

Book cover of All the Light We Cannot See

Leila Sen Why did I love this book?

A WWII story about ordinary people living ordinary lives in their own small nook of the world till the war overtakes them and turns their lives inside out. Bulldozed by the evil circumstances of war, how does one judge right from wrong when it is labeled patriotism or duty?

Anthony Doerr describes the young, blind French girl, Marie-Laure LeBlanc, and the German boy, Werner Pfennig, quietly living separate lives, each in their own country, till those two countries are suddenly at war, and life as they know it is upended.

Unknown to them, they will have a profound effect on each other, and Doerr’s juxtaposition of how this plays out is seamless. A master at work!

By Anthony Doerr,

Why should I read it?

40 authors picked All the Light We Cannot See as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

WINNER OF THE 2015 PULITZER PRIZE FOR FICTION
NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FINALIST
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
WINNER OF THE CARNEGIE MEDAL FOR FICTION

A beautiful, stunningly ambitious novel about a blind French girl and a German boy whose paths collide in occupied France as both try to survive the devastation of World War II

Open your eyes and see what you can with them before they close forever.'

For Marie-Laure, blind since the age of six, the world is full of mazes. The miniature of a Paris neighbourhood, made by her father to teach her the way home. The microscopic…


My 3rd favorite read in 2023…

Book cover of Blood, Oil and the Axis: The Allied Resistance Against a Fascist State in Iraq and the Levant, 1941

Leila Sen Why did I love this book?

It is a timely book about a part of the world that is, even today, reaping the chaos sown by decades-old mistakes. John Broich, historian and Professor at Case Western Reserve University, has written the history of the Middle East and Levant, spanning the years from WWI to WWII.

The book is written with both humor and flair, making it eminently readable for the history buff, as well as for anyone interested in the story of that part of the world. The little-known characters with their personal stories, who played a part on that stage, take the book from bare-boned history to intriguingly interesting.

This book is of special interest to me as one of those characters is my father, Capt—SP Dutt, whose picture is in the book.

By John Broich,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Blood, Oil and the Axis as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Spring 1941 was a high point for the Axis war machine. Western Europe was conquered; southeastern Europe was falling, Great Britain on its heels; and Rommel's Afrika Korps was freshly arrived to drive on the all-important Suez Canal.

In Blood, Oil and the Axis, historian John Broich tells the story of Iraq and the Levant during this most pivotal time of the war. The browbeaten Allied forces had one last remaining hope for turning the war in their favor: the Axis running through its fuel supply. But when the Golden Square-four Iraqi generals allegiant to the Axis cause-staged a coup…


Plus, check out my book…

Where Destiny Commands: 1939-1945 A Time of Love & War

By Leila Sen,

Book cover of Where Destiny Commands: 1939-1945 A Time of Love & War

What is my book about?

WWII love story based on letters, first-hand accounts, and official documents. 

The final years of the British Raj: A young Indian doctor joins the Gurkhas in the British Indian Army. In the war-torn Middle East, he makes a fateful promise that must be kept should he reach Cairo.

In pursuit of this, he meets a young woman haunted by memories of the childhood genocide she fled – and he finds himself inexplicably drawn to her. Fate, however, intervenes. He is swept into battle and captured by Rommel’s Afrika Korps. Faced with separation and the struggle to survive a world lost in the full spate of destruction, will their destiny be denied, or will their love transcend the tragedies of war and the barriers of time and fate?