Best Books for Adults 2023 (2024)

Smith delves into the profound shifts in our world today with these poems, fearlessly exploring fatherhood and generational heritage as a person of color. His odes to weathering the journey of parenthood and almost lullabies to his child are telling of a world in progress.

The greatest pirate story you have not read… yet. Chakraborty forges a nautical masterpiece ideal for fans of Sinbad the Sailor, the Jack Aubrey series, and fantasy set in the historic Muslim world.

Spice Isle Bakery in Brooklyn's Little Caribbean brings the delicious treats... and murder.

After a speeding car kills five people late at night in New Delhi, the driver, a shell-shocked servant, is unable to explain the series of strange events that led to the crime.

More than just a portrait of an iconic NYC locale and its treasures by a former New Yorker staffer who spent a decade as a museum guard, this book is also a memoir about grief, healing, art, and reinvention.

Translated by Michelle Deeter | Evil comes in all ages in this dark thriller that captivated China.

Where did it all go wrong? A patch of ice on the tarmac, a casual favor to a charming stranger, a bee caught beneath a bridal veil—can a single moment of bad luck change the direction of life?

Julia Lee shares her journey of self-discovery as an Asian, reckoning with the racial hierarchies and challenging the divisions of a society informed by white supremacism in this blunt and passionate memoir.

These sometimes absurd and even slightly surreal vignettes form a weird, witty, and engaging collection that often reads like well-crafted short stories. Murray has crafted an introspective work that remains clever while never taking itself too seriously.

Out in the desert in a place called the Palace, a young man tends to a dying soul, someone he once knew briefly but who has haunted the edges of his life.

A novel in which two top women gladiators fight for their freedom within a depraved private prison system not so far-removed from America's own.

The Earth is dying, and humanity places its hope on a single ship on a journey to a new home. The crew, tasked with birthing a new generation, soon finds themselves off course when a bomb is detonated, and Asuka is the prime suspect. Packed with suspense and an intricately woven plot, The Deep Sky is science fiction writing at its best.

When a necromancer makes aspiring wrestler Lona an offer she can't refuse, she must team up with her late mother's rival and enter a supernatural wrestling tournament. This heartwrenching story will appeal to both wrestling fans and the uninitiated.

Art by Ryan Browne | If you could wish for anything in the world, what would it be? When the entire world is randomly gifted magical wish-granting genies, everything turns to chaos. This genre-defying story follows a motley crew just trying to survive in aftermath of "G-Day."

An ambitious, eye-opening, myth-busting, and groundbreaking history of the evolution of the female body. With boundless curiosity and sharp wit, Bohannon covers the past 200 million years to explain the specific science behind the development of the female sex.

In this homage to classic detective fiction, what happens when a family of killers gets snowed in at a ski resort? Murder, of course.

Follow a perfectly normal couple living on a perfectly normal street with perfectly normal neighbors, and perfectly normal stories within a perfectly normal police state. So it's all perfectly and completely normal.

In the early 20th century, a charismatic conman named D.C. Stephenson became the impetus and architect of plans to bring the Ku Klux Klan out of the shadows and into the heartland of the U.S. This is the gripping story of the vulnerable woman who brought him down.

A historical novel set during the French Revolution is inspired by a young peasant boy turned showman, said to have been tormented and driven to murder by an all-consuming appetite.

The untold story of climate migration—the personal stories of those experiencing displacement, the portraits of communities being torn apart by disaster, and the implications for all of us as we confront a changing future.

Abby is uneasy in her new role as a stepmother, and as she learns more about her husband's first wife, a strange obsession overtakes her. This visually brilliant and engaging mystery seamlessly blurs the lines between fantasy and reality.

When a skeleton is unearthed in a small, close-knit Pennsylvania community in 1972, an unforgettable cast of characters living on the margins of white, Christian America closely guard a secret. What happened? And what role did the town's white establishment play?

This collection of seven stories confronts themes of identity, belonging, and the collision of cultures across countries and centuries.

In 1889 Paris, heiress Manuela offers ambitious businesswoman Cora her Venezuelan property in exchange for one last thrilling summer before her impending marriage of convenience.

Mao writes to escape being "trapped in someone else's imagination," literally shaping poems that challenge empire, cultural plunder, and the ongoing violence Asian people experienced during the Covid-19 pandemic, both in the U.S. and her birthplace of Wuhan.

In Victorian London, Tommy, a Scotland Yard detective, and Imogen, a vigilante, have been circling one another since they met. But Imogen is unsure whom she can trust as they could be tied to a string of crimes she and her friends are investigating.

High atop an unnamed Alp with the planet’s only breathable air, an aimless chef is hired to cook lavish meals for a mysterious cabal of plutocrats who've got a taste for weird meats—what could go wrong?

Art by Youssef Daoudi | Bringing to life the story of eminent boxer Jack Johnson, this book follows his epic battles against famed prizefighters and Jim Crow era inequalities. The poetic dialogue and majestically raw illustrations capture the core of Johnson's experiences, both in and out of the ring.

Welcome to the RMS Atlantica, a ship unlike any other. We wish you fair winds and calm seas.

Translated by Andrea Rosenberg | Márcia is a nurse living in a favela with her loyal boyfriend Alusio and her rebellious daughter Jacqueline, who creates trouble for them by getting involved with the local gang. This story is a gritty and human exploration of Márcia’s struggle to keep her family together.

Part film noir and part dizzying romance, this tale follows Bobot, Filipino American farmhand-turned-rogue investigator. With its shifting monochromatic watercolors and an expertly researched Depression-era setting, readers won't be able to put down this immigrant story.

Centered on Hungarian polymath John von Neumann, a prodigy whose gifts terrified those around him, this book shows the evolution of a mind unmatched and of a body of work that has unmoored the world in its wake, confronting us with profound questions we face as a species.

In Victorian London, Jewish heiress Isabelle could lose everything unless she marries the right man. She secretly enlists synagogue custodian, Aaron, to research her potential matches but she quickly finds his understated charm irresistible.

Sana embraces the prospect of an arranged marriage to secure guardianship of her brother. But when an old love unexpectedly returns, she has to make a choice between her head and her heart.

With a storm grounding planes, a former child star, a writer, and an old friend's ashes find themselves on an adventurous road trip to the Florida Keys to reunite former lovers. Along the way, they discover a heartfelt wartime love story.

What if you had the chance to solve your own murder?

The horrifically complicated birth of their first child has left Ana paralyzed, bitter, and struggling with mobility, her relationship with Reid, and resentment for her baby. That's about to change with the words any New Yorker would love to hear—affordable housing lottery.

New to Brooklyn, Hudson and Gavin hit it off in a bar. They have no idea that they’re neighbors and colleagues on the same professional hockey team. Both have their own reasons to stay away, but their attraction to each other is unstoppable.

Nicole has a picture perfect life in Lagos, until she goes missing and nobody cares. It's up to her estranged aunt to look under the glamorous surface in this glitzy domestic thriller.

Manick embraces Black womanhood in poems that reference personal experience, social circ*mstance, and sources that range from familial diaries to Jet magazine. The resulting collection is a work that makes the personal a universal read.

Disquieting slow burn of a horror novel set in 1980s Argentina. It starts with the story of a father and his son who is a medium and unfolds into a world of secrets and the occult.

Olivarez reps both his Mexican American heritage and Chicago homeland in this bilingual collection that addresses immigration, capitalism, community, and belonging, writing poems that pay homage to love in all its many forms.

If Twin Peaks, The X-Files, and Doctor Who had a baby from The Twilight Zone, you might come close to this madcap, noir sci-fi featuring one of the genre’s more memorable romances. Weaponized nostalgia makes for an unconventional foil for our protagonists.

“He seemed like such a nice guy.” Don’t they all?

Quiet boldly explores Black interiority, intimacy, and selfhood, navigating the tension between guarding one's inner life and the realization that silence is not protection. The tone of these poems reflects perfectly the often-fraught negotiation between one's internal self and the surrounding world.

Forensic genius Antonia Scott and disgraced detective Jon Gutierrez must come together to catch a killer in this compelling thriller that took Spain by storm.

Like a haunted Nickel Boys, this fictionalized version of true events took the author 10 years to bring to fruition. You’ll be moved by this story of a boy who sees "haints."

Internet sensation and Handy Ma'am Mercury Stardust has created a comprehensive beginner's guide to basic home repair, including vocabulary, equipment, and processes to tackle over 50 projects (with video links for each).

Clementine opens the door to her late aunt’s Manhattan condo… and finds herself seven years in the past. Navigating her life between past and present, she tries to reconcile the differences between the sweet guy she meets there and the man he becomes.

Combining elegy and fantasy, this collection memorializes a youthful relationship and a former lover's eventual suicide. These wistful, ethereal, and sorrowful poems are both a love letter to the Beloved and also an elegy for an imagined youth free of abuse, hom*ophobia, and fear.

In a parallel, modern-day Egypt, djinns and wishes are a reality. But who gets the privilege of using a wish? Can wishes really fix everything? This story shows unique and varied magical experiences in a heartfelt, bittersweet, and humorous epic tale.

Anastacia-Reneé fearlessly explores the complexities of Black femme lives across time, space, and reality with an unapologetically feminist voice through these poems. This is an eclectic, well-curated archive of Black femme culture-making.

So much more than a collection of mouthwatering recipes, Start Here is an at-home culinary master class, sharing fundamental techniques, culinary science, and tips for all cooks, from the beginner to the seasoned home chef, to level-up in the kitchen.

If you always suspected cats ruled the world, well, you weren’t wrong, as Charlie learns when he inherits his estranged uncle’s supervillain business that includes unionized dolphins, space lasers, and a formidable bodyguard.

You may already know Bell for his Pulitzer Prize–winning comics, but you will soon become familiar with his incredibly moving memoir. Through his art, Bell uses his witty yet intimate voice to expose the everyday and institutionalized racism he has experienced.

It all started at Jewish summer camp, and Liyah can’t let it go. However, after running into her former teenage fling turned enemy, Daniel, they agree to a truce as they work together to promote the Chicago Field museum.

Shapland's essays examine vulnerability and how our choices impact people, places, and species far away. Weaving together historical research, interviews, and her everyday life in New Mexico, she probes the lines between self and work, human and animal, need and desire.

Explores the nature of being a child, parent, friend, sibling, neighbor, or lover and the relationships between self and others. Everyone is unmoored and searching for meaning through one another.

Phenix's poetry struts across the page in a collection that celebrates a matriarchal lineage rooted in Harlem, with a nod to bodega etiquette and summertime fire hydrants. This exaltation of the quotidian raises common city experiences to poetic heights.

It's suitably weird and she writes intergalactic diplomacy very well. Works best if you've read the Imperial Radch trilogy first.

Don't get in a car with a stranger. Yet, she walks the same solitary path every night, waiting to catch a ride with a killer.

Smith reanimates the static images of 19th-century photographs of Black men, women, and children in these ekphrastic poems that imagine lives of dignity and totality. The collection creates an intimacy with the past that resonates long after its pages are shut.

Translated by Jordan Stump | Hired by a man she vaguely remembers to defend his wife, who’s been accused of a horrific crime, quiet middle-aged lawyer Maître Susane finds unsettling memories coming to the surface while becoming increasingly concerned about her housekeeper’s furtive behavior.

Solving a mystery isn’t everyone’s cup of tea.

In 1950s New York City, two reporters—an Italian American Brooklynite and the Upper East Side-raised son of the newspaper's owner—go from colleagues to roommates, finding friendship and more as they navigate the social norms of the era.

Beginning with Reagan's war on drugs, Ramsey examines the crack epidemic. He exposes links between the triumphs of the Civil Rights Movement and the consequences we live with today—a racist criminal justice system, mass incarceration, gentrification, and police brutality.

Inspired by the Brothers Grimm, 17th-century French lore, and Scottish ballads, this clever collection of reinvented fairy tales expertly blends realism and the speculative as characters hunt for love, connection, revenge, or their sense of purpose.

This beautiful, meditative work of history puts women of all races—and the landscapes they loved—at center stage and reveals the impact of the outdoors (both nature and sports) on women's independence, resourcefulness, resistance, and vision.

Asa and Lauren are antagonistic colleagues at a failing winter-themed amusem*nt park in Florida. Things heat up as they are forced to work together over the holidays to brainstorm ways to increase attendance.

Art by Phil Jimenez, Gene Ha & Nicola Scott | Steeped in Greek mythology, this book tells the formation of the Amazons through rebellious goddesses banding against the patriarchal order of Olympus. This story will entrance readers with its glorious depictions of raw feminine power.