New York Times Book Review editor MJ Franklin and Debutiful‘s Adam Vitcavage join The Stacks for our annual best books of the year episode. We reveal our personal picks for the ten best books of 2023, and predict trends we anticipate for 2024. Plus, we discuss all the books we’re most looking forward to reading in the new year.
The Stacks Book Club selection for December is Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare. We will discuss the book on December 27th with Farah Karim-Cooper.
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Everything we talk about on today’s episode can be found below in the show notes and on Bookshop.org and Amazon
- Debutiful podcast
- The New York Times Book Review
- Best Books of 2021 (Nerdette)
- My Murder by Katie Williams
- Los Angeles Times Book Prize
- 100 Notable Books of 2023 (The New York Times)
- The 10 Best Books of 2023 (The New York Times)
- 2023 First Novel Prize (The Center for Fiction)
- National Book Award
- The Emmy Awards
- The Academy Awards
- Adam Vitcavage at Electric Lit
- Adam Vitcavage at Literary Hub
- Adam Vitcavage at The Millions
- Goodreads
- Kirkus Reviews
- Fresh Air (NPR)
- “The Best Debut Books of 2023” (Adam Vitcavage, Debutiful)
- All-Night Pharmacy by Ruth Madievsky
- Birnam Wood by Eleanor Catton
- The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton
- Creep by Myriam Gurba
- Biting the Hand by Julia Lee
- Hijab Butch Blues by Lamya H
- Ordinary Notes by Christina Sharpe
- In the Wake by Christina Sharpe
- The National Memorial for Peace and Justice (Montgomery, AL)
- Kara Walker
- Claudia Rankine
- Just Us by Claudia Rankine
- The Fraud by Zadie Smith
- Company by Shannon Sanders
- PEN/Robert J. Dau Short Story Prize for Emerging Writers
- We Were Once a Family by Roxanna Asgarian
- Hart family murders
- “Ep. 268 Over Burdened and Under Funded by Roxanna Asgarian” (The Stacks)
- Peloton
- Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
- Dracula by Bram Stoker
- Jekyll and Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson
- Star Wars Storybook Collection by Disney Press (audiobook)
- Let Us Descend by Jesmyn Ward
- Martyr! by Kaveh Akbar
- “Ep. 261 All at Once with Clint Smith” (The Stacks)
- 50 Pies, 50 States by Stacey Mei Yan Fong
- “Ep. 272 Cold Butter and Cold Emails with Stacey Mei Yan Fong” (The Stacks)
- When Crack Was King by Donovan X. Ramsey
- “Ep. 276 How We Keep Each Other Alive with Donovan X. Ramsey” (The Stacks)
- “Traci Thomas: Best Books of 2023” (Traci Thomas, Shereads.com)
- The Country of the Blind by Andrew Leland
- “Ep. 280 Blind Thought with Andrew Leland” (The Stacks)
- A Little Devil in America by Hanif Abdurraqib
- Y/N by Esther Yi
- Chain-Gang All-Stars by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah
- Simone Biles
- “Ep. 266 We Are the Ones Who Make the World with Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah” (The Stacks)
- Friday Black by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah
- The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
- Kevin Hart
- Dwayne The Rock Johnson
- Jennifer Aniston
- The Storm We Made by Vanessa Chan
- Broughtupsy by Christina Cooke
- James by Percival Everett
- Erasure by Percival Everett
- American Fiction (Cord Jefferson, 2023)
- All the World Beside by Garrard Conley
- Boy Erased by Garrard Conley
- Parasol Against the Axe by Helen Oyeyemi
- Colored Television by Danzy Senna
- Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
- Kenya Barris
- Caucasia by Danzy Senna
- New People by Danzy Senna
- There’s Always This Year by Hanif Abdurraqib
- A Fire So Wild by Sara Ruiz-Grossman
- The Survivalists by Kashana Cauley
- The Stacks Shop
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