Each year, groups of librarians from across the country meet to discuss and select the best books from the year before. The Notable Books List presents literary fiction, nonfiction, and poetry; the Listen List is all about outstanding audiobooks; and the Reading List, which I want to tell you about today, highlights outstanding genre fiction in eight genres: Adrenaline (aka thrillers, adventure stories), Fantasy, Historical Fiction, Horror, Mystery, Relationship Fiction, Romance, and Science Fiction.
While each genre has a winner, it also has a four-title shortlist. Taken together, the five books in each genre typically represent a range of the types of stories a reader can find in that genre, with the idea that both longtime fans and folks new to the genre can find a title of interest. It’s a great place to find something new to read. Check out the 2023 winners (for books published in 2022) below, with annotations from the ALA Reading List Council, or in our catalog.
Adrenaline
Killers of a Certain Age by Deanna Raybourn
Billie, Mary Alice, Helen, and Natalie have spent forty years as assassins for a clandestine organization. When a fellow assassin targets them during their retirement cruise, they go on a skilled offensive to stop the very organization to which they’ve given their lives.
Short List:
Cold Fear by Brandon Webb ♦ The Lies I Tell by Julie Clark ♦ Look Closer by David Ellis ♦ Wrong Place Wrong Time by Gillian McAllister
Fantasy
Nettle & Bone by T. Kingfisher
A reclusive princess and her unlikely companions, including a loyal bone dog, her fairy godmother, and a demon chicken, embark on an epic quest to save her sister.
Short List:
Babel, or The Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of the Oxford Translators’ Revolution by R.F. Kuang ♦ In the Shadow of Lightning by Brian McClellan ♦ Legends and Lattes by Travis Baldree ♦ The Monsters We Defy by L. Penelope
Historical Fiction
By Her Own Design by Piper Huguley
Ann Lowe, a highly sought after Black designer from the 1920s to the 1960s, created one of the most famous dresses of the 20th century – Jackie Kennedy’s wedding dress. Lowe’s largely untold story traces the highs and lows of her personal and professional life.
Short List:
The Forty Elephants by Erin Bledsoe ♦ The Good Wife of Bath by Karen Brooks ♦ The Swift and the Harrier by Minette Walters ♦ Two Storm Wood by Philip Gray
Horror
Leech by Hiron Ennes
Over centuries, the Interprovincial Medical Institute has slowly replaced human practitioners of medicine, controlling young minds and shaping them into doctors. When one of the hivemind’s many bodies dies mysteriously at an isolated chateau, the replacement investigates and discovers a frightening competitor taking hold in the baron’s home.
Short List:
Dead Silence by S.A. Barnes ♦ The Ghost That Ate Us by Daniel Kraus ♦ Not Good for Maidens by Tori Bovalino ♦ What Moves the Dead by T. Kingfisher
Mystery
The Binding Room by Nadine Matheson
Called to the crime scene of a murdered pastor, DI Henley and her partner discover a torture victim on the brink of death. As the detectives investigate, they realize that the crime is larger than just this case.
Short List:
The Appeal by Janice Hallett ♦ Down a Dark River by Karen Odden ♦ One-shot Harry by Gary Phillips ♦ The Verifiers by Jane Pek
Relationship Fiction
Mika in Real Life by Emiko Jean
Thirty-five-year-old former artist Mika Suzuki now works a series of dead-end jobs. When the daughter she gave up for adoption sixteen years ago reaches out, Mika panics and constructs a fake aspirational life.
Short List:
Carrie Soto Is Back by Taylor Jenkins Reid ♦ Love & Saffron by Kim Fay ♦ Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin ♦ The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches by Sangu Mandanna
Romance
The Undertaking of Hart and Mercy by Megan Bannen
Undertaker Mercy butts heads with marshal Hart when he brings bodies to her family’s struggling business. In a low moment, Hart pens a letter addressed to “A Friend” that finds its way anonymously to Mercy. A correspondence is born, with the pair growing closer as the dangers of Tanria escalate.
Short List:
All the Feels by Olivia Dade ♦ Delilah Green Doesn’t Care by Ashley Herring Blake ♦ Honey and Spice by Bolu Babalola ♦ The Siren of Sussex by Mimi Matthews
Science Fiction
Drunk on All Your Strange New Words by Eddie Robson
Lydia works as a telepathic translator for an alien cultural representative. When he is murdered on a night Lydia barely remembers due to hours of translating, she comes under suspicion. Determined to clear her name, Lydia investigates a lead from an unexpected source.
Short List:
Braking Day by Adam Oyebanji ♦ Mickey7 by Edward Ashton ♦ The Mountain in the Sea by Ray Nayler ♦ Under Fortunate Stars by Ren Hutchings
~ posted by Andrea G.
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