The Best Books of 2023

by The Economist
|
55 books
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See the source list and commentary at www.economist.com

Current affairs and politics

Deadly Quiet City

True Stories from Wuhan
Murong Xuecun, 2023

Fear Is Just a Word

A Missing Daughter, a Violent Cartel, and a Mother's Quest for Vengeance
Azam Ahmed, 2023

Flowers of Fire

The Inside Story of South Korea's Feminist Movement and What It Means for Women' s Rights Worldwide
Hawon Jung, 2023

The Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory

American Evangelicals in an Age of Extremism
Tim Alberta, 2023

Some People Need Killing

A Memoir of Murder in My Country
Patricia (author) Evangelista, 2023

Sparks

China's Underground Historians and Their Battle for the Future
Ian Johnson, 2023
Business and economics

Anansi's Gold

The Man Who Looted the West, Outfoxed Washington, and Swindled the World
Yepoka Yeebo, 2023

Best Things First

The 12 Most Efficient Solutions for the World's Poorest and Our Global SDG Promises
Bjorn Lomborg, 2023

The Fiscal Theory of the Price Level

John H. Cochrane, 2023

The Geek Way

The Radical Mindset Transforming the Future of Business
Andrew McAfee, 2023

How Big Things Get Done

The Surprising Factors That Determine the Fate of Every Project, from Home Renovations to Space Exploration and Everything In Between
Bent Flyvbjerg, Dan Gardner, 2023

Material World

The Six Raw Materials That Shape Modern Civilization
Ed Conway, 2023

The Missing Billionaires

A Guide to Better Financial Decisions
Victor Haghani, James White, 2023

Scaling People

Tactics for Management and Company Building
Claire Hughes Johnson, 2023

Unscripted

The Epic Battle for a Media Empire and the Redstone Family Legacy
James B Stewart, Rachel Abrams, 2023
Biography and memoir

Hitler, Stalin, Mum and Dad: A Family Memoir of Miraculous Survival

Daniel Finkelstein, 2023

Ian Fleming

The Complete Man
Nicholas Shakespeare, 2024

Into the Amazon: The Life of Cândido Rondon, Trailblazing Explorer, Scientist, Statesman, and Conservationist

Larry Rohter, 2023

J. L. Austin

Philosopher and D-Day Intelligence Officer
M. W. Rowe, 2023

King: A Life

Jonathan Eig, 2023

Milton Friedman

The Last Conservative
Jennifer Burns, 2023

Monet

The Restless Vision
Jackie Wullschläger, 2023

Still Pictures

On Photography and Memory
Janet Malcolm, 2023

Waiting to Be Arrested at Night

A Uyghur Poet's Memoir of China's Genocide
Tahir Hamut Izgil, 2023

Wifedom

Mrs. Orwell's Invisible Life
Anna Funder, 2023
History

A Day in the Life of Abed Salama

Anatomy of a Jerusalem Tragedy
Nathan Thrall, 2023

The Blazing World

A New History of Revolutionary England, 1603-1689
Jonathan Healey, 2023

Emperor of Rome: Ruling the Ancient Roman World

Mary Beard, 2023

In Her Nature

How Women Break Boundaries in the Great Outdoors
Rachel Hewitt, 2023

Judgement at Tokyo

World War II on Trial and the Making of Modern Asia
Gary J. Bass, 2024

The Lumumba Plot

The Secret History of the CIA and a Cold War Assassination
Stuart A. Reid, 2023

Revolutionary Spring

Europe Aflame and the Fight for a New World, 1848-1849
Christopher Clark, 2023

On Savage Shores

How Indigenous Americans Discovered Europe
Caroline Dodds Pennock, 2023

The Wager

A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder
David Grann, 2023
Fiction
Culture and ideas

Eight Bears: Mythic Past and Imperiled Future

Gloria Dickie, 2023

Gradual

The Case for Incremental Change in a Radical Age
Greg Berman, Aubrey Fox, 2023

High Caucasus

A Mountain Quest in Russia's Haunted Hinterland
Tom Parfitt, 2023

The Identity Trap

A Story of Ideas and Power in Our Time
Yascha Mounk, 2023

Magisteria

The Entangled Histories of Science & Religion
Nicholas Spencer, 2023

Pandora's Box

How Guts, Guile, and Greed Upended TV
Peter Biskind, 2023

Sailing Alone

A History
Richard J. King, 2023

A Thread of Violence

A Story of Truth, Invention, and Murder
Mark O'Connell, 2023
Science and technology

The Coming Wave

Technology, Power, and the Twenty-first Century's Greatest Dilemma
Mustafa Suleyman, 2023

The Heat Will Kill You First

Life and Death on a Scorched Planet
Jeff Goodell, 2023

Outlive

The Science and Art of Longevity
Peter Attia, MD, 2023

Time to Think

The Inside Story of the Collapse of the Tavistock's Gender Service for Children
Hannah Barnes, 2023

Ultra-Processed People: The Science Behind Food That Isn't Food

Chris van Tulleken, 2023

What an Owl Knows

The New Science of the World's Most Enigmatic Birds
Jennifer Ackerman, 2023