Best books of 2023: CADL experts offer top choices for adult fiction, nonfiction

So many books, so little time.

Reading specialists at the Capital Area District Library are offering their best books of 2023 if you're looking to build your to-be-read stack for holiday vacation or the cold days of winter. Here are CADL's best bests for adult fiction and adult nonfiction. If you're looking for best bets for young adult, middle grade and picture books, it's here.

Adult Fiction

The Berry Pickers by Amanda Peters

This story of trauma, hope, and finding the truth explores the difference one horrible decision can make in the lives of multiple people. Six-year-old Joe is the last to see his sister Ruthie before she disappears from the Maine orchards where his Indigenous family picked berries seasonally. That loss changes the family forever.

Dearborn: Stories by Ghassan Zeineddine

This collection of stories by a former University of Michigan Dearborn professor explores a range of experiences for the Arab American community in Dearborn with humor and warmth.

Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries by Heather Fawcett

Rounding out the research for her ground-breaking encyclopedia in a hardscrabble village in the far north, curmudgeonly Professor Emily Wilde finds herself having to make friends with the townspeople and her academic rival to see her project through.

Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros

Violet Sorrengail must work around her small stature and hypermobility to survive and thrive at Basgiath War College where the two ways out are to graduate as a dragon rider or die.

Hello Beautiful by Ann Napolitano

Napolitano’s homage to Little Women explores the challenges of mental health struggles for both an individual and the family that surrounds them.

In the Lives of Puppets by TJ Klune

Vic Lawson has grown up as the human son of android Giovanni – when he rescues a decommissioned android, it inadvertently leads to Gio’s capture. Together with his family (consisting of a hilariously sociopathic nurse bot, an anxious vacuum and an android that previously hunted humans), Vic stages a rescue mission across an unforgiving Oregonian landscape.

In the Upper Country by Kai Thomas

Lensinda is called to tell the story of an older escaped slave who has just killed a slave catcher at her home in 1845 Canada, but instead of a straight interview, the pair begin an exchange of tales that weave their personal stories together.

Romantic Comedy by Curtis Sittenfeld

A female writer for a late-night comedy show has sworn off romantic relationships.  When sparks fly between her and a handsome musician performing on the show, she questions whether she and a celebrity can have a successful relationship.  This novel examines societal double standards and the complexities of modern relationships with humor and wit.

Tom Lake by Ann Patchett

While home in Northern Michigan to pick cherries, Lara’s daughters beg her to tell them of her youthful romance with Peter Duke – who went on to become a major celebrity. This story is told by Lara in two different ways: the edited version for her daughters and the full truth for us, the reader. Bonus: the audiobook is read by Meryl Streep.

Vera Wong’s Unsolicited Advice for Murderers by Jesse Q. Sutanto

Although her tea shop isn’t as busy as it used to be, proprietor and self-proclaimed tea expert Vera Wong keeps herself occupied. When a dead body is found in the middle of her tea shop one morning, and knowing the police won’t do any good, Vera takes it upon herself to investigate the murder.

Adult Nonfiction

Better Living Through Birding:  Notes from a Black Man in the Natural World by Christian Cooper

In this engaging memoir, self-described “black queer nerd” Cooper, known to many as the “Central Park Birder,” shows how birding relates to life through his personal story, travel recollections and birding tips.

The Comfort of Crows: A Backyard Year by Margaret Renkl

The plant and animal inhabitants of Renkl’s yard and the turning of a year provide the backdrop and structure for these lyrical essays about nature, climate, community, change and hope. 

The Devil's Element: Phosphorus and a World Out of Balance by Dan Egan

The author of The Death and Life of the Great Lakes returns with this riveting and important work of science journalism about an underreported topic – the element phosphorus, including its history and its critical importance to human life, as well as the environmental consequences of its mismanagement.

How to Think Like a Woman: Four Women Philosophers Who Taught Me How to Love the Life of the Mind by Regan Penaluna

Combining memoir with biography and theory, Penaluna unravels her experience as a scholar in the field of philosophy, where she found women to be underrepresented, and sets out to tell the stories of the lives and contributions of four female philosophers.

A Man of Two Faces: A Memoir, A History, A Memorial by Viet Thanh Nguyen

From the author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning The Sympathizer, this powerful and multifaceted memoir is at turns witty, scathing, and moving as it examines colonialism, war and identity through the story of Nguyen’s Vietnamese American family’s resettlement in the United States just before the fall of Saigon.

Our Migrant Souls: A Meditation on Race and the Meanings and Myths of "Latino" by Héctor Tobar

The 2023 winner of the Kirkus Prize for Nonfiction, this lyrical and sweeping book takes a personal and global look at what it means to be Latino today through travels and conversations with people across the country, discussions of migration, and Tobar’s own experience as a child of Guatemalan immigrants.

Safe and Sound: A Renter-Friendly Guide to Home Repair by Mercury Stardust

Tik Tok star and “Trans Handy Ma’am” Mercury Stardust offers simple “how-tos” and guidance for repairs with the goal of helping renters feel safer and more in control of their lives.

Tracking the Fox by Rosalie Sanara Petrouske

This collection evocatively captures the powerful presence of nature in the life of the late poet and LCC writing professor, with reflections on her Upper Peninsula childhood, her Ojibwe heritage, remembrances of time spent with her father and daughter, and meditations on loss and healing.

Unearthing: A Story of Tangled Love and Family Secrets by Kyo Maclear

A DNA test can uproot one’s sense of self. For Kyo Maclear it meant that her recently deceased father wasn’t who she thought, and her mother had secrets to share … or not. This is a poetic exploration and restructuring of self as she investigates her own life.

The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder by David Grann

This real-life story told from both sides of the accusation of mutiny reads like a classic whodunit! Set in the 1740s, learn about the Wager, a British ship on a secret mission during a war with Spain.

This article originally appeared on Lansing State Journal: CADL experts offer top choices for adult fiction and nonfiction