The Best Conversation-Starting Books of 2023

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The holiday season is upon us, which means potlucks, cocktail parties, white elephants, and a whole lot of room for small talk. While there’s nothing better than reconnecting with friends and family you haven’t seen in a while, there is nothing worse than repeating the same three surface-level conversations. (Yup, it sure is getting darker earlier! Indeed, kids do grow up quite fast!) The books on this list are here to help, loaded with fresh insights, groundbreaking research, and human stories that get at the heart of some of today’s pressing issues. These books will make you look at the world differently—and talk about it differently, so much so that you may even look forward to the buffet line chitchat.

Monsters, by Claire Dederer

What are we supposed to think these days about Lolita, the politically incorrect novel that just won’t shrivel up and leave the culture no matter how wrong it seems? What about Picasso and Hemingway and Woody Allen and any number of artists and writers whose behavior was as reprehensible as their work was genius? As personal as it is unflinching, Dederer’s exploration of the confusing boundaries between life and art refuses all the easy answers. —Marion Winik

The Ferguson Report, by Nicole Sealey

Following Michael Brown’s fatal shooting in 2014, the Department of Justice launched an investigation into the Ferguson Police Department and reported systemic, flagrant, and targeted violence against the city’s Black community. Peeling back the clinical language of the official government document, poet Sealey creates “lifted poems” that capture the collective rage of the nation, lay bare the visceral grief, and imagine a new vision of liberation. —Charley Burlock

Marry Me a Little, by Rob Kirby

Rob and John had been together 10 years when gay marriage became legal in Minnesota in 2013. This funny and astute graphic memoir tells their story, from the Groomzilla deliberations about venue, wine, and suit selection through the present day: “a mix of little stuff and big stuff, arguments and heart-to-hearts, personal quirks and private jokes, doubts and commitments, work and play, joy and grief”—and a sweet dog story, too. —M.W.

The Teachers, by Alexandra Robbins

Get ready to fume as you spend a year in the life of three public school teachers, brought to messy, moving, often brutally funny life by a reporter famous for bestselling true stories from behind the scenes. As Robbins’s three subjects, Miguel, Penny, and Rebecca, navigate the outrageous challenges of interfering parents, indifferent administrators, a global pandemic, and so much more, their unshakable love for the kids is a saving grace, a North Star, and a deep lesson in itself. —M.W.

Master Slave Husband Wife, by Ilyon Woo

As inspiring—and incredible—as the true story of William and Ellen Craft’s 1848 escape from slavery is, it seems unbelievable we’re just hearing about it now. With light-skinned Ellen disguised as a young male planter and William as her devoted slave, traveling by rail, steamship, and carriage, the pair made it to freedom in Philadelphia with a tale to remember. —M.W.

Poverty, by America, by Matthew Desmond

Why are there so many poor people in America, and what can we do about it? This man has answers. The passion, eloquence, and lively storytelling that made Evicted a Pulitzer Prize–winning bestseller are back in force as Desmond continues to speak on behalf of America’s most hard-pressed. Desmond is our national conscience, and his strong writing makes his bad news easier to hear. —M.W.

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