Attack of the Best Lists 2023: It All Begins With PW's Best Books

This post is part of my year end "Attack of the Best Lists" coverage. To see every post in my "Attack of the Best Lists 2023" coverage [and more backlist best of the year options] you can click here.

It begins earlier and earlier every year. The annual "Attack of the Best Lists." I used to be surprised when "Best Lists" started showing up on November 1, but here we are, it's not even Halloween and a major year endif the yea "best list" went live last week. I will say I am not surprised this one came first because not only is it the most useful of the best lists, but it is also updated and available year round w/ super easy backlist access. In other words, the Publishers Weekly Best Books portal is not only the first list but probably the most useful of the bunch. 

Look at that screen shot. From the Best Books of 2023 page on PW you can access by all ages and genres as well as single click access going back to 2010! And it includes their Summer Reads picks and overall Best titles in one place. 

This inclusion of Summer Reads access is key because often, those books are better general reads options but they don't always make the year end lists. This allows the PW Best Books portal to be a one stop shop for great reads.

Nowhere will you find a resource that puts this many "sure bet" options in front of you so easily. There are literally hundreds of titles here, at your fingertips, both old and new, that you can confidently suggest to readers immediately. And for so many readers. Readers who read across all age levels [down to infants] and in just about every genre. 

And, since every title is annotated, you also have a book talk [or annotation] for each title right there. You don't have to have read the book to suggest it. [Reminder: Use the Words of Others.]

I could keep gushing about how much I love this resource but I would rather you played around with it yourself.

Click through, check out the 2023 titles, but also look back at older titles, read the annotations, check genres you love and those you don't normally read, especially those you don't normally read because you will learn much about the current state of that genre [trends, popular authors] this year and going back a few years. You can both get access to some great sure bet suggestions AND brush up on your genre knowledge all in one place.

Spend some time really getting to know this resource. And then use it-- all of it including past years and both summer and year end lists-- to make your own lists for your readers. Make displays [digital displays too], make suggested reading lists by genre, by year, by whatever you want. Just embrace the wealth of information available to you with one click and help readers in ways they would not think to help themselves.

Go check out this database of "sure bet" reads for any season, and keep it bookmarked for use anytime you need a solid suggestion [especially for those hard to satisfy readers].

And keep an eye out here on the blog for more "Attack of the Best Lists" posts coming as they are announced. And they will be announced at a fast clip from today onward until the end of the year.