Attack of the Best Lists 2023: Largehearted Boy's Essential and Interesting Best of 2023 Book Lists

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.

I know we have had Best Lists appearing for about a month now, but it is the Monday after Thanksgiving and this is when the countdown to the end of the year starts to move fast and furious. As things heat up it is time to remind you about the index where you can find the list you need for the patron in front of you, with one click, for this year and many years in the past.

I am talking about Largehearted Boy's Best of 2023 Book Lists. For the past 15 years, David Gutowski has spent his end of each year trying to give you access to every single best books list in America. This year, for his 16th go-round, he has streamlined the process a bit. From this year's page:

For the past fifteen years, I have aggregated every online year-end book list I have discovered into one post.

This year, I will collect essential and interesting year-end book lists in this post and update it daily.

Please feel free to e-mail me with a magazine, newspaper, or other online list I have missed.

Retitled, "Essential and Interesting Best of 2023 Book Lists," Gutowski is no longer worried about getting you every single list, rather, he is shifting his focus slightly, but good news, the results are even more useful to you. With fewer options, but a consciously curated list of best lists, the Largehearted Boy list of lists is easier to browse and use.

For example: I have more easily found a few interesting lists such as:

• Debutiful (best debut books)
• Our Queerest Shelves (best queer books)
• The Sweet Science (best books about boxing)

I have a reader in mind for each list and they are people who will really appreciate the curated best options.

The Largehearted Boy annual list of best lists has always been my go-to resource for another important reason. Gutowski has always made the backlist access extremely easy, and thankfully, that has not changed one bit. At the end of the page he has a linked list of 15 years of his work. It is there for you to use immediately.

Remember, I would target the lists going back 5 years to find the most relevant best lists. So 2018 and forward. That is not to say the older lists aren't going to help you, but the 2018 and forward best books are probably still on your shelves.

I will still be posting important best lists here for you, but know that my go-to resource when helping readers find a great read or gift for the reader in their life, I go to Largehearted Boy first. Maybe you should too.