The best books of 2023 so far — picked by FT readers

This book is destined to be the classic account of the consistent failure of American foreign and security policy across the greater Muslim world — and beyond — for over a half a century. It is the story of the institutional hubris of an elite detached from reality. Does western scholarship on the 2bn people of the Muslim world have any utility at all? Why are 2bn people so consistently misunderstood?

— Paul A Myers

A literary fiction meets thriller book about a billionaire investor’s dealings with a group of eco-warrior guerrilla gardeners in New Zealand. Plot-driven and character-driven in equal measure, its morally ambiguous characters making readers never entirely sure who to root for. Accessible but challenging, this book kept me engaged the whole way through.

— Alphabetsy

It’s a poetic take on the undersea explorer William Beebe, filled with many digressions. But the book is also about the limits of perception and how to convey the wondrous and amazing encounters of the deep, “in perfect darkness, beyond the reach of thought”.

— Thermidor

An excellent book by the writer of American Psycho, part thriller, part dreamlike evocation of the life of wealthy students on a campus in California. Nothing is at it seems in this story, and a serial killer looms ever closer while everyone appears to be oblivious to what’s about to happen, in a daze of drugs, lies and parties.

— HC2

Gould, a fluent Russian speaker who lived in Moscow and Riga, Latvia, has done a superb job of evoking early ’90s post-Soviet Russia, from the crumbling apartment blocks to the packed metros and tramways. He brings alive that febrile period’s tensions and anxieties as Russians struggled with the dramatic changes upturning their world: the sudden shift from dictatorship and communism to political uncertainty and capitalism. An expertly written murder mystery that will keep you gripped until the last page.

— Matthew Newman

This book is a powerful take on the horrors and suffering of wars in Iraq. All politicians who support wars to export ideology, defend sectarianism or nationalism should read this book before they send their solo diets into battles.

— good lord

This is a very insightful look at big projects and why they often get derailed. Although I won’t ever plan a project like designing the Sydney Opera House or visiting the moon, the insights on the complexity of these projects, and how they are accomplished, are useful even for aspirations of a much smaller scope.

— CWC

What are your favourites? Tell us in the comments below