In our efforts to increase and diffuse knowledge, we highly recommend these titles this year. Illustration by Emily Lankiewicz

Special Report

The Best Books of 2023

By year's end, after all the new books hit shelves, Smithsonian magazine's editors and writers have clear favorites. Whether you are looking for some gift ideas or a great read to enjoy on the plane or cozied up over the holidays, consider our carefully curated lists.

Our favorite titles of the year resurrect forgotten histories and illuminate how the United States ended up where it is today

Travel to Rome, Alaska, West Africa and beyond with this year’s best cookbooks, memoirs and historic deep dives

Curators and staffers satisfied their endless curiosity with novels, short stories, biographies, art collections and journalistic reporting

Our favorite titles this year will make readers feel the power of visual storytelling

Take a trip without leaving home with these adventurous reads from this year

From stories on the depths of the ocean to the stars in the sky, these are the works that moved us the most this year

This year’s top titles include an art history primer, a collection of silly poems and a mathematical word problem in disguise