Over the whole year, the industrious and lovably irrational Book Marks elves have been poring over reviews from all across the literary internet. With scowled eyebrows and rumbling stomachs, they toiled seven days a week from the crack of dawn until the last moments of dusk, poring over the book review sections of over 150 publications, including the New York Times, Sydney Morning Herald, Toronto Star, and London Review of Books. Only now can we declare with confidence that these are the best-reviewed nonfiction titles of 2023.

Waiting to Be Arrested at Night: A Uyghur Poet’s Memoir of China’s Genocide by Tahir Hamut Izgil, trans. Joshua L. Freeman

There aren't any violent or torturous moments, and there aren't many generalized statements about genocide. Izgil uses deliberate restraint while writing. The anticipation is what gives rise to horror, as his title indicates. This is a psychological thriller, even if the story develops like a vintage horror film as the seemingly regular world turns into a nightmare. Izgil is a gentle poet rather than an activist or orator, which may be why his subtle story works so well.
-The New York Times Book Review's Barbara Demick

Thunderclap: A Memoir of Art and Life & Sudden Death by Laura Cumming

"Defying all genres... Cumming proposes that we use images to remember the past. Cumming loves these paintings, and she encourages us to share that love by combining short histories of the men and women who created them with evocative evocations of the ones that especially affect her. Cumming, like all skilled elegists, gives the deceased vitality while others are grieving for them.
-The New York Times Book Review, Ruth Bernard Yeazell

Winnie and Nelson: Portrait of a Marriage by Jonny Steinberg

"A compelling, personal, and ultimately tragic story... meticulous detail A great deal of the information in Steinberg's brilliant narrative has long been known to the public due to court rulings, published papers, and other publications. However, his greatest contribution lies in his ability to convey compassion and empathy for both the bravery and the agony of Nelson and Winnie Mandela, while also portraying their shortcomings and crimes objectively and plainly.
-The Washington Post's Glenn Frankel

The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder by David Grann

"A captivating, exquisitely detailed maritime narrative... Maybe it's the other way around, but this is a sharp study of group psychology wrapped in a ripping yarn. Whatever your classification, The Wager is an incredible work. Grann uses writing that authors he quotes, such as Herman Melville and Joseph Conrad, would be proud of to lead us through this process, step by step, storm by storm, man by man. The book entices landlubbers with its colorful depictions of marine life, interspersed with definitions of terms and expressions that are unique to that lifestyle.
-From The Boston Globe, Chris Vognar

King: A Life by Jonathan Eig

“Outstanding … Most of the book reveals King's true self behind the well-known speeches and public image. Eig provides a personal, complex biography of King based on extensive research into hundreds of hours of phone transcripts and FBI wiretaps of talks between King and other political and civil rights leaders. The reader gets the impression that King and other important characters are in the room thanks to his recreated exchanges.
–The Boston Globe's Ousmane Power-Greene

The Marriage Question: George Eliot’s Double Life by Clare Carlisle

"Captivating, often superb... In the end, Carlisle's careful, in-depth analysis of this specific relationship brilliantly explores the difficult, nuanced, and intriguing subject of "to what extent does our choice of partner ultimately determine who we ultimately become?"
–AirMail's Jenny McPhee

Still Pictures: On Photograph and Memory by Janet Malcolm

"Excellent ... How could an autobiography be written by a writer who was so well-known for being so critical of subjective narratives? Malcolm elegantly and characteristically addresses the problem: Almost all of Still Pictures' brief chapters begin with a grainy black-and-white image that she responds to, ignores, and negotiates with on a delicate level. Her ability to live with incompleteness turns into a virtue. The majority of this book is made up of grateful and often quite dryly humorous recollections of her loving, well-read family. Still, Pictures is as succinct and clear as a book written by a writer who understands that time is of the essence and that there is a lot to say and tell that would otherwise be gone forever. Malcolm contends in her last, magnificent, and most intimate piece of her lengthy career that a lot is lost in that shift. Many, but not all of them.
The New York Times Book Review, Charles Finch

Doppelganger: A Trip Into the Mirror World by Naomi Klein

I don't know of any other book that has been as academically challenging, drive mad as absurdly personal, or as amusing, especially when it comes to the political ramifications of the epidemic. Mostly recognized as a climate activist and globalization critic, our Naomi turns out to be the rarest of breeds: a socialist with a sense of humor. Klein draws such terrible parallels, yet he treats Wolf with such poise that he prefers reasoned debate to mockery or disdain. Her favored strategy is to extract the pearls of wisdom from even the wildest assertions made by Wolf. Klein is especially skilled at weaving together the grand sweep of history and the everyday things of the present in her roles as writer and thinker. She also understands the deeper transhistorical meaning that doppelgängers might have. This book's uniqueness and political bravery allow us to see our enemies—and ourselves—in a whole new light and as an opportunity.
–The Nation's Laura Kipnis

Wifedom: Mrs. Orwell’s Invisible Life by Anna Funder

Funder pulls together little bits of information to piece together a life with the accuracy of a historian. And with the creative energy of a writer, she conjectures about that existence at periods that are marked with signs. In light of the little data Funder has at her disposal, Wifedom is an astounding feat of academic research and emotional intelligence.
-From The Los Angeles Times, Jessica Ferri

Monsters: A Fan’s Dilemma by Claire Dederer

"Very good... Dederer is candid about how her personal history influenced her interactions with art. Every critic has prejudices and blind spots of their own, and denying them doesn't make them go away. The only way to overcome these prejudices in critique and memoir is to acknowledge them, if not to others then at least to oneself. The benefit of Dederer's style of criticism—which openly admits her subjectivity as well as her likes and hates—is that it sheds light on how challenging this process can be.