Any good books, fiction or nonfiction, of era 1920’s?
My favorite era is the 1920’s. Any good books, fiction or nonfiction, out there?
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The Alice Network
Cocaine Blues by Kerry Greenwood is a good mystery set in 1920’s in Melbourne Australia
Basically any Phryne Fisher is a good bet!
Loving this series of books and Netflix shows!
I’m a big fan of fiction in the 20’s myself. This reco is for the 30’s, but I loved it just the same, because it gave me the same enjoyment I get from reading books set in the 20’s. Check out Rules of Civility.
The Sun Also Rises
I love that book.
Me too.
Read this in highschool. Great book.
The Thin Man. Or anything else by Dashiell Hammett.
Maltese Falcon! ?
Yes. One of the best-written books in the English language.
Tiger Rag by Nicholas Christoper takes place partly in the 20s.
Nella Larsen was a Harlem Renaissance writer who wrote two novels, Quicksand (1928) and Passing (1929). I highly recommend both of them.
The Great Gatsby
Great book!
Check out some of zelda’s work too.. There was a time when he was drinking more than writing and she couldnt sell her stories so they agreed it made sense to sell her stuff u der her name.. Fun hinti g down some of those.. Sorry, typing without my glasses on!
there’s a book called Z about Zelda Fitzgerald and their life. Can’t remember the author but it was really good.
I agree. Great Gatsby is the best.
Fall on Your Knees by Anne Marie MacDonald. Takes place partly in the 20’s as I recall. Heavy at times but riveting.
Hmmm I suppose anything by Fitzgerald would be a decent start. I recently read The Girl From the Savoy, set in London in the 1920s. It was okay, but there is better historical fiction. The Paris Wife, Zelda, Radio Girls, Speak Easy, and Girls at the Kingfisher Club are good options too
These are contemporary historical fiction that strive to capture the more romantic aspects of the 20s
A Passage to India by Forster
The Sound and the Fury by Faulkner
Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse
The Jeeves series by Wodehouse
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn I think is in that era.
Mostly the 19-teens, but such a great read!
Such a fantastic read.
You might like The Diviners series by Libba Bray.
The Diviners
Yes! ?
I loved Circling the Sun by Paula McLain
Hmmm I suppose anything by Fitzgerald would be a decent start. I recently read The Girl From the Savoy, set in London in the 1920s. It was okay, but there is better historical fiction. The Paris Wife, Zelda, Radio Girls, Speak Easy, and Girls at the Kingfisher Club are good options too
Rules of Civility
I really enjoyed The Chaperone, by Laura Moriarty
If you enjoy mysteries,a lot of good ones were written in the 1920s. Some of Agatha Christie’s for instance – Murder on the Links, the Murder of Roger Ackroyd, The Secret of Chimneys, The Seven Dials Mystery, The Man In the Brown Suit, The Secret Adversary, Partners in Crime. And the earlier Peter Wimsey books by Dorothy Sayers – Whose Body?, Clouds of Witness, The Unpleasantness at the Belona Club, Strong Poison. If you enjoy humorous fiction, P.G. Wodehouse wrote some good books in the 20s – Jill the Reckless, The Girl on the Boat, The Adventures of Sally, The Inimitable Jeeves, Leave it to Psmith, Bill the Conqueror, Sam the Sudden, Summer Lightning. For black humour, Decline and Fall by Evelyn Waugh is very funny. For non fiction, I would recommend two excellent memoirs of life in domestic service in the late 20s and 30s- Over a Hot Stove by Flo Wadlow, and Aprons and Silver Spoons by Mollie Moran.
Live by the night
Kerry Greenwoods books. Her 1920s flapper Phryne Fisher. Books are light crime stories set in Melbourne Australia. A fun read.
Definitely my rec here too!
The other typist by Suzanne Rindell
Four names come to my mind: F. Scott Fitzgerald (The Great Gatsby, tender is the Night…), Ernest Hemingway (A farewell to arms…), Faulkner (The Sound and the Fury) and Steibeck (his very early works, otherwise all of his significant books were post-1929 crisis and Great Depression era)
The Sun Also Rises, The Great Gatsby
Gatsby ????
If you want a light read, Twenties Girl by Sophie Kinsella is fun.
Grapes Of Wrath..if you dare
I am right now reading As Bright Side As Heaven by Susan Meissner, set in 1918. So far I’m liking it 🙂
The Diviners!!!
Yesss!! ^^^^
Check out Beatriz Williams.
Z: A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerlad was really good too
I loved this book too!
Howard Mosher ,
Usually writes about rural Vermont . Lovely 🙂
I loved the Paris Wife about Hadley Hemingway. It takes place in 1920s Paris.
loved it too. Also, if you’re into that whole literary scene in Paris in the 1920 you can check out That summer in Paris by Morley Callaghan and of course Moveable Feast by Hemingway himself.
Runnin` Wild it’s a Clara Bow biography
Villa America. I’ve forgotten the author’s name. It’s about the Gerald and Sara Murphy and the whole Lost Generation set of artists and writers in the South of France. It covers the same ground as Tender is the Night but in popular fiction. It’s interesting to read them in sequence.
Have you read Beatriz Williams books? They are mostly set in 20-30s. I’ve read 3 of them and they are great!
The Maisie Dobbs series starts earlier but covers the 1920s. A City of Shadows by Ariana Franklin – set in Berlin in 1922.
I second the Masie Dobbs series. Also The Chaperone, a novel about Louise Brooks, set in the 20s and 30s.
Here’s a link to a list of the bestsellers of 1920-29 plus critical successes and notable works.
https://www.ocf.berkeley.edu/~immer/books1920s
Rules of Civility by Amor Towles
The Paris Wife
One Summer 1927 by Bill Bryson
Oh my goodness I love this group. I read Rules of Civility a couple of years ago and loved it, but I’d borrowed it from the library and promptly forgot the title and the characters’ names. It’s been bugging me ever since! Thank you!! ??✨
How about the books by PG Wodehouse? You could also try HP Lovecraft.
Fitzgerald short stories.
Scott Fitzgerald
Virginia Wolf and Agatha Christie always come to mind, here is a list of others. https://www.stylist.co.uk/books/the-50-best-books-of-the-1920s/126217
Fallen Skies by Philippa Gregory was really good
Adore that era
Try Rules of Civility by Amor Towles, the same authors as A Gentleman in Moscow.
Out of Africa by Isak Dinesen and also West with the Night by Beryl Markham
(Read both these years ago and just reread them prior to a trip to Africa) Interesting perspectives on the times.
So Big by Edna Ferber.
A Certain Age by Beatrix Williams.
USA trilogy
Outstanding, innovative, too little read today.
A Gentleman in Moscow
Maisie Dobbs mystery series starts during WW1 and goes forward through the 1920s and 30s.
If you decide to read Maisie Dobbs, read the first one first. You can read the others out of order, but the first one establishes the structure for the series.
I agree! Start with the first one or two. They are wonderful.
Dorothy Sayers’ Lord Peter series
Ragtime by EL Doctorow
Main Street and Babbitt (Sinclair Lewis), The Master Butchers Singing Club: A Novel (Louise Erdrich), books by F. Scott Fitzgerald and Hemmingway I also read a lot of these as I too enjoy this era.
https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/12914.Best_1920s_Historical_Fiction
And how different the 20’s were on Main Street from the 20’s on the Riviera!
The Paris Wife! Also love Rules of Civility!
The Great Gatsby.
Call Me Zelda by Erica Robuck
The first book of Ken Follett’s Century trilogy starts at the turn of the 20th century. All three are great, big reads.
House of mirth by Edith Wharton
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn is set in that time period even though it was published in 1943.
It’s actually a bit earlier.
Before We Were Yours by Lisa Wingate
Historical Fiction based on actual events starting in the 1920s. I couldn’t put it down.
I remember reading the book A Star Called Henry by Doyle many years ago and liked it.
I liked Philippa Gregory’s Fallen Skies and Ken Follet’s Century Trilogy