I love books written in 20’s thru 50’s. I’d love some suggestions.
I love books written in 20’s thru 50’s. I’d love some suggestions.
42 Answers
You must be logged in to post a comment.
Loading Please wait
I love books written in 20’s thru 50’s. I’d love some suggestions.
Hi Harriet, have u Lolita, breakfast at Tiffany’s you can also check on good read if your looking for books to read? Happy Reading and enjoy☺
Thanks for the suggestions! Lolita made me literally sick. It’s the only book I’ve ever burned. Breakfast at Tiffany’s was Really well written, and I was surprised by how far movie was from the book.
James Hilton’s Lost Horizon. (1933)
Just clarifying, do you want books that were written in that time period or books that are set in that time period? Or both?
Written in that time period.
In that case, Rebecca ?
The stolen marriage
The group by Mary M
Rebecca and My Cousin Rachel by Daphne Du Maurier.
Rebecca all the way! Love that book!
Thanks for your post! Just today I ordered a book of 3 novels & 5 short stories.
The Kind Worth Killing
Giant
Cold Comfort Farm, The Women, anything by Agatha Christie.
Ahhh. I have Cold Comfort Farm. So quirky. I love it! Funny- I keep forgetting about Ms Christie.
Also, F. Scott Fitzgerald.
Yes! I have all of his books.
Jessica Lost Her Wobble
I love W. Somerset Maugham! The Painted Veil and The Moon and Sixpence are awesome, as is Of Human Bondage if you have the time for a doorstop book!
SO many!! Some of my favorites are…
The Great Gatsby
The Sound and the Fury
The Hobbit
Brave New World
Of Mice and Men
Grapes of Wrath
The Good Earth
As I Lay Dying
Animal Farm
Cannery Row
Cry, the Beloved Country
Catcher in the Rye
Lord of the Flies
Fahrenheit 451
Invisible Man
The Martian Chronicles
The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck
Shirley Jackson
Anything by Nancy Mitford. Her family practically WERE the Downton Abbey crowd. And, this is what she writes, only she writes of her time, not historical fiction, kwim?
Do you have a favorite? I’m a big Jessica fan but have been wanting to read one of Nancy’s books and wasn’t sure where to start.
Wow! Thanks!
@Sarah Ummm…. that would be hard for me to pick. They are NOT a series, so you can read them out of order. Love in a Cold Climate is probably her most famous. I liked Pigeon Pie the least, but I can’t quite pick a fave. I love them all and reread them often. After watching Downton Abbey, I feel like I can better imagine their clothes.
Also, Wait for Me is a fantastic book written by the youngest Mitford – Deborah, or Debo. She died not terribly long ago, like within the past 5 years. She’s written other books, but I loved Wait for Me mostly due to the photos.
Tree grows in Brooklyn.
Yep. Have it and have read it 3 times. Each time I love it more.
It’s one if my favorites too.
Get on that Lovecraft.
Oh! One of my faves!
The Great Gatsby and the Catcher in the Rye
Anything by Jean Rhys–louche, British, downwardly mobile women aging through those decades
Two Serious Ladies by Jane Bowles–weird, funny, indescribable
The whole Dance to the Music of Time sequence of novels by Anthony Powell– there are 12, starting when the characters are bright young things in London between the wars, right up through the 60s. He wrote them contemporaneously
Barbara Pym–Excellent women and their friends in England after the war
The Raj Quartet– The end of the British empire in India
Troubles by J G Farrell –Ireland, after the Great War–a shell-shocked Major, a lugubrious, crumbling hotel, he can’t seem to leave
Any Graham Greene–the moral compromises of post-colonialism in the wreckage left behind. He was everywhere when things were falling apart
Anything by Dawn Powell–New York City through these decades. She skewers everyone’s bad behavior, but not at all mean-spiritedly. Very witty.
All the Kings Men by Robert Penn Warren– Demagoguery in the deep south. Based on Huey Long
The Door by Magda Szabo–two women of different classes and backgrounds in Hungary after the war. There is so much going on in this book
Albany Park and Another City by Patrice Chaplin– memoir of teenaged girls fleeing the dullness of working class London after the war
The Dud Avocado by Elaine Dundy–a young woman footloose in Paris in the 50s. Delightful.
Bronx Primitive & A Wider World– memoir of escaping the poverty immigrant NYC after the war by a future travel writer
Bram stoker draculay
The Man In The Gray Flannel Suit by Sloan Wilson. Quintessential 1950s
D.E. Stevenson
I’m currently reading “The Bridge of San Luis Rey” by Thornton Wilder. My January book challenge is to read books published in 1928 (my mother was born in January 1928)…This was the best seller that year as well. It’s set in Peru so not the standard roaring 20’s genre.
1920’s: F Scott Fitzgerland – The Great Gatsby / VIrginia Woolf – A Room of One’s Own
1930’s: Agatha Christie – Murder on Orient Express
1940’s/50’s: Arther Miller – Death of a Salesman, The Crucible / Ayn Rand – The Fountainhead / Jack Kerouac – On The Road / J D Salinger – The Catcher in the Rye
I just saw this list for 1920’s https://www.stylist.co.uk/books/the-50-best-books-of-the-1920s/126217
Great question
50’s: Not As A Stranger (about medical students) and Marjorie Morningstar.
Marjorie Morningstar was one of my all time faves!
The Queen Bee and Web of Days by Edna Lee. Two of the best books I ever read?