Back to the '80s

Books published in the 1980s

Updated February 24, 2023
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The Lord God made them all
Herriot, James.
Paper Book
The fourth volume of James Herriot's bestselling series of animal stories now available in unabridged CD format for the first time.After serving in the Royal Air Force in World War II, James Herriot gladly returns home to Yorkshire to his beloved family and multitude of patients, with many more...
Cujo : a novel
King, Stephen
Paper Book
The #1 bestseller—for King's rabid fans. It happens innocently enough, but doesn’t it always. A big, friendly dog chases a rabbit into a hidden underground cave—and stirs a sleeping evil crueler than death itself. A terrified four-year-old boy sees...
The pillars of the earth
Follett, Ken
Paper Book
If you liked the Century Trilogy, you'll love the "extraordinary . . . monumental masterpiece" (Booklist) that changed the course of Ken Follett's already phenomenal career. "Follett risks all and comes out a clear winner," extolled Publishers Weekly on the release...
Neuromancer
Gibson, William
Paper Book
Winner of the Hugo, Nebula, and Philip K. Dick Awards, Neuromancer is a science fiction masterpiece--a classic that ranks as one of the twentieth century's most potent visions of the future. Case was the sharpest data-thief in the matrix--until he crossed the wrong people...
The cider house rules : a novel
Irving, John
Paper Book
First published in 1985, The Cider House Rules is John Irving's sixth novel. Set in rural Maine in the first half of this century, it tells the story of Dr. Wilbur Larch--saint and obstetrician, founder and director of the orphanage in the town of St. Cloud's, ether addict and abortionist. It is...
What we talk about when we talk about love : stories
Carver, Raymond
Paper Book
The most celebrated story collection from "one of the true American masters" (The New York Review of Books)--a haunting meditation on love, loss, and companionship, and finding one's way through the dark that includes the iconic and much-referenced title story featured in the Academy Award...
Lonesome dove : a novel
McMurtry, Larry.
Paper Book
A love story, an adventure, and an epic of the frontier, Larry McMurtry's Pulitzer Prize-winning classicLonesome Dove, the third book in theLonesome Dovetetralogy, is the grandest novel ever written about the last, defiant wilderness of America. Journey to the dusty little Texas town of Lonesome...
Geek love
Dunn, Katherine
Paper Book
National Book Award Finalist * Here is the unforgettable story of the Binewskis, a circus-geek family whose matriarch and patriarch have bred their own exhibit of human oddities--with the help of amphetamines, arsenic, and radioisotopes. One of The Atlantic's Great...
Howl's Moving Castle
Jones, Diana Wynne
Paper Book
This entrancing classic fantasy novel is filled with surprises at every turn. An international bestseller, this much-loved book is the source for the Academy Award nominee for Best Animated Feature. Sophie has the great misfortune of being the eldest of three daughters, destined to...
A brief history of time
Hawking, Stephen
Paper Book
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER A landmark volume in science writing by one of the great minds of our time, Stephen Hawking's book explores such profound questions as: How did the universe begin--and what made its start possible? Does time always flow forward? Is the universe...
White noise
DeLillo, Don.
Paper Book
NATIONAL BOOK AWARD WINNER * An "eerie, brilliant, and touching" (The New York Times) modern classic about mass culture and the numbing effects of technology. "Tremendously funny . . . A stunning performance from one of our most intelligent novelists."--The New...
The handmaid's tale
Atwood, Margaret
Paper Book
Love in the time of cholera
García Márquez, Gabriel
Paper Book
INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER * "A love story of astonishing power" (Newsweek), the acclaimed modern literary classic by the beloved Nobel Prize-winning author. In their youth, Florentino Ariza and Fermina Daza fall passionately in love. When Fermina eventually chooses to marry...
The bonfire of the vanities
Wolfe, Tom.
Paper Book
The remains of the day
Ishiguro, Kazuo
Paper Book
BOOKER PRIZE WINNER * From the winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature, here is "an intricate and dazzling novel" (The New York Times) about the perfect butler and his fading, insular world in post-World War II England.   This is Kazuo Ishiguro's profoundly...
Blood meridian, or, The evening redness in the West
McCarthy, Cormac
Paper Book
25th ANNIVERSARY EDITION * From the bestselling author of The Passenger and the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Road: an epic novel of the violence and depravity that attended America's westward expansion, brilliantly subverting the conventions of the Western novel and the...
The color purple
Walker, Alice
Paper Book
Pet sematary : a novel
King, Stephen
Paper Book
Now a major motion picture from Paramount Pictures starring John Lithgow, Jason Clarke, and Amy Seimetz! Stephen King's #1 New York Times bestseller Pet Sematary, a "wild, powerful, disturbing" (The Washington Post Book World) classic about evil that...
Cosmos
Sagan, Carl
Paper Book
This visually stunning book with over 250 full-color illustrations, many of them never before published, is based on Carl Sagan’s thirteen-part television series. Told with Sagan’s remarkable ability to make scientific ideas both comprehensible and exciting,Cosmosis about science in its...
The Joy Luck Club
Tan, Amy.
Paper Book
"The Joy Luck Club is one of my favorite books. From the moment I first started reading it, I knew it was going to be incredible. For me, it was one of those once-in-a-lifetime reading experiences that you cherish forever. It inspired me as a writer and still remains hugely inspirational."...
Midnight's children
Rushdie, Salman.
Paper Book
Winner of the Booker prize and twice winner of the Booker of Bookers, Midnight's Children is "one of the most important books to come out of the English-speaking world in this generation" (New York Review of Books). Reissued for the 40th anniversary of the original...
The clan of the cave bear
Auel, Jean M.
Paper Book
This novel of awesome beauty and power is a moving saga about people, relationships, and the boundaries of love. Nominated as one of America's best-loved novels by PBS's The Great American Read Through Jean M. Auel's magnificent storytelling we are...
Redwall : a tale of Redwall
Jacques, Brian.
Paper Book
Soon to be a Netflix original movie! One of TIME Magazine's 100 Best Fantasy Books of All Time   The book that inspired a legend--the first novel in the beloved, bestselling Redwall saga. Welcome to Mossflower Wood,...
The silence of the lambs
Harris, Thomas
Paper Book
An ingenious, masterfully written novel, Thomas Harris's The Silence of the Lambs is a classic of suspense and storytelling and the basis for the Oscar award-winning horror film starring Jodie Foster as Clarice Starling and Anthony Hopkins as Dr. Hannibal Lecter. A...
A prayer for Owen Meany
Irving, John
Paper Book
Owen Meany, the only child of a New Hampshire granite quarrier, believes he is God's instrument; he is. This is John Irving's most comic novel, yet Owen Meany is Mr. Irving's most heartbreaking character. "Roomy, intelligent, exhilarating and darkly comic...Dickensian in scope....Quite...
V for vendetta
Moore, Alan
Paper Book
In an alternate future in which Germany wins World War II and Britain becomes a fascist state, a vigilante named "V" tries to free England of its ideological chains.
The prince of tides
Conroy, Pat.
Paper Book
"A big, sprawling saga of a novel" (San Francisco Chronicle), this epic family drama is a masterwork by the revered author of The Great Santini.   Pat Conroy's classic novel stings with honesty and resounds with drama. Spanning forty years, it's the story of...
Time to kill
Grisham, John.
Paper Book
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * The master of the legal thriller probes the savage depths of racial violence in this searing courtroom drama featuring the beloved Jake Brigance. "John Grisham may well be the best American storyteller writing today."--The Philadelphia...
Hyperion
Simmons, Dan.
Paper Book
A stunning tour de force filled with transcendent awe and wonder, Hyperion is a masterwork of science fiction that resonates with excitement and invention, the first volume in a remarkable epic by the multiple-award-winning author of The Hollow Man. On the world...
Patriot games
Clancy, Tom
Paper Book
The phenomenal bestselling author of The Hunt for Red Octoberand The Sum of All Fears, Tom Clancy is one of America's most acclaimedstorytellers. Now he targets a CIA analyst and his family in the deadliest game of our time --international terrorism. In an explosive wave of violence, an ultra-left...
Batman, the Dark Knight returns
Miller, Frank
Paper Book
Writer/artist Frank Miller completely reinvents the legend of Batman in this saga of a near-future Gotham City gone to rot, 10 years after the Dark Knight's retirement. Forced to take action, the Dark Knight returns in a blaze of fury, taking on a whole new generation of criminals and matching their...
The accidental tourist
Tyler, Anne.
Paper Book
Meet Macon Leary--a travel writer who hates both travel and strangeness. Grounded by loneliness, comfort, and a somewhat odd domestic life, Macon is about to embark on a surprising new adventure, arriving in the form of a fuzzy-haired dog obedience trainer who promises to turn his life around....
Cold Sassy tree
Burns, Olive Ann.
Paper Book
If the preacher's wife's petticoat showed, the ladies would make the talk last a week. But on July 5, 1906, things took a scandalous turn. That was the day E. Rucker Blakeslee, proprietor of the general store and barely three weeks a widower, eloped with Miss Love Simpson¿a woman half his age and,...
Bridge to Terabithia
Paterson, Katherine.
Other
Now a major motion picture from Disney, starring Josh Hutcherson and Zooey Deschanel! Discover the beloved Newbery Medal-winning story by bestselling author Katherine Paterson, a modern classic of friendship and loss.  Jess Aarons has been practicing all summer so he can be the...
Sphere : a novel
Crichton, Michael
Paper Book
"A page-turner...Chichton's writing is cinematic, with powerful visual images and nonstop action. This book should come with hot buttered popcorn." NEWSWEEK A group of American scientists are rushed to a huge vessel that has been discovered resting on the ocean floor in the middle of the South...
Crossing to safety
Stegner, Wallace
Paper Book
Introduction by Terry Tempest Williams Afterword by T. H. Watkins nbsp; Called a "magnificently crafted story . . . brimming with wisdom" by Howard Frank Mosher in The Washington Post Book World, Crossing to Safety has, since its publication in...
Beloved : a novel
Morrison, Toni.
Paper Book
PULITZER PRIZE WINNER * NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * A spellbinding novel that transforms history into a story as powerful as Exodus and as intimate as a lullaby. With a new afterword by the author.  This "brutally powerful, mesmerizing story" (...
Presumed innocent
Turow, Scott.
Paper Book
Scott Turow's #1 runaway bestseller comes to theaters everywhere as a major motion picture from Warner Bros., starring Harrison Ford, Brian Dennehy, Raul Julia, and Bonnie Bedelia, directed by Alan Pakula, best known for his award-winning work in Klute.
So long, and thanks for all the fish
Adams, Douglas
Paper Book
Wyrd sisters
Pratchett, Terry
Paper Book
Witches are not by nature gregarious, and they certainly don't have leaders. Granny Weatherwax was the most highly-regarded of the leaders they didn't have. But even she found that meddling in royal politics was a lot more difficult than certain playwrights would...
Mort : a novel of Discworld
Pratchett, Terry
Paper Book
Death comes to us all. When he came to Mort, he offered him a job. After being assured that being dead was not compulsory, Mort accepted. However, he soon found that romantic longings did not mix easily with the responsibilities of being Death's apprentice...
Gorky Park
Smith, Martin Cruz
Paper Book
“Brilliant . . . enough enigmas within enigmas within enigmas to reel the mind.” –The New Yorker A triple murder in a Moscow amusement center: three corpses found frozen in the snow, faces and fingers missing. Chief homicide investigator Arkady Renko is...
Foucault's pendulum
Eco, Umberto.
Paper Book
International bestselling and award-winning author Umberto Eco's Foucault's Pendulum is "an intellectual adventure story, as sensational, thrilling, and packed with arcana as Raiders of the Lost Ark or The Count of Monte Cristo" (The Washington Post Book World). Bored with...
The Blue Sword
McKinley, Robin.
Paper Book
Harry Crewe is an orphan girl who comes to live in Damar, the desert country shared by the Homelanders and the secretive, magical Hillfolk. Her life is quiet and ordinary-until the night she is kidnapped by Corlath, the Hillfolk King, who takes her deep into the desert. She does not know the...
Like water for chocolate : a novel in monthly installments, with recipes, romances, and home remedies
Esquivel, Laura
Paper Book
INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER * Earthy, magical, and utterly charming, this tale of family life in turn-of-the-century Mexico blends poignant romance, bittersweet wit, and delicious recipes. This classic love story takes place on the De la Garza ranch, as the tyrannical owner,...
Downbelow station : or the company wars
Cherryh, C. J.
Paper Book
The Hugo Award-winning classic sci-fi novel, now available in a trade edition. The Beyond started with the Stations orbiting the stars nearest Earth. The Great Circle the interstellar freighters traveled was long, but not unmanageable, and the early Stations were emotionally and...
Dawn
Butler, Octavia E.
Paper Book
One woman is called upon to rebuild the future of humankind after a nuclear war, in this revelatory post-apocalyptic tale from the award-winning author of Parable of the Sower. When Lilith lyapo wakes from a centuries-long sleep, she finds herself aboard the...
Wild seed
Butler, Octavia E.
Paper Book
In an "epic, game-changing, moving and brilliant" story of love and hate, two immortals chase each other across continents and centuries, binding their fates together -- and changing the destiny of the human race (Viola Davis). Doro knows no higher authority than himself. An...
Bendigo Shafter
L'Amour, Louis
Paper Book
At what point does a group of strangers become a community? When young Bendigo Shafter and a ragtag bunch of travelers settle in the rugged Wyoming mountains, they quickly come to depend on a toughness and wisdom many of them never knew they possessed. Led by the beautiful and...
A great deliverance
George, Elizabeth
Paper Book
To this day, the low, thin wail of an infant can be heard in Keldale's lush green valleys. Three hundred years ago, as legend goes, the frightened Yorkshire villagers smothered a crying babe in Keldale Abbey, where they'd hidden to escape the ravages of Cromwell's raiders. Now into...
Knots and crosses
Rankin, Ian.
Paper Book
'And in Edinburgh of all places. I mean, you never think of that sort of thing happening in Edinburgh, do you...?' 'That sort of thing' is the brutal abduction and murder of two young girls. And now a third is missing, presumably gone to the same sad end. Detective Sergeant John Rebus,...
The house on Mango Street
Cisneros, Sandra.
Paper Book
A TODAY SHOW #ReadWithJenna BOOK CLUB PICK NATIONAL BESTSELLER * A coming-of-age classic about a young girl growing up in Chicago * Acclaimed by critics, beloved by readers of all ages, taught in schools and universities alike, and translated around the world-...
Jacob have I loved
Paterson, Katherine.
Paper Book
Katherine Paterson's remarkable Newbery Medal-winning classic about a painful sibling rivalry, and one sister's struggle to make her own way, is an honest and daring portrayal of adolescence and coming of age.  A strong choice for independent reading, both for summer reading...

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