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 Lord God Made Them All is the bestselling sequel to All Things Wise and Wonderful and the fourth volume in James Herriot's classic collections of animal stories--the basis for the PBS Masterpiece television series, All Creatures Great and Small. In this...
Cujo : a novel
King, Stephen
Paper Book
The #1 New York Times bestseller, Cujo "hits the jugular" (The New York Times) with the story of a friendly Saint Bernard that is bitten by a bat. Get ready to meet the most hideous menace ever to terrorize the town of Castle Rock, Maine. Outside a peaceful...
Pillars of the earth
Follett, Ken.
Paper Book
Ken Follett is known worldwide as the master of split-second suspense, but his most beloved and bestselling book tells the magnificent tale of a twelfth-century monk driven to do the seemingly impossible: build the greatest Gothic cathedral the world has ever known. Everything readers...
Neuromancer
Gibson, William
Paper Book
SPECIAL 20TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION --THE MOST IMPORTANT AND INFLUENTIAL SCIENCE FICTION NOVEL OF THE PAST TWO DECADES Twenty years ago, it was as if someone turned on a light. The future blazed into existence with each deliberate word that William Gibson laid down. The winner of...
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...
Lonesome Dove : a novel
McMurtry, Larry.
Paper Book
The Pulitzer Prize­-winning American classic of the American West that follows two aging Texas Rangers embarking on one last adventure. An epic of the frontier, Lonesome Dove is the grandest novel ever written about the last defiant wilderness of America. Journey to the...
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
Vintage Tom Wolfe, The Bonfire of the Vanities, the #1 bestseller that will forever define late-twentieth-century New York style. "No one has portrayed New York Society this accurately and devastatingly since Edith Wharton" (The National Review)
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
The Pulitzer Prize-winning novel that tells the story of two sisters through their correspondence. With a new Preface by the author.
Pet sematary
King, Stephen
Paper Book
Stephen King's #1 New York Times bestseller is a "wild, powerful, disturbing" (The Washington Post Book World) classic about evil that exists far beyond the grave--among his most iconic and frightening novels. When Dr. Louis Creed takes a new job and moves his...
Cosmos
Sagan, Carl
Paper Book
Renowned astronomer Carl Sagan's classic bestseller that "dives into the past, present, and future of science, dealing with the mind-staggering enormity of the cosmos in which we exist" (Associated Press)--with an Introduction by Ann Druyan and a Foreword by Neil deGrasse Tyson  ...
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
'BEST OF THE BOOKER' AWARD WINNER * This towering classic of international literature is at once a riveting family saga and an astonishing evocation of a vast land and its people.   "One of the most important books to come out of the English-speaking world in this...
The clan of the cave bear : a novel
Auel, Jean M.
Paper Book
Nominated as one of America's best-loved novels by PBS's The Great American Read This special edition includes the first 2 chapters of The Shelters of Stone. In 1980, Jean M. Auel's debut novel, The Clan of the Cave Bear, blazed up the bestseller...
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
A serial murderer known only by a grotesquely apt nickname-Buffalo Bill-is stalking women. He has a purpose, but no one can fathom it, for the bodies are discovered in different states. Clarice Starling, a young trainee at the FBI Academy, is surprised to be summoned by Jack Crawford, chief of the...
A prayer for Owen Meany : a novel
Irving, John
Paper Book
Owen Meany hits a foul ball while playing baseball in the summer of 1953 that kills his best friend's mother, an accident that Owen is sure is the result of divine intervention.
V for vendetta
Moore, Alan
Paper Book
Set in a futurist totalitarian England, a country without freedom or faith, a mysterious man in a white porcelain mask strikes back against the oppressive overlords on behalf of the voiceless. Armed with only knives and his wits, V, as he's called, aims to bring about change in this horrific new...
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
Don't Miss the Original Series Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan Starring John Krasinski! Tom Clancy reveals Jack Ryan's origins in this electrifying #1 New York Times bestselling thriller that pits the former Marine turned family man against a vicious group of...
The Dark Knight returns : Batman
Miller, Frank
Paper Book
Written by Frank Miller; Art and Cover by Miller and Klaus Janson It is ten years after an aging Batman has retired and Gotham City has sunk deeper into decadence and lawlessness. Now as his city needs him most, the Dark Knight returns in a blaze of glory. Joined by Carrie Kelly, a teenage female...
The accidental tourist : a novel
Tyler, Anne
Paper Book
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * From the beloved Pulitzer Prize-winning author--an irresistible novel exploring the slippery alchemy of attracting opposites, and the struggle to rebuild one's life after unspeakable tragedy Travel writer Macon Leary hates travel, adventure...
Cold Sassy tree
Burns, Olive Ann.
Paper Book
The one thing you can depend on in Cold Sassy, Georgia, is that word gets around--fast. When Grandpa E. Rucker Blakeslee announces one July morning in 1906 that he's aiming to marry the young and freckledy milliner, Miss Love Simpson--a bare three weeks after Granny Blakeslee has gone to her...
Bridge to Terabithia
Paterson, Katherine.
Paper Book
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
From #1 New York Times bestselling author Michael Crichton, a riveting science fiction thriller about group of scientists sent to investigate a ship resting on the ocean floor and a discovery that defies imagination. "Crichton keeps us guessing at every turn."--Los Angeles Times ...
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
COMING IN JUNE AS AN APPLE ORIGINAL SERIES  FROM APPLE TV+ STARRING JAKE GYLLENHAAL From #1 New York Times bestselling author and hailed as the most suspenseful and compelling novel in decades, this story brings to life our worst nightmare: that...
So long, and thanks for all the fish
Adams, Douglas
CD
"A madcap adventure . . . Adams's writing teeters on the fringe of inspired lunacy."--United Press International Back on Earth with nothing more to show for his long, strange trip through time and space than a ratty towel and a plastic shopping bag, Arthur Dent is ready to believe...
Gorky Park
Smith, Martin Cruz
Paper Book
The Arkady Renko book that started it all: the #1 bestseller Gorky Park, an espionage classic that begins the series, by Martin Cruz Smith, "the master of the international thriller" (The New York Times). It begins with a triple murder in a Moscow amusement center:...
Foucault's pendulum
Eco, Umberto.
Ebook
A literary prank leads to deadly danger in this "endlessly diverting" intellectual thriller by the author of The Name of the Rose (Time).   Bored with their work, three Milanese book editors cook up an elaborate hoax that connects the medieval Knights...
The blue sword
McKinley, Robin.
Paper Book
A Newbery Honor Book and a modern classic of young adult fantasy, The Blue Sword introduces the desert kingdom of Damar, where magic weaves through the blood and weaves together destinies. New York Times-bestselling and award-winning author Robin McKinley sets the standard for epic fantasy and...
Like water for chocolate : a novel in monthly installments, with recipes, romances, and home remedies
Esquivel, Laura
Paper Book
Earthy, magical, and utterly charming, this tale of family life in turn-of-the-century Mexico became a best-selling phenomenon with its winning blend of poignant romance and bittersweet wit. The classic love story takes place on the De la Garza ranch, as the tyrannical owner, Mama Elena, chops...
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
Doro is an entity who changes bodies like clothes, killing his hosts by reflex -- or design. He fears no one -- until he meets Anyanwu. Anyanwu is a shapeshifter who can absorb bullets and heal with a kiss...and savage anyone who threatens those she loves. She fears no one -- until she meets...
Bendigo Shafter
L'Amour, Louis
Paper Book
One of L'Amour's favorite characters comes vividly to life in this classic tale of a band of brave men and women who came West, inspired by the boldest American dream. An unforgettable saga of pioneers whose hands and hearts shaped a nation . . . and of Bendigo Shafter, a giant of a man, whose love...
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
Knots and Crosses introduces gifted mystery novelist Ian Rankin, a fascinating locale and the most compellingly complex detective hero at work today. Inspector John Rebus: His city is being terrorized by a baffling series of murders...and he's tied to a maniac by an...
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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