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...
The 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
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...
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...
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...
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
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * An instant classic and eerily prescient cultural phenomenon, from "the patron saint of feminist dystopian fiction" (The New York Times). Now an award-winning Hulu series starring Elizabeth Moss. Look for The Testaments, the...
The bonfire of the vanities
Wolfe, Tom.
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 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
Read the original inspiration for the new, boldly reimagined film from producers Oprah Winfrey and Steven Spielberg, starring Taraji P. Henson, Danielle Brooks, and Fantasia Barrino. Celebrating its fortieth anniversary, The Color Purple writes a message of healing,...
Pet sematary
King, Stephen
Paper Book
""Sometimes dead is better...."" When the Creeds move into a beautiful old house in rural Maine, it all seems too good to be true: physician father, beautiful wife, charming little daughter, adorable infant son -- and now an idyllic home. As a family, they've got it all...right down to the friendly...
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."...
Lonesome Dove : a novel
McMurtry, Larry.
Paper Book
A love story and an epic of the frontier, Lonesome Dove is the grandest novel ever written about the last, defiant wilderness of America. Richly authentic, beautifully written, Lonesome Dove is a book to make readers laugh, weep, dream and remember. Now a blockbuster television event.
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
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
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
"A remarkable novel. . . . A Prayer for Owen Meany is a rare creation. ... An amazingly brave piece of work ... so extraordinary, so original, and so enriching. . . . Readers will come to the end feeling sorry to leave [this] richly textured and carefully wrought world." --STEPHEN KING,...
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, Hyperionis 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...
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....
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...
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...
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...
Sphere
Crichton, Michael
Paper Book
Crichton keeps us guessing at every turn in his best work since The Andromeda Strain. Los Angeles Times In the middle of the South Pacific, a thousand feet below the surface of the water, a huge vessel is discovered resting on the ocean floor. It is a spaceship of phenomenal dimensions,...
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
Toni Morrison--author of Song of Solomon and Tar Baby--is a writer of remarkable powers: her novels, brilliantly acclaimed for their passion, their dazzling language and their lyric and emotional force, combine the unassailable truths of experience and emotion with the vision of legend...
So long, and thanks for all the fish
Adams, Douglas
Paper Book
Now celebrating the 42nd anniversary of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, soon to be a Hulu original series! "A madcap adventure . . . Adams's writing teeters on the fringe of inspired lunacy."--United Press International Back on Earth with...
Presumed innocent
Turow, Scott.
Paper Book
NOW 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 of an ordinary...
Wyrd sisters
Pratchett, Terry.
Paper Book
In Terry Pratchett's Wyrd Sisters, Granny Weatherwax teams with two other witches--Nanny Ogg and Margat Garlick--as an unlikely alliance to save a prince and restore him to the throne of Lancre, in a tale that borrows--or is it parodies--some of William Shakespeare's best-loved works.<...
Mort : a novel of Discworld
Pratchett, Terry.
Paper Book
New York Times bestselling author Sir Terry Pratchett makes Death a central character in Mort, his fourth sojourn to Discworld, the fantasy cosmos where even the angel of darkness needs some assistance.  Death comes to everyone eventually on Discworld. And now he's come to Mort with...
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
Read this modern classic of young adult fantasy from award-winning, New York Times bestselling author Robin McKinley Harry Crewe is an orphan girl who comes to live in Damar, the desert country shared by the Homelanders and the secretive, magical Free Hillfolk. When...
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-...
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...
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...
The snow queen
Vinge, Joan D.
Paper Book
This reissue of a modern classic of science fiction, the Hugo and Locus Award-winning and Nebula-nominated The Snow Queen, marks the first time the book has been reprinted in fifteen years. The imperious Winter colonists have ruled the planet Tiamat for 150 years,...
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
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
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...
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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