Year: 2021

Our online catalog includes books set in decades from the 1920s through the 2000s. You'll find selections from every genre: classic literature, thrillers, heartwarming gentle reads, romance, horror and more. Browse the collection, or come into the Adult Services Department at the Main Library on Harnish Drive, and check out the books on our monthly Reading Resolutions Display. You can also give us a call, and ask an Adult Services staff member for suggested reads set in your favorite decade.

When you've finished your book, enter the title in Beanstack and activate this badge. You'll be entered  into our monthly drawing for a $10 gift card, and eligible for our year end grand prize drawing for a $100 gift card.

Read on for suggested reads for each decade!

Fried Green Tomatoes At The Whistle Stop Cafe by Fannie Flagg- Flagg's classic novel begins in 1929, and transports readers to the small town of Whistle Stop, Alabama, where sweet widowed Ruth, and tomboyish Idgy run the Whistle Stop Cafe. Ruth and Idgy's friendship, the community of unforgettable characters who frequent the cafe, and a very strange murder mystery inspire a lonely woman in the 1980s to see life, and herself, in a new way.

Palisades Park by Alan Brennert- Growing up in the 1930s, for Toni, there is no more magical place than Palisades Amusement Park in New Jersey. She and her brother help their parents at the stand where they sell homemade French fries amid the roar of the Cyclone roller coaster. There is also the lure of the world’s biggest salt-water pool, complete with divers whose astonishing stunts inspire Toni to take on impossible feats of her own.  Evocative and moving, Palisades Park takes us back to a time when life seemed simpler—except, of course, it wasn't.

The Lieutenant's Nurse by Sara Ackerman. In November 1941, Army Corps nurse Eva Cassidy is stunned by the splendor of Pearl Harbor; even more so by Lt. Clark Spencer, a navy intelligence officer, who clearly has secrets of his own. When Clark warns Eva that the United States won’t be able to hold off joining the war for long, nothing can prepare them for the surprise attack that will change the world they know.

In the wake of the bombing of Pearl Harbor, Eva and her fellow nurses band together for the immense duty of keeping the American wounded alive. Amid the chaos and heartbreak, Eva will have to decide whom to trust and how far she will go to protect those she loves.

Brooklyn by Colm Tóibín- Eilis Lacey has come of age in small-town Ireland in the years following World War Two. Though skilled at bookkeeping, she cannot find a job in the miserable Irish economy. An Irish priest from Brooklyn offers to sponsor Eilis in America--to live and work in a Brooklyn neighborhood "just like Ireland." Eilis finds work in a department store, and when she least expects it, love. Tony, a blond Italian from a big family, slowly wins her over with patient charm. But just as Eilis begins to fall in love with Tony, devastating news from Ireland threatens the promise of her future

Downtown by Anne Rivers Siddons- The year is 1966, a time of innocence, possibility, and freedom. And for Atlanta, the country, and one woman making her way in a changing world, nothing will be the same . . .

After an airless childhood in Savannah, Smoky O'Donnell arrives in Atlanta, dazzled and chastened by this hectic young city on the rise. Her new job as a writer with the city's Downtown magazine introduces her to many unforgettable people and propels her into the center of momentous events that will irrevocably alter her heart, her career, and her world.

Daisy Jones & The Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid- In 1970s LA, everyone knows Daisy Jones. She's been sneaking into clubs on the Strip since her teens, and while the sex and drugs are thrilling,  it’s the rock and roll she loves most. By the time she’s twenty, her voice is getting noticed, and she has the kind of heedless beauty that makes people do crazy things. Another band getting noticed is The Six, led by the brooding Billy Dunne. Daisy and Billy cross paths when a producer realizes the key to supercharged success is to put the two together. What happens next will become the stuff of legend.

Hunting Annabelle by Wendy Heard- In 1980s Austin, Sean Suh, just released from a psychiatric prison,  is determined to stay away from temptation. But he can't resist Annabelle, who alone can see past the monster to the man inside. The man he's desperately trying to be. Then Annabelle disappears.

Sean is sure she’s been kidnapped—but the police are convinced that Sean himself is at the center of this crime. And he must admit, his illness has caused him to “lose time” before. What if there’s more to what happened then he’s able to remember?

How To Be Famous by Caitlin Moran-  Johanna Morrigan  has it all:  she lives in  London and writes for the coolest music magazine in Britain. But Johanna is miserable. The man of her dreams John Kite has just made it big in 1994’s hot new BritPop scene. Suddenly John exists on another plane of reality: that of the Famouses. Never one to sit on the sidelines, Johanna hatches a plan: she will write a monthly column, analyzing fame, its power, its dangers, and its amusing aspects. But as Johanna’s own star rises, she begins to realize that with celebrity comes sacrifice, and hers may mean giving up the one person she was determined to keep.