The most popular books in English
from 19401 to 19600
What books are currently the most popular and which are the all time classics? Here we present you with a mixture of those two criteria. We update this list once a month.

Jachym Topol
City Sister Silver is the title of Alex Zucker's English-language translation of the 1994 novel Sestra by Czech author Jáchym Topol, published by Catbird Press in 2000. The Czech original was described by Czech writer Ivan Klíma as "a first attempt at expressing, in a profound …

Sesyle Joslin
What Do You Say, Dear? is a book written by Sesyle Joslin and illustrated by Maurice Sendak.

Herman Wouk
War and Remembrance is a novel by Herman Wouk, published in October 1978, which is the sequel to The Winds of War. It continues the story of the extended Henry family and the Jastrow family starting on 15 December 1941 and ending on 6 August 1945. This novel was adapted into the …

James Ellroy
Because the Night is a crime fiction novel written by James Ellroy. Released in 1984, it is the second installment of a trilogy often titled "Lloyd Hopkins Trilogy", after its main character, or "L.A Noir", after the hard-book copy that was released containing all three books in …

Mark Behr
The Smell of Apples is a 1993 debut novel by South African Mark Behr, also published in the same year in Afrikaans as Die Reuk van Appels. Mark Behr describes the Afrikaner mentality and in apartheid South Africa as seen through the eyes of an 11-year-old boy called Marnus, the …

Ruth Rendell
Put on by Cunning is a novel by British crime-writer Ruth Rendell. It was first published in 1981, and features her popular series protagonist Inspector Wexford. It is the 11th in the series. The title comes from a quotation from Shakespeare's Hamlet, Act V Scene II: "How these …

John Feinstein
A March to Madness: A View from the Floor in the Atlantic Coast Conference is a book written by John Feinstein. It was written about the 1996-97 Atlantic Coast Conference basketball season, chronicling each ACC school's team's season, from the first practice, to the Big Dance. …

Tanith Lee
Drinking Sapphire Wine is a book published in 1977 that was written by Tanith Lee.

William Steig
The Amazing Bone is a 32-page picture book by William Steig from 1976. It was nominated for the Caldecott Medal in 1977; however, Leo & Diane Dillon's Ashanti to Zulu: African Traditions won, so The Amazing Bone only received the Caldecott Honor Award. It was the first of …

Richard Brautigan
Loading Mercury with a Pitchfork is Richard Brautigan's ninth poetry publication. Published in 1976, the book includes 127 poems. The four line title poem discusses the effort and interest in undertaking an obviously impossible task, such as loading the liquid metal Mercury …

Lawrence Durrell
Monsieur, published in 1974 and sub-titled The Prince of Darkness, is the first volume in Lawrence Durrell's The Avignon Quintet. As a group, the five novels narrate the lives of a group of Europeans prior to and after World War II. Monsieur begins the quincunx of novels with a …

V.S. Naipaul
The Mimic Men is a novel by V. S. Naipaul first published by Andre Deutsch in the UK in 1967.

Allan Massie
Tiberius is a 1991 historical novel by Scottish writer Allan Massie, about the Roman Emperor Tiberius. It is the second in the series of novels Massie wrote about the early Roman Emperors.

Jacques Steinberg
The Gatekeepers: Inside the Admissions Process of a Premier College is a 2002 nonfiction book written by education reporter Jacques Steinberg that examines the inner workings of the admissions committee at Wesleyan University. The book expands upon a series of articles Steinberg …

Martin Wilson
JAMES AND ALEX have barely anything in common anymore—least of all their experiences in high school, where James is a popular senior and Alex is suddenly an outcast. But at home, there is Henry, the precocious 10-year-old across the street, who eagerly befriends them both. And …

Gerald Durrell
The Overloaded Ark, first published in 1953, is the debut book by British naturalist Gerald Durrell. It is the chronicle of a six months collecting trip to the West African colony of British Cameroon - now Cameroon - - that Durrell made with the highly regarded aviculturist and …

Hilaire Belloc
Cautionary Tales for Children: Designed for the Admonition of Children between the ages of eight and fourteen years is a 1907 children's book written by Hilaire Belloc. It is a parody of the cautionary tales that were popular in the 19th century. The work is in the public domain …

Richard Garfinkle
Celestial Matters is a science fantasy novel, set in an alternate universe with different laws of physics, written by Richard Garfinkle and published by Tor Books in 1996. It is a work of alternate history and meticulously elaborated "alternate science", as the physics of this …

Arthur Yorinks
Al, a janitor, and his faithful dog, Eddie, live in a single room on the West Side. They eat together, they work together, they do everything together. So what's the problem?Thier room is crowded and cramped; their life is an endless struggle. Al and Eddie are practically at …

Fergus Hume
The Mystery of a Hansom Cab is a mystery fiction novel by English writer Fergus Hume. The book was first published in Australia in 1886. Set in Melbourne, the story focuses on the investigation of a homicide involving a body discovered in a hansom cab, as well as an exploration …

Robert Anton Wilson
Right Where You Are Sitting Now, fully titled Right Where You Are Sitting Now: Further Tales of the Illuminati, is a book of philosophical writings written by Robert Anton Wilson and first published in 1982 by Ronin Publishing. Dedicated to William S. Burroughs and Philip K. …

Friedrich Dürrenmatt
The Execution of Justice is a 1985 novel by the Swiss writer Friedrich Dürrenmatt. It tells the story of an attorney who is tasked to reinvestigate a man sentenced for murder. The book criticises elements of the legal system and ponders on the nature of justice. It was adapted …

Bertolt Brecht
Described by Brecht as 'a gangster play that would recall certain events familiar to us all', Arturo Ui is a witty and savage satire of the rise of Hitler - recast by Brecht into a small-time Chicago gangster's takeover of the city's greengrocery trade. Using a wide range of …

Miley Cyrus
Miles to Go is an autobiography by Miley Cyrus, co-written by Hilary Liftin and published by Disney Hyperion in March 2009. The memoir discusses Cyrus' relationship with her parents, her thoughts on the media, her love life, her future ambitions and milestones she still has to …

Brandon Mull
Jason tumbles into a quest to save a magical in this #1 New York Times bestselling start to Brandon Mull’s Beyonders fantasy series.Jason Walker has often wished his life could be a bit less predictable—until a routine day at the zoo ends with Jason suddenly transporting from …

Bernard MC Laverty
Grace Notes is a novel by Bernard MacLaverty, first published in 1997.

Nancy Mitford
Noblesse Oblige: An Enquiry Into the Identifiable Characteristics of the English Aristocracy is a book that purports to be edited by Nancy Mitford, illustrated by Osbert Lancaster, caricaturist of English manners, and published by Hamish Hamilton. The anthology comprises four …

William T. Vollmann
Rising Up and Rising Down: Some Thoughts on Violence, Freedom and Urgent Means is a seven-volume essay on the subject of violence by American author William T. Vollmann. First published by McSweeney's in November 2003, it was nominated for the National Book Critics Circle Award. …

Fern Michaels
Vendetta is a novel by Michael Dibdin, and is the second book in the popular Aurelio Zen series. Zen has earned a return to the fold of actual police work, but now Officials in a high government ministry are desperate to finger someone—anyone—for the murder of an eccentric …

A.D. Miller
Snowdrops is a novel by A. D. Miller which was shortlisted for the 2011 Man Booker Prize.

Donald Antrim
The Hundred Brothers is a 1997 novel by American author Donald Antrim. The substance of the novel consists of the nocturnal reunion of one hundred brothers in the library of their ancestral home, as they attempt to locate and inter the ashes of their deceased father, an insane …

John Brunner
The Traveller in Black is a collection of short stories, written in a fantasy vein, by John Brunner. The first edition, titled The Traveler in Black, had four stories and was issued in 1971 in the Ace Science Fiction Specials line. Some stories were rewritten for this book. …

Agatha Christie
A collection of Hercule Poirot mystery novels which includes Death on the Nile, Murder on the Orient Express, The ABC Murders, Cards on the Table, and Thirteen at Dinner

Carol J. Clover
Men, Women, and Chain Saws: Gender in the Modern Horror Film is a 1992 book by American academic Carol J. Clover. In it she investigates gender in Slasher Films and the appeal of horror cinema, in particular the slasher, occult, and rape-revenge genres, from a feminist …

John Marsden
Checkers is a young adult novel by Australian author John Marsden. It was published in 1996 and 1998 by Houghton Mifflin and in 2000 by Laurel Leaf. It is Marsden's twelfth book.

Stuart Woods
Grass Roots is the fourth novel in the Will Lee series by Stuart Woods. It was first published in 1989 by Simon & Schuster. The novel takes place in Delano Georgia, some years after the events of Deep Lie. The story continues the story of the Lee family of Delano, Georgia. …

Kristine Kathryn Rusch
Extremes is the second book in the Retrieval Artist series by Kristine Kathryn Rusch. The novels are situated at an unstated time in the future where humans have colonized many distant worlds. In addition, treaties with alien races allow for the extradition of humans to other …

Jared Diamond
Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies is a 1997 transdisciplinary nonfiction book by Jared Diamond, professor of geography and physiology at the University of California, Los Angeles. In 1998, it won the Pulitzer Prize for general nonfiction and the Aventis Prize …

Kate Morgenroth
Jude is a 2004 young-readers' novel by Kate Morgenroth, published by Simon & Schuster. It revolves around the title character's experiences with his abusive drug-dealing father, distant mother, and the time Jude spends in prison after being framed.

Judy Blume
The One in the Middle Is the Green Kangaroo is a children's book published in 1969, written by Judy Blume with illustrations by Amy Aitken. It was Blume's first published work. It is about second-grader Freddy Dissel, a middle child who feels emotionally squashed between his …

Alan Dean Foster
Reunion is a science fiction novel written by Alan Dean Foster. The book is the seventh chronologically in the Pip and Flinx series.

Dave Duncan
Stricken Field is a book published in 1993 that was written by Dave Duncan.

Steven L. Kent
The Clone Republic is the first book in the Clone series of novels, set in 2508 AD. It is followed by Rogue Clone, The Clone Alliance, The Clone Elite, The Clone Betrayal, The Clone Sedition, The Clone Empire, The Clone Redemption, and The Clone Assassin.

W. E. B. Griffin
In danger's path is a book published in 1999 that was written by W. E. B. Griffin.

W. E. B. Griffin
Under Fire is a book published in 2002 that was written by W. E. B. Griffin.

Karen MacInerney
On the Prowl is a book published in 2008 that was written by Karen MacInerney.

Brian Ruckley
Third and concluding book in Brian Ruckley's The Godless World fantasy series.

Piers Anthony
Prostho Plus is a science-fiction novel by Piers Anthony, published in 1971. It is a humorous space opera which follows the adventures of a prosthodontist, Dr. Dillingham who is picked up by aliens who are in need of dental work. Complications develop when he makes a diplomatic …

Nawal El Saadawi
Mudhakkirātī fī sijn al-nisāʼ is a book written by Nawal El Saadawi.

Carole Wilkinson
Dragon Moon is a children's fantasy novel by Carole Wilkinson, first published in 2007. It is the third book of the Dragonkeeper series. The books before it are Dragonkeeper and Garden of the Purple Dragon. The trilogy, based in ancient China, during the Han Dynasty, has won …

Danielle Steel
Honor Thyself is a novel written by Danielle Steel and published by Random House in February 2008. The book is Steel's 74th best-selling novel.

David Lubar
It's been over a year since fourteen-year-old Eddie "Trash" Thalmeyer and his friends from Edgeview Alternative School found out about their special hidden talents. Trash can move things with his mind, Torchie is a fire-starter, Cheater reads minds, Lucky finds lost objects, …

Deborah Harkness
*Now a major Sky TV series, A Discovery of Witches Season 2.* *Read the novel Season 2 is based on.* Fall deeper under the spell of Diana and Matthew in the captivating second volume of the No.1 internationally bestselling ALL SOULS trilogy, following A DISCOVERY OF WITCHES. …

Stephen King
Life is Not Always a Butcher's Game. Sometimes the Prizes Are Real. Sometimes They're Precious. All-time best-selling author STEPHEN KING returns with a novel of carny life—and death... College student Devin Jones took the summer job at Joyland hoping to forget the girl who …

Volker Neuhaus
The House Without a Key is a novel that was written in 1925 by Earl Derr Biggers. It is the first of the Charlie Chan mysteries written by Biggers. The novel, which takes place in 1920s Hawaiʻi, spends time acquainting the reader with the look and feel of the islands of that era …

Rick Yancey
"Remarkable, not-to-be-missed-under-any-circumstances."—Entertainment Weekly (Grade A)The Passage meets Ender's Game in an epic new series from award-winning author Rick Yancey.After the 1st wave, only darkness remains. After the 2nd, only the lucky escape. And after the 3rd, …

V.S. Naipaul
As decribed in one of the reviews: ...An expatriate English couple and a West-Indian would-be revolutionary are the three main characters, and the agonizing (and mostly self-destructive) sexual and philosophic choices they are faced with ring true to life. The compromises and …

Alifa Rifaat
More convincingly than any other woman writing in Arabic today, Alifa Rifaat, an Egyptian, lifts the veil on what it means to be a woman living within a traditional Muslim society. Her writing articulates a subtle revolt against, and a sympathetic insight into, the place of …

Edith Wharton
A pair of masterly short novels, featuring an introduction by Elizabeth Strout, the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Anything Is Possible and My Name Is Lucy Barton Thought Edith Wharton is best known for her cutting contemplation of fashionable New York, Ethan Frome and Summer …

William Saroyan
My Name is Aram is a book of short stories by William Saroyan first published in 1940. The stories detail the exploits of Aram Garoghlanian, a boy of Armenian descent growing up in Fresno, California, and the various members of his large family.

Ruth Rendell
The Killing Doll is a novel by British writer Ruth Rendell, first published in 1984.

Muriel Spark
The Comforters is the first novel by Scottish author Muriel Spark. She drew on experiences as a recent convert to Catholicism and having suffered hallucinations due to using Dexedrine, an amphetamine then available over the counter for dieting. Although completed in late 1955, …

Hilary Mantel
A Change of Climate is a novel by English author Hilary Mantel, first published in 1994 by Viking Books. At the time The Observer described it as the best book she had written. It was published in the United States by Henry Holt in 1997 and was recognised by the New York Times …

Patricia Highsmith
The Blunderer is a psychological thriller by Patricia Highsmith, first published in 1954 by Coward-McCann. It is Highsmith's third novel.

Steve Erickson
Arc d'X, by Steve Erickson, is an Avantpop novel. Upon publication in 1993 it received wide attention from other novelists such as Thomas Pynchon, Tom Robbins and William Gibson, and it has been translated into Italian, Japanese and other languages.

Jack Vance
The Dirdir is the third science fiction adventure novel in the tetralogy Tschai, Planet of Adventure. Written by Jack Vance, it tells of the efforts of the sole survivor of the destruction of a human starship to return to Earth from the distant planet Tschai.

Jack Vance
Rhialto the Marvellous is a collection of one essay and three fantasy stories by Jack Vance, first published in 1984 by Brandywyne Books, a special edition three months before the regular. It is the fourth and concluding book in the Dying Earth series that Vance inaugurated in …

Stephen King
Apt Pupil is a novella by Stephen King, originally published in the 1982 novella collection Different Seasons, subtitled "Summer of Corruption".

Aldous Huxley
The Genius and the Goddess is a novel by Aldous Huxley. It was published by Chatto & Windus in the UK and by Harper & Row in the US. It is the fictional account of John Rivers, a student physicist in the 1920s who was hired out of college as a laboratory assistant to …

René Daumal
Mount Analogue: A Novel of Symbolically Authentic Non-Euclidean Adventures in Mountain Climbing is a classic novel by the early 20th century, French novelist René Daumal. The novel is both bizarre and allegorical, detailing the discovery and ascent of a mountain, the Mount …

Rankin
The Garden Of Unearthly Delights is a novel by British author Robert Rankin. Its title is a reference to the painting The Garden of Earthly Delights by the painter Hieronymus Bosch.

Daniel Keys Moran
The Last Dancer is a book published in 1993 that was written by Daniel Keys Moran.

Frank Conroy
Stop-Time, published in 1967, is a memoir by American author Frank Conroy, and tells the story of his poor childhood and early adulthood, growing up in New York City and Florida. Focusing on a series of moments from his life, the book combines traditional fictional devices such …

Paul Melko
Singularity's Ring is the debut science fiction book by Paul Melko. The novel was published on February 5, 2008 by Tor Books.

Phyllis Reynolds Naylor
Shiloh is a Newbery Medal-winning children's novel by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor published in 1991. The 65th book by Naylor, it is the first in a trilogy about a young boy and the title character, an abused dog. Naylor decided to write Shiloh after an emotionally taxing experience …

Anais Nin
Fire: From the Unexpurgated Diary of Anaïs Nin is a 1995 book that is based on material excerpted from the unpublished diaries of Anais Nin. It corresponds temporally to part of Anaïs Nin's published diaries, but consists mostly of material about her love life that was too …

Anthony Powell
The Acceptance World is the third book of Anthony Powell's twelve novel sequence, A Dance to the Music of Time. Nick Jenkins continues the narration of his life and encounters with friends and acquaintances in London, between 1931 and 1933.

Alfred Tennyson Tennyson
In Memoriam A.H.H. is a poem by the British poet Alfred, Lord Tennyson, completed in 1849. It is a requiem for the poet's beloved Cambridge friend Arthur Henry Hallam, who died suddenly of a cerebral haemorrhage in Vienna in 1833. Because it was written over a period of 17 …

Thomas Harris
Red Dragon is a novel by American author Thomas Harris, first published in 1981. It introduced the character Dr. Hannibal Lecter, a brilliant psychiatrist and cannibalistic serial killer. The novel was adapted as a film, Manhunter, in 1986 which featured Brian Cox as Lecter. …

Leo Rosten
The education of H * Y * M * A * N K * A * P * L * A * N is a book written by Leo Rosten.

William Faulkner
The Mansion is a novel by the American author William Faulkner, published in 1959. It is the last in a trilogy of books about the fictional Snopes family of Mississippi, following The Hamlet and The Town. It charts the downfall of Flem Snopes at the hands of his relative Mink …

Steven Raichlen
The Barbecue Bible by Steven Raichlen, is the flagship title in a series of cookbooks written on grilling, barbecue, and other forms of outdoor cooking. Rather than focusing specifically on one style of barbecue, Raichlen documented four years worth of travels along what he …

Irwin Shaw
Beggarman, Thief is a 1977 novel written by Irwin Shaw. It was a sequel to his 1970 bestseller Rich Man, Poor Man. The miniseries adapted from the original novel had a 1976-77 sequel entitled Rich Man, Poor Man Book II, broadcast prior to the publication of Beggarman, Thief and …

Alastair Campbell
The Blair Years is a book by Alastair Campbell, featuring extracts from his diaries detailing the period during which he worked for Tony Blair. Published by Random House, the book was released on 9 July 2007, only two weeks after Blair stood down as Prime Minister. As the first …

Don L. Wulffson
Soldier X is a young adult war drama book written by Don Wulffson about a half-German and half-Russian boy named Erik Brandt who joins the Wehrmacht, Hitler's army, during World War II. The book tells about the war from the perspective of Erik Brandt as he leads a life as both a …

Brian Jacques
Voyage of Slaves is the third novel in Brian Jacques' Castaways of the Flying Dutchman series. It was released on September 13, 2006 in the UK and September 14, 2006 in the US. Ben is at first separated from Ned, previously known as Den, when their adrift boat is found by slave …

Lloyd Alexander
The Cat Who Wished to Be a Man is a children's comic fantasy novel by Lloyd Alexander.

Gordon R. Dickson
The Dragon Knight is the second book of Gordon R. Dickson's Dragon Knight series. The novel begins five months after the battle at Loathly Tower which took place in The Dragon and The George.

Marion Zimmer Bradley
Fenton was only a 'tweenman, without body or shadow; his body lay back in the laboratory where Dr Garnock was experimenting with a new drug. Yet Fenton was in the fairy world of the Alfar, helplessly watching the Faerie Queen of the Alfar attacked and caputured by the hideous, …

Buzz Aldrin
Encounter With Tiber is a 1996 science fiction novel written by former astronaut Buzz Aldrin and science fiction writer John Barnes. A working title, used on some advance covers for the British edition, was The Tides of Tiber.

Mark Chadbourn
World's End is a novel written by British author Mark Chadbourn and is the first in the Age of Misrule trilogy. It was first published in Great Britain by Millennium on 14 September 2000. An edition collecting all three books in The Age of Misrule series was published in Great …

John Stuart Mill
The Subjection of Women is the title of an essay written by John Stuart Mill in 1869, possibly jointly with his wife Harriet Taylor Mill, stating an argument in favour of equality between the sexes. At the time it was published in 1869, this essay was an affront to European …

David Anthony Durham
Book Description The thrilling new installment in the ambitious Acacia trilogy, praised by the Washington Post as "gripping and sophisticated."A few years have passed since the conquering of the Mein, and Queen Corinn is firmly in control of the Known World--perhaps too firmly. …

Jack Womack
Ambient is the dystopian debut novel of cyberpunk writer Jack Womack, the first in his Dryco series. Published in 1987, it was translated into Slovak by Michal Hvorecký, and has a significant cult following. Actor Bruce Willis optioned the novel, and renewed the option in 1995.

Michael Moorcock
The Knight of the Swords is a book published in 1971 that was written by Michael Moorcock.

Manjit Kumar
'This is about gob-smacking science at the far end of reason ... Take it nice and easy and savour the experience of your mind being blown without recourse to hallucinogens' Nicholas Lezard, Guardian For most people, quantum theory is a byword for mysterious, impenetrable …

Fouad Ajami
The Foreigner's Gift: The Americans, the Arabs, and the Iraqis in Iraq is a book by Fouad Ajami.

Elizabeth Ann Scarborough
The Healer's War is a 1988 science fiction novel by Elizabeth Ann Scarborough. It won the Nebula Award for Best Novel in 1989. Although perhaps best known for her lightly humorous fantasies and collaborations with Anne McCaffrey on the Petaybee series and the Acorna series, …

V. C. Andrews
Eye of the Storm is a book published in 2000 that was written by Andrew Neiderman.

Plato
The collected dialogues of Plato is a book written by Plato.

Mercer Mayer
Mercer Mayer’s Little Critter is going on a camping trip with his dad in this classic, funny, and heartwarming book. Whether he and his dad are canoeing, fishing, or building a campfire, parents and children alike will relate to this beloved story. A perfect gift for Father’s …

K. W. Jeter
Infernal Devices is a steampunk novel by K. W. Jeter, published in 1987. The novel was republished in 2011 by Angry Robot Books with a new introduction by the author, cover art by John Coulthart, and an afterword by Jeff VanderMeer.

Sebastian Barry
The central character in Sebastian Barry's novel Annie Dunne is a woman who has been pushed to the margins, a woman whom life has given few chances of happiness and fulfillment. Unmarried, she spends years as housekeeper for her brother-in-law because her sister is too ill to …

Molly Bang
The Grey Lady and the Strawberry Snatcher is a children's picture book by Molly Bang.

George MacDonald Fraser
The Reavers is a 2007 comic novel from George MacDonald Fraser set during the Elizabethan Era. It was the last novel Fraser published in his lifetime.

Geoffrey Trease
Cue for Treason is a children's historical novel written by Geoffrey Trease, and is his best-known work. The novel is set in Elizabethan England at the end of the 16th century. Two young runaways become boy actors, at first on the road and later in London, where they are …

Leslie Marmon Silko
Storyteller is a hybrid collection of poetry, short stories and family photographs compiled by Laguna Pueblo author Leslie Marmon Silko. It was first published in 1981 following the literary success of the novel Ceremony.

Jackie French
Hitler's Daughter is a children's novel by Australian children's author Jackie French. It was first published in 1999, and is one of French's most critically acclaimed books.

Barack Obama
In this tender beautiful letter to his daughters President Barack Obama has written a moving tribute to thirteen groundbreaking Americans and the ideals that have shaped our nation From the artistry of Georgia OKeeffe to the courage of Jackie Robinson to the patriotism of George …

Paul J. McAuley
The Quiet War is over. The city states of the moons of Jupiter and Saturn, founded by descendants of refugees from Earth’s repressive regimes, the Outers, have fallen to the Three Powers Alliance of Greater Brazil, the European Union, and the Pacific Community. A century of …

Peter Spier
Noah's Ark is a picture book written and illustrated by Peter Spier, first published by Doubleday in 1977. The text includes Spier's translation of "The Flood" by Jacobus Revius, a 17th-century poem telling the Bible story of Noah's Ark. According to Kirkus Reviews, the poem …

L. E. Modesitt Jr.
Shadowsinger is a book published in 2002 that was written by L.E Modesitt Jr.

Beverly Cleary
Sister of the Bride is a 1963 young adult novel by Beverly Cleary.