The most popular books in English
from 19801 to 20000
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.
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, …
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 …
Thomas Mann
Royal Highness is the delightfully ironic tale of a small, decadent German duchy and its invigoration by the intellect and values of an independent-minded American woman. Peopled with a range of characters from aristocrat to artisan, Royal Highness provides a microcosmic view of …
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 …
Edgar Allan Poe
"The Gold-Bug" is a short story by Edgar Allan Poe. Set on Sullivan's Island, South Carolina, the plot follows William Legrand, who was recently bitten by a gold-colored bug. His servant, Jupiter, fears Legrand is going insane and goes to Legrand's friend, an unnamed narrator, …
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 …
Arthur Miller
Written in 1945, Focus was Arthur Miller's first novel and one of the first books to directly confront American anti-Semitism. It remains as chilling and incisive today as it was at the time of its controversial debut. As World War II draws to a close, anti-Semitism is alive and …
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 …
Graham Greene
A Sort of Life is the first volume of autobiography by British novelist Graham Greene, first published in 1971.
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, …
Karl Popper
The Open Society and Its Enemies is a work on political philosophy by Karl Popper, a critique of theories of teleological historicism in which history unfolds inexorably according to universal laws. Popper criticizes and indicts as totalitarian Plato, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich …
Hanns Heinz Ewers
Alraune is a novel by German novelist Hanns Heinz Ewers published in 1911. It is also the name of the female lead character. The book originally featured illustrations by Ilna Ewers-Wunderwald.
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.
Philip José Farmer
The Gates of Creation is a book published in 1966 that was written by Philip José Farmer.
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 …
Peter Schneider
A smartly guided romp, entertaining and enlightening, through Europe's most charismatic and enigmatic cityIt isn't Europe's most beautiful city or its oldest. Its architecture is not more impressive than that of Rome or Paris; its museums do not hold more treasures than those in …
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 …
Edward Bernays
“Bernays’ honest and practical manual provides much insight into some of the most powerful and influential institutions of contemporary industrial state capitalist democracies.”—Noam Chomsky “The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the …
Richard Henry Dana, Jr.
Two Years Before the Mast is a memoir by the American author Richard Henry Dana, Jr., published in 1840, having been written after a two-year sea voyage starting in 1834. A film adaptation under the same name was released in 1946.
John Barnes
Earth Made of Glass is a science fiction novel, the second book of the Thousand Cultures series, by John Barnes whose story is told from the perspective of a middle-aged special agent named Giraut. Earth Made of Glass examines religious extremism when two different cultures are …
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 …
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 …
Jaroslav Pelikan
The Spirit of Eastern Christendom, Vol. II is a book by Jaroslav Pelikan.
Dean Koontz
Chase is Dean Koontz's first hardcover novel, originally written under the name K. R. Dwyer and released in 1972, it was revised and reissued in 1995 within Strange Highways.
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 …
Robert Cormier
Heroes is a 1998 novel written by Robert Cormier. The novel is centred on the character Francis Cassavant, who has just returned to his childhood home of Frenchtown, Monument, from serving in the Second World War in France and has severe deformities as a result of an incident …
Arlene Mosel
The Funny Little Woman is a book "retold by" Arlene Mosel and illustrated by Blair Lent. Released by E. P. Dutton, it was the recipient of the Caldecott Medal for illustration in 1973.
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.
Joseph Gangemi
Inamorata is a 2004 novel by American novelist and screenwriter Joseph Gangemi. The book was released on January 22, 2004 through Viking Adult and focuses on the investigation of Mina Crandon, a spiritualist from, the 1920s. Film rights for Inamorata were purchased in 2006 by …
Harlan Ellison
Mind Fields was originally conceived as a collection of Jacek Yerka's paintings, but when Harlan Ellison was approached to write the introduction, he was so overcome that instead he penned a short story for each piece. The result of this synergistic melding of talents, Mind …
Fouad Ajami
The Foreigner's Gift: The Americans, the Arabs, and the Iraqis in Iraq is a book by Fouad Ajami.
V. C. Andrews
Eye of the Storm is a book published in 2000 that was written by Andrew Neiderman.
Peter Singer
The Life You Can Save: Acting Now to End World Poverty is a 2009 book by Australian philosopher Peter Singer. The author argues that citizens of affluent nations are behaving immorally if they do not act to end the poverty they know to exist in developing nations. The book is …
Debi Gliori
Pure dead wicked is a book published in 2002 that was written by Debi Gliori.
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 …
William Horwood
Skallagrigg is a 1987 novel written by William Horwood and influenced by Horwood's relationship with his own daughter Rachel, who has cerebral palsy.
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 …
Sophie McKenzie
Girl, Missing is a thriller novel by Sophie McKenzie, published in 2006. It won the 2007 Bolton Children's Book Award, the 2008 Manchester Book 7Award and the 2007 Red House Children's Book Award for Older Readers, as well as being longlisted for the Carnegie Medal. It was also …
Pearl S. Buck
The Living Reed is an historical novel by Pearl S. Buck in which life in Korea, from the latter part of the nineteenth century to the end of the Second World War, is described through the viewpoints and lives of several members of four generations of a prominent aristocratic …
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 …
Beverly Cleary
Mitch and Amy is a children's novel by Beverly Cleary, illustrated by George Porter. The story follows the escapades of the fraternal Huff twins, Mitch and Amy, in Berkeley, California. Although the book was written in the late 1960s, the book stays true to Cleary's penchant for …
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 …
Alan Gratz
Something Rotten is the first novel of the Horatio Wilkes mystery series by Alan Gratz. It loosely follows the plot of Hamlet by William Shakespeare, but it is modernised and set in the United States.
Barbara Neely
Blanche on the Lam is a mystery novel by author Barbara Neely. Blanche on the Lam is the first in a series by Barbara Neely. This novel brings to light the intelligence and power of an African-America domestic female worker in the midst of a racist and sexist society. The book …
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 …
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.
Alex Flinn
Breaking Point in a 2002 young adult novel by Alex Flinn. It was an 'Quick Pick for Reluctant Young Adult Readers' in 2003. Bulletin for the Center for Children's Books said that the book was "a dark drama of self-destruction that should make for grimly satisfying reading" while …
Nawal El Saadawi
Mudhakkirātī fī sijn al-nisāʼ is a book written by Nawal El Saadawi.
Jacqueline Wilson
Best Friends is a children's novel by Jacqueline Wilson, first published in 2004.
Robert Muchamore
Brigands M.C. is the eleventh novel in the CHERUB series by Robert Muchamore. It was released on 4 October 2008. A blue-cover edition of which only 8,499 copies were made was also produced. The special editions were only sold in W.H.Smith in the United Kingdom. Of developing the …
Lee Child
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER Everything starts somewhere. For elite military cop Jack Reacher, that somewhere was Carter Crossing, Mississippi, way back in 1997. A lonely railroad track. A crime scene. A cover-up. A young woman is dead, and solid evidence points to a soldier at …
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 …
George Burns
Gracie: A Love Story is a 1988 biography of comedian Gracie Allen by George Burns. The tribute to Burns' wife and professional partner reviews their life together and contrasts Allen's scatterbrained public persona with the intelligent actress and devoted wife she actually was. …
Anne Conover Heller
A Q&A with Anne C. Heller Question: Many people discover Ayn Rand’s novels The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged as young adults, but you read her novels and essays in your forties. What, at that time, sparked your interest in Rand? What moved you to write her biography? Anne …
Hal Clement
Needle is a 1950 novel written by Hal Clement, originally published the previous year in Astounding Science Fiction magazine. The book was notable in that it broke new ground in the science fiction field by postulating an alien lifeform, not hostile, which could live within the …
Wisława Szymborska
Sounds, Feelings, Thoughts is a book of poems by Wisława Szymborska.
C. S. Forester
Hornblower in the West Indies, or alternately Admiral Hornblower in the West Indies is one of the novels in the series CS Forester wrote about fictional Royal Navy officer Horatio Hornblower. All the other novels in the series take place during the wars with revolutionary and …
Janice May Udry
A Tree is Nice is a children's picture book written by Janice May Udry and illustrated by Marc Simont. It was published by Harper and Brothers in 1956, and won the Caldecott Medal in 1957. The book tells Udry's poetic opinion on why trees are nice: "Trees are pretty. They fill …
Audrey Couloumbis
Getting Near to Baby is a 1999 children's novel by Audrey Couloumbis. It was awarded a Newbery Honor in 2000 and is an ALA Notable Children's Book. The book's target age range is for readers between the ages of 10 to 14. Getting Near to Baby, was influenced through the authors …
Wendelin Van Draanen
Sammy Keyes and the Hotel Thief is a book by Wendelin Van Draanen.
Catharine Sedgwick
Hope Leslie or Early Times in the Massachusetts is a novel written by Catharine Maria Sedgwick. The book is considered significant because of its strong feminist overtones and ideas of equity and fairness toward Native Americans, both of which were rare at the time the book was …
Margaret Weis
Amber and Iron is a fantasy novel in the Dragonlance book series by Margaret Weis, co-creator of the world of Dragonlance, and is the second of a trilogy based around the character Mina. It is the fifteenth novel in the series.
Joann Sfar
Little Vampire has decided that despite his ability to fly, freedom to turn himself into a rat, a wolf, or a bat--even his unquestioned right to "bite little girls till they bleed, without ever getting into trouble"--that what he really wants to do is go to school. The kind with …
Prosper Mérimée
Carmen, Merimee's classic tale of passion and power, provided the inspiration for one of the world's most enduringly popular operas, and numerous films. Like Carmen, the other stories in this book, including Mateo Falcone, The Etruscan Vase, and The Venus of Ille, explore the …
Primo Levi
The Sixth Day and Other Tales, written by Primo Levi, is a collection of short stories, originally published in Storie naturali and Vizio di forma. Unlike the author's earlier and better-known works, these stories may be considered science fiction.
George Sand
A Winter in Majorca is an autobiographical travel novel written by George Sand, at the time in a relationship with Frédéric Chopin. Although published in 1842, it appeared for the first time in 1841 in the Revue des deux Mondes. In the novel, Sand relates the details of her trip …
James Grady
Six Days of the Condor is a thriller novel by American author James Grady, first published in 1974 by W.W. Norton. The story is a suspense drama set in contemporary Washington, D.C., and is considerably different from the 1975 film version, Three Days of the Condor. It was …
Beverley Naidoo
The Other Side of Truth is a children's novel about Nigerian political refugees, written by Beverley Naidoo and published by Puffin in 2000. It is set in the autumn of 1995 during the reign in Nigeria of the despot General Abacha, who is waging a campaign of suppression against …
Thomas Hager
The Demon Under the Microscope: From Battlefield Hospitals to Nazi Labs, One Doctor's Heroic Search for the World's First Miracle Drug is a 2006 nonfiction book about the discovery of Prontosil, the first commercially available antibacterial antibiotic and sulfanilamide, the …
Paula Danziger
There’s a Bat in Bunk Five is a young adult novel written by Paula Danziger. In this sequel to The Cat Ate My Gymsuit, Marcy Lewis finds herself as a counselor in training at the summer camp near Woodstock, New York run by her former English teacher, Ms. Finney, whom Marcy has …
Dave Duncan
Sir Stalwart is a book published in 1999 that was written by Dave Duncan.
Qian Zhongshu
Fortress Besieged was written by Qian Zhongshu, published in 1947, and is widely considered one of the masterpieces of twentieth century Chinese literature. The novel is a humorous tale about middle-class Chinese society in the late 1930s. It was made into a popular television …
Beryl Bainbridge
The Bottle Factory Outing is a 1974 novel written by Beryl Bainbridge, it was shortlisted for the Booker Prize that year, won the Guardian Fiction Prize and is regarded as one of her best. It is also listed as one of the 100 greatest novels of all time by Robert McCrum of The …
Mary Wesley
Jumping the Queue is British novelist Mary Wesley´s first adult novel, published when the author was seventy years old. The story takes place mainly in Cornwall, England, and follows a middle aged widow's struggle with guilt and self-reproach after the death of her husband and …
Stanisław Lem
The Astronauts is the first science fiction novel by Polish writer Stanisław Lem published as a book, in 1951. To write the novel, Lem received advance payment from publishing house Czytelnik. The book became an instant success and was translated into several languages. This …
Eleanor Farjeon
The Little Bookroom is a collection of twenty-seven stories for children by Eleanor Farjeon, published by Oxford University Press in 1955 with illustrations by Edward Ardizzone. They were selected by the author to represent the best of her work over a thirty-year period from the …
Farley Mowat
People of the Deer is Canadian author Farley Mowat's first book, and brought him literary recognition. The book is based upon a series of travels the author undertook in the Canadian barren lands, of Keewatin Region, west of Hudson Bay. The most important of these expeditions …
Gianluca Morozzi
“A spine-tingling novel that keeps you mesmerized from beginning to end.”—InfiniteStorie“Morozzi has a light touch. He has an uncanny ability to convey mood swings, excitement and plot twists with ever increasing velocity.”—Gazzetta di Parma“A chilling and claustrophobic …
Seamus Heaney
Selected Poems 1965–1975 is a poetry collection by Seamus Heaney, who received the 1995 Nobel Prize in Literature. It was published in 1980 by Faber and Faber. It includes selections from Heaney's first four volumes of verse: Death of a Naturalist Door into the Dark Wintering …
Neil Simon
Brighton Beach Memoirs is a semi-autobiographical play by Neil Simon, the first chapter in what is known as his Eugene trilogy. It precedes Biloxi Blues and Broadway Bound.
Valerio Massimo Manfredi
From the pen of the international bestselling author of The Last Legion comes a new political thriller set during the tempestuous final days of Julius Caesar's Imperial Rome. It is March in the year 44 BC. The Roman Empire stretches from modern-day Syria in the east to the …
Lee Smolin
Lee Smolin offers a new theory of the universe that is at once elegant comprehensive and radically different from anything proposed before Smolin posits that a process of self organization like that of biological evolution shapes the universe as it develops and eventually …
Lois-Ann Yamanaka
Blu's Hanging is a 1997 coming-of-age novel by Lois-Ann Yamanaka. It follows the Ogata family after the death of their mother, as each family member struggles to come to terms with their grief. The story is told through Ivah, a smart-mouthed thirteen-year-old who is left as the …
Harlan Ellison
Harlan Ellison's Watching is a 1989 compilation of 25 years worth of essays and film reviews written by Harlan Ellison for Cinema magazine, the Los Angeles Free Press, Starlog magazine, and The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction among others. In the book, Ellison explains, …
Ron Suskind
The Way of the World: A Story of Truth and Hope in an Age of Extremism is a 2008 non-fiction book by Ron Suskind, a Pulitzer Prize-winning author, describing various actions and policies of the George W. Bush administration. Most notably, it alleges that the Bush administration …
Chris Jericho
The controversial story of Chris Jericho, the former undisputed Heavyweight Champion of WWE. From the age of eight, Chris dreamed of becoming a wrestler. But it wasn't until he was 25 that he hit the big time. Nicknamed 'Lion Heart', Chris eventually attained his ultimate goal - …
Marguerite Yourcenar
These three tales are set in the Renaissance. Nathanael, the protagonist of "An Obscure Man" is innocent and shaped by his suffering. In "A Lovely Morning" Nathanael's son Lazarus escapes his tutelage to join a group of actors. The final story, "Anna, Soror" in an account of …
Shelley Jackson
Half Life is the 2006 debut novel of American writer and artist Shelley Jackson. The novel presupposes an alternate history in which the atomic bomb resulted in a genetic preponderance of conjoined twins, who eventually become a minority subculture.
Iris Murdoch
The Flight from the Enchanter is a novel written by Iris Murdoch and published in 1956.
Pierre Louys
The Songs of Bilitis is a collection of erotic, essentially lesbian, poetry by Pierre Louÿs published in Paris in 1894. The poems are in the manner of Sappho; the collection's introduction claims they were found on the walls of a tomb in Cyprus, written by a woman of Ancient …
Stendhal
Vie de Henri Brulard is an unfinished autobiography by Stendhal. It was begun on November 23, 1835 and abandoned March 26, 1836 while the author was serving as the French Consul in Civitavecchia. Stendhal had severe doubts about contemporary interest in his autobiography, so he …
Vincent Bugliosi
The Prosecution of George W. Bush for Murder is a 2008 book by former prosecutor Vincent Bugliosi. It argues that George W. Bush took the United States into the invasion of Iraq under false pretenses and should be tried for murder for the deaths of American soldiers in Iraq. The …