The most popular books in English
from 20001 to 20200
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.
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 …
Annie Ernaux
A Frozen Woman charts Ernaux's teenage awakening, and then the parallel progression of her desire to be desirable and her ambition to fulfill herself in her chosen profession - with the inevitable conflict between the two. And then she is thirty years old, a teacher married to …
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 …
Philip Roth
In quest of the unpublished manuscript of a martyred Yiddish writer, the American novelist Nathan Zuckerman travels to Soviet-occupied Prague in the mid-1970s. There, in a nation straightjacketed by totalitarian Communism, he discovers a literary predicament, marked by …
Lewis Trondheim
Lewis Trondheim McConey's excitable pal Richie suffers a string of bad luck and believes he's been cursed by an ancient artifact ― but is it all in his head? Or is the lack of concrete evidence all part of the curse? "Better to have doggy-doo on the sole of my foot than pigeon …
Eric Kimmel
Hershel and the Hanukkah Goblins is a book written by Eric Kimmel and illustrated by Trina Schart Hyman.
Joyce Carol Oates
Joyce Carol Oates’s Wonderland Quartet comprises four remarkable novels that explore social class in America and the inner lives of young Americans. Spanning from the Great Depression to the turbulent Vietnam War era, Wonderland is the epic account of Jesse Vogel, a boy who …
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 …
Anatole France
Thaïs is a novel by Anatole France published in 1890. It is based on events in the life of Saint Thaïs of Egypt, a legendary convert to Christianity who is said to have lived in the 4th century. It was the inspiration for the opera of the same name by Jules Massenet.
Evelyn Waugh
When The Going Was Good is an anthology of four travel books written by English author Evelyn Waugh. The book consists of fragments from the travel books Labels, Remote People, Ninety-Two Days, and Waugh In Abyssinia. The author writes that these pages are all that he wishes to …
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 …
Maurice Leblanc
The Crystal Stopper is a mystery novel by Maurice Leblanc featuring the adventures of the gentleman thief Arsène Lupin. The novel appeared in serial form in the French newspaper Le Journal from September to November 1912 and was released as a novel subsequently. Maurice Leblanc …
Gilbert Adair
The Holy Innocents is a novel by Gilbert Adair about incestuous siblings and the stranger who enters their world. Its themes were inspired by Jean Cocteau's novel Les Enfants Terribles and by the film of the same name directed by Jean-Pierre Melville.
Walter Block
Defending the Undefendable is a book by Walter Block originally published in 1976. Marcus Epstein describes the book as defending "pimps, drug dealers, blackmailers, corrupt policemen, and loan sharks as 'economic heroes'." It has been translated into ten foreign languages. …
Daniel Levitin
The World in Six Songs: How the Musical Brain Created Human Nature is a popular science book written by the McGill University neuroscientist Daniel J. Levitin, and first published by Dutton Penguin in the U.S. and Canada in 2008, and updated and released in paperback by Plume in …
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 …
John Esposito
Islam: The Straight Path is an Islamic studies book that aims to give an introduction to Islam. The book, authored by John L. Esposito, was first published in 1988 by the Oxford University Press.
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 …
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 …
Dan Gutman
Honus & Me is a children's novel by Dan Gutman, published in 1997, and the first in the Baseball Card Adventures series. It was rejected by many publishers before HarperCollins finally accepted. The made-for-television movie The Winning Season, starring Matthew Modine, was …
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 …
Jonathan Kozol
Death at an Early Age: The Destruction of the Hearts and Minds of Negro Children in the Boston Public Schools is a book written by the American schoolteacher Jonathan Kozol and published in Boston by Houghton Mifflin in 1967. It won the U.S. National Book Award in the Science, …
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 …
Ellen Raskin
Figgs & Phantoms is a 1974 young adult novel written by Ellen Raskin. It won the Newbery Honor award.
Cordelia Fine
Delusions of Gender: How Our Minds, Society, and Neurosexism Create Difference is a 2010 book by Cordelia Fine, written to debunk the idea that men and women are hardwired with different interests. The author criticizes claimed evidence of the existence of innate biological …
Spider Robinson
Very Bad Deaths, is a science-fiction/suspense-mystery novel from Canadian science fiction author Spider Robinson. The book was followed in 2008 by a sequel, Very Hard Choices. It explores the personal implications of uncontrolled telepathy, social responsibility, and the idea …
Billy Hayes
Midnight Express is a 1977 non-fiction book by Billy Hayes and William Hoffer about Billy's experience as a young American who was sent to a Turkish prison for trying to smuggle hashish out of Turkey to the US. An adaptation of the book was made into an American film of the same …
Stan Berenstain
The Berenstain Bears and Too Much TV is a 1984 children's storybook featuring the fictional anthropomorphic characters, the Berenstain Bears. and was released in the United States, in the United Kingdom and in Austraila The book was adapted into an episode of the 2003 Berenstein …
James Luceno
Millennium Falcon is a novel by James Luceno about the history of the Millennium Falcon. It was originally set to be released on December 30, 2008, but was pushed up to October 21, 2008. At the end of the book is an introduction to the upcoming novel Outcast, the first novel in …
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.
Walter Scott
The Talisman is a novel by Sir Walter Scott. It was published in 1825 as the second of his Tales of the Crusaders, the first being The Betrothed.
Iris Murdoch
The Flight from the Enchanter is a novel written by Iris Murdoch and published in 1956.
V.S. Naipaul
A Way in the World is a 1994 book by Nobel laureate V. S. Naipaul. Although it was marketed as a novel in America, A Way in the World which consists of linked narratives, is arguably something different.
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 …
Robert Service
Lenin: A Biography is a biography of the Marxist theorist and revolutionary Vladimir Lenin written by the English historian Robert Service, then a professor in Russian History at the University of Oxford. It was first published by Macmillan in 2000 and later republished in other …
Katherine Paterson
Of Nightingales That Weep is a historical novel for children by Katherine Paterson, published by Crowell in 1974. Set in medieval Japan, the novel tells the story of Takiko, the 11-year-old daughter of a slain samurai warrior. Takiko’s mother remarries Goro, a gentle but …
Raymond J. and J. Francis McComas Healy [eds.]
Adventures in Time and Space was an anthology of science fiction stories edited by Raymond J. Healy and J. Francis McComas and published in 1946. A Modern Library edition was issued in 1957. When it was re-released in 1975 by Ballantine Books, Analog book reviewer Lester del Rey …
Richard Mason
The World of Suzie Wong is a 1957 novel written by Richard Mason. The main characters are Robert Lomax, a young British artist living in Hong Kong, and Suzie Wong, the title character, a Chinese woman who works as a prostitute. The novel has been adapted into a play, spawned two …
Rachel Field
Calico Bush is a children's historical novel by Newbery-award winning author Rachel Field. Considered by some to be her best novel, it was first published in 1931 and received a Newbery Honor award.
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 …
H. Rider Haggard
Ayesha, the Return of She is a gothic-fantasy novel by the popular Victorian author H. Rider Haggard, published in 1905, as a sequel to his far more popular and well known novel, She. It was serialised in the Windsor Magazine in 1904-5. Its significance was recognised by its …
Edgar Rice Burroughs
Tarzan the Untamed is a book written by Edgar Rice Burroughs, the seventh in his series of books about the title character Tarzan. It was originally published as two separate stories serialized in different pulp magazines; "Tarzan the Untamed" in Redbook from March to August, …
Louis Althusser
Lenin and Philosophy and Other Essays is one of the chief works of Louis Althusser. First published in 1968, it was published in English translation in 1971.
Nalo Hopkinson
World Fantasy Award Winner: Fiction that “combines a richly textured multicultural background with incisive storytelling,” by the author of The Salt Roads (Library Journal). In Skin Folk, with works ranging from science fiction to Caribbean folklore, passionate love to chilling …
Rupert Smith
The Utility of Force: The Art of War in the Modern World is a treatise on modern warfare written by General Sir Rupert Smith and published in 2005. Smith is a retired general who spent 40 years in the British Army; he commanded the 1st Armoured Division in the First Gulf War and …
Arlie Hochschild
The Second Shift: Working Parents and the Revolution at Home is a book by Arlie Russell Hochschild with Anne Machung, first published in 1989, and reissued with a new afterword in 1997. It was again reissued in 2012 with updated data and a new afterword. It has been translated …
Storm Constantine
The Bewitchments of Love and Hate is a book published in 1988 that was written by Storm Constantine.
Storm Constantine
The Fulfilments of Fate and Desire is a book published in 1989 that was written by Storm Constantine.
Bruce Coville
Juliet Dove, Queen of Love is a Magic Shop book written by Bruce Coville.
Joan London
The Good Parents is the second full-length novel written by Joan London. It was first published in 2008. The book concerns an eighteen-year-old girl, Maya de Jong, who moves to Melbourne and becomes involved in a relationship with her boss. When Maya's parents come to Melbourne …
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.
David D. Friedman
The Machinery of Freedom is a nonfiction book by David D. Friedman which advocates Friedman's vision of an anarcho-capitalist society. The book was published in 1973, with a second edition in 1989 and a third edition in 2014.
Robert A. Heinlein
Tramp Royale is a nonfiction travelogue by science fiction writer Robert A. Heinlein, describing how he and his wife, Ginny, went around the world by ship and plane between 1953–1954. It was published posthumously in 1992, and subsequently went out of print. Much of the book is …
Keiji Nishitani
Religion and Nothingness is a 1961 book by the Japanese philosopher Keiji Nishitani.
Judith Reeves-Stevens
Memory Prime is a Star Trek: The Original Series novel written by Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens. It was their first work in the Star Trek universe.
Harry Harrison
The Hammer and the Cross is the first part in a trilogy written by Harry Harrison and John Holm, a pseudonym for the Tolkien scholar Tom Shippey. The book chronicles the rise of the protagonist Shef, bastard son of a Viking and an English lady. The book is set in the 9th century …
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 …
Jerry Pournelle
Prince of Mercenaries is a book published in 1989 that was written by Jerry Pournelle.
Ignatius L. Donnelly
Atlantis: The Antediluvian World is a pseudoscientific book published in 1882 by Minnesota populist politician Ignatius L. Donnelly, who was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1831. Donnelly considered Plato's account of Atlantis as largely factual and attempted to establish …
Yasuko Aoike
Follows the adventures of a British aristocrat, who sidelines as an international art thief, and his partner, a straight-laced N.A.T.O. officer, as they travel around the world in the late 1970s.
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, …
Alan Dean Foster
The Deluge Drivers is a science fiction novel written by American author Alan Dean Foster. It is the final entry in Foster's Icerigger Trilogy of books taking place in the Humanx Commonwealth book series.
Karrine Steffans
Part tell-all, part cautionary tale, this emotionally charged memoir from a former video vixen nicknamed 'Superhead' goes beyond the glamour of celebrity to reveal the inner workings of the hip-hop dancer industry—from the physical and emotional abuse that's rampant in the …
Jeff Guinn
Go Down Together: The True, Untold Story of Bonnie and Clyde is a book by Jeff Guinn.
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 …
James Blaylock
Lord Kelvin's Machine is a science fiction novel by author James P. Blaylock. It was released in 1992 by Arkham House in an edition of 4,015 copies. The author's first book published by Arkham House, the novel is the third in Blaylock's Steampunk series, following The Digging …
James Alan Gardner
Trapped is a science fiction novel written by the Canadian author James Alan Gardner and published in 2002 by HarperCollins Publishers under its various imprints. The book is the sixth installment in Gardner's "League of Peoples" series of novels, set in the mid-25th century. …
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 …
Robert Todd Carroll
The Skeptic's Dictionary is a collection of cross-referenced skeptical essays by Robert Todd Carroll, published on his website skepdic.com and in a printed book. The skepdic.com site was launched in 1994 and the book was published in 2003 with nearly 400 entries. As of January …
Carolyn J. (Carolyn Janice) Cherryh
Hestia is a 1979 science fiction novel by science fiction and fantasy author C. J. Cherryh. It is an early Cherryh novel about colonists on an alien world and their interactions with the catlike natives, centering on a young engineer sent to solve the colonists' problems, and …
Wendelin Van Draanen
Sammy Keyes and the Hotel Thief is a book by Wendelin Van Draanen.
Dale Brown
Fatal Terrain is a 1997 techno-thriller novel written by Dale Brown. It is set a few weeks after the ending of Shadows of Steel. The title of the book is taken off one of Sun Tzu's passages in The Art of War: Where if one fights with intensity he will survive but if he does not …
Lucia St. Clair Robson
The Tokaido Road is a 1991 historical novel by Lucia St. Clair Robson. Set in 1702, it is a fictional account of the famous Japanese revenge story of the Forty-Seven Ronin. In feudal Japan, the Tōkaidō was the main road, which ran between the imperial capital of Kyoto, and the …
Laura Bynum
WHEN LANGUAGE IS A CRIME, ONLY THE TRUTH CAN SET YOU FREE. Harper Adams was six years old in 2012 when an act of viral terrorism wiped out one half of the country’s population. Out of the ashes rose a new government, dedicated to maintaining order at any cost. The populace is …
James Barclay
Noonshade is a fantasy novel by James Barclay. It was first published in the UK in 2000. This is the second book in the Chronicles of The Raven. "An apocalyptic spell has been cast, an ancient evil banished. And now the land of Balaia, still riven with war, must live with the …
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.
Glenn Reynolds
An Army of Davids: How Markets and Technology Empower Ordinary People to Beat Big Media, Big Government, and Other Goliaths is a non-fiction book by Glenn Reynolds, a law professor at the University of Tennessee also known as the blogger 'Instapundit'. The book looks at modern …
Jerry Pournelle
Falkenberg’s Legion is a book published in 1990 that was written by Jerry Pournelle.
Piers Anthony
Chaining the Lady is the 2nd book of the Cluster Series published in 1978 that was written by Piers Anthony.
James Alan Gardner
Radiant is a science fiction novel by the Canadian author James Alan Gardner. It was published in 2004 by HarperCollins Publishers under their Eos Books imprint. It is the seventh novel in Gardner's "League of Peoples" series. Like the six preceding novels, Radiant is set in the …