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DeutschThe 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 …
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 …
Ahmet Hamdi Tanpınar
A Mind at Peace is an iconic Turkish novel by Ahmet Hamdi Tanpınar, one of the pioneers of literary modernism in Turkey. Tanpınar was a poet, novelist, and critic who worked as a professor of Ottoman and Turkish literature at Istanbul University. Though he was known in his …
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.
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.
Michael Murphy
Golf in the Kingdom is a 1971 novel by Michael Murphy. It has sold over a million copies and been translated into 19 languages. Golf in the Kingdom tells the story of Michael Murphy, a young traveler who accidentally stumbles on a mystical golfing expert while in Scotland. …
Georgette Heyer
My Lord John is an unfinished historical fiction novel by the British author Georgette Heyer, published posthumously in 1975 after her death the previous year. It traces the early lives of the "young lordings" – Harry, Thomas, John, and Humfrey – all sons of the future …
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 …
Iris Murdoch
The Red and the Green is a 1965 novel by Iris Murdoch that covers the events leading up to and during the Easter Rebellion in Ireland during World War I. It is written in a different style from Murdoch's other fiction, but like the other novels deals with complex family …
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 …
Charles Brockden Brown
Edgar Huntly, Or, Memoirs of a Sleepwalker is a 1799 novel by the American author Charles Brockden Brown.
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 …
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.
G. K. Chesterton
Heretics is a collection of 20 essays originally published by G.K. Chesterton in 1905.
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 …
Graham Swift
The Sweet Shop Owner is the debut novel of the Booker Prize winning author Graham Swift. It was published in 1980 to largely favourable reviews.
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 …
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 …
Margaret Weis
The Prophet of Akhran is a book published in 1989 that was written by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman.
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 …
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 …
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.
Samuel Beckett
Stories and Texts for Nothing is a collection of stories by Samuel Beckett. It gathers three of Beckett's short stories and the thirteen short prose pieces he named "Texts for Nothing". All of these works are collected in the Grove Press edition of Beckett's complete short prose.
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 …
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 …
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.
William Makepeace Thackeray
The History of Henry Esmond is a historical novel by William Makepeace Thackeray, originally published in 1852. The book tells the story of the early life of Henry Esmond, a colonel in the service of Queen Anne of England. A typical example of Victorian historical novels, …
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 …
Graham Joyce
Dreamside is a fantasy novel by Graham Joyce first published in the United Kingdom by Pan Books in 1991. It was later reprinted in the United States by Tor Books in 2000. The novel's primary theme is the power of the subconscious and the futility of attempting to escape the past.
Clifford D. Simak
The Werewolf Principle is a 1967 science fiction novel by Clifford D. Simak. It was originally published by Putnam, with a paperback edition following from Berkley Books in 1968. A British hardcover was also released in 1967, with translations following into French, Italian, …
Wisława Szymborska
Sounds, Feelings, Thoughts is a book of poems by Wisława Szymborska.
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 …
Chris Van Allsburg
Two Bad Ants is a 1988 children's book written and illustrated by American author Chris Van Allsburg.
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 …
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.
Saul Friedländer
The Years of Extermination: Nazi Germany and the Jews, 1939-1945 is the second volume of Saul Friedländer's history of Nazi Germany and the Jews. It describes the German extermination policies that resulted in the murder of six million European Jews. The book presents a detailed …
Andrew Miller
The Optimists is the fourth novel by English author, Andrew Miller, released on 21 March 2005 through Sceptre.
Jerry Bledsoe
Bitter Blood: A True Story of Southern Family Pride, Madness, and Multiple Murder is a non-fiction crime tragedy written by American author Jerry Bledsoe that reached #1 on the New York Times bestseller list. Bitter Blood is composed of various newspaper articles and personal …
Eric Walters
We All Fall Down is a novel by Canadian author Eric Walters, published in 2006 by Random House of Canada. The story follows Will, a ninth grade student, spending a day with his father at the World Trade Centre on September 11, 2001. It was awarded the Red Maple Award in 2007 and …
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 …
Lois Tilton
Accusations is the second book in the series of original science fiction novels based on the Emmy Award-winning series Babylon 5 created by J. Michael Straczynski. The book was written by Lois Tilton.
Daniel Tammet
Daniel's internationally bestselling memoir of living with Asperger's Syndrome and Savant Syndrome, Born on a Blue Day established him as one of the most original talents in contemporary non-fiction.Now, in his new book, Embracing the Wide Sky, he combines meticulous scientific …
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 …
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 …
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 …
John Marco
The Saints of the Sword is a book published in 2001 that was written by John Marco.
Joe R. Lansdale
Freezer Burn is a 1999 crime novel by American writer Joe R. Lansdale.
Mary Wesley
Second Fiddle is a best-selling novel by British author Mary Wesley.
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 …
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 …
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 …
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. …
Thomas King
Medicine River is a novel written by author Thomas King. It was first published by Viking Canada in 1989. The book was later adapted into a television movie starring Graham Greene and Tom Jackson.
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 …
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 …
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 …
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.
Peg Kehret
Abduction! by Peg Kehret, is a novel about a 13-year-old girl named Bonnie who searches for her brother Matt and their dog Pookie who were both abducted. Her abductor, a mystery at first, ends up being someone much close to home.
Frances Hodgson Burnett
A Little Princess is a 1905 children's novel by Frances Hodgson Burnett. It is an expanded version of Burnett's 1888 short story entitled Sara Crewe: or, What Happened at Miss Minchin's, which was first serialized in St. Nicholas Magazine from 1887 to 1888. According to Burnett, …
