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Book reviews & excerpts from exceptional books set mainly in the 1980s and 1990s.

1980s & '90s

Recommended books found: 546

1980s & '90s is a members-only category, so your results have been limited to 12 books. If you are a member, please log in. If not, please consider joining today!.

The Slip

A Novel

by Lucas Schaefer

Hardcover: Jun 2025 | Paperback: Jun 2026

Critics' Consensus:

For readers of Jonathan Franzen and Nathan Hill comes a haymaker of an American novel about a missing teenage boy, cases of fluid and mistaken identity, and the transformative power of boxing.

Atmosphere

A Love Story

by Taylor Jenkins Reid

Hardcover: Jun 2025 | Paperback: Jun 2026

Critics' Consensus:

From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo and Daisy Jones & The Six comes an epic new novel set against the backdrop of the 1980s Space Shuttle program about the extraordinary lengths we go to live and love ...

So Many Stars

An Oral History of Trans, Nonbinary, Genderqueer, and Two-Spirit People of Color

by Caro De Robertis

Hardcover: May 2025 | Paperback: Jun 2026

Critics' Consensus:

Award-winning novelist Caro De Robertis offers a first-of-its-kind, deeply personal, and moving oral history of a generation of queer and trans elders of color, from leading activists to artists to ordinary citizens to tell their stories of ...

Katabasis

A Novel

by R. F. Kuang

Hardcover: Aug 2025 | Paperback: Jun 2026

Critics' Consensus:

Dante's Inferno meets Susanna Clarke's Piranesi in this all-new dark academia fantasy from R. F. Kuang, the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Babel and Yellowface, in which two graduate students must put ...

This Is Your Mother

A Memoir

by Erika J. Simpson

Hardcover: May 2025 | Paperback: May 2026

Critics' Consensus:

From "a writer who's absolutely going places" (Roxane Gay), a remarkable, inventive debut memoir about a mother-daughter relationship across cycles of poverty, separation, and illness, exploring how we forge identity in the face of imminent loss.

The Hill

A Novel

by Harriet Clark

Hardcover: May 2026

Critics' Consensus:

After her mother is sentenced to life in a hilltop prison, Suzanna vows to return to the hill forever. An unexpectedly funny and deeply moving novel about the many ways we punish and return to each other.

Homebound

A Novel

by Portia Elan

Hardcover: May 2026

Critics' Consensus:

Five interlocking lives. One beloved story. A dazzling adventure across centuries and continents in search of the things that hold us together.

John of John

A Novel

by Douglas Stuart

Hardcover: May 2026

Critics' Consensus:

From the Booker Prize-winning and New York Times bestselling author of Shuggie Bain and Young Mungo comes a vivid, moving novel following a young man returning to his Hebridean island home, a portrait of a father's expectations and a son's desires.

Flashlight

A Novel

by Susan Choi

Hardcover: Jun 2025 | Paperback: May 2026

Critics' Consensus:

A novel tracing a father's disappearance across time, nations, and memory, from the author of Trust Exercise.

Porcupines

A Novel

by Fran Fabriczki

Hardcover: Apr 2026

Critics' Consensus:

A fresh and witty debut about a young immigrant mother and her increasingly inquisitive daughter, who wakes up one day and decides to find out who her father is.

Dear Monica Lewinsky

A Novel

by Julia Langbein

Hardcover: Apr 2026

Critics' Consensus:

From the acclaimed author of American Mermaid ("I loved it…and have never read anything like it"—Elizabeth Gilbert) comes a wise, funny, and wildly original examination of female desire and the price women pay for giving in to their ...

The Witch

A Novel

by Marie NDiaye

Paperback: Apr 2026

Critics' Consensus:

In a small French town, a mediocre witch trapped in a cruel marriage cries watery tears of blood as she passes on her gifts to her twin daughters, who soon must make a choice: stay close to the nest and the mother who nourished them, or soar away ...

1980s & '90s is a members-only category, so your results have been limited to 12 books. If you are a member, please log in. If not, please consider joining today!

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