Flavor Wire's Top Books, 1963-2013
One book per year between 1963 and 2013. here you will find a single must-read book from each of the last 50 years. Of course, this is by its very nature an absurd undertaking, and many books have gotten the short end of the stick — there’s no other way to do it. The choices here are influenced by the following: the stipulation that any specific author should not be chosen for more than one year, a general focus on fiction over other genres, and the tastes/whims/glaring prejudices of Flavorwire’s literary editor.
- 1
The Bell Jar
Sylvia Plath · 1963 · 12 lists
- 2
Herzog
Saul Bellow · 1961 · 10 lists
- 3
The Autobiography of Malcolm X
Alex Haley · 1968 · 9 lists
- 4
Against Interpretation
Susan Sontag · 1966 · 3 lists
- 5
The Master and Margarita
Mikhail Bulgakov · 1967 · 18 lists
- 6
Slouching Towards Bethlehem
Joan Didion · 1968 · 4 lists
- 7
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
Maya Angelou · 1969 · 4 lists
- 8
Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret
Judy Blume · 1970 · 7 lists
- 9
- 10
Invisible Cities
Italo Calvino · 1972 · 7 lists
- 11
Gravity's Rainbow
Thomas Pynchon · 1973 · 12 lists
- 12
The Dispossessed
Ursula K. Le Guin · 1974 · 5 lists
- 13
The Great Railway Bazaar
Paul Theroux · 1975 · 1 list
- 14
Speedboat
Renata Adler · 1976 · 3 lists
- 15
The Shining
Stephen King · 1977 · 8 lists
- 16
The Sea, the Sea
Iris Murdoch · 1952 · 5 lists
- 17
The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories
Angela Carter · 1979 · 1 list
- 18
Ender’s Game
Orson Scott Card · 1985 · 6 lists
- 19
Outside Over There
Maurice Sendak · 1981 · 1 list
- 20
The Color Purple
Alice Walker · 1982 · 20 lists
- 21
Cathedral
Raymond Carver · 1983 · 2 lists
- 22
Money
Martin Amis · 1880 · 9 lists
- 23
The Handmaid’s Tale
Margaret Atwood · 1985 · 23 lists
- 24
Maus
Art Spiegelman · 1986 · 4 lists
- 25
Beloved
Toni Morrison · 1987 · 31 lists
- 26
Bad Behavior
Mary Gaitskill · 1988 · 2 lists
- 27
Geek Love
Katherine Dunn · 1989 · 2 lists
- 28
The Things They Carried
Tim O'Brien · 1990 · 10 lists
- 29
Possession
A. S. Byatt · 1990 · 6 lists
- 30
The Secret History
Donna Tartt · 1992 · 8 lists
- 31
The Shipping News
Annie Proulx · 1993 · 7 lists
- 32
The Ice Storm
Rick Moody · 1994 · 1 list
- 33
Sabbath’s Theater
Philip Roth · 1995 · 4 lists
- 34
Infinite Jest
David Foster Wallace · 1996 · 11 lists
- 35
Underworld
Don DeLillo · 1997 · 9 lists
- 36
Birds of America
Lorrie Moore · 1998 · 5 lists
- 37
Disgrace
J.M. Coetzee · 1999 · 12 lists
- 38
Pastoralia
George Saunders · 2000 · 3 lists
- 39
Austerlitz
W.G. Sebald · 2001 · 11 lists
- 40
Middlesex
Jeffrey Eugenides · 2002 · 12 lists
- 41
The Known World
Edward P. Jones · 2003 · 11 lists
- 42
The Epicure's Lament
Kate Christensen · 2004 · 1 list
- 43
Magic for Beginners
Kelly Link · 2005 · 1 list
- 44
The Road
Cormac McCarthy · 2006 · 14 lists
- 45
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao
Junot Díaz · 2007 · 14 lists
- 46
Dangerous Laughter
Steven Millhauser · 2008 · 2 lists
- 47
- 48
A Visit from the Goon Squad
Jennifer Egan · 2010 · 9 lists
- 49
Pulphead
John Jeremiah Sullivan · 2011 · 2 lists
- 50
Building Stories
Chris Ware · 2012 · 2 lists
- 51
The Flamethrowers
Rachel Kushner · 2013 · 5 lists
