A Century of Books: some suggestions

I'm already getting excited about A Century of Books, the anti-challenge reading challenge with very few rules and low expectations(!)  If you missed my original post on it, click here.  I'm especially excited about how excited lots of you are - whether you're joining in wholly or casually or just watching from the sidelines.  It's going to be fun!

I was asked by Jo if I could give some suggestions for books, as I imagine most of us have sections of the twentieth century where we're at a bit of a loss for inspiration.  (For me, it's the 1900s, 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s...)  Jo's was the kind of question I could not possibly resist - the lure of a list, and of going back through my book-lists from the past ten years, was too wonderful a prospect to delay.

And I have made my list!  I was somewhat astonished that not only had I read a book for every year of the twentieth century already (almost), but I could recommend books I thought were good!  1994 took a while, because I absolutely refused to include the abominable Captain Correli's Mandolin, but thankfully I discovered Sylvia Townsend Warner's Diaries were published that year - hurrah!  That book is one of a few below that I haven't actually *finished*, but have dipped into and can safely recommend.

I haven't duplicated any authors, and there is a mix of fiction and non-fiction.  Unless otherwise stated, the books are novels (and there are evidently some decades where my familiarity with novels is second to children's books or plays!)  Quite a few of these have been reviewed on SiaB - just search in the search box, or scroll through all reviews.  And if they're not there and you're interested, just ask!

Without further ado... my suggestions for 1900-1999.


1900 - The Interpretation of Dreams by Sigmund Freud (non-fiction)
1901 - Three Sisters by Anton Chekhov (play)
1902 - Just-So Stories by Rudyard Kipling (children's short stories)
1903 - The Tale of Squirrel Nutkin by Beatrix Potter (children's)
1904 - Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie (play)
1905 - The Return of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle (short stories)
1906 - The Railway Children by E. Nesbit (children's)
1907 - The Unlucky Family by Mrs. Henry de la Pasture (children's)
1908 - Love's Shadow by Ada Leverson
1909 - The Caravaners by Elizabeth von Arnim
1910 - Literary Lapses by Stephen Leacock (short stories)
1911 - The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett (children's)
1912 - The Unbearable Bassington by Saki
1913 - Old Friends and New Fancies by Sybil G. Brinton (first Austen sequel)
1914 - The Wise Virgins by Leonard Woolf
1915 - Psmith, Journalist by P.G. Wodehouse
1916 - London Revisited by E.V. Lucas (essays)
1917 - Parnassus on Wheels by Christopher Morley
1918 - The Return of the Soldier by Rebecca West
1919 - The Young Visiters [sic!] by Daisy Ashford
1920 - Queen Lucia by E.F. Benson
1921 - Dangerous Ages by Rose Macaulay
1922 - Lady Into Fox by David Garnett
1923 - Bliss by Katherine Mansfield (short stories)
1924 - The Home-Maker by Dorothy Canfield Fisher
1925 - William by E.H. Young
1926 - As It Was by Helen Thomas (biog./autobiog.)
1927 - The Love Child by Edith Olivier
1928 - Orlando by Virginia Woolf
1929 - David Golder by Irene Nemirovsky
1930 - Diary of a Provincial Lady by E.M. Delafield
1931 - The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck
1932 - Cheerful Weather For The Wedding by Julia Strachey
1933 - Hostages to Fortune by Elizabeth Cambridge
1934 - Mary Poppins by P.L. Travers (children's)
1935 - Untouchable by Mulk Raj Anand
1936 - The New House by Lettice Cooper
1937 - They Came Like Swallows by William Maxwell
1938 - Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier
1939 - It's Too Late Now by A.A. Milne (autobiog.)
1940 - Miss Hargreaves by Frank Baker
1941 - Parents and Children by Ivy Compton-Burnett
1942 - The Body in the Library by Agatha Christie
1943 - The Magic Faraway Tree by Enid Blyton (children's)
1944 - A House in the Country by Jocelyn Playfair
1945 - Animal Farm by George Orwell
1946 - Westwood by Stella Gibbons
1947 - The Slaves of Solitude by Patrick Hamilton
1948 - The Loved One by Evelyn Waugh
1949 - I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith
1950 - Frost at Morning by Richmal Crompton
1951 - The Lagoon by Janet Frame (short stories)
1952 - Make Me An Offer by Wolf Mankowitz
1953 - The Go-Between by L.P. Hartley
1954 - Love of Seven Dolls by Paul Gallico
1955 - Who Was Changed and Who Was Dead by Barbara Comyns
1956 - The Last Battle by C.S. Lewis (children's)
1957 - The Entertainer by John Osborne (play)
1958 - Tom's Midnight Garden by Philippa Pearce (children's)
1959 - The Caretaker by Harold Pinter (play)
1960 - The L-Shaped Room by Lynne Reid Banks
1961 - Provincial Daughter by R.M. Dashwood
1962 - We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson
1963 - Let's Kill Uncle by Rohan O'Grady
1964 - The Stone Angel by Margaret Laurence
1965 - Oxford by Jan Morris (non-fiction)
1966 - Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys
1967 - The Death of the Author by Roland Barthes (essay)
1968 - The Real Inspector Hound by Tom Stoppard (play)
1969 - Travels With My Aunt by Graham Greene
1970 - 84, Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff (letters)
1971 - Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont by Elizabeth Taylor
1972 - The Summer Book by Tove Jansson
1973 - In the Springtime of the Year by Susan Hill
1974 - Enid Blyton: the biography by Barbara Stoney (biog.)
1975 - Danny: The Champion of the World by Roald Dahl (children's)
1976 - Joyce Grenfell Requests the Pleasure by Joyce Grenfell (sketches)
1977 - Abigail's Party by Mike Leigh (play)
1978 - The Bookshop by Penelope Fitzgerald
1979 - The Path Through The Trees by Christopher Milne (autobiog.)
1980 - A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole
1981 - Loitering With Intent by Muriel Spark
1982 - Wish Her Safe At Home by Stephen Benatar
1983 - A Very Great Profession by Nicola Beauman (non-fiction)
1984 - Letters to Alice on First Reading Jane Austen by Fay Weldon
1985 - Henrietta's War by Joyce Dennys
1986 - Richmal Crompton: the Woman behind William by Mary Cadogan (biog.)
1987 - Katherine Mansfield: A Secret Life by Claire Tomalin (biog.)
1988 - The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver
1989 - People Who Say Goodbye by P.Y. Betts (autobiog.)
1990 - Immortality by Milan Kundera
1991 - Forever England by Alison Light (lit. crit.)
1992 - The Christmas Mystery by Jostein Gaarder
1993 - The Matisse Stories by A.S. Byatt (short stories)
1994 - Diaries by Sylvia Townsend Warner (diaries!)
1995 - The Tattooed Map by Barbara Hodgson
1996 - Bridget Jones' Diary by Helen Fielding
1997 - Enduring Love by Ian McEwan
1998 - Ex Libris by Anne Fadiman (essays)
1999 - All Quiet on the Orient Express by Magnus Mills