The 25 best books of the 1960s
The 25 highest-ranked books first published in the 1960s in our ranking of 2,816, scored on how much readers love them, their prize, best-list and bestseller record, and current buzz. We rank 92 books of the 1960s in all. How we rank
- 1
To Kill a Mockingbird94.3Must-Read ScoreTo Kill a Mockingbird
In the small town of Maycomb, Alabama, in the 1930s, six-year-old Scout Finch spends her summers with her brother Jem and their friend Dill, daring each other to approach the house of their mysterious neighbor, Boo Radley.
Why it made the listPulitzer Prize for Fiction winner (1961)One of the best-selling books ever (about 40 million copies)One of the ten best-selling books of 1961, 2015 and 2016 (Publishers Weekly)TIME All-TIME 100 Novels - 2
Dune90.9Must-Read ScoreDune
On the desert planet Arrakis, the only source of the spice melange, the most valuable substance in the universe, young Paul Atreides arrives with his noble family to take over the planet's rule, knowing it may be a trap.
Why it made the listHugo Award winner (1966)One of the best-selling books ever (about 20 million copies)51 weeks on the New York Times bestseller lists since 2020PBS Great American Read - 3
The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich: A History of Nazi Germany89.2Must-Read ScoreThe Rise and Fall of the Third Reich: A History of Nazi Germany
William Shirer was an American journalist who reported from Berlin in the 1930s, and after the war he gained access to the captured archives of the Nazi government.
Why it made the listNational Book Award (Nonfiction) winner (1961)#1 New York Times bestseller (39 weeks at #1)TIME All-TIME 100 Nonfiction - 4
The Godfather86.7Must-Read ScoreThe Godfather
Don Vito Corleone is the most powerful Mafia boss in New York: a man who grants favors, demands loyalty and settles disputes with offers no one can refuse.
Why it made the listOne of the best-selling books ever (about 21 million copies)#1 New York Times bestseller (21 weeks at #1)PBS Great American ReadBBC's The Big Read - 5
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings85.7Must-Read ScoreI Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
When Maya Angelou was three, she and her older brother Bailey were sent to live with their grandmother in Stamps, a small, segregated town in Arkansas.
Why it made the list#1 New York Times bestseller (1 week at #1)TIME All-TIME 100 Nonfiction - 6
In Cold Blood85.2Must-Read ScoreIn Cold Blood
In November 1959, Herb Clutter, a prosperous farmer, his wife and their two teenage children were murdered in their home in Holcomb, Kansas.
Why it made the list#1 New York Times bestseller (14 weeks at #1)Modern Library 100 Best NonfictionTIME All-TIME 100 NonfictionGuardian 100 Best Novels in English - 7
One Hundred Years of Solitude83.8Must-Read ScoreOne Hundred Years of Solitude
Seven generations of the Buendía family live, love and fight in Macondo, the town they founded in the Colombian jungle.
Why it made the listOne of the best-selling books ever (about 50 million copies)Bokklubben World Library (100 greatest books)PBS Great American ReadBBC's The Big Read - 8
The Fire Next Time83.8Must-Read ScoreThe Fire Next Time
James Baldwin's short book is made of two essays.
Why it made the list#1 New York Times bestseller (12 weeks at #1) - 9
The Guns of August83.7Must-Read ScoreThe Guns of August
Barbara Tuchman tells the story of the first month of World War I, from the funeral of Edward VII in May 1910, where nine kings rode together, to the Battle of the Marne in September 1914.
Why it made the listPulitzer Prize (General Nonfiction) winner (1963)Modern Library 100 Best Nonfiction - 10
Silent Spring82.8Must-Read ScoreSilent Spring
In 1962, Rachel Carson, a marine biologist and bestselling nature writer, warned that the pesticides being sprayed across America, especially DDT, were poisoning birds, fish, soil, water and people.
Why it made the list#1 New York Times bestseller (5 weeks at #1)Modern Library 100 Best NonfictionTIME All-TIME 100 NonfictionGuardian 100 Best Nonfiction Books of All Time - 11
The Spy Who Came in From the Cold82.7Must-Read ScoreThe Spy Who Came in From the Cold
Alec Leamas is tired.
Why it made the listEdgar Award winner (1965)#1 New York Times bestseller (34 weeks at #1)One of the ten best-selling books of 1964 (Publishers Weekly)TIME All-TIME 100 Novels - 12
Mastering the Art of French Cooking81.6Must-Read ScoreMastering the Art of French Cooking
Julia Child, Simone Beck and Louisette Bertholle set out to show American home cooks how to make classic French dishes with American ingredients and kitchens.
Why it made the listTIME All-TIME 100 Nonfiction - 13
Slaughterhouse-Five81.1Must-Read ScoreSlaughterhouse-Five
Billy Pilgrim, a gentle, hapless chaplain's assistant in World War II, is captured by the Germans and held as a prisoner of war in Dresden, in the underground meat locker of a slaughterhouse, when Allied bombers destroy the city in February 1945.
Why it made the listTIME All-TIME 100 NovelsModern Library 100 Best Novels - 14
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest80.7Must-Read ScoreOne Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
Randle McMurphy, a brawling, gambling con man, gets himself transferred from a prison work farm to a psychiatric hospital in Oregon, thinking it will be easier time.
Why it made the listTIME All-TIME 100 NovelsBBC's The Big Read - 15
Flowers for Algernon80.7Must-Read ScoreFlowers for Algernon
Charlie Gordon is a thirty-two-year-old man with an intellectual disability who works sweeping floors at a bakery and wants more than anything to be smart.
Why it made the listNebula Award winner (1966) - 16
Catch-2279.8Must-Read ScoreCatch-22
Captain John Yossarian is a bombardier in the U.S.
Why it made the listTIME All-TIME 100 NovelsModern Library 100 Best NovelsPBS Great American Read - 17
Against Interpretation79.6Must-Read ScoreAgainst Interpretation
Susan Sontag's first collection of essays, from the early 1960s.
Why it made the listTIME All-TIME 100 NonfictionGuardian 100 Best Nonfiction Books of All Time - 18
The Left Hand of Darkness79.6Must-Read ScoreThe Left Hand of Darkness
Genly Ai is an envoy from the Ekumen, a league of worlds, sent alone to the icy planet Gethen to invite its people to join.
Why it made the listHugo Award winner (1970)Nebula Award winner (1969) - 19
Understanding Media79.4Must-Read ScoreUnderstanding Media
Marshall McLuhan argues that the form of a medium matters more than its content: "the medium is the message." Examining everything from print, photographs and television to roads, clothing, money and weapons as extensions of the human body and senses, he shows how each new technology reshapes how we think and live.
Why it made the listTIME All-TIME 100 Nonfiction - 20
The Master and Margarita78.8Must-Read ScoreThe Master and Margarita
One spring evening in 1930s Moscow, the Devil arrives, calling himself Professor Woland, with a retinue that includes an enormous talking black cat named Behemoth.
Why it made the listBBC's The Big ReadLe Monde's 100 Books of the Century - 21
The Death and Life of Great American Cities78.6Must-Read ScoreThe Death and Life of Great American Cities
In 1961, Jane Jacobs, a writer with no planning credentials, took on the urban planners who were tearing down neighborhoods for highways and housing projects.
Why it made the listTIME All-TIME 100 Nonfiction - 22
2001: A Space Odyssey78.6Must-Read Score2001: A Space Odyssey
From the African savanna at the dawn of humanity to the moons of Saturn, Arthur C.
Why it made the listHugo Award finalist (1983, for 2010: Odyssey Two) - 23
A Clockwork Orange78.0Must-Read ScoreA Clockwork Orange
In a near-future Britain, fifteen-year-old Alex leads a gang of droogs through nights of ultraviolence, and loves Beethoven.
Why it made the listTIME All-TIME 100 NovelsModern Library 100 Best NovelsGuardian 100 Best Novels in English - 24
Ariel77.8Must-Read ScoreAriel
In the last months of her life, in a cold London flat in 1962 and 1963, Sylvia Plath wrote poems at an astonishing rate, sometimes several a day: Daddy, Lady Lazarus, Tulips, Ariel and others, full of fury and dazzling images.
Why it made the listGuardian 100 Best Nonfiction Books of All Time - 2577.8Must-Read Score
A Grief Observed
