PEOPLE Picks the Best Books From the 1980s

This is one of the 743 lists we use to generate our main The Greatest Books list.

About this list

PEOPLE Magazine, 15 Books

from their website:

In celebration of our 50th year, we're looking back at some of our favorite reads over the decades.

No matter how old you are, we've all got those books that have made a lasting impression on us. Whether it's the book your mom read to you at night when you were a kid, one a beloved English teacher introduced you to or one that opened your mind and heart at an important point, some books really stand the test of time.

In celebration of 50 years of PEOPLE, we polled our staff about the books from decades past that made a difference in their lives or the culture at large. Here are our picks from the 1980s.

This list was originally published in 2024 and was added to this site over 1 year ago.

View: List Grid Table
Rank Book Authors Year Country Language Actions
101 The Unbearable Lightness of Being Milan Kundera 1984 Czech Czech
737 The Joy Luck Club Amy Tan 1989 American English
362 White Noise Don DeLillo 1985 American English
4621 Heartburn Nora Ephron 1983 American English
1102 Maus Art Spiegelman 1980 American English
132 The Handmaid's Tale Margaret Atwood 1985 Canadian English
309 Bonfire of the Vanities Tom Wolfe 1987 American English
159 The Color Purple Alice Walker 1982 American English
49 Beloved Toni Morrison 1987 American English
631 Lonesome Dove Larry McMurtry 1985 American English
578 The Silence of the Lambs Thomas Harris 1988 American English
1343 Matilda Roald Dahl 1988 British English
204 The Remains of the Day Kazuo Ishiguro 1989 British English
168 Love in the Time of Cholera Gabriel García Márquez 1985 Colombian Spanish
4984 Kristy’s Great Idea Ann M. Martin 1986 American English