PEOPLE Picks the Best Books From the 1990s
This is one of the 759 lists we use to generate our main The Greatest Books list.
About this list
PEOPLE Magazine, 15 Books
from the 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 1990s.
This list was originally published in 2024 and was added to this site over 1 year ago.
| Rank | Book | Authors | Year | Country | Language | Actions |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 279 | The Secret History | Donna Tartt | 1992 | American | English | |
| 1531 | Jurassic Park | Michael Crichton | 1990 | American | English | |
| 473 | The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle | Haruki Murakami | 1994 | Japanese | Japanese | |
| 644 | The English Patient | Michael Ondaatje | 1992 | Canadian | English | |
| 1775 | Interpreter of Maladies | Jhumpa Lahiri | 1999 | American | English | |
| 2487 | The Golden Compass | Philip Pullman | 1995 | British | English | |
| 1799 | The Giver | Lois Lowry | 1993 | American | English | |
| 890 | High Fidelity | Nick Hornby | 1995 | British | English | |
| 2535 | Into the Wild | Jon Krakauer | 1996 | American | English | |
| 236 | Harry Potter And The Philosopher's Stone | J. K. Rowling | 1997 | British | English | |
| 1289 | A Game of Thrones | George R. R. Martin | 1996 | American | English | |
| 641 | Bridget Jones's Diary | Helen Fielding | 1996 | British | English | |
| 1643 | Angela's Ashes | Frank McCourt | 1996 | American | English | |
| 994 | Blindness | José Saramago | 1995 | Portuguese | Portuguese | |
| 17152 | Brokeback Mountain | Annie Proulx | 2005 | American | English |