The Greatest Books of All Time Set in Boston

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This list represents a comprehensive and trusted collection of the greatest books. Developed through a specialized algorithm, it brings together 759 'best of' book lists to form a definitive guide to the world's most acclaimed books. For those interested in how these books are chosen, additional details can be found on the rankings page.

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Rank Book Authors Year Country Language Actions
74 The Scarlet Letter Nathaniel Hawthorne 1850 American English
306 The Autobiography of Malcolm X Alex Haley 1965 American English
377 The Education of Henry Adams Henry Adams 1907 American English
1034 The Bostonians Henry James 1886 American English
1503 The Friends Of Eddie Coyle George V. Higgins 1970 American English
1546 Poems Of Ralph Waldo Emerson Ralph Waldo Emerson 1847 American English
2616 The Rise Of Silas Lapham William Dean Howells 1885 American English
2660 The Women's Room Marilyn French 1977 American English
2663 Early Autumn Robert B. Parker 1980 American English
2784 North Of Boston Robert Frost 1914 American English
2968 Kane and Abel Jeffrey Archer 1979 British English
2977 Johnny Tremain Esther Forbes 1943 American English
3294 Looking Backward, 2000 1887 Edward Bellamy 1888 American English
4292 Mystic River Dennis Lehane 2001 American English
4308 It Ends With Us Colleen Hoover 2016 American English
4734 The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation M. T. Anderson 2006 American English
4900 The Poetry Of Anne Bradstreet Anne Bradstreet 1867 American English
5264 The Great Influenza John Barry 2004 American English
5269 What I Talk About When I Talk About Running Haruki Murakami 2007 Japanese Japanese
5283 The Complete Notebooks Of Henry James Henry James 1987 American English
5772 His Majesty's Yankees Thomas H. Raddall 1977 Canadian English
5863 A Modern Instance William Dean Howells 1882 American English
6083 The Lamplighter Maria Susanna Cummins 1854 American English
6485 Common Ground J. Anthony Lukas 1985 American English
6937 Century Of Struggle Eleanor Flexner 1959 American English
6973 Our Bodies, Ourselves Boston Women’s Health Collective 1970 American English
7122 Why We Love Helen Fisher 2004 American English
7127 Blanche Passes Go Barbara Neely 2000 American English
7133 Desolation Angels Jack Kerouac 1965 American English
7147 Captains And The Kings Taylor Caldwell 1972 American English
7191 The Complete Plays Of Eugene O'neill Eugene O'Neill 1959 American English
7204 The Surgeon Tess Gerritsen 2001 American English
7216 H. M. Pulham, Esquire John P. Marquand 1941 American English
7577 The Innovator's Dilemma Clayton M. Christensen 1997 American English
7680 Master Slave Husband Wife Ilyon Woo 2023 Unknown English
7714 We Were Not The Savages Daniel N. Paul 1993 Canadian English
7922 Small Mercies Dennis Lehane 2023 American English
8321 The Living Is Easy Dorothy West 1948 American English
8336 The Rebellion Of Yale Marrat Robert H. Rimmer 1964 American English
8384 Outrageous Acts And Everyday Rebellions Gloria Steinem 1983 American English
8542 Life Studies Robert Lowell 1967 American English
8574 Let The Trumpet Sound Stephen B. Oates 1982 American English
8770 John Adams David McCullough 2001 American English
8869 For the Union Dead Robert Lowell 1964 American English
8927 The End Of Men Hanna Rosin 2012 American English
8985 Bury Our Bones In The Midnight Soil V. E. Schwab 2025 Unknown English
9057 The Late George Apley John P. Marquand 1937 American English
9262 Malcolm X Manning Marable 2011 American English
9326 The Hacker Crackdown Bruce Sterling 1992 American English
9330 In Search Of Excellence Tom Peters, Robert H. Waterman, Jr. 1982 American English
9357 Hard Hitter Sarina Bowen 2017 American English
9679 Gone Baby Gone Dennis Lehane 1998 American English
9835 Mornings On Horseback David McCullough 1981 American English
10008 Edgar Allan Poe Arthur Hobson Quinn 1941 American English
10078 The Body Project Joan Jacobs Brumberg 1997 American English
10901 America’s Women Gail Collins 2003 American English
10925 Women Don’t Ask Linda Babcock, Sara Laschever 2003 American English
11292 The Girls Who Went Away Ann Fessler 2006 American English
11319 The Witches Stacy Schiff 2015 American English
11362 America's God Mark Noll 2002 American English
11492 When Everything Changed Gail Collins 2009 American English
11614 The Cross Cultural Process In Christian History Andrew Walls 2002 Unknown English
11663 Red Comet Heather L. Clark 2020 American English
11663 The Patriarch David Nasaw 2012 American English
11663 Roger's Version John Updike 1986 American English
11663 The Parking Lot Attendant Nafkote Tamirat 2018 American English
11663 Fly Girls Keith O'Brien 2018 American English
11663 We The Corporations Adam Winkler 2018 American English
11873 Weapons Of Math Destruction Cathy O'Neil 2016 American English
11890 The Mac Gregor Brides Nora Roberts 1997 American English
11941 Charles Sumner and the Coming of the Civil War David Donald 1960 American English
11941 The Life and Times of Cotton Mather Kenneth Silverman 1984 American English
12041 Crash Override Zoë Quinn 2017 American English
12137 The Powers That Be David Halberstam 1979 American English
12657 Patient H.M. Luke Dittrich 2016 American English
13259 The Spoken Word Revolution Mark Eleveld 2003 Unknown English
13340 Candyfreak Steve Almond 2004 American English
13362 The Autocrat Of The Breakfast Table Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr. 1858 American English
13362 The Great Speeches And Orations Of Daniel Webster Daniel Webster 1851 American English
13550 How To Be A Good Creature Sy Montgomery 2018 American English
13772 Looking For Rachel Wallace Robert B. Parker 1980 American English
13790 Make Way For Ducklings Robert McCloskey 1941 American English
13886 American Voyeur Benoit Denizet-Lewis 2009 American English
13886 Louisa May Alcott Harriet Reisen 2009 Unknown English
14232 Founding Brothers Joseph Ellis 2000 American English
14232 People Of The Book Geraldine Brooks 2008 Australian English
14390 The Collected Stories Richard Yates 2001 American English
14623 The Promised Land Mary Antin 1912 American English
14698 The Age Of American Unreason Susan Jacoby 2008 American English
14774 Oliver Wiswell Kenneth Roberts 1940 American English
14788 The Thinking Machine Jacques Futrelle 1905 American English
14938 Java Head Joseph Hergesheimer 1919 American English
14985 The Given Day Dennis Lehane 2008 American English
14985 Salt Mark Kurlansky 2002 American English
14985 I'm A Stranger Here Myself Bill Bryson 1999 American English
14985 Shoeless Joe W. P. Kinsella 1982 Canadian English
14985 Poverty, By America Matthew Desmond 2023 American English
15589 Ghana Must Go Taiye Selasi 2013 American English
15861 On Revolution Hannah Arendt 1963 American English
15914 The Boston Cooking School Cook Book Fannie Farmer 1896 American English
15914 Work Louisa May Alcott 1873 American English
15914 Female Biography Mary Hays 1803 British English
15914 The Colossus And Other Poems Sylvia Plath 1960 American English
15914 Conceived In Liberty Howard Fast 1945 American English
15914 Lydia Bailey Kenneth Roberts 1940 American English
15893 H.M. Pulham, Esq. John P. Marquand 1941 American English
16787 The Complete Works Of Edgar Allan Poe Edgar Allan Poe 1902 American English
16751 The Essays Of Ralph Waldo Emerson Ralph Waldo Emerson 1841 American English
17162 Picture Palace Paul Theroux 1978 American English
17162 Paul Revere and the World He Lived In Esther Forbes 1942 American English
17162 Self-Consciousness John Updike 1989 American English
17162 The Collected Works Of Phillis Wheatley Phillis Wheatley 1988 American English
17162 Book Of Ages Jill Lepore 2013 American English
17162 Dearest Friend Lynne Withey 1981 American English
17162 Superior Women Alice Adams 1984 American English
17162 Y The Last Man Brian K. Vaughan 2002 American English
17162 The Game Ken Dryden 1983 Canadian English
17162 The House Of God Samuel Shem 1978 American English
17162 The Ship Of The Dead Rick Riordan 2017 American English
17162 The Hammer Of Thor Rick Riordan 2016 American English