Whether you are participating in our Decades Reading Challenge or found this post searching for books set in the 1950s, the booklist has a wide variety of books to choose from.
With the Great Depression just a memory and the post-WWII economy strong, the 1950s began a time of rapid change in the United States. American families were growing fast, giving rise to the baby boomer generation. These families began flocking to new suburbs in search of an idyllic, “normal” life amid increasing fears of the atomic bomb brought on by the Cold War. As they grew up, the baby boomer generation would be at the forefront of social change, including greatly influencing the Civil Rights Movement and the conflict in Vietnam – both of which began in the 1950s.
The book recommendations include historical fiction novels set around the globe, books about quintessential American life in the 1950s, stories about the divergent experiences of black and white Americans in the middle of the century and the growing racial tensions, and memoirs and non-fiction reads about the events and people of the day.
For additional historical context, check out the timeline of major world events included at the end of the post.
Highly Rated Books Set in the 1950s
While most of the recommendations on this list were published more recently, if you prefer books published in the era, some popular books from the 1950s to consider are: Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger, The Narrows by Ann Petry, and The Wedding by Dorothy West.
We can’t wait to pick up this novel, which explores the friendship between Ella Fitzgerald, the Queen of Jazz, and iconic movie star Marilyn Monroe. Although Ella’s career was initially limited by her gender and race, her tireless ambition gave the world an opportunity to hear her perfect pitch.
In 1952, glamourous Hollywood star and sex symbol Marilyn Monroe needed a vocal coach. While Ella Fitzgerald was not a singing teacher, Marilyn wanted only the best and pursued Ella’s help. While Ella initially declined, they became fast friends once they met. Both women had a track record of fighting for independence in a world and industry run by men.
In addition to covering Ella and Marilyn’s decade-long friendship, the book highlights their individual struggles to find a healthy relationship with a man while still retaining power over themselves.
Nineteen-year-old Marion’s dreams come true when she’s cast as a member of the Rockettes, Radio City Music Hall’s precision dance troupe. It’s an honor for any dancer to be selected for the role and given the opportunity to perform at the Art Deco masterpiece of a theater that is Radio City. But Marion soon learns that, behind the scenes, the days are long and the rehearsals grueling.
One night, in 1956, a bomb explodes in the theater. It’s suspected to be the work of the infamous “Big Apple Bomber” who has been planting bombs in crowded places around the city for the past sixteen years. The police still have no leads, leaving citizens living in fear. At Marion’s urging, the police agree to try psychological profiling, a radical new technique at the time.
While the Rockettes are trained to stay in line, Marion realizes that to help catch the bomber, she’ll have to stand out.
The Book Girls Say…
Fiona Davis is one of our favorite authors because she has such a knack for turning historic NYC buildings into living, breathing characters in her novels. Like most of Fiona’s books, this one includes a mystery and a dual timeline, although in this novel, the later 1990s point of view is limited to several short chapters.
Before reading, Melissa was unaware of the real Manhattan bombings that took place in this time period. Between that history, the inclusion of mental health care at the time, and the dawn of criminal profiling, this book was the perfect mix of entertaining and educational.
House of Eve alternates perspectives of our main characters in 1950s Philadelphia and Washington, D.C. Ruby’s story is told in first person perspective as she tries to become the first person in her lower-income family to attend higher education. However, her plans are threatened when she begins to fall for a Jewish boy.
Eleanor’s story is told from the third person perspective as she arrives in D.C. with equal parts ambition and secrets. Like Ruby, Eleanor’s plans are changed when she falls for a man, William, at Howard University. William is from one of Washington’s elite, wealthy Black families, and his parents are picky about who is good enough to join them.
While this setup feels like a romance novel, this is a fast-moving historical fiction novel that will take you into a piece of history you may know little about. Don’t miss the author’s note at the end!
The Book Girls Say…
Melissa hadn’t read much more than our description of this book before jumping in, and she enjoyed the twists along the way that came from not knowing more. She recommends that you enjoy this historical novel the same way as you step into the lives of two young black women in the 1950s who are desperately trying to be their best.
Young Kya, who was left to fend for herself in the North Carolina marsh in the 1950s, will steal your heart from the beginning.
Locals know Kya as the “Marsh Girl.” She lives away from other humans and has only attended one day of school, but finds companions in nature all around her. While traditional school was not a good fit, she is always eager to learn. Eventually, she finds a friend who agrees to help her read.
The book has a split timeline between Kya’s formative years in the 1950s and an incident in 1969. A handsome boy from town is found dead, and the locals immediately suspect Kya.
Kate feels stuck in her family’s failing restaurant in San Fransisco. She jumps at the chance to escape when her grandfather makes a cryptic plea for her to “find a beautiful stranger.” This search takes her to the Hotel del Coronado near San Diego, where the movie Some Like it Hot is being filmed.
When she’s offered a position at the glamorous hotel, it feels like a dream come true. And her life continues to get better as new romance blossoms. However, the hotel has ghosts from the past, just like Kate. Sixty years earlier, a guest died at the hotel and still haunts the halls. The life of that turn-of-the-century guest and Kate’s present intertwine in surprising ways.
Set against the backdrop of the Iranian Coup, Roya, an idealistic teenage girl finds a literary oasis in the neighborhood book and stationery shop.
The owner introduces her to his favorite customer, the handsome Rumi, who has a passion for justice and poetry. The two fall in love, but are separated on the eve of their marriage. Finally, they are reunited sixty years later when both are living in America. Together, they discover the truth of what really happened all those years ago in the town square.
When thirteen-year-old Jubie and her family, including three siblings, her mother, and the family’s black maid, Mary Luther, headed from North Carolina to Florida on vacation, she had no idea the summer trip would change her life forever.
As the family drives further south, Jubie starts noticing more anti-integration signs and racial tension. Soon, her mother finds it more difficult to find a safe place for Mary Luther to use the restroom. But Jubie still never predicted the shocking turn their trip would take. She’s left confronting her parents’ failings and wondering where her own convictions lie.
The Book Girls Say…
Author Anna Jean Mayhew worked on this novel for eighteen years before its release when she was 71 years old. Her persistence paid off, with The Dry Grass of August winning the Sir Walter Raleigh Award for Fiction.
At the Cannes Film Festival in 1955, Grace Kelly sought refuge in a small boutique to escape the press’s flash bulbs. She became fast friends with the shop owner, Sophie Duval, and even created a plan to help Sophie’s struggling perfume business.
James Henderson, a British press photographer following Grace Kelly, also likes Sophie. The following year, James is assigned to cover Grace Kelly’s wedding to Prince Rainier of Monaco. James hopes he’ll also have the opportunity to be reunited with Sophie.
The Book Girls Say…
While both the Cannes Film Festival and Grace Kelly’s wedding take place in the spring, rather than the summer, this novel is a sun-drenched journey along the Cote d’Azur, making it the perfect 1950s summer read. It’s filled with romance, friendship, and tragedy.
For more than half a century, scientists knew her only as HeLa, but the full story of Henrietta Lacks deserves to be heard.
When Henrietta fell ill, she was treated in the “colored” ward of Johns Hopkins Hospital. While hospitalized, she had a tissue sample taken without her consent. Those cells became the first “immortal” human cells grown in culture. Still alive today, the HeLa cells have been used to develop the polio vaccine, discover cancer treatments, advance gene mapping, and much more.
It wasn’t until more than 20 years after Henrietta’s death that her family learned of her “immortality.” With the dark history of experimentation on African Americans, the news was devastating to the Lacks family.
The Book Girls Say…
We have both read this one and were blown away by both the science and the story of Henrietta’s life and family. It raises so many important lessons about history, as well as ethical scientific questions that persist today.
Set in post-war London, The Bloomsbury Girls focuses on an old-fashioned bookstore that has been run by men for a hundred years. However, by 1950, the world was changing in many ways.
Three of the shop girls, Vivien, Grace, and Evie have their own big dreams that are intersected by fascinating interactions with famous literary figures. As they work in the shop, they plot out a future bigger than 1950 society generally allows.
The Book Girls Say…
This is a slow-paced, character-driven read. It’s a great one to cozy up and learn about three strong women in post-war London, but keep in mind it does not have a page-turning plot.
Betty Stern turned 18 in 1951 and was looking forward to her last summer at her grandparent’s Jewish summer resort before heading off to college. She had big dreams of becoming a fashion editor in NYC.
During that life-changing summer, Betty collapses at the end of the beauty pageant, which ends up being the last time the pageant is held. In 2020, a financially-struggling manicurist decides to bring it back. By this time, Betty is in her late 80s, and no one knows she was the last winner or why the pageant ended.
The Book Girls Say…
The book alternates between Betty’s life in the summer of 1951 and a present-day gathering of her best friends from that summer. It’s a great look at societal expectations between the two time periods.
This historical fiction tells the true story of Ann Lowe, who was one of the most famous dress designers of the twenties through the sixties. Her story began in Tampa, where she learned to be a seamstress from her mother and grandmother, a former slave.
At only 12, Ann was married to an older, alcoholic, man and saw her dreams slipping away. However, an encounter with a wealthy socialite changed her life forever. She has the opportunity to escape her marriage and earn a living by designing and sewing clothing for Florida’s society elite.
By 1953, Ann has a dress shop in New York and is preparing for the society wedding of the decade – Jacqueline Bouvier is marrying John F. Kennedy, Jr. However, less than a week before the wedding, a disaster occurs at her dress shop, and she’s forced to recreate Jackie’s dress, and others, on an impossible timeline.
Playwright Hazel Riley and actress Maxine Mead aim to put up a Broadway show, and they plan to use the Chelsea Hotel – a hot spot for creatives and artists – to get the ball rolling. But they soon discover that the greatest obstacle to producing a Broadway show isn’t the art, but the politics.
This story spans the 1940s-60s, but it’s centered around the era of McCarthyism in the 1950s. As the Red Scare is sweeping the country, those in the entertainment industry are in the cross-hairs, and there is pressure to point fingers.
The Book Girls Say…
Fiona Davis is a master of New York City historical fiction. She writes in a way that paints a picture of the visual scenery and the emotion of her characters. You’ll step back in time and experience the disturbing McCarthy era in our country that is rarely talked about today. Thankfully, that history lesson is told through a page-turning novel.
Honey has been hiding from the law her entire life. She is the daughter of a blue-skinned packhorse librarian from the town of Troublesome Creek. When Honey’s parents are both arrested, she takes over her mom’s treacherous packhorse library route, delivering books to the remote hollers of Appalachia.
Honey learns that if she wants to keep bringing books to the families that need them most, she has to fight to keep her place on the route and in the world. As she works, she also learns more about the extraordinary women who run the hills.
Nine-year-old Andrea and her brother Pablo had only known the tiny Massachusetts factory town of Woronoco before their mother abruptly moved them to the mountains of Puerto Rico. When they arrive in the village, the siblings are left with family while their mother disappears.
Months later, things are different when Andrea and Pablo return to Massachusetts. Andrea finds herself stuck between family values and American culture while also navigating what it means to grow up a girl in the 1950s.
The Book Girls Say…
While this is a work of fiction, the author grew up in Woronoco, Massachusetts and Aguas Buenas, Puerto Rico. She is a theatre director and historian who earned a PhD in the history of Puerto Rico from the University of Puerto Rico.
As the Queen’s coronation approaches, London is ready to celebrate. Coronation Year takes us into the lives of three residents of London’s historic Blue Lion as the historic day approaches.
Edie owns the Blue Lion, and is thrilled that the coronation route will pass her door. The young queen has no idea she’s about to save the business of an equally young hotelier.
Artist James is a war hero, but finds that the world still disdains his Indian ancestry. However, at the Blue Lion, Edie makes him feel at home.
Stella is a photographer and Holocaust survivor with a new position at Picture Weekly magazine. As she learns more about her new profession, she finds a way to honor the past and provide hope for her future.
As threats counter the excitement of the upcoming coronation, Edie and her friends must uncover the truth.
The Book Girls Say…
If you’ve enjoyed The Gown from our 1940s book list, grab this 2023 release from the same author!
Despite her rough start to life as the daughter of a brothel prostitute, 17-year-old Josie has big dreams of escaping New Orleans to attend an elite university. However, her careful plans are turned upside down after a mysterious death in the French Quarter.
Josie becomes tangled in the investigation, which will test her conscience, allegiance to her mother, and the madam of Conti Street.
The Book Girls Say…
While Ruta Sepetys’s novels are classified as YA, the characters and subject matter are very well-researched and complex, making them very enjoyable for adult readers. Like the author’s other historical fiction, you’ll find a strong teen character trying to make the best of a difficult situation and a great supporting cast.
Alice was a publicist in New York before leaving her career to follow her husband to the suburbs. Learning to fill her days in a big, empty house, she comes across a vintage cookbook in the basement. Within the book, she discovers hidden notes left by the home’s previous owner, Nellie – a quintessential 1950s housewife. As Alice cooks her way through Nellie’s recipes, she starts to uncover clues about her life.
Juxtaposing Alice’s present-day life against Nellie’s 1950s world, this is a story of how everything has changed, but in some ways, nothing has changed.
The Book Girls Say…
This novel includes recipes and some depressing but hilarious marriage advice from the 1950s.
Promising physics student Megs is attending Oxford in 1950 and prefers facts to creativity. However, her beloved but critically ill, 8-year-old brother is obsessed with a world created in a book – The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe. When he asks her to find out where Narnia came from, she can’t refuse his plea.
When she tracks down the Lewis brothers, who are also at Oxford, they graciously invite her for tea. While they fill her with stories she can pass along to her brother, she doesn’t understand why he won’t answer her most important question about the origin of Narnia.
The Book Girls Say…
While there are sad moments, this book is also described as filled with hope and warmth.
Eleven-year-old Donal lives deep in the Montana Rockies with his grandmother. However, when she needs surgery, she decides to send Donal to her sister in Wisconsin. Sadly, Aunt Kate is a tough woman to live with, unlike Gram. And it’s not just Donal that finds her difficult. Aunt Kate’s husband, Herman the German, is also getting tired of her tyrannical nature.
When Kate sends Donal back to Montana on the bus, Herman the German decides to travel with him. Along the way, they meet an interesting cast of characters and find themselves in all kinds of misadventures.
This entire novel takes place over the course of 10 days in 1954. Eighteen-year-old Emmett has finished his term on a work farm, where he was sent after being convicted of involuntary manslaughter. The warden drives him home to Nebraska, where he plans to pick up his 8-year-old brother before heading west for a fresh start.
However, Emmett discovers that two friends, Duchess and Wooly, from the work camp have stowed away in the trunk. The three teens and 8-year-old Billy adjust their plans and set out across the country together. The book is told from alternating points of view.
The Book Girls Say…
Despite its title, this book is about a journey of self-discovery as much as it is about a cross-country journey. Portions of the book are set along the Lincoln Highway, but some readers are surprised that this is less of an adventure novel and more introspective.
1930s, Germany and Texas; 1950s, Huntsville, Alabama
Book Girls’ Readers Rate This Book
99% Would Recommend to a Friend
Book Summary
Inspired by the true events of Operation Paperclip, this historical fiction novel tells the story of the US intelligence program that employed former Nazis in Huntsville, Alabama after WWII.
The story begins in Berlin in 1930. Changing political powers are sweeping through Germany. Sofie von Meyer Rhodes and her husband, Jürgen, are concerned with the social views taking hold in their country. But her academic husband’s work benefits from the ambitions of the newly elected chancellor. Soon, however, their morality is challenge and they realize that neutrality has a price.
At the same time, Lizzie Miller is living in the Texas panhandle during the Dust Bowl of the 1930s. The future looks bleak as their farm dries up. And that’s all before her brother, Henry, is called to Germany to fight in WWII.
Twenty years later in the 1950s, Jürgen is one of the many German scientists who is offered a pardon for their part in WWII in exchange for working on the fledgling space program in the US. Sofie welcomes the chance for a fresh start in a new country, but she soon finds that her Huntsville neighbors aren’t as welcoming or forgiving of her family’s past as she’d hoped.
Jürgen’s boss at the US space program is Calvin Miller, Lizzie’s husband. This is where the two women’s stories collide.
The Book Girls Say…
Even if you read a lot of WWII novels, we’re certain this novel will offer you a new perspective, especially around the continued impacts in the 1950s. It draws unexpected parallels across the decades, and it will leave you contemplating how history will reflect on the events of our lifetime.
Marisol grew up hearing romantic stories of Cuba from her late grandmother, Elisa. The story alternates between these two family members from different generations.
In 1958 Havana, Elisa is the daughter of a sugar baron and a member of Cuba’s high society. Her family’s position largely shields her from the growing political unrest until she embarks on a forbidden affair.
Six decades later, in 2017, Elisa’s granddaughter Marisol arrives in Havana for the first time to fulfill her grandmother’s dying wish of having her ashes spread in her birth country. Marisol tries to reconcile the contrast of Cuba’s timeless beauty with its political climate, all while uncovering the story of her grandmother’s past.
In the 17th and 18th centuries, British aristocracy began leaving their country estates for the spring and summer months for a series of balls, receptions, and other social events. The season culminated with debutantes – the daughters of the upper class – being presented to the King and Queen in London.
Last Dance of the Debutante is a historical fiction novel set in 1958. When it was announced that this would be the last year debutantes would be presented to the royal court, thousands of eager parents flooded the palace with letters seeking the coveted invitation for their daughters to curtsy before young Queen Elizabeth as they came out into society.
The story follows three different young women – Lily, an aspiring university student who agrees to be a debutante to appease her traditional mother; Leana, whose apparent perfection hides a darker side; and ambitious Katherine who dreams of a career but is willing to help her parents find a place among the elite. But the season takes an unexpected turn when Lily learns a devastating secret that could destroy her entire family.
It’s 1954, and the Red Scare has infiltrated the US, including the life of seventeen-year-old Lily, who lives in San Fransisco’s Chinatown. Deportation looms over her father, even though he has his hard-earned citizenship.
However, teenage problems don’t stop just because larger issues loom. Lily falls in love for the first time but is shocked to be attracted to Kathleen. It’s hard enough to be Chinese-American in 1954; to be in love with another girl is unheard of.
The Book Girls Say…
This is a YA novel, but adult readers will enjoy it just as much. Reviews say you may need some tissues along the way, especially toward the end.
Bill Bryson is famous for his humorous travel writing, but in this nostalgic and hilarious memoir, he reflects on growing up in middle America in the 1950s in the middle of the baby boomer generation.
Using his childhood imaginary superhero persona to tell his story, he tells his story of growing up in Des Moines, bringing his loving but eccentric family to life.
The Book Girls Say…
If you’ve never read a Bill Bryson book before, we’ll warn you that you’ll get a great read and an ab workout from laughing, especially when listening to Bryson’s deadpan narration.
In 1953, a new “emancipation” bill was being considered in the US Congress. However, the Chippewa Council knows that the bill isn’t about freedom; it’s a threat to their rights and land. Thomas is the night watchman at the jewel bearing plant near the reservation and serves as a Council member.
Valedictorian Patrice also works at the plant, using all her money to support her mother and brother. Her older sister, Vera, left the reservation to live in Minneapolis, but the family hasn’t heard from her in months. Eventually, she travels to Minnesota, trying to track down Vera.
The lives of Thomas and Patrice interact with many other memorable characters on and off the reservation as they encounter the best and worst of human nature.
The Book Girls Say…
This literary novel is based on the real-life of the author’s grandfather and won the 2021 Pulitzer Prize for fiction.
When a local fisherman is found suspiciously drowned, a Japanese American is charged with his murder. Haunted by the memories of the Japanese internment camps during WWII just a decade before, events during the trial make it clear that much more is at stake in this community than one man’s guilt or innocence.
The Book Girls Say…
This book is on the longer side at 460 pages, but some readers say it feels even longer because it’s a slower-paced, descriptive read. This novel was also adapted into a 1999 film of the same title starring Ethan Hawke.
If you are interested in reading about the post-Japenese internment camp era from a YA perspective, pick up Nora & Kettle. The novel is described as simultaneously sad and uplifting.
Following the life of one black family on Chicago’s south side, this play examines their hopes and aspirations, as well as the struggles of the working class.
“Never before, in the entire history of the American theater, has so much of the truth of black people’s lives been seen on the stage,” observed James Baldwin shortly before A Raisin in the Sun opened on Broadway in 1959.
The Book Girls Say…
This is one of the most powerful plays you’ll ever experience on stage, but this uncut version of Hansberry’s landmark work offers even more than you’ve seen before.
Ivorie Walker is only in her early 30s, but she is considered an old maid by those in her Tennessee town. When a feral, dirty-faced boy begins sneaking onto her land to steal food from her garden, she starts on an unlikely path to motherhood.
Every time he flees her garden and heads back into the hills, she has more questions about where he came from and how she can help him. But, as she begins to uncover the answers, she angers many in town who would rather she let secrets stay secret.
The Book Girls Say…
Angela’s IRL book club read this book a few years ago, and while she thought it was just ok, many others in the book club considered it a five-star read! And our readers agree!
You are welcome to choose any book that you’d like to read for the challenge, but we hope that this list of books has given you a good starting point.
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We compiled this list of major events of the time period to provide some historical context for your reading. We hope you enjoy learning a bit more about this period in history.
The US birthrate rose throughout the 1950s, with the Baby Boom peaking in 1957.
The Korean War began when North Korea invaded South Korea in June of 1950.
Between 1950 and 1954, Senator Joseph McCarthy carried out a campaign against alleged communists, which came to be known as McCarthyism. Many of the accused lost their jobs or were blacklisted during the Red Scare, although it turned out that most did not actually belong to the Communist Party.
Elizabeth II became the Queen of England following her father’s death, and her coronation was celebrated one year later, in 1953.
In 1954, the Supreme Court deemed racial segregation in public schools unconstitutional in a unanimous decision in the landmark case of Brown v. Board of Education. Despite the ruling, some southern states refused to comply.
The Vietnam War began in November 1955 and lasted for two decades.
The Disneyland theme park opened in California in 1955, the same year that “The Mickey Mouse Club” premiered on television.
In 1955, Rosa Parks was arrested in Alabama after bravely refusing to give up her bus seat to a white passenger. This was one of many actions that sparked the Civil Rights Movement.
Following testing on HeLa cells in the early 1950s, the first polio vaccine became available to the public in 1955.
American Actress Grace Kelly married Prince Rainier of Monaco in 1956.
In 1957, nine African-American students enrolled at Little Rock Central High School. They were met with protests and resistance, ultimately being escorted into the school by Federal military troops at the command of President Eisenhower.
The Soviets launched Sputnik, the first artificial satellite launching the Space Age, in 1957. The following year, NASA – the National Aeronautics and Space Administration – was formed.
In 1959, the Cuban revolution ended and Fidel Castro came into power, creating the first Communist nation in the West.
Alaska and Hawaii were admitted as the 49th and 50th states in the US.
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