Books Set in the 1950s

Book Summary

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.

Book Summary

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!

Book Summary

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.

Book Summary

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.

Book Summary

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.

Book Summary

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.

Book Summary

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.

Book Summary

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.

Book Summary

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.

Book Summary

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.

Book Summary

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.

Book Summary

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.

Book Summary

While this book can be read as a stand-alone, we recommend reading The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek first.

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.

Book Summary

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.

Book Summary

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.

Book Summary

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.

Book Summary

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.

Book Summary

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.

Book Summary

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.

Book Summary

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.

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.

Book Summary

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.

Book Summary

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.

Book Summary

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.

Book Summary

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.

Book Summary

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.

Book Summary

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.

Book Summary

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.

Book Summary

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.