Play 2026 Book Bingo
Books Set in the 1970s
By: Angela & Melissa
Updated:
As an Amazon Associate and member of other affiliate programs, we may earn a referral fee from qualifying purchases.Whether you are participating in our Decades Reading Challenge or found this list while researching books about the ’70s, you’ve come to the right place. Below, you’ll find a list of the best books about the 1970s.
Literary Themes in Books About the Seventies
We’ve compiled a great list of books about the Seventies. Our recommendations include historical fiction novels and modern classics. The books on our list provide insights into life in the 70s, including non-fiction accounts of defining political and scientific events of the era. A few of the books published during the 1970s have come to define this period of history.
The Seventies were a revolutionary decade. Progressive social values that began in the 1960s, such as increasing political activism and feminism, continued to grow. The hippie culture that began in the latter half of the 1960s had faded by the mid-1970s. At that point, the environmentalist movement really took hold.
Similarly, the music of the 70s bridged the rebellious anthems of the 60s and the poppy music of the 80s. Dance music also became popular, including the meteoric, yet short-lived, rise of disco. The 70s music scene was defined by sex, drugs, and rock and roll.
For additional historical context, check out the timeline of 1970s events included at the end of the post.
Highly Rated Books About the 1970s
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.
The God of the Woods
Book Girls’ Readers Rate This Book
100% Would Recommend to a Friend
Book Summary
In 1961, the only son of a family that owns a summer camp in the Adirondacks disappeared while hiking and was never found. Now, in 1975, a camp counselor discovers that their daughter, thirteen-year-old Barbara, is missing. Are the tragedies related?
As soon as they realize Barbara is not in her bunk, a frantic search is launched. The investigation is deeply layered, with Barbara’s counselor, Louise, her bunkmate, Tracy, her mother, Alice, and a young female detective, Judyta, all sharing their own revealing perspectives along the way.
Our Thoughts on This Book
This is a more dimensional read than a standard thriller, with complex themes of motherhood, class, and sexuality explored as the investigation unwinds the past in an effort to understand the present.
This layered, slow-burning book uses a non-linear timeline, bouncing back and forth to reveal new aspects of the story. Angela loved the way the timelines were seamlessly woven together. Although suspense novels are not her usual genre, the book’s pace increased through each twist and turn, keeping her hooked from beginning to end.
The Half Life
Book Summary
During the 1970s, amidst the Cold War, twenty-three-year-old Eileen works at a Charleston department store and has no idea how much one customer is about to change her life. Paul is a funny and ambitious naval officer, and Eileen falls for him quickly. Soon, she has a ring on her finger and finds herself on the Mediterranean island of La Maddalena, where Paul will be heading up Radiological Controls aboard a submarine tender.
The island has a community of Navy wives, all determined to make their temporary space feel like home. But for Eileen, home hasn’t felt the same since she lost her brother in Vietnam, so she takes the opposite approach, diving into Italian culture. But the Americans’ presence on the island and their interference with Italian elections make everything more complex.
Then Italian scientists begin sounding the alarm about nuclear contamination in their water. Will Eileen’s loyalties shift as she sees things through the eyes of the locals?
Our Thoughts on This Book
Melissa has enjoyed both of Rachel Beanland’s prior novels, The House Is on Fire and Florence Adler Swims Forever, so she can’t wait to travel to early 1970s Italy in The Half Life.
Keep in mind that Beanland’s novels tend to be more character-driven and about the development of the people as much as the story around them. Some find them to be slower starts, but if you enjoy character-rich novels that explore less common historical topics and deeper summer reads, this could be a great pick.
Bright Young Women
Book Summary
At his sentencing, a Florida judge called Ted Bundy “a bright young man,” giving the author a perfect title for this book, which is told from the POVs of two women close to the case.
The first is Pamela Schumacher, who was the president of a Florida State University sorority house in 1978. After staying home one night to catch up on paperwork, she awakens to find a horrific scene. The second narrator is Ruth, a young woman who disappeared in Seattle four years earlier. Pamela and Ruth’s stories are alternated and connected by Tina, who is Ruth’s close friend. When she hears about the Florida murders, she flies down to work with Pamela to seek justice for their friends.
Reader Thoughts on This Book
We’ve added this New York Times bestseller on the recommendation of three different readers who each independently told us they loved it.
However, keep in mind that this is a very literary, character-driven read, and unlike a traditional thriller, you already know who the serial killer is from the beginning. Some readers who are expecting more action and plot are disappointed by the slower pace.
Mary Jane
Book Girls’ Readers Rate This Book
97% Would Recommend to a Friend
Book Summary
Mary Jane tells the story of two very different family lifestyles and a 14-year-old girl trying to decide who she really is. Mary Jane is a quiet, book-loving girl from a traditional, conservative family in 1970s Baltimore. When she is offered a job as a nanny for a local doctor, her mom assumes their home is equally tidy and respectable.
However, the house is a huge mess, and it’s about to get crazier. The doctor has welcomed a rock star and his wife to stay at the house while he tries to get sober. Mary Jane has a lot to teach them about tidiness and schedules, and all the while, they are opening her eyes to the world outside her bubble. By the end of the summer, she’ll have a much better understanding of who she wants to be.
Our Thoughts on This Book
This was one of our favorite books of the last few years, and one that really stuck with both of us! It’s a beautiful and entertaining story of a 14-year-old girl seeing herself as a separate person for the first time. Angela really enjoyed listening to the audiobook because it incorporates music.
Although the main character is a teenager, this is an adult novel with some adult themes and scenes, not a YA title. It makes an excellent read because of the perspective that comes from looking back at the years between innocence and maturity. It also does a great job highlighting both the positives and negatives of suburban life in the 1970s.
On the Hippie Trail: Istanbul to Kathmandu and the Making of a Travel Writer
Book Girls’ Readers Rate This Book
100% Would Recommend to a Friend
Book Summary
While this memoir was published in 2025, it’s based on travel writer Rick Steves’ journals from his 1978 trip on the “Hippie Trail” from Istanbul, Turkey, to Kathmandu, Nepal, which was the ultimate goal for so many backpackers in the 1970s. As a 23-year-old on a shoestring budget, he and his friend Gene braved wild bus rides, monsoons, and endless adventures across six countries.
Be sure to read both the preface and the afterword, which were written recently and reflect back on his younger years. For the bulk of this memoir, he opted to leave his journal entries from the trip unedited as a time capsule, despite knowing that his younger self sometimes sounds naive, insensitive, and even ignorant. However, those moments are balanced by his good-natured curiosity, compassion, and awareness.
Book Girls’ Readers Rate This Book
100% Would Recommend to a Friend
Book Summary
Civil is fresh out of nursing school and has dreams of making a big difference in her Black community in post–Jim Crow Alabama. She works for the Montgomery Family Planning Clinic, and she’s sent to a rural cabin during her first week on the job. When she arrives, Civil is shocked to find that her patients are children, only 11 and 13 years old.
The girls, Erica and India, are innocent and not even thinking of boys. However, because they are poor and Black, those handling their benefits have requested that the children be on birth control. Civil struggles with this unexpected aspect of her new career. Despite the shocking reason for meeting them, the sisters and their family become dear to Civil. However, when she arrives for one visit, something unthinkable has happened, and Civil soon finds herself involved in a legal case.
You’ll also see Civil years later, at the end of her career, with a daughter of her own, as she tries to find peace without forgetting those she encountered along the way.
Historical Background
This historical fiction novel is based on the 1973 legal case of Relf v. Weinberger. It’s a book all women should read; just be sure to grab a comforting blanket and a box of tissues before you start.
Lady Sunshine
Book Girls’ Readers Rate This Book
96% Would Recommend to a Friend
Book Summary
In 1979, Jackie spent three months at her bohemian uncle’s sprawling estate, The Sandcastle. This peek into his life filled with musicians, artists, and other free spirits changed the course of her life as she tested new limits with her cousin Willa. But then, the summer ended in tragedy.
Twenty years later, Jackie has now inherited The Sandcastle and plans to prepare it for sale. However, she learns that before it can be sold, she needs to fulfill the promise made to a producer that he could record a tribute album in the property’s studio. As musicians bring the estate back to life, new questions are sparked about the summer of 1979.
The Women on Platform Two
Book Summary
In 1970s Dublin, all forms of contraception were illegal, but a handful of women were determined to change that. Newlywed Maura dreamed of a family with Dr. Christy Davenport, but as his temper surfaced, she feared bringing a child into an unsafe home. Her best friend Bernie, already a mother of three, received devastating news: another pregnancy could be fatal. With no lawful options, these women had to weigh secrecy, stigma, and risk as they searched for control over their own bodies and futures.
Decades later, in Dublin in 2023, Saoirse survives a close call that forces her to admit she may never want to be a mother. She doesn’t realize that only a few decades earlier, women fought to make that choice possible—until she meets one of them and hears the story behind the freedom she takes for granted.
Inspired by a True Event
This novel is based on a real historical event – the 1971 Contraceptive Train in Ireland. A group of Irish feminists from the Irish Women’s Liberation Movement, in May 1971, boarded a train in Dublin to travel to Belfast (in Northern Ireland) to legally purchase contraceptives that were still illegal in the Republic of Ireland at the time.
While this novel has a contemporary timeline, the majority of it takes place in the early 1970s. The 2023 storyline exists to frame and reflect on the historical narrative.
About the Author
Laura Anthony lives in County Kildare, Ireland, with her husband and children. She writes under a pen name that is a tribute to her late niece and her late grandfather.
Book Girls’ Readers Rate This Book
93% Would Recommend to a Friend
Book Summary
Noah was a British operative in France during WW2, but a head injury has left him with memory gaps. Most of all, he wants to remember who saved his life during his final mission. Now, in 1970, his daughter Charlotte is determined to find answers for her father.
She finds Chloe and Fleur, two formerly ordinary women who risked everything to become spies during the war. But as Charlotte learns more, she discovers that a double agent may be hiding in plain sight, too close to home.
A Happier Life
Book Girls’ Readers Rate This Book
100% Would Recommend to a Friend
Book Summary
Keaton needs a fresh start, so she jumps at the chance to travel to Beaufort, North Carolina, to put her mom’s childhood home on the market. Keaton has never seen the home, as her grandparents died in 1976, in a tragic car accident. When she arrives in Beaufort, she soon has more questions than answers, even with help from her charming next-door neighbor, his precocious ten-year-old son, and a flock of endearingly feisty town busybodies.
In a second timeline told through journal entries, we see the life of Keaton’s grandmother, Becks. Her entire married life, she’s been the best hostess in North Carolina, with locals and out-of-towners clamoring for invitations to her stunning historic home. But in 1976, she faced a major dilemma and was forced to make an impossible decision.
Clover Blue
Book Girls’ Readers Rate This Book
100% Would Recommend to a Friend
Book Summary
Twelve-year-old Clover Blue isn’t sure of his birthday, who his parents are, or what his name used to be. He does know that he’s happy living among the Saffron Freedom Community – the commune into which he was adopted. On the commune, everyone is family, but when Clover (urged on by his funny best friend, Harmony) begins to ask questions, his search for identity will bring upheaval to the community.
This novel will introduce you to a unique group of characters who paint a portrait of the decade. They include the commune’s guru, a Grateful Dead groupie, a Vietnam deserter, a surfer, and even a midwife, just to name a few.
Damnation Spring
Book Girls’ Readers Rate This Book
92% Would Recommend to a Friend
Book Summary
Rich Gunderson comes from a long line of loggers. For generations, his family has made their living off of the Redwood trees, but now his way of life is threatened as the National Park Service is expanding to protect tens of thousands of acres of trees. Additionally, environmentalists are protesting the logging operations on the remaining private lands, raising concerns about water contamination. In an effort to secure his family’s future, Rich secretly spends their savings on a grove of ancient Redwoods that he hopes to harvest.
Rich’s wife, Colleen, is an amateur midwife who hopes for a second child of her own. She has suffered a long string of miscarriages and has begun to see a disturbing number of birth defects and fetal deaths throughout her small community. She begins to suspect that the herbicides used by the logging company that employs her husband might be to blame.
Our Thoughts on This Book
Angela picked this book up immediately after returning from a family vacation to the Redwoods, so she was instantly drawn to the story about the towns she had just visited. But it was the dual perspectives of this story that kept her hooked. We see the story unfold from the points of view of Rich and Colleen, along with a few chapters told from their eight-year-old son’s perspective.
In a world where people seem increasingly unwilling to listen to opposing viewpoints, the storytelling format of this eco-fiction novel compassionately shines a light on the shades of gray faced by families and communities caught in the middle.
Book Girls’ Readers Rate This Book
99% Would Recommend to a Friend
Book Summary
When a Vietnam POW returns home, he carries new anger and impulsiveness. Determined to stand by her husband, his wife agrees with his plan to move his family to Alaska to live off the grid. Soon after arriving, the harsh reality of rural Alaska sets in for 13-year-old Leni and her mom.
For a while, things were better with her dad as they spent the fall season preparing for their first Alaskan winter, but she feared his more balanced self was only temporary.
Our Thoughts on This Book
We both loved this book despite it being a bit of a tear-jerker. It’s devastating to read one account of how a soldier’s return from Vietnam affected those around him. We know this fiction is very much based on reality for too many families.
WARNING: This book includes descriptions of domestic abuse.
The World We Found
Book Girls’ Readers Rate This Book
93% Would Recommend to a Friend
Book Summary
This novel is about four women who began their friendship during college in Bombay in the 1970s. Initially drawn together by their revolutionary fervor, the friends drift apart over the next 30 years as their lives take very different paths. One married an American, while another was caught in a repressive marriage and forced to wear a burqa.
Through their stories, the author paints a portrait of India from the 1970s through the early 2010s. Ultimately, the four friends are reunited when one of them falls gravely ill and requests to see her friends together one last time.
Our Thoughts on This Book
When Angela finished this book, she couldn’t stop talking about it for months. These women and their stories stick with you long after the last page!
The River Knows Your Name
Book Girls’ Readers Rate This Book
100% Would Recommend to a Friend
Book Summary
In 1934 Mississippi, a young widow flees her wealthy in-laws’ grip, determined to raise her toddler daughter on her own terms. Along the river’s edge, she scrapes together a life in the teeth of Depression-era hardship, making unconventional choices to give her child something better than what she left behind.
Nearly forty years later, in 1972, Nell has spent almost three decades keeping a secret she found tucked inside a copy of Jane Eyre on her mother’s bookshelf — a birth record naming a stranger as the mother of her sister, Evie. Nell has only hazy memories of their early childhood in Mississippi, and their reclusive mother, Hazel, has never spoken a word about those years. Now Nell is finally ready to pull the thread, even if it unravels everything her family has been.
Such a Pretty Girl
Book Girls’ Readers Rate This Book
93% Would Recommend to a Friend
Book Summary
New York City in the mid-1970s belongs to Fiona Flannigan and her young daughter, Ryan. They land in the West Village in 1976, drawn into the orbit of Henri, a photographer who has been like a father to Fiona and who turns his lens on her pre-teen daughter. Ryan is booking auditions, drawing attention, and learning that being looked at comes at a price. The danger surrounding that attention peaks during the 1977 New York City blackout.
Decades later, Ryan is a former child actress living quietly in Vermont when a friend calls with disturbing news: a controversial photograph of her at eleven has surfaced in the possession of a wealthy, now-infamous predator, inscribed to him in her mother’s hand. When Henri dies and Ryan returns to New York for the funeral, she’s forced to reckon with what her mother knew, what she allowed, and whether the woman who raised her can be forgiven.
The Kite Runner
Book Girls’ Readers Rate This Book
99% Would Recommend to a Friend
Book Summary
Set against the devastating history of Afghanistan, The Kite Runner tells the story of an unlikely friendship between a wealthy boy, Amir, and the son of his father’s servant, Hassan.
The two become as close as brothers until a traumatic event begins to pull them apart and down two very different paths in life.
What to Expect in This Book
Angela’s in-person book club – a group that often has wildly different opinions about books – unanimously gave The Kite Runner five stars!
Heads Up: This book deals with challenging issues, including rape and public executions.
The Stolen Queen
Book Girls’ Readers Rate This Book
96% Would Recommend to a Friend
Book Summary
In 1936, anthropology student Charlotte Cross was offered a coveted spot on an archaeological dig in Egypt’s Valley of the Kings. It was the opportunity of a lifetime, but when tragedy strikes, Charlotte’s future is forever changed.
Forty-two years later, 18-year-old Annie Jenkins lands an amazing opportunity working for Diana Vreeland, the iconic former fashion editor at Vogue. It’s 1978, and Diana is organizing the famous Met Gala. Annie will have her work cut out for her in order to keep up with Diana’s demands and exacting standards.
Charlotte now leads a quiet life as the associate curator of Egyptian Art at the Met. She wants little to do with the city’s “party of the year” because she’s too consumed with her research on Hathorkare – a rare female pharaoh who most other Egyptologists deem unimportant.
When one of the Egyptian art collection’s most valuable artifacts goes missing on the night of the gala, Annie and Charlotte team up to search for the missing antiquity. With signs that Hathorkare’s legendary curse might have been reawakened, the two women will travel to the one place Charlotte swore never to return – Egypt.
About the Author
Fiona Davis is one of our all-time favorite authors. Her novels all feature strong female characters and a tie-in to a specific historic building in New York City. Elevated beyond simple settings, the buildings serve as characters in the books. And this time around, we can’t wait to also venture to Egypt by way of Davis’ vivid historical fiction storytelling.
Another Dual-Timeline 1970s Option
The Masterpiece by Fiona Davis is another dual-timeline novel. Set in both the 1920s and 1970s, it provides a behind-the-scenes look at Grand Central Terminal, including the efforts to save it from destruction in the 70s.
Daisy Jones & The Six
Book Girls’ Readers Rate This Book
94% Would Recommend to a Friend
Book Summary
This novel chronicles the meteoric rise of a fictional, iconic 1970s rock band, The Six, and their beautiful lead singer, Daisy Jones. The story is told through a series of “behind the music” style interviews that will make you feel like you are right there with them in the hard-partying 70s music scene.
As you hear from each band member, the story of these complex characters unfolds, ultimately revealing the mystery behind the band’s infamous breakup.
Consider the Audiobook
This book was meant to be HEARD. Each member of the band is read by a different narrator, which fits perfectly with the rockumentary, interview style of the novel. And there’s even an original song at the end of the recording.
The narrators include Jennifer Beals, Benjamin Bratt, Judy Greer, and Pablo Schreiber.
The Silver Star
Book Girls’ Readers Rate This Book
100% Would Recommend to a Friend
Book Summary
Author Jeanette Walls is well known for her memoir, The Glass Castle, and the tale of her incredible grandmother in Half Broke Horses. Unlike these two books, Silver Star is a work of fiction, although her life experiences undoubtedly influenced it.
This novel tells the story of two sisters, 12-year-old Bean (a spunky girl along the lines of Scout Finch from To Kill a Mockingbird) and her older sister, Liz. After being abandoned by their mother in California, the sisters take a bus to a mill town in Virginia, where their widowed uncle lives alone in a decaying mansion that’s been in the family for years.
What to Expect in This Book
If you’ve read Jeanette Walls’ memoir, The Glass Castle, you won’t be surprised by her ability to write vividly about the struggles and triumphs of dysfunctional families. Her first foray into fiction doesn’t quite live up to her memoir, but it’s very well-written and worthy of a read!
The Singing Trees
Book Girls’ Readers Rate This Book
100% Would Recommend to a Friend
Book Summary
While this book starts in 2019, it soon goes back to 1969 and chronologically tells the story of Annalisa’s life until the end of the 70s. She is a passionate and talented young artist trying to find her voice as the country is affected by the Vietnam War.
Annalisa leaves her grandma and small town and moves to the thriving art scene in Portland, Maine. While her primary pursuit is art, she meets Thomas, an Ivy League student with a much different background than her own. He upends her quest to become a museum artist in ways she didn’t expect. But her unexpected love may be unraveled by an unforgivable lie.
Thoughts on This Book
Readers say that this coming-of-age book is both heartbreaking and uplifting. The fashion and food will transport you back in time to the art scene of Maine in the 1970s.
The author started his career as a songwriter, which becomes apparent through lyrical writing and the inclusion of references to the musicians of the era.
Book Girls’ Readers Rate This Book
100% Would Recommend to a Friend
Book Summary
During Watergate, only one woman was on the prosecutor’s team, Jill Wine-Banks, then known as Jill Wine Volner. She was a young lawyer who had just turned 30 when she found herself in the center of this unprecedented time in US history. In the press, she was referred to as “the mini-skirted lawyer.” While her male counterparts were automatically respected, she had to work much harder to earn the same respect.
In this memoir, Jill Wine-Banks shares what it was like to be at the crossroads of the Women’s Movement & Watergate. And if those major events weren’t enough, she was struggling in a failing marriage behind the scenes.
Another Book to Consider
Another great Watergate option is All the President’s Men by Woodward & Bernstein, the journalists who uncovered the scandal. Keep in mind that it is on the long side at 480 pages and that while some readers love it and feel that it is a complete picture, other readers wish they had known more going into the book to help them follow all the key players.
Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret.
Book Girls’ Readers Rate This Book
91% Would Recommend to a Friend
Book Summary
Published in 1970, this middle-grade novel broke all the rules by talking to preteen girls about sex and religion without being prim or scolding. It’s been read by generation after generation, despite being a commonly banned book.
Margaret is almost twelve and just moved from New York City to New Jersey. She’s relieved to have made new friends and even to be included in the secret club where they can talk about boys, bras, and periods. However, the other girls are confused by her lack of structured religion.
Thoughts on This Book
If you somehow missed reading this book in your younger years, now might be the time to pick it up. Or if, like Angela, you read it several decades ago, but you now have kids approaching Margaret’s age, this book could serve as a good reminder of what it’s like to be young with so many questions and confusing emotions.
Keep in mind that it was written for a middle-grade to young-adult audience.
The Final Revival of Opal & Nev
Book Girls’ Readers Rate This Book
90% Would Recommend to a Friend
Book Summary
Independent Opal can’t imagine settling into a real career. She believes she was made to be a star. Opal leans into her Afro-punk style as she tries to find her niche within rock music. When she meets another aspiring artist, British singer-songwriter Neville Charles, the unlikely duo begins making music together for the fledgling Rivington Records.
As Opal & Nev establish themselves in the early 70s New York music scene, everything changes when a fellow band from their label brandishes a Confederate flag. Opal boldly protests, which sets off a wave of violence and unfortunate repercussions.
Decades later, in 2016, a music journalist digs deeper into the events of the 70s. Her discoveries and a nasty new allegation threaten to tear apart Opal and Nev’s planned reunion.
Consider the Audiobook
In addition to being shortlisted for several historical fiction and debut novel awards, this book won an Audie Award, so it should be excellent in audio form!
Argo: How the CIA and Hollywood Pulled Off the Most Audacious Rescue in History
Book Girls’ Readers Rate This Book
92% Would Recommend to a Friend
Book Summary
Argo tells the true story of the rescue of six Americans who escaped the 1979 embassy takeover and were extracted from Iran in 1980. They took refuge in the homes of Canadian diplomats while officials planned their escape.
To get them out, CIA agent Antonio Mendez came up with an ingenious but risky plan. He would go undercover as a Hollywood producer scouting locations for a made-up science fiction film called “Argo.” Under this guise, Mendez and his colleagues were able to successfully smuggle the six escapees out of Iran.
About the Adaptation
If you enjoyed the Oscar-winning film Argo, this book provides more background information, including context regarding the Iranian revolution, the embassy takeover, and the Iranian hostage crisis. The audiobook is highly recommended.
Another Non-Fiction Option
For another great non-fiction read set in the 1970s, don’t miss Apollo 13! Like Argo, you can enjoy the book AND a highly-rated film adaptation.
Looking for Jane
Book Girls’ Readers Rate This Book
100% Would Recommend to a Friend
Book Summary
It’s 2017 when Angela discovers a letter containing a life-shattering confession. She’s determined to find the recipient, and her search leads her to Toronto’s underground illegal 1970s abortion network, known only as Jane.
In 1971, before she went to medical school, Dr. Evelyn Taylor was a typical teenager. However, when she became pregnant, she was sent to a home for “fallen” women and forced to give up her baby for adoption. She never recovered from the trauma and vowed to spend her career providing women with choices.
In 1980, Natalie was twenty and had just discovered a shocking family secret that changed everything. When she unexpectedly becomes pregnant amid the other chaos in her life, she needs someone to turn to and finds Jane. She works alongside Dr. Taylor but continues to be haunted by lies.
Historical Context
This highly rated Canadian novel is based on the real-life Jane network and some of their stories.
The Perfumist of Paris
Book Girls’ Readers Rate This Book
100% Would Recommend to a Friend
Book Summary
The final installment in the Jaipur Trilogy takes us to 1970s Paris. Thirty-two-year-old Radha now lives in Paris with her husband, Pierre, and their two daughters. Ten years ago, she discovered that she had a great talent for scents and could find the perfect fragrance for any customer who walked in the door of her friend’s grandfather’s parfumerie. Now, she’s a master perfumer designing new fragrances of her own.
Pierre doesn’t understand her need to work, but she perseveres, even traveling back to India to meet with her sister Lakshmi and the courtesans of Agra, who use scents to seduce men. However, while doing research in India, she discovers that the son she gave up is on his way to Paris to find her. Pierre doesn’t know about this difficult part of Radha’s past, and this revelation may end their vulnerable marriage.
About the Series
If you’ve already read The Henna Artist & The Secret Keeper of Jaipur, this is the perfect excuse to move The Perfumist of Paris to the top of your list! Each book features a different lead character, so you can read this novel as a stand-alone. However, the books are in chronological order, so if you plan to read all three, going in order is ideal.
Book Girls’ Readers Rate This Book
100% Would Recommend to a Friend
Book Summary
This novel is set in Norilsk, one of the northernmost cities of Siberia, where the brutal weather mirrors the sacrifices of young Russian gymnasts competing for their country. When Anya was eight, she was selected for the famed USSR gymnastics program. Her father is thrilled, but she can’t share the news with her mother, who disappeared years earlier.
Anya’s only confidant is her neighbor, Vera, an older woman who survived unspeakable horrors during her ten years in a Gulag camp. While Anya doesn’t know this, Vera was also her mom’s confidant and may be able to help solve the mystery of her disappearance.
Historical Context
The character of Elena is based on the real gymnast Elena Mukhina, who was paralyzed while training for a now-banned move (the Thomas Salto).
The Smell of Other People’s Houses
Book Girls’ Readers Rate This Book
98% Would Recommend to a Friend
Book Summary
This book alternates narration between four teens in 1970s Alaska. The author manages to develop each of the characters in a deep way, while keeping the overall book on the shorter side.
From abusive families to teen pregnancy, Ruth, Dora, Alyce, and Hank have individual choices to make as they learn that sometimes family isn’t what you are born into, but what you choose.
Reader Thoughts on This Book
We received an email from a reader endorsing this book that said, “Just finished what I consider to be one of the best books I have ever read. It’s a MUST for the list! It’s a quick read. You won’t be sorry. It’s an absolutely beautiful story with rich language and vivid imagery!”
Carrie
Book Girls’ Readers Rate This Book
88% Would Recommend to a Friend
Book Summary
Although Carrie was released in 1974, this horror novel is primarily set in 1979, which was still in the future when King wrote it. Carrie is a bullied high school student with a secret – she has telekinetic powers. She is tormented at school and abused at home by her fanatically religious mother. Her powers are the perfect way to get revenge on those who have caused her so much pain.
If you love horror, consider reading or re-reading this 1970s classic book.
Another Stephen King Option
Carrie was Stephen King’s debut novel, and it launched a career that is still going strong over five decades later. If you prefer a more recently written King work, try Joyland, which is set in 1973, but was written in 2013. It’s also a better choice if you want more of a mystery rather than the more frightening horror of Carrie.
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Printable Version of This Book List
Readers who support The Book Girls’ Guide through our Buy Me a Coffee (BMAC) membership site can access printable versions of the reading challenge book lists. As we update each book list throughout the year – following the monthly reading challenge schedule – each list will be available in a single-page printable format for our BMAC members.
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Book Recommendations for Other Decades
In addition to our recommendations organized by decade below, you can browse all of our historical fiction book lists here.
- Books Set in the 1970s
- Books Set in the 1960s
- Books Set in the 1950s
- Books Set in the 1940s
- Books Set in the 1930s
- Books Set in the 1920s
- Books Set in the 1900s and 1910s
- Books that Span Multiple Decades
- 24 Books Set in the 1880s and 1890s
- Books Set in the 2010s
- Books Set in the 2000s
- Books Set in the 1990s
- Books Set in the 1980s
Major World Events in the 1970s
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.
- NASA’s Apollo 13 mission in 1970 experienced an explosion shortly after launch. Astronauts successfully returned to Earth after abandoning the moon mission.
- In 1971, the ratification of the 26th Amendment reduced the US voting age from 21 to 18.
- The New York Times began publishing the Pentagon Papers in 1971. The documents provided evidence that the US Government had been lying to the American people regarding Vietnam.
- Walt Disney World opened in Orlando, Florida, in 1971.
- The 1972 break-in attempt at the Democratic National Committee headquarters marked the beginning of the Watergate Scandal.
- President Richard Nixon was re-elected to a second term in November of 1972 despite questions regarding his involvement in Watergate.
- The US ended its involvement in the Vietnam War after signing the Paris Peace Accords in January of 1973; the war officially ended two years later in 1975.
- In the 1973 landmark case of Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court ruled that abortion is a constitutional right.
- Vice President Spiro Agnew resigned in October of 1973 following charges of tax evasion and bribery.
- Also in October 1973, following more revelations regarding the Watergate Scandal, the House of Representatives commenced an impeachment process against President Nixon.
- In 1974, the Supreme Court ordered Nixon to turn over White House tape recordings regarding his involvement and cover-up in the Watergate Scandal. Nixon became the only US President to resign from office; Nixon was later pardoned by his successor, Gerald Ford.
- In 1975, Bill Gates and Paul Allen created Microsoft. The following year, Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak founded Apple Computer. The first Apple II computers went on sale two years later, in 1977.
- Jaws, released in June of 1975, became one of the first-ever blockbuster films.
- President Gerald Ford, who became president following Nixon’s resignation, was defeated by Jimmy Carter in the 1976 presidential election.
- The Trans-Alaskan Oil Pipeline opened in May of 1977.
- Known as the Iran Hostage Crisis, fifty-two American diplomats and citizens were held hostage for 444 days. The crisis stretched from November 1979 to January 20, 1981.
