Whether you found this post searching for the best books set in the 1990s or you’re participating in our Decades Challenge, we hope you’ll find many books for your TBR list as you read our recommendations.
Our recommendations provide a look back at this decade and include some of the best books set in the 1990s. They examine everything from small-town life to British aristocracy and from pop culture to serious social issues.
The 1990s are primarily remembered as a decade of prosperity in the United States. The economy was growing quickly, the unemployment rate was low, and the US budget had a surplus for the first time in 30 years. But the Nineties also put a national spotlight on many issues that we are still grappling with today, including domestic terrorism, mass shootings, and climate change.
New technology in the 1990s, including the dial-up World Wide Web, helped alternative media flourish and amplified diverse voices. A rise of grunge music ushered in the decade, and all things alternative counterculture soon went mainstream. However, despite this move to the Alternative, “Must-See TV” laugh-track sitcoms, like Friends, ruled the airwaves.
For additional historical context, check out the timeline of major world events included at the end of the post.
April has a rough life, fending for herself in a motorless motorhome that her father won while playing poker. She works at a diner but dreams of being a songwriter. After flunking out of school and another fight with her dad, April sets off to find a better life for herself.
Along the way, she meets others with complex stories, which are the perfect inspiration for her songs. But even more important than that, she finds that family doesn’t have to mean the community you were born into. Instead, people you meet can become family.
Why We Think You’ll Love This Book
This is a beautifully written, character-driven, coming-of-age novel. April isn’t always likable, and she makes many bad decisions along the way. But she’s a raw and real character you’ll come to love despite her flaws.
This book is packed with so much genuine emotion, honesty, and heart that you’ll want a copy on your shelf so that you can read it again!
If you enjoy Found Family books, but you’re looking for something a bit lighter that crosses more generational boundaries, we highly recommend The Bellbird River Country Choir by Sophie Green, which is set in New South Wales, Australia, in 1998.
Book Club Mystery
What Kind of Paradise
Janelle Brown
Publication Date:
06/03/2025
Setting:
1990s, Montana & San Francisco, California
Book Summary
Jane grew up in an isolated cabin in Montana in the mid-1990s. Her father was her whole world. She only knew him, the vegetable garden they used to sustain themselves, and the nineteenth-century philosophy books he gave her instead of school books. All she knows about her mysterious life before moving off-grid is that they once lived in the Bay Area and that her mother died in a car accident.
When Jane hits her teen years, she becomes more curious about the small boundaries of her world. She desperately wants to join her father on his rare trips away from the cabin. One day, she discovers that her devotion to her father has made her an accomplice to a horrific crime. In a search for the truth, she leaves Montana and heads to San Francisco, desperate to learn more about her mother.
Why This Book Made the List
This character-driven coming-of-age mystery also explores the impact of technology, for good and for bad, as Jane is able to use the early internet to connect with the outside world.
In Harlem, eight-year-old Malaya loves to paint and enjoy street food with her father, but hates that her mom keeps dragging her to Weight Watchers meetings. She’s also exhausted by the pressures of her Upper East Side prep school, which is predominantly white.
As Malaya comes of age in the 1990s, her weight continues to increase. But then a family tragedy shatters her inherited stigmas of what her body should look like.
Why This Book Made the List
Readers say this character-driven book is rich with 1990s nostalgia, especially around the hip-hop music scene.
Jane Pyre once wrote the songs for The Lightning Bottles, the ’90s grunge duo she formed with charismatic frontman Elijah Hart. Their meteoric rise, first in Seattle and then worldwide, was followed by a very public implosion. Elijah, always the more popular one, vanished – and the world blamed Jane. She became one of the most despised and misunderstood women in music.
Five years later, Jane moves to a quaint village in the German countryside. She’s intent on disappearing, but soon discovers that the sullen teenager next door is a Lightning Bottles superfan. The teen insists that Elijah is alive and has been leaving coded messages for Jane.
Jane finds herself drawn back into the past that she’s tried so hard to outrun. She and her teen neighbor set out on a cross-continent journey to retrace the band’s early days and to confront the myths that fame created.
If you enjoy stories with fictional celebrities, we also recommend Hayley Aldridge is Still Here by Elissa R. Sloan. In the 1990s, Hayley’s mother did everything she could to ensure Hayley would become a pop star. Now in her 30s, Hayley is under a conservatorship, with her father controlling her finances and, in turn, her life. While she’s now well enough to work again, the restrictions are even tighter, and she is fed up. As she gains public support from fans using #helphayley on social media, she’s also finally ready to share the full details of her tragic past with her 15-year-old daughters.
Although this novel was inspired by the #FreeBritney (Britney Spears) movement, this book is more about Hayley’s early years in the spotlight as a child star in the 90s-early 2000s than it is about the present-day conservatorship.
Although she’s only 11, Olive (Ollie) Augusta Radley knows that her stepfather does not have good intentions with the two Choctaw girls boarded in their home as wards. When the older girl disappears, Ollie bravely chooses to flee into the woods with the younger girl, 6-year-old Nessie. As they journey through the rugged Winding Stair Mountains, they risk encountering outlaws, treasure hunters, and other desperate men.
Along their travels, Ollie and Nessie bond with each other and other children on the run from terrible situations.
In 1990, in Oklahoma, Ranger Valerie Boren O’Dell arrived at Horsethief Trail National Park seeking a quiet place to balance a career and single parenthood. Instead, she quickly has to investigate a teenage hiker gone missing from one of the trails and the long-hidden burial site of three children deep in a cave. As she digs into the area’s dark past, she finds an ally in the Choctaw Tribal Police.
Why This Book Made the List
This novel is told in alternating timelines, but both are well-developed. Don’t miss the author’s note at the end of the book, as it covers which parts of the story are based on the real history of the region.
Sawyer is a twenty-something trying to make it in New York, working as an assistant for a publishing company. She’s engaged to her college boyfriend but is extremely lonely in the summer of 1999 as her fiancé keeps working longer and longer hours…with a female coworker named Kendra.
Kendra’s boyfriend, Nick, has the same concerns about the endless hours Kendra is spending at work with Sawyer’s fiancé. After a rough first meeting between Sawyer and Nick, they form a friendship via their AOL Instant Messenger chat. Soon, they start spending every Friday afternoon exploring the city together.
Thoughts on This Book
Overall, the book is deeper than a typical romance and leaves plenty to think about.
Reviewers praise the audiobook version of Summer Fridays. Readers who don’t enjoy this novel cite the cheating in the storyline as something they couldn’t get past, so if that’s also a dealbreaker for you, skip this one.
Fueled by revenge, Dylan Darcy, Priyanka Shah, and Isabel Guerrero (a bartender, a nurse, and a student) feel that they must murder local cop, Peter Miles. Why? Because Peter murdered their best friend and got away with it. In order to get away with it themselves, they’ll need to stick to their plan and execute the perfect crime.
It turns out that killing him is the easy part. But what comes after is the hard part.
When the lead investigators start sniffing around, their confidence wanes. Soon, they start receiving death threats, and the guilt over what they’ve done begins to get to them. But it’s all too little too late.
As a tennis star, Carrie Soto shattered every record and claimed twenty Grand Slam titles. She retired in 1988 at the top of her game, after decades of sacrifice. Now, in 1994, she’s just witnessed Nicki Chan take her record at the US Open.
At 37, Carrie decides to come back to tennis for one year in an attempt to regain her record. As she has been since she was only two, she’ll be coached by her father, Javier. Her body doesn’t move as quickly now, but her brutal competitiveness is just as strong. She’s even willing to train with the man she almost let into her hardened heart years ago, Bowe.
While the book does have a strong emphasis on tennis, it also deals heavily with Carrie’s relationships, especially the one with her father/coach.
Our Thoughts on This Book
If you read Malibu Rising, you might recognize the name Carrie Soto. She’s the woman that Nina’s husband left her for. So, as you might guess from her history as ‘the other woman,’ she isn’t the most likable character.
Although tennis plays a big role in this novel, both of the Book Girls enjoyed this book without any extensive prior knowledge of the sport.
In 1994, at the age of 7, author Qian Julie Wang and her family moved from China to America. Before the move, her parents were successful professors. Despite the Chinese word for America, Mei Guo, meaning beautiful country, life is much harder for the family here. Her parents overstay their visas and are not in the US legally, which means they must find work in sweatshops instead of classrooms.
Qian escapes to libraries to avoid the teachers and classmates who shun her limited English. Over time, she’s able to master English through her study of books like The Berenstain Bears and The Baby-Sitters Club, and begins to glimpse some of the magic of New York City, such as Christmas at Rockefeller Center. However, her world changes again when her mom gets sick.
This memoir gives a unique insight into the hidden life and struggles of children trying to thrive in a place where they must also remain hidden in many ways.
Why This Book Made the List
Both Book Girls were teenagers in the 1990s, so Angela found it especially powerful to read about Qian Julie’s experiences growing up in that decade. Her sweatshop experiences, for example, were things we grew up thinking only happened in other countries when, in fact, they were part of Qian Julie’s reality in the United States. While Angela really enjoyed this memoir, some readers found it difficult to read about Qian Julie’s traumas, including her father’s abusive treatment of her cat.
About the Author
Qian Julie went on to graduate from Swarthmore College and Yale Law School, and became a partner in a law firm with her practice focusing on civil rights litigation.
Helen wants to break free from her marriage, from motherhood, and from the duties of being a Southern housewife. But she soon learns that leaving and staying gone are two different things entirely.
Helen married the wrong man and had a baby before realizing her life wasn’t on the track she wanted. She then embarks on an affair that only complicates matters further.
With settings ranging from a local football game to a Motel 6 bathroom and a Chuck E. Cheese, this poetry collection explores Helen’s isolation and rebellion as her personality clashes with the rigid social structure of her small town.
Why We Think You’ll Love This Book
We don’t often recommend poetry, but this short book (just 96 pages) was highly recommended by some of our readers who picked it up as part of our Modern Retellings challenge prompt for the Book Lover’s Reading Challenge. In this non-traditional format, Maria Zoccola presents a unique take on a modern Helen of Troy, blending mythology and modernity.
The “Lamb” (Perry Cullen) is a former landscaper turned prophet who is preparing for the End Times with a staggering cache of weapons. His “gospel” is drawing members from all walks of life to his compound in Waco, Texas. And when they join, they sign over their savings and pensions.
Fourteen-year-old Jaye has doubts when her mother becomes a devout follower. Roy is the sheriff’s son who falls for Jaye, but this may have dire consequences for both families.
Why This Book Made the List
While this is a work of fiction, this novel is based on true stories from one of the biggest headlines and tragedies of the 1990s. However, the author says that he did not base The Lamb on David Koresh, and this story focuses more on what it was like for the followers’ family members. In some ways, it’s a modern-day Romeo and Juliet.
The story is told from the viewpoints of both Jaye and Roy via a podcast format, looking back at the events 30 years later.
The real 1993 government raid on the compound of the Branch Davidian cult, known as the Waco Siege, led to a 51-day standoff that ended in April when fires consumed the compound, leaving 75 people dead, including 25 children. If you’d prefer to read a true crime non-fiction about this event, we recommend Waco: David Koresh, the Branch Davidians, and A Legacy of Rage by Jeff Guinn.
It’s 1913, and Laura’s husband is the superintendent of the New York Public Library. The job comes with an apartment in the grand building for the couple and their two children. Laura seems to have it all, but after she enters journalism school at Columbia and has her worldview rocked, she starts to question if the things she has are the things she wants.
Eighty years later, in 1993, Sadie landed her dream job as a curator at the NY Public Library, but her grandmother Laura’s legacy looms over her until she can no longer ignore it.
Why We Think You’ll Love This Book
Fiona Davis is one of our favorite historical fiction writers because of her strong female characters. Her novels are each set in a famous NYC building and combine history, a little romance, and a mystery.
When July was only two, her mother died in a car accident. Now nine, she is assigned to write about a family member and chooses her mom. However, her harsh dad refuses to speak about July’s mom or the accident. In fact, everyone seems to be hiding something, but she’s determined to find out as much as she can.
On her 10th birthday in 1995, July received a note in her backpack with a shocking claim. She begins to investigate, cycling around the neighborhood where her family used to live. She’s desperate for the truth, but will that hurt more than what she thinks she knows?
Seventeen-year-old Novalee Nation is seven months pregnant when her boyfriend – bound for California – leaves her stranded at a Walmart in Sequoyah, Oklahoma. With only $7.77 to her name and nowhere to go, Novalee begins secretly living in the Walmart.
But she soon discovers that this small town is filled with deeply caring people. An eclectic group of townsfolk adopts Novalee and her newborn as their own in this novel, which may make you both laugh and cry.
Why We Think You’ll Love This Book
Where the Heart Is was Billie Letts’ debut novel, which also saw great success as a film in 2000, starring Natalie Portman and Ashley Judd. As is often the case, many reviewers agree that the book is better than the movie. Even if you vaguely recall the movie from a couple of decades ago, we recommend picking up this book for a quick read that is both heart-rending and heartwarming.
Consider This Before Reading
This book deals with some heavy and challenging topics, including sexual abuse of a minor and substance abuse.
Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood
Trevor Noah
Publication Date:
11/15/2016
Setting:
South Africa, 1990s
Book Girls’ Readers Rate This Book
4.3 out of 5 96% Would Recommend to a Friend
Book Summary
Born a Crime is the true story of Daily Show host Trevor Noah’s childhood and early adulthood. His rise to success was unlikely based on his beginning. Trevor was born in South Africa in 1984 to a white father and a Black mother. His parents could have been imprisoned for five years – or worse – for conceiving him. He spent his early years largely hidden from life outside because his mother feared (with good reason) that he could be removed from her custody because of the apartheid rules of segregation.
When the era of white rule officially ended in the early 1990s, the family’s troubles evolved with the times. From attempted kidnappings and domestic violence to high school dating, you’ll find a mixture of relatable and shocking stories that keep you engaged with every page.
Why We Think You’ll Love This Book
In true Trevor Noah fashion, you’ll be entertained while also receiving an education on life in apartheid South Africa during the 1990s. You will laugh and cry as you listen to him narrate his own poignant and honest stories.
We highly recommend listening to the audiobook, which Trevor narrates himself. Trevor speaks eight languages and draws upon each of them throughout the book to explain how languages can divide people, but can also be used to build bridges. We found it much more impactful to hear him speak each language with the correct sounds and pronunciations, rather than attempting our own phonetic reading.
There is also a young reader edition of Born a Crime; however, it’s not available in audio format.
Writers & Lovers is a classic coming-of-age book about the struggle of an in-debt 31-year-old. She works as a waitress to pay the bills while trying not to give up her bigger dream of writing a novel.
We thought it was the perfect mix of literary fiction and reality TV as the book follows the main character through every aspect of her daily life.
Our Thoughts on This Book
After reading so many reviews from people who found this book boring, we went in skeptical, but we both fell in love with Writers and Lovers. Specifically, we think fans of the movie Reality Bites will enjoy this book!
After years of struggling to make it as a writer, James has finally sold his first book – a semi-autobiographical novel about his dysfunctional relationship with his mother. He’s shocked to find out that the editor who has purchased his book is none other than Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis.
After an embarrassing initial meeting, James and Mrs. Onassis, as she’s known around the office, form an unexpected friendship. By the time his book is finally published, his relationship with his editor has changed him as a writer and as a son.
Our Thoughts on This Book
It can be tricky to write historical fiction in which one of the main characters is such a famous, real-life person, but Steven Rowley did a fantastic job portraying Jackie O as a private and professional woman full of heart. However, keep in mind that Jackie is a side character in the book and James is the main character, so much of what you see is him struggling with his career and relationships.
In the Shaker Heights suburb of Ohio, the life of the picture-perfect Richardson family becomes intertwined with the lives of Mia and her daughter Pearl, who rent a house from the Richardsons when they arrive in town.
All four of the Richardson children befriend Pearl and are drawn in by artist Mia. As their relationships become more intertwined, the bonds that tie them will ultimately unravel both families.
This story is about complex family dynamics, small-town politics, and white privilege. When a local family decides to adopt a Chinese-American baby, a custody battle divides the town, with Mrs. Richardson and Mia on opposite sides. Mrs. Richardson becomes suspicious of Mia’s motives and digs into her past. The secrets she uncovers will change everything.
Why This Book Made the List
We both enjoyed this book and felt it did a great job capturing suburban life in the 90s. This book has also now been turned into a Hulu mini-series by Reese Witherspoon.
On the morning of Alice’s 40th birthday, she wakes up in 1996, which was the year she turned 16. Having her adolescent body and seeing her high school crush are both surprising, but being reunited with her 40-something father is the biggest shock. He’s so charming and healthy, unlike his ailing 64-year-old body she’s used to.
With 24 years of extra life experience in her brain, Alice has a brand new perspective on events from the past. Her life at 40 isn’t bad. She likes her job, apartment, romantic status, and long-time best friend. So, should she try to change anything while she’s in the past?
If you enjoy the time-travel concept of this book, we think you’ll also enjoy the 90s Flashback Series by Kristy McManus. Set in Brisbane, Australia, there are three books in this series, titled 1996, 1997, and 1998, respectively. Food blogger Anna Matthews takes a vitamin supplement that transports her back in time and back into her 16-year-old body, but just for twelve hours at a time. After getting over the initial shock, she takes advantage of the opportunity time and again, while navigating the consequences.
Coming of Age
What the Fireflies Knew
Kai Harris
Publication Date:
02/01/2022
Setting:
Lansing, Michigan, 1995
Book Girls’ Readers Rate This Book
4.2 out of 5 95% Would Recommend to a Friend
Book Summary
Kenyatta Bernice (KB) is almost 11 when her life is turned upside down. First, her father died of an overdose. Then, the debts caused by his addiction led to the loss of the family home. KB’s overwhelmed mother decides to send KB and her teen sister Nina to live with their estranged (and grumpy) grandfather in Lansing.
The book follows KB over that summer as she comes of age in a neighborhood that isn’t hers. In addition to typical adolescent experiences, she’s dealing with resentment, abandonment, and loneliness. However, she finds herself escaping to the outdoors and into her favorite book, Anne of Green Gables, to help her figure out how to put the pieces of life back together into a better version of herself.
Consider This Before Reading
While this is adult fiction, some say it reads more like a YA novel. Others say it’s perfect for fans of Jesmyn Ward.
Ashley Bennett grew up in LA in a wealthy and prominent family. She’s leading a charmed life where her senior year is split between the classroom and the beach.
Everything changes on an April afternoon when four LAPD officers are acquitted in the beating of Rodney King. As LA erupts in violent riots around her, Ashley tries to continue with her normal life, but she’s no longer just a teenager – now she’s a “black kid.”
Why This Book Made the List
This book is perfect for fans of Angie Thomas’ The Hate You Give, which is set in the 2010s, while focusing on a pivotal event of the 1990s.
Lillian and Madison were boarding school roommates and friends from very different backgrounds. However, they’ve barely spoken since a scandal forced Lillian to leave school.
A decade later, Lillian’s life is not on the track she’d imagined for herself. When she receives a call from Madison asking her to help care for Madison’s twin step-children, who are moving in, Lillian figures she has nothing to lose.
But there is a catch: both kids spontaneously burst into flames when they are agitated. Madison somehow needs to keep this fact a secret while her husband runs for public office. Despite knowing nothing about raising kids, Lillian agrees to take on the role, and throughout one summer, she and the kids learn together how to keep their cool – literally. It may even prove to be the start of a whole new life for Lillian.
Why We Think You’ll Love This Book
We were both very skeptical about the premise of this book, but it’s an excellent and worthwhile short read! While the concept of children who catch fire makes it sound like this book is HEAVY on magical realism, it’s actually the only unusual element and serves as a great metaphor throughout the novel.
Some of our readers have reported not appreciating that there is adult language in the book, so if you never enjoy books with curse words, skip this one.
The 1990s: Betty gave up a lot – universities, parties, boyfriends, and summer jobs – to care for her grandmother, Arlette. Arlette lives in a dilapidated yet charming home on the British Isle of Guernsey. When her grandmother passes away, Betty discovers that the will includes a beneficiary named Clara, whom no one in the family knows. So Betty travels to London to seek out Clara.
The 1920s: In the years after WW1, Arlette is starting a new life in bohemian London when she gets drawn into the hedonistic world of the Bright Young People. A couple of years later, tragedy strikes, and Arlette flees back to her home in Guernsey for good.
This rich detective story will transport you to London in both the 1920s and 1990s. As Betty investigates her grandmother’s life, she’ll uncover secrets that might also help her find happiness in her own life.
As a young attorney in Montgomery, Alabama, Bryan Stevenson founded the Equal Justice Initiative, a nonprofit law office dedicated to helping poor, incarcerated, and wrongly condemned defendants.
One of EJI’s first clients was Walter McMillian, a young Black man who was wrongly convicted of the murder of a young white woman. He was sentenced to death despite the consistent declaration of his innocence.
Thoughts on This Book
We both have this non-fiction read high on our list, and we’re considering the audio version since it’s narrated by the author/attorney, Bryan Stevenson. Readers say he does a fabulous job!
There is also a movie based on the book that we highly recommend.
Even as a child in 1910, Sara recognized that she was a gifted Jewish matchmaker and a seeker of soulmates. But on New York’s Lower East Side, this profession is dominated by devout older men who see a talented woman as a threat to their traditions and livelihood.
Two generations later, in the 1990s, Abby is a successful Manhattan divorce attorney with some of the city’s wealthiest clients. When her beloved Grandma Sara dies, Abby inherits her collection of handwritten journals in which Sara recorded details of her matches. The pages seem to provide Abby with more questions than answers – including why the work she once found so compelling suddenly feels inconsequential and flawed.
Thoughts on This Book
When we saw this novel described as “a captivating, exhilarating, feel-good, heartwarming, and magical historical fiction with loveliest characters,” we immediately added it to our TBRs.
The nineties don’t feel that long ago to us, but math (and technology) say otherwise. This book offers an insightful and humorous examination of the decade, encompassing TV, music, sports, politics, race, and class. He makes smart observations about the dramatic shifts that occurred in just ten short years and how those shifts set the stage for the 21st century.
Why This Book Made the List
This pop-culture non-fiction was the Goodreads Choice Award Nominee for Best Humor in 2022.
If you’d like to take a deeper dive into the Friends phenomenon of the 1990s, we recommend I’ll Be There for You, by Kelsey Miller. While we’ve always prided ourselves on being able to win any game of Friends trivia, it turns out that there’s a lot behind the scenes that we didn’t know about. I’ll Be There For You is both a celebration of what made Friends so much fun, as well as an examination of its shortfalls. The author takes a fair and balanced approach that gives the book depth, while still allowing you to enjoy the nostalgia.
Humorous Fiction
Bridget Jones’s Diary
Helen Fielding
Publication Date:
01/01/1996
Setting:
1990s, London
Book Girls’ Readers Rate This Book
3.9 out of 5 93% Would Recommend to a Friend
Book Summary
Bridget chronicles her daily successes and (more often) her perceived failures in her determined quest for self-improvement. She’s convinced she’ll finally be happy if she can lose seven pounds, stop smoking, develop a functional relationship with a responsible adult, and learn to program her VCR.
Her diary entries are “devastatingly self-aware” and laugh-out-loud funny!
You may be familiar with the movie, but the book is what started it all, and it’s the perfect read if you are in the mood for something light and humorous with a whole lot of heart. If you enjoy Bridget’s adventures, there are three more books in the series.
This book is very reflective of the 1990s obsession with dieting and weight loss. While much of it is tongue-in-cheek humor, beyond the surface, it’s an interesting comparison to the more body-positive books we see now.
It’s Lincoln O’Neill’s job to read other people’s email. He thought his role as “internet security officer” would be more glamorous – building firewalls and crushing hackers. Instead, he spends his days reading his coworkers’ emails and writing a report each time someone forwards a dirty joke.
Everyone in the office knows someone is reading their emails (it’s company policy), but that doesn’t stop them. Beth and Jennifer send each other endless emails containing all the details of their personal lives. Lincoln knows he should report them, but instead, he finds himself enjoying their stories and, worst of all, falling in love.
Why This Book Made the List
This book will transport you back to the 1990s when email was new in the business world, Y2K was a significant fear, and before internet dating was a thing.
Samantha Kang has never gotten along with her first-generation Asian American mother, Priscilla. And she’s definitely never understood her mom’s John Hughes-inspired expectation of the high school experience.
After a huge mother-daughter fight, Sam just wants to move forward, but instead, she finds herself sent back in time to the 1990s to help 17-year-old Priscilla become Homecoming Queen. This Gen Z girl quickly adapts to the 90s fashion, but adapting to an analog world is a totally different story. She’s baffled by everything from the microfiche to the casual racism and misogyny. Most confusing is that all of a sudden, Priscilla seems like someone she might actually want to be friends with.
Why This Book Made the List
This YA novel is described as Back to the Future-esque time travel meets the intergenerational immigrant experience of The Joy Luck Club. It’s filled with 90s nostalgia for those of us who remember the decade well. But it also has just enough heart and depth to balance out the comedy and YA romance.
In 1999, sixteen female scientists came together to address the still prevalent discrimination against women at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). But it wasn’t an MIT problem. In the 1990s, the common belief throughout US institutions was that successful women in scientific positions were “exceptions.”
Dr. Nancy Hopkins didn’t set out to be a feminist leader. In fact, she started her career at the dawn of affirmative action efforts in the 1970s and believed that discrimination against women was a thing of the past, and that science fields now operated as a meritocracy. She and her female colleagues believed that when they experienced discrimination, it was an exception.
Over the years, they were victims of underpayment, denied credit for their discoveries, did not receive equal resources, and were not considered for advancement. At the same time, men of lesser ability, education, and experience advanced around them.
Once Nancy and fifteen of her peers fully understood how differently they had been treated, they banded together to demand fair treatment. Their efforts led MIT to publicly admit that it had been discriminating against its female faculty for years—sparking a nationwide reckoning with the pervasive sexism in science.
Why This Book Made the List
While many of us read Lessons in Chemistry about the character Elizabeth Zott’s unfair treatment as a female scientist in the 1960s, it’s important to understand the struggles real women continued (and continue) to face in later decades.
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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Printable Version This Book List
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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.
In February 1990, Nelson Mandela was released after 27 years in prison in South Africa. In 1991, President F.W. de Klerk and Mandela began working together to end apartheid and establish a democratic government for South Africa. In 1993, the pair won the Nobel Peace Prize for their work. In 1994, Nelson Mandela became the President of South Africa.
Art thieves stole 13 works of art from the Isabella Gardner Museum in Boston in March 1990. The museum continues to actively investigate the theft, working in partnership with the FBI and the US Attorney’s Office. A $10 million reward is offered for information leading directly to the recovery of the art.
The official demolition of the Berlin Wall began in June of 1990 and was completed two years later.
The Gulf War began in August of 1990. The combat phase, known as Operation Desert Storm, began on January 17, 1991. The war, in response to Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait, ended 43 days later on February 28, 1991, but the ramifications lasted much longer, including the long-term effects on the US soldiers who served at this time.
The inventor of the World Wide Web published his formal proposal in 1990. By 1991, the Internet became available for unrestricted commercial use.
The Soviet Union took the first official steps to break up the U.S.S.R. in September 1991. By the end of 1991, the dissolution was effective, and the Soviet Union ceased to exist.
Serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer was arrested in July 1991 after the remains of 11 men and boys were found in his apartment in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. His murders spanned from 1978 to 1991.
In 1992, violent riots broke out in Los Angeles after four white officers were acquitted in the beating of black motorist Rodney King, despite the brutality being captured on video.
The European Union was created in 1992. The Euro began circulation as the official currency of the EU in 1999.
Bill Clinton was elected as the 42nd President of the United States in 1992 and reelected in 1996. However, following revelations about his affair with White House intern Monica Lewinsky in late 1998, Clinton became only the second US president to be impeached. Clinton was ultimately acquitted by the Senate and finished his second term in office.
The Real World premiered on MTV in 1992, launching the modern reality TV genre.
In 1993, the government raided the compound of a Christian cult, the Branch Davidians. The Waco Siege led to a 51-day standoff that ended in April when fires consumed the compound, leaving 75 people dead, including 25 children.
In 1994, Genocide and Civil War took place in Rwanda, with an estimated 500,000+ people killed.
Tonya Harding was stripped of her national figure skating championship title in 1994 because of her role in the attack on her rival, Nancy Kerrigan.
The Channel Tunnel (the “Chunnel”), an underwater train tunnel, was completed in 1994. It created the only fixed link between the United Kingdom and mainland Europe.
On the evening of Friday, June 17, 1994, 95 million people were glued to their TVs watching as O.J. Simpson led police on an hour-long, 60-mile “slow-speed chase” in his white Bronco down southern California’s freeways. In 1995, after a trial that lasted more than 8 months, Simpson was found not guilty of murdering his ex-wife and her friend. Two years later, he was found guilty in a civil trial.
The television show Friends premiered on NBC in September of 1994 and ran for ten seasons.
In April of 1995, two anti-government militants detonated a truck packed with explosives outside a federal building in Oklahoma City. 168 people, including children in daycare, were killed, and many more were injured. The Oklahoma City bombing was the deadliest domestic-based terrorist attack in US history.
A bombing at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, Georgia, killed two and injured more than 100.
For two decades, the “Unabomber,” Harvard graduate Ted Kaczynski, terrorized the country with a series of mail bombs before being arrested in 1996.
Princess Diana and Prince Charles got divorced in August 1996. A year later, Princess Diana died in a car crash in Paris. Her funeral was watched by 1.5 billion people around the world.
Dolly the sheep, the first successfully cloned mammal, was unveiled by scientists at the Roslin Institute in Scotland in 1997.
On April 20, 1999, two students of Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado, opened fire on their teachers and classmates. Twelve students and a teacher were killed before the gunmen took their own lives.
Throughout the end of the decade, Y2K anxiety grew as people feared that computer systems would shut down when the two-digit year changed from 99 to 00. Companies and governments spent millions in preparation, and ultimately, the new millennium dawned without incident.
The Book Girls are best friends who jointly read over 200 books per year. We started Book Girls' Guide in 2019 to help others de-stress and find joy through the power of a great book. We do in-depth research on thousands of novels and non-fiction titles each year to provide curated book lists covering a variety of genres.
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Of the five books that I’ve read, my favorites are ‘Just Mercy’ (Great Book/Great Movie), ‘Born A Crime’, and ‘Into Thin Air’.