Books that Span Multiple Decades
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 the final month of the Decades Reading Challenge or found this booklist searching for multigenerational novels that span decades, we know you’re sure to love these expansive stories. Rather than providing just a snapshot in time, the fiction and non-fiction titles we recommend below provide a panoramic view of life from the late 19th century until now.
We’ve heard from many of you that, throughout the challenge, you’ve loved diving into specific decades. This in-depth reading has allowed us to discover fascinating historical events we didn’t learn about in school. There’s also a lot to learn by reading long-view novels, non-fiction, or memoirs that span multiple decades or generations.
Some of the recommended books are expansive stories that span years. These books allow us to observe how things change over time. Others are books set in two or three different time periods, allowing us to compare the decades side by side.
As always, you can read any book you’d like for the Decades Challenge. But to get you started, we’ve compiled a list of novels and non-fiction titles that each span some of the decades we’ve covered throughout our year-long challenge, the 1880s through the 2010s.
Novels that Span Decades
The Lion Women of Tehran
Book Girls’ Readers Rate This Book
100% Would Recommend to a Friend
Book Summary
In 1950s Tehran, Ellie lives a privileged life. However, her whole world changes when her father unexpectedly passes away, and she and her mother must move to a tiny home downtown.
On her first day at her new school, Ellie meets Homa, a kind, brave, and passionate girl who becomes her best friend. They spend all their time together learning to cook, playing games, and wandering the Grand Bazaar.
But then Ellie’s life flips again when she’s given a chance to return to her privileged life and attend the best girls’ high school in Iran. Over time, her thoughts of Homa fade, and she embraces her bourgeois life. When Homa suddenly reappears, the course of both of their lives is changed forever. The rising political turmoil in the country complicates things even further.
Why This Book Made the List
This highly rated novel from the author of The Stationery Shop starts with the girls coming of age in 1950s & 1960s Iran and then follows them through the decades.
Buckeye
Book Summary
This is the story of two marriages and one stolen kiss that changes everything for all four individuals.
Growing up with a physical disability was challenging at times for Cal Jenkins, but it affected him most when it prevented him from serving in WWII. Cal’s wife, Becky, has a spiritual gift that allows her to help family members connect with those they’ve lost. Margaret Salt struggled her whole life with questions about why her birth mother abandoned her. Felix, her husband, is serving on a Navy ship in the Pacific Theater when Margaret receives a concerning telegram.
We follow the lives of Cal, Becky, Margaret, and Felix through the post-war years and beyond. Set against the backdrop of some of the most transformative decades in modern America, the consequences of a long-ago moment of passion create ripple effects through the next generation of both families.
What to Expect in This Book
Throughout this novel, we see the ordinary lives of the main characters intersect with big historical moments. Buckeye is a heavily character-driven novel that explores the ways in which love and loyalty can both anchor people together and drive them apart.
Horse
Book Girls’ Readers Rate This Book
99% Would Recommend to a Friend
Book Summary
Through the true story of a racehorse named Lexington, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Geraldine Brooks manages to weave a tale of spirit and injustice over 150 years of American history.
The book has three timelines. In 1850, you’ll meet an enslaved horse groomer, Jarrett, in Kentucky, who has a special bond with Lexington. There is also a young artist who paints images of the horse. When the Civil War erupts, the artist fights for the Union and runs into the young groom and stallion again, far from the track.
In 1954, a gallery owner on Martha’s Vineyard takes a special interest in a 19th-century equestrian painting, even though the artist and provenance are unknown.
In 2019, a Smithsonian scientist from Australia and a Nigerian-American art historian unexpectedly connect through a shared interest in the painting as they sought clues to its origin.
Why You’ll Love This Book
This story goes well beyond horse racing and art. The page-turning storytelling has detailed descriptions and depth that will stick with you long after you finish the book.
Book Club Resources for Horse
We have a printable Horse book club guide available on Etsy, including discussion questions, themed games, a printable bookmark, and more!
You can also find free resources for your Horse Book Club Discussion on our website.
Small World
Book Summary
This novel opens in the present day on an Amtrak train traveling up the West Coast toward Seattle, where a group of strangers’ lives briefly intersect. Among them are siblings who have recently suffered a loss, and their encounter becomes a hinge that sends the story backward.
The novel then flashes back to the mid-19th-century United States, matching forebears with their descendants. Spanning 170 years of American nation-building from numerous points of view, this epic novel takes us to Chicago, the expanding railroad, and journeys west—following Irish immigrants, Black Americans, and Chinese railroad workers whose paths, choices, and hardships shape later generations.
As the narrative alternates between the modern Pacific Northwest and earlier decades across the Midwest and West, we see how separate migrations, ambitions, and accidents slowly build the family lines that will converge on that single train ride. The connections are revealed gradually in intertwined chapters.
What to Expect in This Novel
Readers praise Jonathan Evison for crafting a novel that features a large cast of primary characters without their stories ever feeling overwhelming or confusing.
All the Colors of the Dark
Book Girls’ Readers Rate This Book
90% Would Recommend to a Friend
Book Summary
All the Colors of the Dark blends literary fiction, mystery, and romance as it follows the characters from their teen years in 1975 into adulthood.
In Mont Clare, girls are disappearing. When the daughter of a wealthy family, Misty, is targeted, an unlikely hero emerges in Patch, a local boy with one eye. He saves her, but the rescue leaves heartache in its wake.
Once close-knit, Mont Clare is changed forever. The trauma experienced by Patch, his friend Saint, and Misty shadows them for decades, driving choices you may not agree with and setting up twist after twist. The result is a sweeping, suspenseful story about love, loss, and the long reach of a single night.
What to Expect in This Book
This novel is character-driven and is longer than your average mystery at 608 pages. However, most readers say that the short paragraphs and chapters make the book feel faster-paced than you may expect.
Homeseeking
Book Girls’ Readers Rate This Book
100% Would Recommend to a Friend
Book Summary
Suchi was only 7 years old when she first met Haiwen in Shanghai. She was drawn to the sounds of his violin, and their friendship developed into a deep love. But when Haiwen secretly enlisted in the Nationalist army in 1947 to save his brother from the draft, Suchi was left behind with nothing more than his violin and a note begging for her forgiveness.
Sixty years later, they see each other for the first time thanks to a chance encounter at an Asian supermarket in Los Angeles. Recently widowed Haiwen hopes it might be a second chance for him and Suchi, but she has survived the intervening decades by refusing to look back.
This novel follows Suchi and Haiwen through the six decades they were separated. Through alternating viewpoints, Suchi’s story is told from her childhood to the present, while Haiwen’s story is traced in reverse. From Chinese war and famine to the song halls of Hong Kong, from military encampments in Taiwan to the busy streets of NYC, and to sunny California, where they are finally reunited.
This epic, character-driven novel illustrates the different ways that people learn to survive through a lifetime of difficult decisions. Haiwen holds his memories close, while Suchi forces herself only ever to look forward.
More About This Novel
This novel incorporates various languages, and the characters are referred to by different names and at different times in their lives. While this initially seemed like it would get very confusing, it was done in such a way that Book Girl Angela was able to keep track of the characters even while listening to the audiobook.
Angela especially enjoyed the non-linear structure where one story is being told forward, and the other in reverse. From the first moment that they saw each other at the supermarket in Los Angeles late in their lives, she needed to know their backstory. Along the way, Angela learned so much more about the Chinese Civil War.
The First Ladies
Book Girls’ Readers Rate This Book
95% Would Recommend to a Friend
Book Summary
This historical fiction novel tells the story of the friendship between two powerful and influential women in American history.
Mary McLeod Bethune, the daughter of formerly enslaved parents, was one of the first Black female activists. Through her work as both an activist and an educator, she helped lay a foundation for the civil rights movement. Eleanor Roosevelt shared Mary’s passion for education and women’s rights, and was eager to make her acquaintance. The two became fast friends and confidantes.
After Eleanor’s husband, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, was elected president in 1932, the two women began to collaborate even more closely. She became quite a controversial First Lady for pursuing her own agenda, separate from FDR, and particularly for her outspoken stance on civil rights.
When Elanor begins to receive threats as a result of her close relationship with Mary, both women use it as motivation to fight even harder for equality.
About the Authors
After reading and loving The Personal Librarian, we were so excited to see the writing duo of Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murray collaborating again on this novel.
The Bright Years
Book Summary
Ryan and Lillian Bright were deeply in love when they married and became parents to baby Georgette. But they were also keeping secrets from one another. As the years pass, Georgette comes of age, watching the highs and lows of her parents’ marriage and becoming best friends with the boy next door.
Later, after a shocking blow tears the family apart, teenager Georgette tries to distance herself from reminders of her parents. But an unexpected email changes what she thought she knew about her mom’s past. Ultimately, she’ll have to decide what she wants to do with this information and how she should move forward in her life.
As you follow the Bright family history from the 1970s to 2019, there are a few flashbacks in the early chapters, but the majority of the book is a linear timeline. The years are clearly denoted for each chapter. Instead of one character narrating the whole book or alternating narrators, you’ll find that the first half of the book is told from Lillian’s perspective before her daughter takes over for the next 40%. One final narrator then tells the last 10% of the story.
What to Know Before Reading
While this novel covers nearly fifty years of a family’s story, it’s a very quick read at 271 pages. Melissa read it in one afternoon because once she started, she couldn’t put it down.
She agrees with the long list of readers praising this debut author, who is also a Harvard-educated social worker, for creating compelling and realistically flawed characters that you’ll really come to care about.
Several difficult topics are covered, so please check trigger warnings if needed. Melissa picked it up, not remembering much more about the book than that several people had told her it was their favorite of the year. Because of that, her jaw dropped at several points, and she recommends going in not knowing more than we’ve told you, if possible.
While this is, without a doubt, a tear-jerker and a gut-puncher at times, the author also brings back hope through lighter moments and character growth. That balance keeps it from feeling like a dark book, even as the family faces some very tough seasons.
Diva
Book Girls’ Readers Rate This Book
100% Would Recommend to a Friend
Book Summary
World-famous opera soprano Maria Callas was raised in Nazi-occupied Greece with a mother who exploited her voice. When she met Greek shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis in Italy in 1957, she fell deeply in love with the man who seemed to see the real person she was, separate from her vocal talent.
He introduced her to his wealthy and glamorous world, and friends like Elizabeth Taylor and the Duke of Windsor. She thought they had a long future together. But suddenly, nine years later, the relationship was over. The press announced that Aristotle Onassis would marry the most famous woman in the world, former First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy, leaving Maria to pick up the pieces.
One Blood
Book Summary
Grace was raised in post-segregation Virginia by her beloved grandmother. She is just a young teen when her grandma dies and she is sent north to live with her Aunt Hattie. Hattie is socially ambitious and believes that leaving behind her Southern roots is the key to her upward mobility. Suddenly, Grace is thrust into a world of fancy teas and debutante balls.
Despite feeling like a fish out of water, Grace befriends the smart, handsome son of one of society’s grande dames. But when Dale gets caught up in a racial police killing and Grace finds herself pregnant, Hattie hides her away and betrays her niece.
Lolo is beautiful, intelligent, and fierce, but her life has not been easy. She moves north, but in doing so, she gives up her personal dreams and does what she must to survive, eventually starting a family of her own.
Years later, Lolo’s daughter discovers that she’s adopted. When Lolo herself is about to become a mother, she knows there is more to learn about herself and her two mothers.
Read it if You Like…
This book is described as Homegoing meets The Mothers.
The Boston Girl
Book Girls’ Readers Rate This Book
98% Would Recommend to a Friend
Book Summary
Addie Baum was born to a Jewish family at the turn of the 20th century. Her immigrant parents were very concerned about America’s effect on their three daughters. Growing up in Boston’s North End, Addie is introduced to a progressive world of short skirts, movies, and celebrity culture. She also sees a new world of opportunities for young women and dreams of college and a career.
At 85 years old, Addie Baum’s 22-year-old granddaughter asks her how she became the woman she is. Her story begins in 1915 when teenage Addie lived in a one-room tenement apartment that she shared with her family.
Thoughts On This Book
The story of Addie’s life is told with compassion, a wicked sense of humor, and great attention to historical detail. This book has been very popular with our readers, many of whom specifically mentioned how much they enjoyed the audio version and said the narration and accents added to the story.
The Magnificent Lives of Marjorie Post
Book Girls’ Readers Rate This Book
93% Would Recommend to a Friend
Book Summary
Although this book is classified as historical fiction, it’s based on a larger-than-life real woman with an equally large heart. In her childhood, Marjorie worked on gluing cereal boxes together for her father, the creator of Grape-Nuts, and later the Post cereal empire. His company made the family extremely wealthy, but Marjorie wasn’t content to sit at home as American royalty.
While entertaining the rich and famous was part of her life, she wasn’t afraid to get her hands dirty. Her extraordinary life included everything from outrunning Nazis to serving the homeless during the Great Depression. She was also married four times and built impressive real estate along the way, including now-infamous Mar-a-Lago.
What to Expect in This Read
Because she was born in 1887 and lived through 1973, this book includes highlights of world history throughout that formative era. Everything is told chronologically from a first-person perspective, so you’ll quickly feel a part of Marjorie’s life. And you’ll undoubtedly recognize the many ways in which her life has touched your own through General Foods.
Some readers struggle with Marjorie’s extreme wealth and find her unrelatable, so while both Book Girls rated this highly, consider whether you’re in the mood to read this mostly true story.
The Atomic Weight of Love
Book Girls’ Readers Rate This Book
Book Summary
Meridian is smart and ambitious, which isn’t the expectation of young women in her time. She’s obsessed with birds and is pursuing her PhD to become an ornithologist. However, her brilliant physics professor, Allen, becomes quite a distraction from her plans when they fall in love.
When Allen is recruited to Los Alamos for a secret wartime project, Meridian reluctantly gives up her goals to join him. Before long, she’s unwillingly taken on the role of traditional housewife. Years later, Meridian meets a Vietnam veteran who opens her eyes to how much she has given up. But is it too late to pursue her dreams now?
Thoughts On This Book
Our readers who selected this book as their New Mexico title for the Read Around the USA Challenge call it beautifully written and thought-provoking. They also say you’ll need to keep the tissues within reach.
Hidden Figures
Book Girls’ Readers Rate This Book
97% Would Recommend to a Friend
Book Summary
This remarkable non-fiction account of a group of Black female mathematicians, known as “human computers.” They enabled some of America’s most outstanding space achievements, like launching the first unmanned rockets, followed by astronauts.
While brilliant Black women were initially relegated to teaching math in segregated public schools, many of these women suddenly found new opportunities open to them when the aeronautics industry suffered labor shortages during WWII. As a result, NASA was in dire need of anyone who possessed high-level math skills. This book interweaves the stories of four African American women who answered the call over the course of three decades. These women participated in some of NASA’s greatest successes from WWII through the Cold War, the Civil Rights Movement, and the Space Race.
Thoughts On the Movie Adaptation
While we always proclaim “The Book is Better,” in this case, we highly recommend you watch the movie after reading Hidden Figures. While the film covers only the slice of time leading up to NASA’s Mercury 7 launch, it does an excellent job of portraying the challenges these brilliant women faced. They crossed gender and racial barriers in an era where men dominated their field, and Jim Crow laws also enforced segregation and discrimination against African Americans.
The Covenant of Water
Book Girls’ Readers Rate This Book
95% Would Recommend to a Friend
Book Summary
Kerala, on India’s southern coast, is a slender state with almost 373 miles of Arabian Sea coastline and beaches. Being surrounded by water makes this a popular tourist destination. But for the family at the heart of this novel, being surrounded by water has plagued three generations. In every generation, at least one person dies by drowning.
This new literary fiction epic is a tale of love, faith, and medicine in which the family is seeking answers to this strange secret. The family is part of a Christian community that traces its roots to the time of the apostles, but times are shifting, and the matriarch of this family, known as Big Ammachi, literally “Big Mother,” will witness unthinkable changes at home and abroad over the span of her extraordinary life.
Thoughts On This Book
This is a hefty book, at over 700 pages, but like Verghese’s past work, it deserves every rave review! With elements of magical realism, straddling myth and reality, you’ll be transported to Kerala, where you’ll experience all of the sights and sounds, including clothing, dance, music, architecture, customs, food, and so much more.
A tip, though – keep your dictionary handy if you’re a little rusty on your Latin or anatomy. Author Abraham Verghese completed his medical education in India at Madras Medical College before working as a doctor and a professor at the Stanford University School of Medicine. His medical expertise is apparent throughout the book. But, as was the case with Cutting for Stone, some readers may find the descriptions of surgical procedures a bit too graphic.
The German Wife
Book Girls’ Readers Rate This Book
99% Would Recommend to a Friend
Book Summary
Inspired by the true events of Operation Paperclip, this historical fiction novel tells the story of the US intelligence program that employed former Nazis in Huntsville, Alabama, after WWII.
The story begins in Berlin in 1930. Changing political powers are sweeping through Germany. Sofie von Meyer Rhodes and her husband, Jürgen, are concerned with the social views taking hold in their country. But her academic husband’s work benefits from the ambitions of the newly elected chancellor. Soon, however, their morality is challenged, 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 are 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.
Why We Selected This Book
Kelly Rimmer is the author of one of our very favorite WWII historical fiction reads, The Things We Cannot Say, so we had high expectations for this book. Those expectations were far exceeded!
Even if you read a lot of WWII novels, we’re certain this novel will offer you a new perspective. It draws unexpected parallels across the decades, and it will leave you contemplating how history will reflect on the events of our lifetime.
Moloka’i
Book Girls’ Readers Rate This Book
98% Would Recommend to a Friend
Book Summary
Seven-year-old Rachel will quickly capture your heart. She’s full of zest and big dreams, especially of traveling outside of her Hawaiian island. When a rose-colored mark appears on her skin, her family jumps into protective mode, knowing that she’ll be taken from them if anyone finds out she has leprosy.
During a sibling argument, Rachel’s sister makes the mistake of calling her a leper in public. When the authorities confirm her diagnosis, she’s whisked away to Kalaupapa, a quarantined leprosy settlement on the island of Moloka’i.
While the outside shuns members of the settlement, they’re welcoming to new arrivals. Young Rachel must learn to accept her new home and the varied cast of characters who will become her new family.
While this historical fiction novel is based on the tragic history of a real leper colony, which is incredibly sad, readers find that the book shows the power of positivity and humans’ incredible ability to overcome tragedy.
Thoughts On This Book
This book includes wonderfully vivid descriptions of the landscape and geography of Hawaii. You’ll also learn a great deal about Hawaiian customs, religion, and history.
The sequel, Daughter of Moloka’i, which spans 1914 to WWII, has equally fabulous reviews and is also a good fit for a “spanning decades” book.
Alan Brennert also wrote Palisades Park, which is set in New Jersey between the 1930s and the 1970s. It’s about a family that runs a French fry stand at the Palisades Amusement Park, which was magical in the 1930s. Over the years, the family endures the world’s hard times, from the Great Depression and Pearl Harbor to race riots in the park. Each summer, they came back together at the park until it closed in 1971.
Mademoiselle Chanel
Book Girls’ Readers Rate This Book
95% Would Recommend to a Friend
Book Summary
Few names are as synonymous with chic glamour as Coco Chanel. However, all your opinions of the woman who created the classic little black dress could change after reading this historical fiction account of her entire life.
From her humble beginnings as an orphan to her determination to keep her atelier afloat during WWII, this book details the decisions that led to her lasting name recognition.
Our Thoughts On This Book
Melissa was fascinated by Coco Chanel’s changing position in life throughout this book, along with several other surprising aspects, like her relationship with the Nazis as they invaded Paris. It’s well-researched and largely biographical but told in novel form.
Vanderbilt: The Rise and Fall of an American Dynasty
Book Girls’ Readers Rate This Book
100% Would Recommend to a Friend
Book Summary
Journalist Anderson Cooper, whose mother was Gloria Vanderbilt, teamed up with New York Times bestselling historian and novelist Katherine Howe to write this in-depth account of the triumphs and tragedies of one of America’s most legendary dynasties, from an insider’s perspective.
It all began with Cornelius Vanderbilt, who was known as The Commodore. Throughout the 1800s, he built two empires – one in shipping and one in railroads, becoming the wealthiest man in America. When he died in 1877, his heirs began fighting over his fortune, fracturing the family in ways that would never fully heal.
This book traces the family’s history, and their influence on American capitalism, from the hardscrabble wharves of old Manhattan to the lavish drawing rooms of the Gilded Age, and from their ornate 72-room summer estate in Rhode Island to Europe.
Thoughts On This Book
This book focuses more on the family and less on the business side, and the authors don’t shy away from hard truths. Be aware that this book is not written in a chronological timeline, but most readers say it flows nicely.
Dearly Beloved
Book Girls’ Readers Rate This Book
95% Would Recommend to a Friend
Book Summary
It’s 1963 in Greenwich Village when Charles, Lily, James, and Nan meet. Charles was destined to follow in his father’s footsteps—a history professor at Harvard—until a lecture on faith led him into ministry. James comes from a challenging Chicago family with an alcoholic father and an anxious mother. Charles and James cross paths when they are both hired to lead the historic Third Presbyterian Church through turbulent times. Their personal differences make it challenging for them to work together.
Charles meets Lily, a fiercely intelligent woman who tells him she’ll never believe in God. Although they don’t make any sense together, he can’t help falling in love. James is drawn to Nan, who grew up in a devout Mississippi family as the daughter of a minister and a debutante. James is full of skepticism, and Nan’s constant faith helps to guide him.
The Dearly Beloved follows these two couples through many years of love, friendship, jealousy, and forgiveness. Together, these couples face life’s many challenges, from marriage and parenthood to death and grieving and everything in between. The novel explores faith, motherhood, women’s liberation, friendship, and even autism. You’ll initially be immersed in the early 1960s – a time caught between conservatism and revolution – and then, as the story progresses, you’ll see the four main characters set against the backdrop of major changes in New York City.
Consider This Before Reading
Readers say that although this book includes a philosophical exploration of faith, it is not a book about theology or religion. At its core, this is the story of four people and their lives, failures, struggles, and successes.
If you’re looking for another book that follows two couples throughout several decades of marriage, friendship, and life’s challenges – but without the religious undertones – we recommend Good Company by Cynthia D’Aprix Sweeney. This book gets lower reviews, but Angela really enjoyed it and especially recommends it for theater lovers.
A Gentleman in Moscow
Book Girls’ Readers Rate This Book
96% Would Recommend to a Friend
Book Summary
Count Alexander Rostov is sentenced to house arrest in the Metropol, a grand luxury hotel across the street from the Kremlin.
Deemed an unrepentant aristocrat, Rostov has never worked a day in his life and must now live in an attic room while some of the most tumultuous decades in Russian history unfold outside the hotel’s doors.
Thoughts on This Book
This novel is a slow burn, which makes for a long read of an already lengthy book. However, it features gorgeously descriptive language and an extremely satisfying ending. Those who enjoy it absolutely love it. Just keep in mind it’s very much a character study vs. something plot-driven with lots of action.
Peach Blossom Spring
Book Girls’ Readers Rate This Book
100% Would Recommend to a Friend
Book Summary
This novel follows three generations of a Chinese family searching for a place to call home. In 1938, Meilin was a young wife with a bright future in China. But when the Japanese army approaches, she is forced to flee with her four-year-old son, Renshu. With nothing but an illustrated scroll depicting ancient fables, Meilin travels from rural China to Shanghai and then to Taiwan. These fables are interwoven into the novel.
Years later, Renshu settled in the US under the name Henry Dao. Despite his daughter Lily’s desire to understand her heritage, he refuses to share any information about his childhood. He believes the only way to keep his family safe is to shield them from their history.
Read This if You Liked…
This novel has been compared to epics like Pachinko (set in Korea and Japan) and The Mountains Sing (set in Vietnam).
Black Cake
Book Girls’ Readers Rate This Book
96% Would Recommend to a Friend
Book Summary
This novel opens in present-day California shortly after Eleanor’s death. She has left behind a voice recording for her two adult children – Byron and Benny. She’s also left them a traditional Caribbean black cake that she tells them to share “when the time is right.”
Her children, it turns out, only know a small part of their mom’s life story. Posthumously, Eleanor is finally ready to share her truth so that Byron and Benny can truly know and understand their family history.
As the story unfolds, everything that her children thought they knew about their lineage and themselves will be rocked to the core, and by the time they finally share the black cake, another person will be joining them at the table.
Thoughts on This Book
Although Eleanor has already died when this novel begins, through her voice recordings, this novel traces the story of her life and shows how the choices she made over the years impacted not only her future but also those of everyone in her family.
Angela rated this book five stars and highly recommends the audiobook version because the accents really bring the story to life.
Black Cake has been adapted into a streaming television series on Hulu.
The Aviator’s Wife
Book Girls’ Readers Rate This Book
96% Would Recommend to a Friend
Book Summary
This historical fiction novel traces the life of Anne Morrow, a shy college senior, as she first meets Colonel Charles Lindbergh shortly after his famed 1927 solo flight across the Atlantic. Their wedding made headlines, but that was just the beginning. In the following years, Anne was the first woman in the US to become a licensed glider pilot and one of the first licensed radio operators. Despite her intelligence and accomplishments, she remained known simply as the “aviator’s wife.”
Throughout the decades, the Lindberghs’ marriage took them to new highs and devastating lows, including the tragic kidnapping of their first son and Charles’ affairs. Through it all, the Lindberghs became fodder for the earliest paparazzi.
The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo
Book Girls’ Readers Rate This Book
96% Would Recommend to a Friend
Book Summary
Evelyn Hugo lived a glamorous and scandalous life, but doesn’t like to talk about it and has become reclusive after leaving her career. When the movie icon is finally ready to talk about her time in show business, she picks an unknown reporter to log her personal history, but why?
You’ll slowly unwrap Evelyn’s life from the 1950s to the 1980s as she chronicles her past life and relationships, including the seven husbands she had along the way. As the book covers so much of her life, it moves quickly and will keep you engaged and entertained for hours.
Book Girls’ Readers Rate This Book
95% Would Recommend to a Friend
Book Summary
In 1993, Mallory inherited a beach cottage in Nantucket and decided to embrace the unexpected gift and move to the island full-time. Shortly after, she hosts a bachelor party for her brother and meets his friend from college, Jake.
After things go wrong for other attendees, Mallory and Jake are left alone for the rest of the weekend. They have undeniable chemistry. After watching the classic movie, Same Time Next Year, they decide to continue getting together one weekend every summer, no matter what.
As the title suggests, the book spans 28 years of these secret meetings, one chapter per year from 1993-2020. You’ll keep the pages turning to find out how their lives change individually and together each year as Mallory and Jake go from college through career, love, and loss.
The chapters start with a fun recap of what was happening in the world each year, and you’ll be transported through time as their lives move forward.
More About This Book
This was a 5-star read for both of us, and our readers rated it their second favorite of all of Elin Hilderbrand’s popular beach reads. Be aware that this book does deal with infidelity.
Keep the Kleenex ready for the ending. Then, pick up the novella sequel, The Sixth Wedding. This 76-page follow-up takes place during the Labor Day weekend of 2023, providing answers to lingering questions about some of the main characters and wrapping up storylines for some of the secondary characters.
Another Book You May Enjoy
If you loved the yearly updates in 28 Summers, you may also like One Day by David Nicholls. On their graduation day in Edinburgh, July 15th, 1988, Emma and Dexter meet for the first time. Although they set out in different directions the next day, each chapter checks in on their friendship on July 15th each subsequent year for the next two decades.
Five Presidents: My Extraordinary Journey with Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, and Ford
Book Girls’ Readers Rate This Book
100% Would Recommend to a Friend
Book Summary
In this memoir, Clint Hill reflects on his seventeen years on the White House Secret Service detail under Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, and Ford, shedding light on the personalities of five of the most powerful men in the world, and giving a unique insider perspective on many historical events of the 50s, 60s, and 70s.
Clint Hill also wrote another memoir – Ms. Kennedy and Me – about his time as Jackie Kennedy’s personal secret service agent throughout her years as First Lady.
Our Thoughts on These Memoirs
Both of Hill’s memoirs are vivid and insightful without feeling gossipy, and he provides an in-depth look at the politics of the day without feeling political.
While Clint Hill does not narrate his own memoirs, the audio versions are very well done and make you feel as if you’ve been transported back in time to witness all of the events firsthand. Both Angela and her husband really enjoyed the history in this book.
Roses
Book Girls’ Readers Rate This Book
100% Would Recommend to a Friend
Book Summary
This epic novel is set in a small town in eastern Texas against the backdrop of the powerful timber and cotton industries controlled by the town’s founding families. Cotton tycoon Mary Toliver and timber magnate Percy Warwick should have married, but they did not. That choice leads to deceit, secrets, and tragedies for future generations. This is an immersive family saga covering a hundred years and three generations.
More About This Book
This book was first recommended to us by author Camille Di Maio when we interviewed her about one of her historical fiction novels. She said that she first picked up Roses to support a fellow Texas author, but didn’t expect to like it. Instead, it became one of her all-time favorite novels.
Clocking in at over 600 pages, this book requires an investment of time, but Camille and most reviewers assure us it’s well worth it. Meacham published Roses in 2010 and then wrote a prequel titled Somerset, in 2013.
All the Ways We Said Goodbye
Book Girls’ Readers Rate This Book
100% Would Recommend to a Friend
Book Summary
This historical fiction moves from the dark days of WWI and WWII to the turbulent years of the 1960s. In each era, the women with bruised hearts—an heiress, a Resistance fighter, and a widow—find refuge at the legendary Ritz Hotel in Paris.
The Supremes at Earl’s All-You-Can-Eat
Book Girls’ Readers Rate This Book
96% Would Recommend to a Friend
Book Summary
Three friends – dubbed “The Supremes” by pals – have been meeting at Earl’s All-You-Can-Eat diner in Plainview, Indiana, since their high school days in the tumultuous 1960s.
For more than four decades, they’ve been by each other’s side through life’s ups and downs, and the book follows their evolving friendships over the years. Now, Clarice struggles to keep up appearances as she deals with her husband’s humiliating infidelities. Barbara Jean is rocked by the tragic reverberations of a youthful love affair. And fearless Odette is about to embark on the most terrifying battle of her life.
Read This If You Enjoyed…
This book has been described as The Help meets Fried Green Tomatoes with a dash of Steel Magnolias.
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.
Sign Up for the Decades Reading Challenge
Sign up for our email list below to receive a free printable tracker for the Decades Reading Challenge. Our weekly email newsletter helps you stay on track with friendly reminders while still allowing you the flexibility to read at your own pace.
Printable Version 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.
We offer two membership levels. Both our BFF members and our Inner Circle members get access to the single-page printables for the year-long reading challenges. Visit our Buy Me a Coffee membership page for a full list of benefits for each level.
Our BMAC members help cover the cost of running the challenges so we can keep them free for everyone!
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 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
- 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
this was my first year doing a challenge and the Decades Challenge was a great way to start. I have loved all the books I’ve chosen from your wonderfully curated lists. And now this December list, well, there is not enough time in the month to read all the books that piqued my interest — for me, it’s the best list of the year! Thank you so much; I’m looking forward to next year’s challenges.
I’m excited for what is coming next year! This is one of my favorite challenges. I’ve done it for the past 3 years.
We’re so excited to have you join us for a 4th year and can’t wait to share the fun little change for Decades in 2023!!!