Books that Span Multiple Decades

by Allison Pataki
Setting: US, late 1800s to 1970s
First published 2022

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, Majorie worked on gluing cereal boxes together for her father, the creator of Grape-Nuts, followed by the successful Post cereal empire. His company led the family to extreme wealth, but Majorie wasn't content to sit at home as American royalty.

While entertaining the rich and famous was part of her life, she also 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.

The Book Girls Say... 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.

by Anderson Cooper and Katherine Howe
Setting: 1860s-2018
First published 2021

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 point of view.

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.

The Book Girls Say... 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.

by Adriana Trigiani
Setting: 1920-2000s, Italy
First published 2022

This novel reminds us of the importance of knowing our family's stories. It begins with 81-year-old Matelda Cabrelli Roffo sitting in the Italian seaside home that's been in her family for three generations and reminiscing about those now gone. As she helps her grandaughter prepare for her wedding day, she begins to share the stories and secrets of the past.

The stories unfold, moving back and forth through time, across Italy, France, and Scotland. Even if you've read many books about WWI and WWII, this multigenerational tale will open your eyes to the impact of these wars on the Italian people.

The Book Girls Say... If you're looking for another multigenerational story set in Europe that looks back at WWII, we recommend The Winemaker's Wife by Kristin Harmel. This dual-timeline novel transports you to Champagne, France in 1940 and New York in 2019.

by Bernardine Evaristo
Setting: England, 1905 to Present Day
First published 2019

This award-winning novel is told from the point of view of 12 British characters, primarily women of color, as they move through the world in different decades - each just a few degrees of separation from each other. Each chapter is told from the perspective of a different character. Despite the overlaps between their stories, the characters are vastly different in their backgrounds, experiences, and the choices they make.

by Crystal Wilkinson
Setting: 1960s-1990s
First published 2016

This novel centers around four generations of Black women in Opulence, Kentucky. Everyone in the rural town knows everyone else's secrets,

Minnie Mae is the matriarch of the Goode-Brown family. A family plagued by inherited mental illness, trauma, and moral judgment.

As the members of the youngest generation watch their mothers and grandmothers pass away, they fear going mad and must fight to survive. 

The Book Girls Say... This historical fiction novel is both tragic and hopeful. Reviewers praise the lyrical quality of the writing and the vibrant descriptions that allow you to experience life through each character's eyes over thirty years.

by Susan Jane Gilman
Setting: New York, 1910s - 1980s
First published 2014

While fleeing Russia in 1913, young Malka Treynovsky is determined to get her family to the United States - the land of opportunity and dreams. After arriving via Ellis Island, her visions of a better life are quickly tattered when the Lower East Side isn’t easy to survive as a Russian Jewish family.

Over the next 70 years, Malka transforms herself into Lillian Dunkle, "The Ice Cream Queen." She creates her own empire, and her story involves notable moments throughout American history.

While her public persona as the Ice Cream Queen seems endearing, it’s largely a facade for a more complex, less-likable woman who was shaped by the challenges of her childhood.

The Book Girls Say...Melissa loves stories that span a lifetime because you can see the evolution of characters and how decisions are impacted by past events. This book is no exception. It’s also a realistic look at immigration in the 1910s and daily life for new immigrants in Manhattan during that period.

Book Girls' Readers Rate This Book ⭐⭐⭐⭐
90% Would Recommend to a Friend

by Cara Wall
Setting: 1950 and multiple decades after
First published 2019

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 about faith led him instead 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 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.

The Book Girls Say… 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.

Book Girls' Readers Rate This Book ⭐⭐⭐⭐
100% Would Recommend to a Friend

by Melanie Benjamin
Setting: US and Europe, 1920-1960s
First published 2013

This historical fiction novel traces the life of Anne Morrow, who was a shy college senior the first time she met 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. Still, despite her intelligence and accomplishments, she remained known as just 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.

Book Girls' Readers Rate This Book ⭐⭐⭐⭐1/2
100% Would Recommend to a Friend

by Beatriz Williams, Lauren Willig, and Karen White
Setting: France, 1914, 1942, 1964
First published 2020

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.

Book Girls' Readers Rate This Book ⭐⭐⭐⭐1/2
100% Would Recommend to a Friend

by Mira Jacob
Setting: 1970s India, 1980s New Mexico, 1990s Seattle
First published 2014

We first meet the Eapen family in 1979 when Thomas visits his mother's home in India. She tries to convince him to stay in India with his young family, but Thomas, a surgeon, has already built a new life for himself in New Mexico. His wife, Kamala, however, would love to stay in India.

In 1998, Thomas' now grown daughter is a photographer living in Seattle. She learns from her mother that her dad is sitting on the porch talking to dead relatives, but she assumes her mom is exaggerating. When she returns home, the situation is much more complicated than her mother lets on. To help her father, they'll all have to come to terms with the family's painful past.

The Book Girls Say... Readers say this is a sad story, but it also has plenty of lighter moments that will put a smile on your face. It's a long book - over 500 pages - so choose this epic when you have plenty of time to cozy up and read.

by Melissa Fu
Setting: 1930s-2000s, China, Taiwan, US
First published 2022

This novel follows three generations of a Chinese family searching for a place to call home. In 1938, Meilin is a young wife with a bright future in China. But when the Japanese army approaches, she is forced to flee with her 4-year-old son Renshu. With nothing but an illustrated scroll that depicts ancient fables, Meilin travels from rural China to Shanghai 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 that the only way to keep his family safe is to shield them from their history.

The Book Girls Say... This multigenerational epic has been compared to Pachinko, which has been extremely popular with our readers, so we have a good feeling that you'll love Peach Blossom Spring.

Book Girls' Readers Rate This Book ⭐⭐⭐⭐1/2
100% Would Recommend to a Friend

by Michael Cunningham
Setting: LA, NYC, England, 1920s, 1940s, 1990s
First published 2000

The Hours is a modern retelling of Virginia Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway that incorporates Woolf as one of three characters in an overlapping story.

As you read, you’ll travel between Woolf in 1920s London, a mother in 1940s suburban LA trying to fit in time to read Mrs. Dalloway, and Clarissa Vaughan in 1990s Manhattan. Each character struggles to reconcile hope and despair in this moving novel.

By Amor Towles
Setting: 1922-1954 Moscow, Russia
First published 2019

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.

The Book Girls Say... This one is high on our want-to-read list because the reviews all rave about the gorgeously descriptive language and the extremely satisfying ending.

Book Girls' Readers Rate This Book ⭐⭐⭐⭐1/2
100% Would Recommend to a Friend

by C.W. Gortner
Setting: France, 1920s-1960s
First published 2015

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 WW2, this book details the decisions that lead to her lasting name recognition. 

The Book Girls Say...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.

by Margot Lee Shetterly
Setting: Hampton, Virginia, 1930s-1960s
First published 2016

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 originally 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 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.

The Book Girls Say... While we always proclaim The Book is Better, in this case we 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 their field was dominated by men and Jim Crow laws also enforced segregation and discrimination against African Americans.

This book is also featured on our list of Non-Fiction Books About Women in History.

by Anne Glenconner
Setting: England, 1930s-1980s
First published 2019

Even the juiciest Hollywood tell-alls have nothing on this royal memoir from Anne Glenconner, who was a friend and official Lady in Waiting to Princess Margaret.

The book covers her full life to date, from teenage years through her late 80s. While Princess Margaret is involved in some of the stories, the book is not directly focused on the royal family. Instead, it's all about Anne's unbelievable life, which was marked by both incredible privilege and extreme tragedy that overlaps some of the major events of the 20th century, including the war on drugs and the AIDs epidemic.

The Book Girls Say... This book is perfect for fans of The Crown, but if that's not your thing, then this book probably won't be, either.

We highly recommend listening to this one as an audiobook because Anne Glenconner narrates it herself and her proper British voice adds magic to the unbelievable stories.

HEADS UP: Don't listen with your kiddos around. Some of the stories go from innocent to risqué with no warning.

by De'Shawn Charles Winslow
Setting: Rural North Carolina, 1941-1987
First published 2019

Azalea “Knot” Centre loves moonshine, literature, and the company of men. But living in the rural African American town of West Mills, North Carolina, in the early 1940s, this lifestyle is not held in high regard. In her 20s, Knot discovers that she’s pregnant and the father has left town for the military.

Ostracized by her relatives and cut off from her hometown, Knot is determined to go it alone. But her neighbor, Otis Lee, is committed to helping Knot because he could not help his own sister. 

This is a story of family, friendship, love, and redemption spanning four decades.

by Clint Hill
Setting: Washington DC, 1950s-1970s
First published 2016

In this memoir, Clint Hill reflects on his seventeen years on the White House Secret Service detail under Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, and Ford. His memoir sheds light on the personalities of five of the most powerful men in the world, and gives a unique insider perspective on many historical events of the 50s, 60s, and 70s.

The Book Girls Say… 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. 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.

by Taylor Jenkins Reid
Setting: Hollywood, 1950s-1980s
First published 2017

In this novel, Taylor Jenkins Reid focuses on a fictional old Hollywood icon instead of a fictional rock band. 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 she's finally ready to document her past at the end of her life, she selects a journalist and details her life from the 1950-1980s, which included seven husbands along the way.

Book Girls' Readers Rate This Book ⭐⭐⭐⭐1/2
98% Would Recommend to a Friend

by Jennifer Weiner
Setting: Detroit, 1950s to Present
First published 2019

Growing up in a picture-perfect house in Detroit in the 1950s, Jo and Bethie are Jewish sisters who each have a clearly defined role in their family. Jo is the bookish tomboy with a strong sense of fairness, and Bethie is the good girl who enjoys the power that comes from her beauty.

The sisters come of age in the 1960s against the backdrop of free love, Vietnam, Woodstock, and feminism. Good-girl Bethie becomes a wild child who is drawn to all things counterculture. On the other hand, Jo follows the expected path and becomes a young wife living in Connecticut - no part of which is true to herself.

Through the decades, neither woman has been leading the life she really wants. Jo sees the world changing, but she’s a witness rather than a participant. Bethie endures many traumas and struggles with how the world sees her versus how she sees herself.

It will take many more years for both sisters to become their true selves finally, and even longer for them to find their way back to one another.

The Book Girls Say… Jo and Bethie are the author's take on Little Woman's sisters, Jo and Beth, and the character of Jo is also based loosely on the author’s mother.

As the title implies, this book has a little of everything, from the fashion and design trends of the times to the most significant topics in American society, including race, religion, politics, and more. This novel also examines much more personal issues like the loss of a parent, sexual orientation, and body image.

Because it covers so much ground, some readers will love joining Jo and Bethie’s world, while others may feel like the 460-page book gets too detailed and goes on a bit too long in parts.

Heads Up: This book includes some scenes of molestation and consensual sex.

by Edward Kelsey Moore
Setting: Indiana, 1960-2000s
First published 2013

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. This book has been described as The Help meets Fried Green Tomatoes with a dash of Steel Magnolias.

Book Girls' Readers Rate This Book ⭐⭐⭐⭐1/2
95% Would Recommend to a Friend

by Chloe Benjamin
Setting: United States, 1969-2010s
First published 2018

In 1969, four siblings from the Gold family sneak out to see a traveling psychic who has arrived in the Lower East Side. She claims to be able to tell each person when they will die, and her fortunes impact the siblings' decisions over the next five decades.

From becoming a Las Vegas magician to an Army doctor, the children grow up to have vastly different lives, but all struggle with the line between destiny and choice in their own way.

by Elin Hilderbrand
Setting: 1993-2020, Nantucket
First published 2020

In 1993, Mallory inherited a beach cottage in Nantucket and decides 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.

The Book Girls Say... This was a 5-star read for both of us! Just keep the Kleenex ready for the ending. Be aware that this book does deal with infidelity.

Book Girls' Readers Rate This Book ⭐⭐⭐⭐
94% Would Recommend to a Friend

by David Nicholls
Setting: Various locations, 1988-Present Day
First published 2010

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.

The book spans 20 years of ups and downs in their individual lives and relationship with each other.

The Book Girls Say... If you loved the yearly updates in 28 Summers, this would be a good pick!