PEOPLE Picks the Best Books From the 1970s, Including Judy Blume and Joan Didion

Mar. 15, 2025

Best books from the 1970’s.

No matter how old you are, we’ve all got those books that have made a lasting impression on us. Whether it’s the book your mom read to you at night when you were a kid, one a beloved English teacher introduced you to or one that opened your mind and heart at an important point, some books really stand the test of time.In celebration of 50 years of PEOPLE, we polled our staff about the books from decades past that made a difference in their lives or the culture at large. Here are our picks from the 1970s.

No matter how old you are, we’ve all got those books that have made a lasting impression on us. Whether it’s the book your mom read to you at night when you were a kid, one a beloved English teacher introduced you to or one that opened your mind and heart at an important point, some books really stand the test of time.

In celebration of 50 years of PEOPLE, we polled our staff about the books from decades past that made a difference in their lives or the culture at large. Here are our picks from the 1970s.

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Vintage

This blistering report from the front lines of the Vietnam War brought readers right into the trenches. In frank day-to-day retellings of what was happening on the ground, it brought the war closer to home for many Americans than it had ever been before.

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Harper Perennial

Haven’t read the book version? Inconceivable! Many readers may not realize that the 1987 cult classic filmThe Princess Bridewas a book first. If you love following the adventures of Buttercup, Wesley and crew onscreen, give the original a try.

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Atheneum Books for Young Readers

Generations of young people have cherished this coming-of-age book about a girl named Margaret who’s learning how to be in the world — and her changing body — with the help of a small group of girls and a special relationship with the big man upstairs. It’s a classic for a reason, and worth a reread.

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FSG Adult

Charles Manson, the Black Panthers, the rise of mall culture — this must-read from one of the best cultural critics and essayists America ever produced is both a journey through the swinging 60’s and Didion’s own stunning mind.

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Adolescent angst and the foibles and follies that come with it have been a mainstay of fiction since the form began, and this one’s a prime example. Our painfully real protagonist is getting ready to head off to Oxford, fighting with his father, trying to get a girl — it’s a tale as old as time, and a good one.

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Ecco

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Simon & Schuster

This is the story of how twoWashington Postreporters broke theWatergate scandal— in all its dramatic, gutsy glory. Pick up the 50th anniversary edition with a new foreword that explains what Watergate means today.

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Da Capo Press

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Now a household name in horror, Stephen King burst onto the scene with this deeply unsettling novel about a girl who’s bullied at school and retaliates in a way that’s terrified generations of readers ever since.

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W. W. Norton & Company

The brutal Manson murders shocked the nation in the summer of 1969, and this definitive account of the gumshoe detective work that broke open the case, the prosecutor’s take on the complex murder trial and the fervor Manson inspired in his followers makes for a gripping true crime that more or less defined the genre.

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‘Go Ask Alice’.Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers

Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers

This uncredited account of one teenage girl’s descent into addiction is a classic cautionary tale that’s horrified decades of parents, teachers and anyone who knows or loves a teen. While it hassince been debunked as a hoax, its impact on literature and society can’t be understated.

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Dial Press Trade Paperback

Speaking of truth and fiction, when writer Kilgore Trout realizes a Midwest car dealer is mistaking his made-up tales for real ones, we embark on a rollicking journey of war, sex, racism, success, politics and pollution that reminds us all to trust, but verify.

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HarperCollins

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Penguin Books

If you haven’t read a le Carré novel, are you even a spy fiction fan? The title of this one says it all: a Soviet mole has penetrated the highest level of British Intelligence and George Smiley can trust only his wits and a handful of friends to help him set a trap to catch the traitor and foil his Moscow Centre nemesis.

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Random House Trade Paperbacks

Blurring the lines between fictional characters and real lives, this tour de force sees Harry Houdini crash his car into a telephone pole outside an affluent family’s home. Henry Ford, Emma Goldman, J. P. Morgan, Evelyn Nesbit, Sigmund Freud and more appear in this ambitious tale that captures the spirit of midcentury America on the page.

source: people.com