Books Set in the '70s: Recommendations for Read More 2025Like this list

20 items

• Crook Manifesto

  a Novel

  Whitehead, Colson, 1969-

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  A furniture store owner and ex-grifter leaves the straight and narrow path when he needs Jackson 5 tickets for his daughter in 1971 Manhattan.

• The Vanishing Half

  Bennett, Brit,

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  Two mixed-race identical twins reevaluate their choices as one raises a black daughter in their southern hometown while the other passes for white with a husband who is unaware of her heritage.

• The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store

  McBride, James, 1957-

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  When a skeleton is unearthed in the small, close-knit community of Chicken Hill, Pennsylvania, in 1972, a group living on the margins of white, Christian America—closely guard a secret.

• One Last Stop

  McQuiston, Casey,

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  23-year-old August develops a crush on Jane, a girl on the subway, and soon discovers Jane is literally displaced in time from the 1970s and must find a way to help her by confronting her own past.

• Small Mercies

  a Novel

  Lehane, Dennis,

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  In 1974 Boston, as a heatwave blankets the city, Mary Pat Fennessey, in a desperate search for her missing daughter, asks questions that bother Marty Butler, chieftain of the Irish mob.

• Farewell, Amethystine

  Mosley, Walter,

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  Los Angeles detective Easy Rawlins investigates when the ex-husband of his ex-lover, Amethystine Stoller, turns up dead and his only friend at the LAPD goes into hiding.

• Velvet Was the Night

  Moreno-Garcia, Silvia,

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  In 1970s Mexico City, Maite, a secretary with a penchant for romance novels, searches for her missing neighbor, Leonora, a beautiful art student, which leads her to an eccentric gangster who longs to escape his own life.

• Everything I Never Told You

  Ng, Celeste

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  Ng explores the fallout of the drowning death of Lydia Lee, the favorite daughter of a Chinese-American family in 1970s Ohio.

• Take My Hand

  Perkins-Valdez, Dolen,

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  Montgomery, Alabama, 1973. Fresh out of nursing school, Civil Townsend intends to make a difference, especially in her African American community. At the Family Planning Clinic, she's shocked to find that her first patients are children.

• Daisy Jones & the Six

  a Novel

  Reid, Taylor Jenkins,

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  Two rising 70s rock-and-roll artists are catapulted into stardom when a producer puts them together, a decision that is complicated by a pregnancy and the seductions of fame.

• The Sympathizer

  Nguyen, Viet Thanh, 1971-

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  A Viet Cong agent spies on a South Vietnamese army general and his compatriots as they start a new life in 1975 Los Angeles.

• Looking for Jane

  Marshall, Heather (Heather J.),

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  A woman discovers a mysterious letter with a life-shattering confession, and her search for the recipient leads her back to the 1970s when a group of brave women operated an illegal, underground abortion network in Toronto.

• Bright Young Women

  Knoll, Jessica,

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  In 1978, Tina, when two women vanish without a trace, believes they are targets of a serial killer Killer and heads to the Sunshine State where she is on a collision course with one last impending tragedy.

• The Final Revival of Opal & Nev

  a Novel

  Walton, Dawnie,

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  Accepting a contract from a fledgling record company, a talented music artist in early 1970s New York endures racist responses to her activism, before a reunion interview decades later reveals explosive secrets.

• Ziggy, Stardust & Me

  Brandon, James (Young adult author),

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  Set against the tumultuous backdrop of life in 1973, when homosexuality is still considered a mental illness, two boys defy all the odds and fall in love.

• Sparks Like Stars

  a Novel

  Hashimi, Nadia,

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  Adopted from Afghanistan 40 years earlier by an American diplomat in the aftermath of a coup and assassination, Aryana has a chance encounter with the soldier who saved her life and killed her family.

• Let the Great World Spin

  a Novel

  McCann, Colum, 1965-

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  In 1974 Manhattan, a young Irish monk struggles with personal demons while making his home among Bronx prostitutes, a group of mothers sharing grief over their lost soldier sons, and a young grandmother attempting to prove her worth.

• Joyland

  King, Stephen, 1947-

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  Set in a North Carolina amusement park in 1973 during the summer college student Devin Jones comes to work as a carny and confronts the legacy of a vicious murder, the fate of a dying child, and the ways both will change his life forever.

• Sons and Daughters of Ease and Plenty

  Ausubel, Ramona,

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  Labor Day, 1976, Martha's Vineyard. Summering at the family beach house, Fern and Edgar—married with children—are preparing for a family birthday celebration when they learn that the unimaginable has occurred: There is no more money.

• Adult Summer Reading 2025

  View on bpl.org

  Visit our webpage to learn more about the Adult Summer Reading Program, which runs from June 1 to August 31.