VPL - Retro Reads - Books Published in the 1980sLike this list

24 items

• The Name of the Rose

  Eco, Umberto

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  1980 "The Name of the Rose, which sold 50 million copies worldwide, is an experimental medieval whodunit set in a monastic library. In 1327, Brother William of Baskerville arrives to investigate heresy among the monks in an Italian abbey; a series…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Cosmos

  Sagan, Carl, 1934-1996

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  1980 "Cosmos is one of the bestselling science books of all time. In clear-eyed prose, Sagan reveals a jewel-like blue world inhabited by a life form that is just beginning to discover its own identity and to venture into the vast ocean of space. "…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• What We Talk About When We Talk About Love

  Carver, Raymond, 1938-1988

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  1981 "Carver establishes his reputation as one of the most celebrated short-story writers in American literature--a haunting meditation on love, loss, and companionship, and finding one's way through the dark." -- Publilsher

• Obasan

  Kogawa, Joy

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  1981 "A powerful and passionate novel, Obasan tells, through the eyes of a child, the moving story of Japanese Canadians during the Second World War. Naomi is a sheltered and beloved five-year-old when Pearl Harbor changes her life. Separated from…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• The Color Purple

  Walker, Alice, 1944-

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  1982 "Of the black feminist classics of the period, Walker's garnered the most prestige - a National Book Award and Pulitzer Prize - and controversy. Set in 1930s rural Georgia, the story shows a black woman finding happiness beyond abusive black…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Women, Race & Class

  Davis, Angela Y. (Angela Yvonne), 1944-

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  1982 "A study of the women's liberation movement in the U.S., from abolitionist days to the present, that demonstrates how it has always been hampered by the racist and classist biases of its leaders." -- Publisher

• The Tao of Pooh

  Hoff, Benjamin, 1946-

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  1982 "The how of Pooh? The Tao of who? The Tao of Pooh!?! In which it is revealed that one of the world's great Taoist masters isn't Chinese--or a venerable philosopher--but is in fact none other that that effortlessly calm, still, reflective bear.…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• The Colour of Magic

  Pratchett, Terry

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  1983 The first in Terry Pratchett's wonderful Discworld series, set on a disc-shaped world being carried through space on the backs of four elephants who themselves are standing on the back of a giant turtle.

• Neuromancer

  Gibson, William, 1948-

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  1984 "The novel that launched the cyberpunk generation, heralded the coming of the internet, and won the Hugo, Nebula and Philip K Dick awards. The Matrix: a world within a world, a graphic representation of the databanks of every computer in the…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• The Handmaid's Tale

  Atwood, Margaret, 1939-

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  1985 "In this multi-award-winning, bestselling novel, Margaret Atwood has created a stunning Orwellian vision of the near future. ... Provocative, startling, prophetic, and with Margaret Atwood’s devastating irony, wit, and acute perceptive powers…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• The Cider House Rules

  a Novel

  Irving, John, 1942-

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  1985 "Raised from birth in the orphanage at St. Cloud's, Maine, Homer Wells has become the protege of Dr. Wilbur Larch, its physician and director. There Dr. Larch cares for the troubled mothers who seek his help, either by delivering and taking in…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit

  Winterson, Jeanette, 1959-

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  1985 A witty and lyrical coming-of-age story about an adventurous and curious girl whose evangelical mother is trying to protect her from temptation. 'Witty... extraordinary and exhilarating' The Times

• White Noise

  DeLillo, Don

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  1985 "Jack Gladney, a professor of Nazi history at a Middle American liberal arts school, and his family try to handle normal family life as a black cloud of lethal gaseous fumes threatens their town." --Publisher

• Maus

  a Survivor's Tale

  Spiegelman, Art

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  1986 "The Pulitzer Prize-winning graphic novel acclaimed as "the most affecting and successful narrative ever done about the Holocaust" ( Wall Street Journal ) and "the first masterpiece in comic book history" ( The New Yorker ). A brutally moving…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• The Prince of Tides

  Conroy, Pat

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  1986 When Tom Wingo’s twin sister, Savannah, tries to kill herself in New York City, he meets with her psychiatrist to delve into the family’s tragic history in South Carolina.

• And the Band Played on

  Politics, People, and the AIDS Epidemic

  Shilts, Randy

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  1987 "An exhaustive account of the early years of the AIDS crisis, this outlines the medical, social and political forces behind the epidemic's origin and rapid spread with a clarity and narrative drive that should appeal to an audience far broader…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• The Bonfire of the Vanities

  Wolfe, Tom

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  1987 "One night in the Bronx a millionaire, Sherman McCoy, and his mistress have an accident. The next day a young Black is in hospital in a coma as McCoy heads for disaster. His humiliation is at the centre of a satire on the decaying class, racial…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• The Songlines

  Chatwin, Bruce, 1940-1989

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  1987 This is Chatwin’s classic account of a voyage to Australia taken for the express purpose of researching Aboriginal song and its connections to nomadic travel. Encounters with Australians, many of them indigenous, provide insights into…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Beloved

  Morrison, Toni, 1931-2019

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  1987 "Set in post-Civil War Ohio, this Pulitzer Prize-winning novel concerns a runaway slave and her daughter, whose lives are disrupted by a former slave, a spirit and a woman named Beloved....this brilliantly conceived story . . . should not be…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• The Satanic Verses

  Rushdie, Salman

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  1988 "Inextricably linked with the fatwa called against its author in the wake of the novel's publication, The Satanic Verses is, beyond that, a rich showcase for Salman Rushdie's comic sensibilities, cultural observations, and unparalleled mastery…Read moreRead more of this annotation