Were you, like me, misplaced in time? Do you have an inner mid-20th century housewife or man-in-a-gray-flannel-suit? Do you long for the style and culture of the 1930s, 40s and 50s with a smattering of the 20s and early 60s mixed in? Pull up a chair, mix yourself that Tom Collins and tune up the hi-fi...time for Retro Reads. (I have not really put them in order of favorites and I have not yet read all these titles myself. I added titles as I thought of them.)
1

by
3.93 avg rating — 92,960 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
2

by
3.93 avg rating — 5,836,531 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
3

by
4.26 avg rating — 6,799,974 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
4

by
3.85 avg rating — 250,076 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
5

by
3.87 avg rating — 935,689 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
6

by
4.03 avg rating — 985,577 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
7

by
4.05 avg rating — 1,195,780 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
8

by
3.59 avg rating — 63,169 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
9

by
4.44 avg rating — 624,450 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
9

by
4.06 avg rating — 152,598 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
11

by
3.99 avg rating — 9,292 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
12

by
3.86 avg rating — 76,703 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
13

by
3.89 avg rating — 2,799,845 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
14

by
really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 125,695 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
15

by
4.40 avg rating — 460,052 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
16

by
3.78 avg rating — 26,815 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
17

by
4.06 avg rating — 7,769 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
18

by
3.70 avg rating — 3,165,606 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
19

by
3.61 avg rating — 444,891 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
20

by
4.14 avg rating — 1,574,864 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
21

by
3.68 avg rating — 17,214 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
22

by
3.81 avg rating — 13,317 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
23

by
3.86 avg rating — 21,680 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
24

by
4.21 avg rating — 3,382 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
25

by
3.69 avg rating — 24,749 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
26

by
4.08 avg rating — 18,051 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
27

by
4.30 avg rating — 507,711 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
28

by
4.08 avg rating — 105,881 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
29

by
really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 2,726 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
30

by
3.64 avg rating — 30,659 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
31

by
3.90 avg rating — 152,035 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
32

by
3.94 avg rating — 48 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
33

by
3.56 avg rating — 889 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
34

by
4.24 avg rating — 697 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
35

by
4.24 avg rating — 61,829 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
36

by
4.14 avg rating — 1,019 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
37

by
4.12 avg rating — 19,231 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
38

by
3.88 avg rating — 3,733 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
39

by
3.56 avg rating — 2,850 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
40

by
4.17 avg rating — 194,606 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
41

by
3.89 avg rating — 3,006 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
42

by
3.65 avg rating — 77,563 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
43

by
3.98 avg rating — 18,447 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
44

by
4.04 avg rating — 1,484 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
45

by
4.12 avg rating — 299 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
46

by
4.20 avg rating — 8,912 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
47

by
3.99 avg rating — 94 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
47

by
3.76 avg rating — 16,578 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
49

by
3.88 avg rating — 28,927 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
50

by
4.09 avg rating — 1,913 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
51

by
4.04 avg rating — 210,759 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
52

by
3.97 avg rating — 742 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
53

by
4.20 avg rating — 720,138 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
54

by
3.70 avg rating — 24,043 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
54

by
3.94 avg rating — 66,317 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
56

by
3.91 avg rating — 439 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
57

by
3.99 avg rating — 363 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
58

by
3.63 avg rating — 2,257 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
59

by
3.82 avg rating — 7,798 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
60

by
4.13 avg rating — 196,968 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
61

by
4.19 avg rating — 38,544 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
62

by
4.26 avg rating — 163 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
63

by
4.71 avg rating — 7 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
63

by
3.75 avg rating — 8 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
65

by
3.99 avg rating — 88,616 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
66

by
3.80 avg rating — 26,200 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
67

by
3.89 avg rating — 434 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
68

by
3.86 avg rating — 5,584 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
69

by
3.92 avg rating — 79,117 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
70

by
3.99 avg rating — 383,163 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
71

by
4.48 avg rating — 189 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
72

by
4.49 avg rating — 3,465 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
73

by
3.63 avg rating — 111 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
73

by
3.86 avg rating — 5,228 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
75

by
4.01 avg rating — 84,681 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
76

by
3.83 avg rating — 7,752 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
77

by
3.67 avg rating — 11,490 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
78

by
3.78 avg rating — 3,671 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
79

by
4.37 avg rating — 359 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
80

by
4.15 avg rating — 133,007 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
81

by
4.50 avg rating — 1,443 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
82

by
4.49 avg rating — 1,171 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
83

by
4.18 avg rating — 36,747 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
84

by
3.98 avg rating — 1,967 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
85

by
4.20 avg rating — 1,314 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
86

by
4.10 avg rating — 4,689 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
87

by
3.97 avg rating — 16,475 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
88

by
4.17 avg rating — 4,052 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
89

by
4.01 avg rating — 657 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
90

by
4.08 avg rating — 1,883 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
91

by
4.14 avg rating — 3,471 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
92

by
4.20 avg rating — 3,520 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
93

by
4.18 avg rating — 4,221 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
94

by
4.20 avg rating — 3,231 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
95

by
4.20 avg rating — 3,099 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
96

by
4.12 avg rating — 3,734 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
97

by
4.10 avg rating — 5,165 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
98

by
4.22 avg rating — 5,701 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
99

by
4.10 avg rating — 6,135 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
100

by
3.92 avg rating — 15,633 ratings
Rate this book
Clear rating
163 books · 133 voters · list created July 25th, 2008 by Lori (votes) .
60 likes · 
Lists are re-scored approximately every 5 minutes.


Lori 1680 books
111 friends
Susanna - Censored by GoodReads 3386 books
852 friends
Rindis 2662 books
82 friends
Antoine 949 books
177 friends
Eli 4 books
2 friends
Aaron 15 books
2 friends
Daniel 440 books
688 friends
Shauna 1132 books
102 friends

More voters…


Comments Showing 1-4 of 4 (4 new)

dateUp arrow    newest »

Themis-Athena (Lioness at Large) Since "American" is one of the tags you used for this list, I take it it's to be "mid-20th century-American" only ... not also "European" or "Latin American"?


message 2: by Lori (new)

Lori That was actually rather limiting wasn't it? I am not really familiar with the retro reads from Latin America and the only European I have passing familiarity with are British. For me, separate lists from Europe and Latin America would be useful.

Lori


Themis-Athena (Lioness at Large) Yes, I agree that separate lists for other parts of the world would make sense. Was just wondering what books such as "Katherine" and "The World of Suzie Wong" were doing on this one then ... or is this simply because they were written in the time period covered?


message 4: by Lori (new)

Lori I think I was just tossing up some titles that I was aware of. (I did this 2 years ago...when I first joined Goodreads.) And...I didn't put all the titles up. Others have added to the list. It is kind of a free-for-all. I am in the middle of another big project right now and have not really spent time with this list the way I would like.

However...I would love to do something with more obscure 'popular fiction' from the mid 20th century (not necessarily 'famous' or 'literary' titles). Last I looked, my down town library still had quite a few of these older popular titles on the shelf and I would love to rescue some of them from obscurity.


back to top



Related News

As you might expect, we are book people here at Goodreads World Headquarters—rather intense book people, actually. And when the holidays roll...

Anyone can add books to this list.