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This website was compiled by
Daniel Immerwahr



The Books of the Century: 1990-1999

1990


Fiction Bestsellers

1. Jean M. Auel, The Plains of Passage

2. Stephen King, Four Past Midnight

3. Scott Turow, The Burden of Proof

4. Sidney Sheldon, Memories of Midnight

5. Danielle Steel, Message from Nam

6. Robert Ludlum, The Bourne Ultimatum

7. Stephen King, The Stand: The Complete and Uncut Edition

8. Jackie Collins, Lady Boss

9. Anne Rice, The Witching Hour

10. Rosamunde Pilcher, September

Critically Acclaimed and Historically Significant

Camille Paglia, Sexual Personae

William Styron, Darkness Visible

Bert Hölldobler and Edward O. Wilson, The Ants

Ron Chernow, The House of Morgan

Judith Butler, Gender Trouble

Mike Davis, City of Quartz

Ian Hacking, The Taming of Chance

James Coleman, Foundations of Social Theory
Tim O’Brien, The Things They Carried

Norman Rush, Mating

Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick, The Epistemology of the Closet

Janet Malcolm, The Journalist and the Murderer


Nonfiction Bestsellers

1. Charles Kuralt, A Life on the Road

2. Geoffrey C. Ward with Ric Burns and Ken Burns, The Civil War

3. Jeff Smith, The Frugal Gourmet on Our Immigrant Heritage: Recipes You Should
Have Gotten from Your Grandmother

4. Better Homes and Gardens New Cook Book

5. Charles J. Givens, Financial Self-Defense: How To Win the Fight for Financial
Freedom

6. John Bradshaw, Homecoming: Reclaiming and Championing Your Inner Child

7. Charles J. Givens, Wealth Without Risk: How To Develop a Personal Fortune
Without Going Out on a Limb

8. Bo Jackson and Dick Schaap, Bo Knows Bo

9. Ronald Reagan, An American Life: An Autobiography

10. John Naisbitt and Patricia Aburdene, Megatrends 2000: Ten New Directions for
the 1990s



1991

Fiction Bestsellers

1. Scarlett: The Sequel to Margaret Mitchell’s “Gone with the Wind”

2. Tom Clancy, The Sum of All Fears

3. Stephen King, Needful Things

4. Danielle Steel, No Greater Love

5. Danielle Steel, Heartbeat

6. Sidney Sheldon, The Doomsday Conspiracy

7. John Grisham, The Firm

8. Ken Follet, Night over Water

9. Barbara Taylor Bradford, Remember

10. Mary Higgins Clark, Loves Music, Loves to Dance

Critically Acclaimed and Historically Significant

Naomi Wolf, The Beauty Myth

Daniel Yergin, The Prize

Patricia J. Williams, The Alchemy of Race and Rights

Dave Foreman, Confessions of an Eco-Warrior
Jonathan Kozol, Savage Inequalities

Alex Kotlowitz, There Are No Children Here

Jane Smiley, A Thousand Acres

Nonfiction Bestsellers

1. Katharine Hepburn, Me: Stories of My Life

2. Kitty Kelley, Nancy Reagan: The Unauthorized Biography

3. Robert Fulghum, Uh-Oh: Some Observations from Both Sides of the Refrigerator
Door

4. Oliver North with William Novak, Under Fire: An American Story

5. Derek Humphry, Final Exit: The Practicalities of Self-Deliverance and Assisted
Suicide for the Dying

6. Erma Bombeck, When You Look Like Your Passport Photo, It’s Time to Go Home

7. Charles J. Givens, More Wealth Without Risk

8. James B. Stewart, Den of Thieves

9. Bill Cosby, Childhood

10. Charles J. Givens, Financial Self-Defense



1992

Fiction Bestsellers

1. Stephen King, Dolores Claiborne

2. John Grisham, The Pelican Brief

3. Stephen King, Gerald’s Game

4. Danielle Steel, Mixed Blessings

5. Danielle Steel, Jewels

6. Sidney Sheldon, The Stars Shine Down

7. Anne Rice, Tale of the Body Thief

8. James A. Michener, Mexico

9. Terry McMillan, Waiting to Exhale

10. Mary Higgins Clark, All Around the Town

Critically Acclaimed and Historically Significant

Francis Fukuyama, The End of History and the Last Man

Michael Ondaatje, The English Patient

Cormac McCarthy, All the Pretty Horses

Christopher R. Browning, Ordinary Men

Al Gore, Earth in the Balance

Edward O. Wilson, The Diversity of Life

Nonfiction Bestsellers

1. Rush Limbaugh, The Way Things Ought To Be

2. Gen. H. Norman Schwarzkopf, It Doesn’t Take a Hero: The Autobiography

3. Naura Hayden, How to Satisfy a Woman Every Time

4. James Herriot, Every Living Thing

5. Marianne Williamson, A Return to Love

6. Sam Walton, Sam Walton: Made in America

7. Andrew Morton, Diana: Her True Story

8. David McCullough, Truman

9. Gail Sheehy, Silent Passage

10. Madonna, Sex



1993

Fiction Bestsellers

1. Robert James Waller, The Bridges of Madison County

2. John Grisham, The Client

3. Robert James Waller, Slow Waltz at Cedar Bend

4. Tom Clancy, Without Remorse

5. Stephen King, Nightmares and Dreamscapes

6. Danielle Steel, Vanished

7. Anne Rice, Lasher

8. Scott Turow, Pleading Guilty

9. Laura Esquivel, Like Water for Chocolate

10. Robert Ludlum, The Scorpio Illusion

Critically Acclaimed and Historically Significant

Anne Lamont, Operating Intstructions

John Rawls, Political Liberalism

Cornel West, Race Matters

George Chauncey, Gay New York

Edward Said, Culture and Imperialism

Robert Putnam et al., Making Democracy Work

Annie Proulx, The Shipping News

Nonfiction Bestsellers

1. Rush Limbaugh, See, I Told You So

2. Howard Stern, Private Parts

3. Jerry Seinfeld, Seinlanguage

4. Betty J. Eadie with Curtis Taylor, Embraced by the Light

5. Deepak Chopra, Ageless Body, Timeless Mind

6. Susan Powter, Stop the Insanity

7. Clarissa Pinkola Estes, Women Who Run with the Wolves

8. John Gray, Men Are from Mars, Women are From Venus

9. Elizabeth Marshall Thomas, The Hidden Life of Dogs

10. Harvey Penick with Bud Shrake, And If You Play Golf, You’re My Friend



1994

Fiction Bestsellers

1. John Grisham, The Chamber

2. Tom Clancy, Debt of Honor

3. James Redfield, The Celestine Prophecy

4. Danielle Steel, The Gift

5. Steven King, Insomnia

6. James Finn Garner, Politically Correct Bedtime Stories

7. Danielle Steel, Wings

8. Danielle Steel, Accident

9. Robert James Waller, The Bridges of Madison County

10. Michael Crichton, Disclosure

Critically Acclaimed and Historically Significant

Richard Feynmann, Six Easy Pieces

Homi Bhabha, The Location of Culture

George Chauncey, Gay New York

Richard J. Herrnstein and Charles Murray, The Bell Curve

Nonfiction Bestsellers

1. Rosie Daley, In the Kitchen with Rosie

2. John Gray, Men Are from Mars, Women are From Venus

3. John Paul II, Crossing the Threshold of Hope

4. N.E. Thing Enterprises, Magic Eye I

5. William J. Bennett, The Book of Virtues

6. N.E. Thing Enterprises, Magic Eye II

7. Betty J. Eadie with Curtis Taylor, Embraced by the Light

8. Tim Allen, Don’t Stand Too Close to a Naked Man

9. Paul Reiser, Couplehood

10. N.E. Thing Enterprises, Magic Eye III



1995

Fiction Bestsellers

1. John Grisham, The Rainmaker

2. Michael Crichton, The Lost World

3. Danielle Steel, Five Days in Paris

4. Richard Paul Evans, The Christmas Box

5. Danielle Steel, Lightning

6. James Redfield, The Celestine Prophecy

7. Stephen King, Rose Madder

8. Mary Higgins Clark, Silent Night

9. James Finn Garner, Politically Correct Holiday Stories

10. Nicholas Evans, The Horse Whisperer

Critically Acclaimed and Historically Significant

Carl Sagan, The Demon-Haunted World

Richard Ford, Independence Day

Nelson Mandela, Long Walk to Freedom

Barack Obama, Dreams from My Father

Nonfiction Bestsellers

1. John Gray, Men Are from Mars, Women are From Venus

2. Colin Powell, My American Journey

3. Howard Stern, Miss America

4. Deepak Chopra, The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success

5. Bill Gates, The Road Ahead

6. Charles Kuralt, Charles Kuralt’s America

7. John Gray, Mars and Venus in the Bedroom

8. Newt Gingrich, To Renew America

9. Ellen DeGeneres, My Point...and I Do Have One

10. William J. Bennett, The Moral Compass



1996

Fiction Bestsellers

1. John Grisham, The Runaway Jury

2. Tom Clancy, Executive Orders

3. Stephen King, Desperation

4. Michael Crichton, Airframe

5. Richard Bachman, The Regulators

6. Danielle Steel, Malice

7. Danielle Steel, Silent Honor

8. Anonymous, Primary Colors

9. Patricia Cornwell, Cause of Death

10. James Redfield, The Tenth Insight

Critically Acclaimed and Historically Significant

David Foster Wallace, Infinite Jest

Samuel P. Huntington, The Clash of Civilizations

Daniel Dennett, Darwin’s Dangerous Idea
Richard Dawkins, Climbing Mount Improbable

Manuel Castells, The Rise of the Network Society

Nonfiction Bestsellers

1. Oprah Winfrey, and Bob Greene Hyperion, Make the Connection

2. John Gray, Men Are from Mars, Women are From Venus

3. Scott Adams, The Dilbert Principle

4. Sarah Ban Breathnach, Simple Abundance

5. Barry Sears with Bill Lawren, The Zone

6. Dennis Rodman, Bad As I Wanna Be

7. Christopher Darden, In Contempt

8. Walter Cronkite, A Reporter’s Life

9. Scott Adams, Dogbert’s Top Secret Management Handbook

10. Ekaterina Gordeeva with E. M. Swift, My Sergei: A Love Story



1997

Fiction Bestsellers

1. John Grisham, The Partner

2. Charles Frazier, Cold Mountain

3. Danielle Steel, The Ghost

4. Danielle Steel, The Ranch

5. Danielle Steel, Special Delivery

6. Patricia Cornwell, Unnatural Exposure

7. Sidney Sheldon, The Best Laid Plans

8. Mary Higgins Clark, Pretend You Don’t See Her

9. James Patterson, Cat & Mouse

10. Patricia Cornwell, Hornet’s Nest

Critically Acclaimed and Historically Significant

Don DeLillo, Underworld

Philip Roth, American Pastoral

Jared Diamond, Guns, Germs, and Steel

Nonfiction Bestsellers

1. Frank McCourt, Angela’s Ashes

2. Sarah Ban Breathnach, Simple Abundance

3. John Berendt, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil

4. Kitty Kelley, The Royals

5. Irma S. Rombauer, Marion Rombauer Becker, and Ether Becker, Joy of Cooking

6. Andrew Morton, Diana: Her True Story

7. Jon Krakauer, Into Thin Air

8. Neale Donald Walsch, Conversations with God, Book 1

9. John Gray, Men are from Mars, Women are From Venus

10. Andrew Weil, Eight Weeks to Optimum Health



1998

Fiction Bestsellers

1. John Grisham, The Street Lawyer

2. Tom Clancy, Rainbow Six

3. Stephen King, Bag of Bones

4. Tom Wolfe, A Man in Full

5. Danielle Steel, Mirror Image

6. Danielle Steel, The Long Road Home

7. Danielle Steel, The Klone and I

8. Patricia Cornwell, Point of Origin

9. Toni Morrison, Paradise

10. Mary Higgins Clark, All Through the Night

Critically Acclaimed and Historically Significant

James C. Scott, Seeing Like a State

Michael Cunningham, The Hours

Toni Morrison, Paradise

Michael Frayn, Copenhagen

Richard Rorty, Achieving Our Country

Michael J. Sandel, Democracy’s Discontent

Nonfiction Bestsellers

1. Suze Orman, The 9 Steps to Financial Freedom

2. Tom Brokaw, The Greatest Generation

3. H. Leighton Steward, Morrison C. Bethea, Sam S. Andrews, and Luis A. Balart,
Sugar Busters!

4. Mitch Albom, Tuesdays with Morrie

5. The Guinness Book of Records 1999

6. James Van Praagh, Talking to Heaven

7. Sarah Ban Breathnach, Something More: Excavating Your Authentic Self

8. Iyanla Vanzant, In the Meantime

9. Jimmy Buffett, A Pirate Looks at Fifty

10. Cherie Carter-Scott, If Life Is a Game These Are the Rules



1999

Fiction Bestsellers

1. John Grisham, The Testament

2. Thomas Harris, Hannibal

3. Jerry B. Jenkins and Tim LaHaye, Assassins

4. Terry Brooks, Star Wars: Episode 1, The Phantom Menace

5. Michael Crichton, Timeline

6. Stephen King, Hearts in Atlantis

7. Jerry B. Jenkins and Tim LaHaye, Apollyon

8. Stephen King, The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon

9. Danielle Steel, Irresistible Forces

10. Maeve Binchy, Tara Road

Critically Acclaimed and Historically Significant

John Rawls, The Law of Peoples

Brian Greene, The Elegant Universe

Ha Jin, Waiting

Jhumpa Lahiri, Interpreter of Maladies

Amartya Sen, Development as Freedom

Nonfiction Bestsellers

1. Mitch Albom, Tuesdays with Morrie

2. Tom Brokaw, The Greatest Generation

3. Guiness World Records 2000 Millennium Edition

4. Frank McCourt, ‘Tis

5. Spencer Johnson, Who Moved My Cheese?

6. Suze Orman, The Courage to be Rich

7. Tom Brokaw, The Greatest Generation Speaks

8. H. Leighton Steward, Morrison C. Bethea, Sam S. Andrews, and Luis A. Balart,
Sugar Busters!

9. Dalai Lama and Howard Cutler, The Art of Happiness

10. Peter Jennings and Todd Brewster, The Century