My favorite books that remind you what it was like to come of age in the '60s and '90s

Why am I passionate about this?

As an author of historical fiction, I have a number of time periods that I go back to again and again. Both the 1960s (specifically, the late 1960s) and the 1990s are two of those eras that I just can’t get enough of. The parallels between these two time periods are very compelling: both were times of political upheaval and amazing music, with young people leading the charge, hoping to create a better world than the one they were disenchanted with. 


I wrote...

So Long, Bobby

By Lillah Lawson,

Book cover of So Long, Bobby

What is my book about?

Three generations of women face hardship and upheaval in the decades we wistfully remember – the tumultuous 1960s, grunge-soaked 1990s, and the uncertain present-day times of political upheaval, heartfelt music, and steadfast dreams. It is a story about how inherited trauma can break down whole families, how addiction can destroy, how not living your truth can sink you in despair...but how hope can always carry you back into the light.

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The books I picked & why

Book cover of The War on All Fronts

Lillah Lawson Why did I love this book?

A wonderful coming-of-age novel set against the tumultuous backdrop of the Vietnam War.

Two young men are lucky enough to find kindred spirits in one another and then suddenly, they are wrenched apart one off to college in Wisconsin, and the other drafted off to fight in the Vietnam War.

The two men take up a correspondence, leaning on each other and sharing their thoughts, fears, hopes, and dreams through the only avenue available to them: the written word. Their letters are a lifeline for both.

This novel is a journey through the heart and mind of two young disillusioned men who learn all about friendship and love through letters, finding themselves again through each other.

By Kim Oclon,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The War on All Fronts as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

An LGBTQ coming of age story about fighting for someone you love, brought to life in this Vietnam War era historical fiction.

It seemed as though Anthony and Sam had just found each other, and now they were already being torn apart. Sam to college in Wisconsin; Anthony across the world fighting in the Vietnam War. Through their separate journeys, they discover themselves, and rely on the one way to share their secret together. Corresponding with secret messages, scary truths, and fears about the war, readers will follow Anthony and Sam’s path to friendship, love, and survival.


Book cover of Sing Backwards and Weep

Lillah Lawson Why did I love this book?

This non-fiction work is the definitive grunge memoir, told in stark – sometimes funny, sometimes heartbreaking – detail.

Lanegan is candid and honest about his own struggles as well as those of his music colleagues and friends like Layne Staley, Kurt Cobain, and others, always keeping their humanity at the forefront.

A must-read for anyone interested in the grunge scene of the Seattle ‘90s. 

By Mark Lanegan,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Sing Backwards and Weep as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER

"Mark Lanegan-primitive, brutal, and apocalyptic. What's not to love?" Nick Cave

"A stoned cold classic" Ian Rankin

"Powerfully written and brutally, frighteningly honest" Lucinda Williams

From the back of the van to the front of the bar, from the hotel room to the emergency room, onstage, backstage, and everywhere in between, Sing Backwards and Weep reveals the abrasive reality beneath one of the most romanticized decades in rock history-from a survivor who lived to tell the tale.

When Mark Lanegan first arrived in Seattle in the mid-1980s, he was just "an arrogant, self-loathing redneck waster seeking…


Book cover of Her Sister's Tattoo

Lillah Lawson Why did I love this book?

A tale of close sisters who find themselves at odds as their belief systems are challenged during the height of the Vietnam War; their lives deviating from one another as their priorities change.

A poignant novel about how even the strongest of familial relationships can be torn asunder in times of turmoil and upheaval, but how the purest love can bring them back together again.

By Ellen Meeropol,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Her Sister's Tattoo as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Rosa and Esther march through downtown Detroit in August 1968 to protest the war in Vietnam. When a bloodied teenager reports that mounted police are beating protestors a few blocks away, the young women hurry to offer assistance. They try to stop the violence, but an officer is injured and the sisters are arrested. Rosa sees an opportunity to protest the war in court. Esther has an infant daughter and wants to avoid prison, which means accepting a plea bargain and testifying against her sister. Told from multiple points of view and through the sisters' never-mailed letters, Her Sister's Tattoo…


Book cover of 11/22/63

Lillah Lawson Why did I love this book?

Deftly blending sci-fi with historical fiction, 11/22/63 is arguably one of King’s best works.

The novel tells the story of a diner owner who has become obsessed with President John F. Kennedy and his assassination, and the young teacher who becomes ensnared in his delusional and impossible plan: to go back in time and stop Lee Harvey Oswald from killing him.

At times touching, at times devastating, and often scary, 11/22/63 is a wholly unique novel.

By Stephen King,

Why should I read it?

12 authors picked 11/22/63 as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Now a major TV series from JJ Abrams and Stephen King, starring James Franco (Hulu US, Fox UK and Europe, Stan Australia, SKY New Zealand).

WHAT IF you could go back in time and change the course of history? WHAT IF the watershed moment you could change was the JFK assassination? 11.22.63, the date that Kennedy was shot - unless . . .

King takes his protagonist Jake Epping, a high school English teacher from Lisbon Falls, Maine, 2011, on a fascinating journey back to 1958 - from a world of mobile phones and iPods to a new world of…


Book cover of My Beautiful Hippie

Lillah Lawson Why did I love this book?

A sweet story of a young woman named Joanne, coming of age in California during the height of the Flower Power movement, who meets and falls in love with a “hippie”, much to the chagrin of her parents.

Martin introduces her to a world of drugs, protests, and music, and her life will never be the same. 

By Janet Nichols Lynch,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked My Beautiful Hippie as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

It's 1967 and fifteen-year-old Joanne's San Francisco neighborhood of Haight-Ashbury has become inundated with hippies for the "Summer of Love," which thrills her but appalls the rest of her family. In the midst of preparations for her sister's wedding, Joanne meets Martin, an enigmatic and irresistible hippie, and begins to see him secretly. Over the course of the next year, Joanne discovers a world of drugs, antiwar demonstrations, and psychedelic dances that both fascinates and frightens her. As this world collides with her family's values, Joanne must decide whether to stay with her middle-class family and pursue her love of…


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I Meant to Tell You

By Fran Hawthorne,

Book cover of I Meant to Tell You

Fran Hawthorne Author Of I Meant to Tell You

New book alert!

Why am I passionate about this?

Author Museum guide Foreign language student Runner Community activist Former health-care journalist

Fran's 3 favorite reads in 2023

What is my book about?

When Miranda’s fiancé, Russ, is being vetted for his dream job in the U.S. attorney’s office, the couple joke that Miranda’s parents’ history as antiwar activists in the Sixties might jeopardize Russ’s security clearance. In fact, the real threat emerges when Russ’s future employer discovers that Miranda was arrested for felony kidnapping seven years earlier—an arrest she’d never bothered to tell Russ about.

Miranda tries to explain that she was only helping her best friend, in the midst of a nasty custody battle, take her daughter to visit her parents in Israel. As Miranda struggles to prove that she’s not a criminal, she stumbles into other secrets that will challenge what she thought she knew about her own family, her friend, Russ—and herself.

I Meant to Tell You

By Fran Hawthorne,

What is this book about?

When Miranda’s fiancé, Russ, is being vetted for his dream job in the U.S. attorney’s office, the couple joke that Miranda’s parents’ history as antiwar activists in the Sixties might jeopardize Russ’s security clearance. In fact, the real threat emerges when Russ’s future employer discovers that Miranda was arrested for felony kidnapping seven years earlier—an arrest she’d never bothered to tell Russ about.

Miranda tries to explain that she was only helping her best friend, in the midst of a nasty custody battle, take her daughter to visit her parents in Israel. As Miranda struggles to prove that she’s not…


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