Top Ten Books Published the Year I Was Born

This week’s Top Ten Tuesday Topic is “Books published before I was born.” But I decided to change it to “Books published the year I was born,” because there are so many incredible ones! 1969 was quite a year, in many ways.

Here are five books I have read, five more I’d like to read, and five bonus books for children. Two of these links are to my own reviews, others are to Goodreads.

What years did you explore in your list this week?

The Left Hand of Darkness
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
Fire from Heaven
The French Lieutenant’s Woman
Master and Commander

The Edible Woman
A House for Mr Biswas
Slaughterhouse-Five
Travels With My Aunt
I Sing the Body Electric

Sylvester and the Magic Pebble
The Very Hungry Caterpillar
Charlotte Sometimes
The Elephant and the Bad Baby
Sounder

Linked in Top Ten Tuesday at That Artsy Reader Girl

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22 thoughts on “Top Ten Books Published the Year I Was Born

  1. Fun! THE VERY HUNGRY CATERPILLAR is such a classic. I remember having it read to me as a child and, of course, reading it to my own kids. I’ve also read I KNOW WHY THE CAGED BIRD SINGS. I need to check out some of the others you listed.

    Happy TTT!

    Susan
    http://www.blogginboutbooks.com

  2. 1969 was a good year for children’s books! Come to think of it, my own favorite childhood picture book was published in my birth year of 1973: The Elephant Who Liked to Smash Small Cars, by Jean Merrill.

    1. Jean Merrill as in the Pushcart War? I’ve never heard of that picture book! It would surely go well on the shelf with The Elephant and the Bad Baby, one of my own favorites.

  3. The Le Guin is on my wishlist for a reread in the near future, but I have a couple of other Hainish novels to get through first. By the way, thank you for pushing me to get on with Malafrena, I am soooo enjoying it and I’m fast approaching the halfway mark now! I’ve even ordered the Library of America edition of The Complete Orsinia because this and the Tales are destined for future rereads, without a shadow of a doubt!

  4. Many books I’ve heard such good about, I’m surprised to see I’ve only read one of them (Travels with my aunt) but at least I’m sure I’ll read The French lieutenant’s woman soon. 1969 was quite a good year, indeed, even if 1965 wasn’t so bad too ^^

    1. Nearly every year has something good to look back on, but this one seems to have been a game changer in many ways. (My birth being but one of them.)

  5. Wow, that is indeed quite a list of iconic titles! I couldn’t name a book published in the year I was born…I’ll have to Google it and see if there’s anything notable, haha.

  6. Sylvester, TVHC, and Sounder were beloved favorites of mine growing up — very cool to see them highlighted. Surprisingly, I’ve not heard of the other two kids’ books, but they look interesting. You might know some of the books on my list this week.

    Meanwhile, I’m loving everyone choosing books from the year they were born, because it gives me free rein to do extensions on the topic by throwing my faves from that year into the ring. Let’s see, what can Goodreads tell me about publication dates…

    Ooh, here we go. This WAS a great year for books.

    1. The Shorn Lamb – Hughie Call (she’s just such a great writer)
    2. Dave’s Song – Robert McKay
    3. Wild Season – Allan Eckert
    4. Sasha, My Friend – Barbara Corcoran
    5. Once Upon an Island – David Conover (great memoir of settling on an uninhabited Canadian island and living off the land)
    6. How Do You Spank a Porcupine? – Ronald Rood (brb shortlisting this memoir about raising an orphaned quill-pig for “Funny Book Titles” week)
    –RS

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