It’s Leap Year Day — which means we get a whole extra day to read! I started thinking about leap years a few months ago, and then I started wondering about books that were released in leap years. I realized that the last thirty leap years were also election years. What were people reading during the years we elected presidents? What books were bestsellers?
So, just for fun, I pulled together a list to take us back in book history and see what people were reading the last ten leap years. (Spoiler: It’s a whole lot of John Grisham.) You will not be surprised to see some names from forty years ago are still on bestseller lists today, and some names will be blasts from the past. A lot of these books won major awards. Some are indicative of toxic trends, like diet books and sexist advice books. And some reflect the divisive state of the country, just like the bestsellers of today. Overall, it’s a fun walk down memory lane.
Before we start, a few things about this list: I pulled this information from Google searches, mostly Wikipedia pages, and bestseller lists from Publishers Weekly and The New York Times. The bestsellers and books mentioned only account for books released in the United States. And for the most part, the list is comprised of books for adults. (The NYT combined adult and children sales in 2012, so a few are mentioned starting that year.) Please note that the bestselling book lists have historically been dominated by cis white men, which is reflected in this post. But the good news is that you can find out about more great books by women, LGBTQ authors, and authors of color pretty much anywhere else on this site!
1984
The Talisman by Stephen King and Peter Straub – Fiction bestsellerNonfiction bestseller: Iacocca: An Autobiography by Lee Iacocca with William Novak More bestsellers: The Butter Battle Book by Dr. Seuss Full Circle by Danielle Steel Lincoln by Gore Vidal More notable releases: Neuromancer by William Gibson The Witches of Eastwick by John Updike The Lover by Marguerite Duras The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera Feminist Theory: From Margin to Center by bell hooks The Hunt for Red October by Tom Clancy Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches by Audre Lorde |
1988
The Cardinal of the Kremlin by Tom Clancy – Fiction bestsellerNonfiction bestseller: The 8-Week Cholesterol Cure by Robert E. Kowalski More bestsellers: The Sands of Time by Sidney Sheldon Zoya by Danielle Steel The Icarus Agenda by Robert Ludlum Alaska by James A. Michener Till We Meet Again by Judith Krantz The Queen of the Damned by Anne Rice To Be the Best by Barbara Taylor Bradford One by Richard Bach Mitla Pass by Leon Uris I included the other nine of the top 10 that year because it’s a great example of the authors that used to dominate the bestseller lists four decades ago. Also, after having a top 10 bestseller every year since 1979, this was the first year Stephen King didn’t have a book on the list. More notable releases: The Battle Cry of Freedom by James McPherson The Silence of the Lambs by Thomas Harris The Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie A Bright Shining Lie: John Paul Vann and America in Vietnam by Neil Sheehan The Signifying Monkey: A Theory of African American Literary Criticism by Henry Louis Gates Jr. A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking Cat’s Eye by Margaret Atwood The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho (The sequel is out this year.) |
1992
Dolores Claiborne by Stephen King – Fiction bestsellerNonfiction bestseller: The Way Things Ought To Be by Rush Limbaugh More bestsellers: The Pelican Brief by John Grisham Waiting to Exhale by Terry McMillan More notable releases: The Secret History by Donna Tartt The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy Jazz by Toni Morrison Jesus’ Son: Stories by Denis Johnson Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus by John Gray Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson Doomsday Book by Connie Willis |
1996
The Runaway Jury by John Grisham – Fiction bestsellerNonfiction bestseller: Make the Connection: Ten Steps to a Better Body – and a Better Life by Bob Greene and Oprah Winfrey More bestsellers: Desperation by Stephen King The Regulators by Richard Bachman (a.k.a. Stephen King) Primary Colors by Anonymous (later revealed to be Joe Klein) More notable releases: Bridget Jones’s Diary by Helen Fielding The Green Mile by Stephen King A Game of Thrones by George R. R. Martin A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk |
2000
The Brethren by John Grisham – Fiction bestsellerNonfiction bestseller: Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom More bestsellers: Journey by Danielle Steel The Rescue by Nicholas Sparks Roses Are Red by James Patterson More notable releases: The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers White Teeth by Zadie Smith Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood by Marjane Satrapi |
2004
The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown – Fiction bestsellerNonfiction bestseller: America: The Book by Jon Stewart and The Daily Show writers More bestsellers: The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom The Last Juror by John Grisham The Rule of Four by Ian Caldwell and Dustin Thomason Dan Brown actually had three books on the bestseller lists this year: The Da Vinci Code, Angels & Demons, and an illustrated edition of The Da Vinci Code. More notable releases: Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke The Line of Beauty by Alan Hollinghurst Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell Gilead by Marilynne Robinson The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon The Plot Against America by Philip Roth |
2008
The Appeal by John Grisham – Fiction bestsellerNonfiction bestseller: When You Are Engulfed in Flames by David Sedaris More bestsellers: The Story of Edgar Sawtelle by David Wroblewski The Host by Stephenie Meyer I learned that The Story of Edgar Sawtelle by David Wroblewski was the second-highest bestselling book of 2008, which makes it even more puzzling that no one is talking about the sequel, Familiaris, coming this year. More notable releases: 2666 by Roberto Bolaño The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga The Monsters of Templeton by Lauren Groff Unaccustomed Earth by Jhumpa Lahiri A Mercy by Toni Morrison Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout American Wife by Curtis Sittenfeld I Was Told There’d Be Cake by Sloane Crosley The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher by Kate Summerscale |
2012
Fifty Shades of Grey by E L James – Fiction bestsellerNonfiction bestseller: Killing Kennedy by Bill O’Reilly and Martin Dugard More bestsellers: This was an unusual year, with only five different authors on the list. E L James had four spots, with each of the Fifty Shades books, plus the boxed set. The Hunger Games trilogy by Suzanne Collins nabbed three spots, and the rest were Rick Riordan, a Wimpy Kid book, and in the last spot was Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn. More notable releases: Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk by Ben Fountain The Orphan Master’s Son by Adam Johnson Dear Life: Stories by Alice Munro Indian Horse by Richard Wagamese The Killing Moon by N. K. Jemisin Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail by Cheryl Strayed How Music Works by David Byrne Are You My Mother? by Alison Bechdel Glaciers by Alexis Smith Tell the Wolves I’m Home by Carol Rifka Brunt The Black Count: Glory, Revolution, Betrayal, and the Real Count of Monte Cristo by Tom Reiss |
2016
The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins – Fiction bestsellerNonfiction bestseller: When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi More bestsellers: Two different editions of The Girl on the Train made the top ten, as did two different editions of Me Before You by Jojo Moyes. (Both had movie tie-ins release that year.) Surprisingly, To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee made the bestseller list again in 2016, possibly because the sequel Go Set a Watchman was the bestselling novel of 2015. More notable releases: Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi Swing Time by Zadie Smith The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead Do Not Say We Have Nothing by Madeleine Thien The Queen of the Night by Alexander Chee |
2020
Midnight Sun by Stephenie Meyer – Fiction bestsellerNonfiction bestseller: Untamed by Glennon Doyle More bestsellers: Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng Seven of the top ten places on the list in 2020 were held by children’s books, including Suzanne Collins, who, like Meyer, returned to a beloved series after a long break with The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes. More notable releases: The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett Piranesi by Susanna Clarke Blacktop Wasteland by S.A. Cosby The Night Watchman by Louise Erdrich The Only Good Indians by Stephen Graham Jones Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart Interior Chinatown by Charles Yu How Much of These Hills is Gold by C. Pam Zhang |
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Source : Four More Years: A Look at Books Released During Leap Years
