75 Books for 75 Years

Posted on September 30, 2024 in 75th Anniversary

In celebration of the 75th anniversary of the Society of Young Publishers in 2024, we put together a list of 75 recommended reads from across all of the branch committees.

We want to celebrate literature and capturing this moment in time, with books from all genres, publishers, publishing years and experiences. This is a snapshot of what our volunteers love to read, considering what books might stay in the public consciousness for the next 75 years.

You can purchase books via Bookshop.org to support your local independent bookshops by visiting the 75 Books for 75 Years link here. If you buy books through this link, the SYP may earn a commission from Bookshop.org, so you’ll be supporting independent bookshops and the SYP with one purchase.

The full list can be found below.

75 book recommendations for our 75th anniversary

Thanks to all of our 2024 committee volunteers who submitted a book recommendation! These books are listed in no particular order. Each of our current branches – UK, Ireland, Scotland, Wales, London, North, Oxford, and South West – contributed to the full list.

Please note that the SYP does not endorse the views of authors, past or future, especially those that go against our commitment to inclusion and our values.

• The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
• Four Treasures of the Sky by Jenny Tinghui Zhang
• The Memory Police by Yōko Ogawa
• Such a Fun Age by Kiley Reid
• Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
• Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
• One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez
• Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein
• The Bricks That Built The Houses by Kae Tempest
• Iron Widow by Xiran Jay Zhao
• If You Still Recognise Me by Cynthia So
• You by Caroline Kepnes
• Circe by Madeline Miller
• Uzumaki by Junji Ito
• Pachinko by Min Jin Lee
• Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin
• Alone in Berlin by Hans Fallada
• The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan
• Valley of the Dolls by Jacqueline Susann
• Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer
• Grief is the Thing with Feathers by Max Porter
• Swimming in the Dark by Tomasz Jedrowski
• Only This Beautiful Moment by Abdi Nazemian
• The God of the Woods by Liz Moore
• The Unusual Suspect by Ben Machell
• Azadi by Arundhati Roy
• The Bee Sting by Paul Murray
• The Dangers of Smoking in Bed by Mariana Enríquez
• Wild Woman by Philippa Forrester
• My Back Pages by Richard Charkin
• The Safekeep by Yael van der Wouden
• The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida by Shehan Karunatilaka
• Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro 
• Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
• Good Material by Dolly Alderton
• Our Little Cruelties by Liz Nugent
• Darling by India Knight
• Yellowface by R. F. Kuang
• The Pursuit of Love by Nancy Mitford
• Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver
• Small Worlds by Caleb Azumah Nelson
• The Girls of Slender Means by Muriel Spark
• Jonathan Abernathy You Are Kind by Molly McGhee
• Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus
• My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante
• I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith
• Bilgewater by Jane Gardam
• Young Romantics: The Shelleys, Byron and Other Tangled Lives by Daisy Hay
• The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories by Angela Carter
• I Hope This Finds You Well by Natalie Sue
• The Murder After The Night Before by Katy Brent
• How High We Go in the Dark by Sequoia Nagamatsu
• She Who Became the Sun by Shelley Parker-Chan
• Kim Ji-young, Born 1982 by Cho Nam-Joo
• Ghosted by Jenn Ashworth
• The Dispossessed by Ursula K. Le Guin
• Notes On An Execution by Danya Kukafka
• Greta and Valdin by Rebecca K. Reilly
• Falling Animals by Sheila Armstrong
• Ruth & Pen by Emilie Pine
• The Fire Starters by Jan Carson
• Auguries of a Minor God by Nidhi Zak/Aria Eipe
• Evenings and Weekends by Oisín McKenna
• Babel by R. F. Kuang
• The Vegetarian by Han Kang
• Close to Home by Michael Magee
• A River Enchanted by Rebecca Ross
• Howl’s Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones
• Glass Houses by Francesca Reece
• Cowboy by Kandace Siobhan Walker
• Affinity by Sarah Waters
• The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid
• The Things You Can Only See When You Slow Down by Haemin Sunim
• Jade City by Fonda Lee
• Boy Parts by Eliza Clark

Happy reading!