The 1960s was one of the most tumultuous and culturally significant decades in world history.

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20 books that defined the 1960s

The 1960s was one of the most tumultuous and culturally significant decades of the 20th century. So, in the spirit of free love, revolution, one very bad war, feminism and more, here are some books to relive it.

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The best memoirs of all time including Michelle Obama's Becoming, Paul Kalanithi's When Breath Becomes Air, Chanel Miller's Know My Name and Patricia Lockwood's Priestdaddy.

The best memoirs of all time, as chosen by readers
Ever missed your stop because of a book?

Six signs you're obsessed with a book
The best essay collections

The best essay collections to read now
What I’m reading: Mary Beth Keane

What I’m reading: Mary Beth Keane

The books everyone is talking about

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Features

Isabel Wilkerson on how caste emerged in America

How does society end up putting people into roles they never realised they were playing?
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Helon Habila on Sam Selvon's The Housing Lark

It is in The Housing Lark that Sam Selvon's brilliance truly shines.
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An oral history of Ali Smith's Seasonal Quartet

The untold story of the quartet's creation, in the words of Smith and those closest to the project.

Award-winning books and authors

Travel by Penguin this summer

Travel by Penguin this summer

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Summer reading

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Features

Donal Ryan on Norman Mailer's The Fight

Reading about Muhammad Ali’s ‘Rumble in the Jungle’ brought the author into – then out of – the ring.
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Recommendations

The greatest wedding scenes in fiction

Featuring The Owl and the Pussycat, Madame Bovary and more
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The furthest a book has taken me

Eley Williams on 'Exercises in Style'

Penguin Science Fiction

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Special prints created for Penguin's 85th birthday

Penguin 85th

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Author interviews

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French icon Nina Bouraoui on her first UK novel

The writer on how language helped her make sense of trauma and write the “most upfront” book of her career.
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Meet the author: Beth Cartwright

The mind behind the mermaids, mystery and magical realism of Feathertide
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How Pandora Sykes escaped her phone

The author on digital detoxing, writing schedules and life after lockdown

Bestselling audiobooks

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5 artists create prints for Penguin's 85th birthday

How you can own an original artwork by Charlie Mackesy Dapo Adeola, Coralie Bickford-Smith, Jackie Morris and Vashti Harrison
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Recommendations

20 books everyone should read before they're 60

Novels for the years when you truly start to reflect on life
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Quizzes

Which famous literary group would you have been in?

The Bloomsbury Set? How about the The Harlem Renaissance? Take our quiz and find out

Exciting must-reads for 2020

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Penguin tote bag of DH Lawrence's The Lost Girl, which you can buy from the Penguin Shop

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Discover Puffin and Ladybird

New and bestselling children's books

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Clothbound Classics

Penguin Clothbound Classics

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Beatrix Potter Originals

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Dreaming in a Nightmare: in conversation with Jeremiah Emmanuel
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Anthony Horowitz in Conversation with Kate Mosse
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Yotam Ottolenghi and Ixta Belfrage on Flavour

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