A toast to novels with significant anniversaries in 2025.

It’s time for my annual first-half-of-January post featuring novels with major round-number anniversaries. I’ll mostly look at novels that are turning 25 (published in 2000), 50 (from 1975), 75 (from 1950), and 100 (from 1925 — a century-ago year with a stellar 12 months of books). I’ll focus on novels I’ve read, and you’re welcome to mention ones you’ve read. 🙂

Where to begin? With Michael Chabon’s 2000-released The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay. It stars two male characters loosely based on Superman’s co-creators and other real-life cartoonists, and won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction.

Speaking of awards, 2000 also saw the publication of one of Margaret Atwood’s best: her Booker Prize-winning The Blind Assassin, starring two sisters and featuring a novel within that novel.

In the top tier of her output, too, was Barbara Kingsolver’s out-in-2000 Prodigal Summer, in which separate story lines expertly come together at the end.

There was Zadie Smith’s terrific debut novel White Teeth as well. That turn-of-the-millennium book mixes multicultural interactions, humor, and more.

The year 2000 also saw the publication of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire — the fourth in J.K. Rowling’s blockbuster wizard-world series, and the book that saw the author start to write quite-long-but-still-page-turning novels.

Lee Child’s fourth Jack Reacher novel, Running Blind, appeared in 2000, too — and it’s thrilling like the rest of the series, before and after.

John Grisham was his usual readable self with 2000’s The Brethren, about three ex-judges perpetrating a scam from jail.

And Rosamunde Pilcher’s final novel, the poignant Winter Solstice, came out 25 years ago, too.

Moving backwards to 1975, that was the year of Stephen King’s second novel: the gripping ‘Salem’s Lot. Wow — the still-prolific King’s career has passed the half-century mark!

Plus James Clavell’s very immersive Shogun, set in Japan circa-1600. And E.L. Doctorow’s Ragtime, mixing fictional and real people during the early 1900s. And Judith Rossner’s harrowing Looking for Mr. Goodbar, mixing sex and violence.

In 1950, memorable releases included Ray Bradbury’s short-stories-as-novel The Martian Chronicles, Isaac Asimov’s sci-fi classic I, Robot, Patricia Highsmith’s psychological nail-biter Strangers on a Train, and C.S. Lewis’ children’s fantasy The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, among others.

Turning to novels published in 1925 — 100 years ago! — we can only start with The Great Gatsby. (Leonardo DiCaprio is pictured atop this post in the 2013 movie version of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s iconic book.)

Other iconic or near-iconic titles published in 1925 included Virginia Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway, Franz Kafka’s The Trial, Theodore Dreiser’s An American Tragedy, W. Somerset Maugham’s The Painted Veil, Sinclair Lewis’ Arrowsmith, and the second installment of L.M. Montgomery’s Emily trilogy. Plus one of Willa Cather’s lesser-known titles — The Professor’s House — and Georgette Heyer’s Simon the Coldheart.

I think the only novel I’ve read from 1875 — a century-and-a-half ago — was The Mysterious Island by Jules Verne. And nothing from 1825, 1775, and 1725, though I’ve read a number of books published not long before or after those years.

Misty the cat says: “Now that I’ve read ‘The Outsiders’ novel, it’s time to go inside.”

My comedic 2024 book — the part-factual/part-fictional/not-a-children’s-work Misty the Cat…Unleashed — is described and can be purchased on Amazon in paperback or on Kindle. It’s feline-narrated! (And Misty says Amazon reviews are welcome. 🙂 )

This 90-second promo video for my book features a talking cat: 🙂

In addition to this weekly blog, I write the 2003-started/award-winning “Montclairvoyant” topical-humor column every Thursday for Montclair Local. The latest piece — about another lawsuit in my town and a couple of contentious Council meetings — is here.