Book Titles—Trends and Formulas, Brilliance and Duh

Culture Name or Reference or Activity

What Can We Say? It’s The Culture

"Music is the emotional life of most people." — Leonard Cohen

Let us search the recent winning titles of the Booker, the Pulitzer, and the New York Times Bestsellers (ranked by time on the list) on for those that start with some mirror of the culture (think MUSIC and WRITING). This is a less-represented category, but as you’ll see has some strong candidates.

A Registry of My Passage Upon the Earth, Daniel Mason

Prophet Song, Paul Lynch

Study for Obedience, Sarah Bernstein

Stone Yard Devotional, Charlotte Wood

Your rabbit hole for today — Let me know in the comments below which resonated with you, and for the books you’ve read, which cultural titles really supported the books themselves.