Schedule of 1945 bestsellers slated for review

The 1945 bestseller list includes some famous authors and some famous titles.

Topping the list were two fat novels, Forever Amber, back for a second year, and The Robe back for a third year.

Forever Amber  was turned into a film in 1947, but The Robe didn’t make the silver screen until 1953 when its release again pushed the novel to the top of the bestseller list.

The number three bestseller, Gentleman’s Agreement, is a novel better known to most of us from the 1948 film version in which Gregory Peck plays the reporter man who passes himself off as Jewish.

James Hilton of Random Harvest and Lost Horizon fame is on the 1945 bestseller list with a book that’s better than either of those: So Well Remembered. (Lost Horizon is coming up for review here this summer with the other 1935 bestsellers.)

Sinclair Lewis also appears with a novel that’s more entertaining than some of his more famous titles: Cass Timberlane.

As is often the case, some of the less-well known authors’ books are well worth reading today.

Here’s the full list, with dates you can expect my reviews to be posted.

1. Forever Amber by Kathleen Winsor
2. The Robe by Lloyd C. Douglas
3. The Black Rose by Thomas B. Costain [04-April-2015]
4. The White Tower by James Ramsey Ullman [07-April-2015]
5. Cass Timberlane by Sinclair Lewis  [11-April-2015]
6. So Well Remembered by James Hilton [14-April-2015]
7. A Lion Is in the Streets by Adria Locke Langley [18-April-2015]
8. Captain from Castile by Samuel Shellabarger [21-April-2015]
9. Earth and High Heaven by Gwethalyn Graham [25-April-2015]
10. Immortal Wife by Irving Stone [28-April-2015]

Before we move on to the bestsellers of 1935, you, dear readers, will have a chance to express your views on the best reading from the 1945 bestsellers, and I’ll do the same.

• Reader pick their favorites of 1945  [02-May-2015]
• My picks of the 1945 bestsellers [05-May-2015]