April Sawicki is living in a motorless motorhome and scraping to get by. When she attends an open mic night, she realizes her life could be so much bigger. She decides to pack her stuff and leave for good, setting off on a journey to find a life that’s all hers. She chronicles her life in the songs she writes and discovers that where she came from doesn’t dictate who she has to be. But the ’90s aren’t just a time period that’s appealing to aging millennials like me who were kids in the ’90s. If you’re a Gen Xer, you spent your young adult years partying it up in the ’90s. Boomers, you were probably doing grown people stuff, but I’m sure you still had fun. My point? No matter what your generation, we were all younger then. And for Gen Z, it’s fun to go back to a time you didn’t really get to experience the first time around. It’s not that the ’90s were a simpler time. There were still political scandals and corrupt cops and racism and bigotry. But there were also a lot of part of the ’90s that are fun to look back on. The music, the flannel, My So-Called Life, Clueless, that period in time when MTV used to still play music videos. Some parts of the ’90s have returned — for instance, baggy jeans are back, and you can now buy Dunkaroos again. But some parts of the ’90s are gone for good, only to be revisited through memories and the written word. And so with that in mind, here are nine books about coming of age in the ’90s to help you revisit your youth. Can’t get enough books about the ’90s? Here are the ’90s teen book series you read but probably forgot about. If you’re looking for books that skew a bit older, here are 20 must-read novels from the 1990s. If you need help picking out your next ’90s-inspired read, try this quiz: Which YA Book for ’90s Kids Should You Read Next? Crank up your favorite ’90s playlist, and enjoy your trip down nostalgia lane!
