The New York Times Book Review
Here are the New York Times Book Review’s top books of 1985:
Fiction Selections:
| Title | Author |
| Flaubert’s Parrot | Julian Barnes |
| Love Medicine | Louise Erdrich |
| Mr. Palomar | Italo Calvino |
| The Old Forest: And Other Stories | Peter Taylor |
Nonfiction Selections:
| Title | Author |
| The Abandonment of the Jews: America and the Holocaust, 1941-1945 | David S. Wyman |
| All Fall Down: America’s Tragic Encounter With Iran | Gary Sick |
| Common Ground: A Turbulent Decade in the Lives of Three American Families | J. Anthony Lukas |
| Footsteps: Adventures of a Romantic Biographer | Richard Holmes |
| House | Tracy Kidder |
| Move Your Shadow: South Africa, Black and White | Joseph Lelyveld |
| The Periodic Table | Primo Levi |
Pulitzer Prize Winning Books of 1985
Here are the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction books of 1985:
| Title | Author |
| Winner: Foreign Affairs | Alison Lurie |
| Finalist: I Wish This War Were Over | Diana O’Hehir |
| Finalist: Leaving the Land | Douglas Unger |
Here are the Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction books of 1985:
| Title | Author |
| Winner: The Good War: An Oral History of World War Two | Studs Terkel |
| Finalist: Dawn to the West: Japanese Literature in the Modern Era | Donald Keene |
| Finalist: Endless Enemies: The Making of an Unfriendly World | Jonathan Kwitny |