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“The person, be it gentleman or lady, who has not pleasure in a good novel, must be intolerably stupid.”
—Jane Austen, Northanger Abbey, 1818
Historically, women (and people of color) have been sorely underrepresented on many reading lists. To help change that, we're highlighting women authors who more than deserve your attention.
Discover classic women authors who flew under the radar with male pen names, and re-discover those who broke the mold and dominated their genres (hello, Agatha Christie!) or invented new ones (see: the history of Mary Shelley writing Frankenstein).
You can also browse books by Black women, by early Irish female writers, or even books by royal women. For more modern and global women’s fiction, we suggest books that pass the Bechdel test, books by Elena Ferrante, and even books by women crime writers. Regardless of what you’re looking for, all of the recommendations below will add some much-needed feminine perspective to your reading list.
Dig into the histories of women who shaped the world.
By DeAnna Janes
For its 50th anniversary, Jacqueline Susann's misunderstood novel gets a re-read.
These books are sure to set you on your way to "shelf" awareness.
By DeAnna Janes
If girl squads were a thing in the past, these gals would put Taylor and her supermodels to shame.
By DeAnna Janes
Ireland was home to some of the most forward-thinking female writers.
By Cailey Hall
A celebration of Octavia Butler's groundbreaking science-fiction novel.
Love means never having to say you're sorry for exhuming your dead wife's corpse.
By Cailey Hall
Fight reductive HEA (Happily Ever After) with Charlotte Brontë's last, best, novel.
By Cailey Hall
Is the controversial work of Ayn Rand worth revisiting? You decide.
Take a tour of England through the life and work of Virginia Woolf.
Gilbert haters cite Eat, Pray, Love as proof of her failings, and in the process neglect her fantastic, near-perfect novel.
The Gone with the Wind author was a woman ahead of her time.
Ann Jones's revolutionary work offers powerful insight into domestic violence.
In "Miss Marple vs. The Mansplainers," Alice Bolin salutes Agatha Christie's feminist detective hero.
With Life After Life, the English writer takes the reincarnation story to new heights.
Erica Jong shocked readers with her novel about women's sexuality in the 1970s, and she tells us why she's ready to do it again.
By Erica Jong
The pioneering ecofeminist and Woman and Nature author discusses her book and today's discriminatory climate.
Read what anthropologist and author Elizabeth Marshall Thomas has to say right meow!