Do you need another excuse to treat yourself to a new book this week? We’ve got you covered! These are the best and most-read books written by female authors, from thrillers to fiction, philosophy, romance, and nonfiction find your next read right here. These books make excellent gifts and by gifting one of these books you also support women.
I’ve read most of these and some I haven’t but for the ones I’ve read, I’ve included my book review and rating. Enjoy fellow lady book nerds.
Some of the links below are affiliate links, meaning that at no additional cost to you, I will receive a commission if you click through and make a purchase.
Books for women, by women
The Bandit Queens by Parini Shroff
purchase the Kindle, paperback, or hardcover on Amazon
About The Book: Geeta’s no-good husband disappeared five years ago. She didn’t kill him, but everyone thinks she did–no matter how much she protests. Freedom must look good on Geeta, because other women in the village have started asking for her help to get rid of their own no-good husbands…but not all of them are asking nicely.
Now that Geeta’s fearsome reputation has become a double-edged sword, she must decide how far to go to protect it, along with the life she’s built. Because even the best-laid plans of would-be widows tend to go awry.
My Review, 4 Stars
This is a cute debut!
Even though it is covering some dark subject matter is lighthearted and funny. It was a quick read for me and I did find it laugh-out-loud funny at times. I did think the murder plots were a bit far-fetched I also didn’t really love any of the characters and the cultural references were sort of lost on me however that is completely my fault and I give props to the author for being so authentic. Overall it’s a cute read and it may just be the next great one for you!
Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
purchase the Kindle, paperback, or hardcover on Amazon
About The Book: Generations of readers young and old, male and female, have fallen in love with the March sisters of Louisa May Alcott’s most popular and enduring novel, Little Women. A story of sisterhood and special friendships joining four very different siblings – Jo, Meg, Amy, and Beth.
The sisters united in their devotion to each other and their struggles to survive in New England during the Civil War.
I feel like I must have read this as a teen but nonetheless, I can’t remember and it is currently on my to-be-read list! It is a classic after all! I am going to make a date for it and watch the movie starring Emma Watson.
Untamed by Glennon Doyle
purchase the Kindle, paperback, or hardcover on Amazon
About The Book: Soulful and uproarious, forceful and tender, Untamed is both an intimate memoir and a galvanizing wake-up call. It is the story of how one woman learned that a responsible mother is not one who slowly dies for her children, but one who shows them how to fully live.
My Review, 4 Stars
This book is not just written by a woman it empowers and supports them in their own journey.
“Shouldn’t my marriage feel more loving than this? Shouldn’t my religion be more alive and kind than this? Shouldn’t my work be more meaningful and my community be more connected? Shouldn’t the world I’m leaving to my babies be less brutal? Isn’t it all just supposed to be more beautiful than this?”
If these are some questions that you have about life maybe reading this book will guide you to a tiny little bit of enlightenment. It doesn’t have all the answers but it does help you to look inside of yourself a little bit more than you did before. This book made me reflect and also it made me laugh! It is not preachy. It is one human to another.
The Lost Apothecary by Sarah Penner
purchase the Kindle, paperback, or hardcover on Amazon
About The Book: A female apothecary secretly dispenses poisons to liberate women from the men who have wronged them – setting three lives across centuries on a dangerous collision course.
My Review, 4 Stars
A story surrounding a mysterious apothecary shop that specializes in poisons, which it sells to women for use on oppressive men. How much better can it get? I mean, really?
I really enjoyed this book and not just because the cover is so beautiful! I loved the characters and following each story through time. It is much more than just another woman scorned. This is a story of women supporting women through time and with an added mystery of magic. I adored the ending. I loved how it’s open to a little interpretation. I’d like to think there was some magic at hand. I’d definitely recommend it as a fun and quick read!
The Color Purple by Alice Walker
purchase the Kindle, paperback, or hardcover on Amazon
Winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award.
About The Book: A powerful cultural touchstone of modern American literature, The Color Purple depicts the lives of African American women in early twentieth-century rural Georgia. Separated as girls, sisters Celie and Nettie sustain their loyalty to and hope in each other across time, distance, and silence.
The Color Purple broke the silence around domestic and sexual abuse, narrating the lives of women through their pain and struggle, companionship and growth, resilience, and bravery.
My Review, 5 Stars
I do not think you can read this book and not think it is a 5 star-read.
This is one of those books you need to cross off your list in a lifetime. Written, interestingly enough, all in the perspective of letters written to god by a poor colored, and abused woman named Celie. The letters throughout the novel evolve from letters to god to letters to and from her sister, who she became separated from. This novel discusses race, abuse, homosexuality, slavery, incest, rape, love, religion, and raw human emotion. I can see why it won the Pulitzer Prize.
My personal favorite character was Shug because of her mystery. It did take me a bit to really become involved in the story but the second half of the novel to the end is well worth the slow start. Women are resilient.
The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton
purchase the Kindle, paperback, or hardcover on Amazon
About The Book: The novel tells the story of a 14-year-old boy, Ponyboy Curtis, and his struggles with right and wrong in a society in which he believes that he is an outsider. The story of two gangs in a small Oklahoma town provides a powerful account of street life through the eyes of Ponyboy Curtis.
My Review, 5 Stars
I would be surprised if you are a reader and haven’t read this one already.
I’ll be honest I’ve always thought this book was written by a man. I really had no idea this was written by a woman and S.E. Hinton was actually only 17 when she wrote this book. Amazing, right?
Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
purchase the Kindle, paperback, or hardcover on Amazon
About The Book: Ifemelu and Obinze are young and in love when they depart military-ruled Nigeria for the West. Beautiful, self-assured Ifemelu heads for America, where despite her academic success, she is forced to grapple with what it means to be black for the first time.
Quiet, thoughtful Obinze had hoped to join her, but with post-9/11 America closed to him, he instead plunges into a dangerous, undocumented life in London. Fifteen years later, they reunite in a newly democratic Nigeria, and reignite their passion—for each other and for their homeland.
My Review, 4 Stars
I love any book by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. She is one of my favorite authors.
This book made me question myself. I absolutely agree and see all the references to white privilege, the struggles that minorities face, and the opportunities they aren’t offered but are qualified for. It’s everything I deem wrong about the world. I found the book thought-provoking and I liked the main characters and their journey as they leave their home country for more opportunities in a foreign land.
The Tobacco Wives by Adele Myers
purchase the Kindle, paperback, or hardcover on Amazon
About The Book: This historical debut is set in 1946 North Carolina following a young female seamstress who uncovers dangerous truths about the Big Tobacco empire ruling the American South.
It turns out that the truth has the power to sever some bonds of friendship while strengthening others. Adele’s debut is sure to make waves with its compelling characters, feminist themes, and empowering story.
The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
purchase the Kindle, paperback, or hardcover on Amazon
About The Book: Offred is a Handmaid in the Republic of Gilead. She may leave the home of the Commander and his wife once a day to walk to food markets whose signs are now pictures instead of words because women are no longer allowed to read.
She must lie on her back once a month and pray that the Commander makes her pregnant, because, in an age of declining births, Offred and the other Handmaids are valued only if their ovaries are viable. Offred can remember the years before, when she lived and made love with her husband, Luke; when she played with and protected her daughter; when she had a job, money of her own, and access to knowledge. But all of that is gone now…
My Review, 3 Stars
The concept is on point. It is original and important. This is one book where I preferred the Hulu series best. It is a great book but the show did a really good job. The author keeps things elusive in the book and it is also very descriptive. You will need to pick this one up yourself to make a judgment.
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
purchase the Kindle, paperback, or hardcover on Amazon
The unforgettable novel of a childhood in a sleepy Southern town and the crisis of conscience that rocked it. This book went on to win the Pulitzer Prize in 1961 and was later made into an Academy Award-winning film, also a classic.
About The Book: Set in the Deep South of 1930s America, the story follows the Finch family, as young siblings Scout and Jem watch their father try to defend a Black man charged with the rape of a white girl. The children’s innocence compared to the injustice of racism makes for a moving story that’s just as relevant now as when it was published in 1960.
My Review, 5 Stars
One of those great reads that you only get once in a lifetime.
I just take the deeper meaning this book has to offer and I hold it to my heart and cradle it like a small child. I was completely and utterly spellbound from the first page. Boo Radley is so mysterious. I was engaged in the relationship of father and children. Scout with that tomboy personality. The nasty aunt. The crime he didn’t commit, but will burn for anyways. I love the relationship between the killing of a mockingbird and the hanging of an innocent man. This book is a masterpiece.
Afterlife by Julia Alvarez
purchase the Kindle, paperback, or hardcover on Amazon
About The Book: Antonia Vega, the immigrant writer at the center of Afterlife, has had the rug pulled out from under her. She has just retired from the college where she taught English when her beloved husband, Sam, suddenly dies. And then more jolts: her bighearted but unstable sister disappears, and Antonia returns home one evening to find a pregnant, undocumented teenager on her doorstep.
Antonia has always sought direction in the literature she loves—lines from her favorite authors play in her head like a soundtrack—but now she finds that the world demands more of her than words.
My Review, 4 Stars
A book charged with great content. The writing style is very unique and I’m not sure if I liked it or not it was just different than most books I’ve read. It’s a story about dealing with grief more than anything else but this story of grief is interwoven with family dysfunction and the lack of human rights involved with the immigration system in today’s US. It is a quick book to read. I loved the dynamic of the sisterhood. This is a meaningful story that brings an interesting perspective to life and life after death.
Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi
purchase the Kindle, paperback, or hardcover on Amazon
About The Book: In powerful black-and-white comic strip images, Satrapi tells the story of her life in Tehran from ages six to fourteen, years that saw the overthrow of the Shah’s regime, the triumph of the Islamic Revolution, and the devastating effects of war with Iraq.
Marjane’s child’s-eye view of dethroned emperors, state-sanctioned whippings, and heroes of the revolution allows us to learn as she does the history of this fascinating country and of her own extraordinary family. Intensely personal, profoundly political, and wholly original, Persepolis is at once a story of growing up and a reminder of the human cost of war and political repression. It shows how we carry on, with laughter and tears, in the face of absurdity. And, finally, it introduces us to an irresistible little girl with whom we cannot help but fall in love.
My Review, 5 Stars
Wonderfully illustrated and written from the perspective of a young girl which I truly enjoyed. It’s a life more difficult than many would ever be able to imagine experienced by a girl who even while enduring war still remains faithful and passionate about her country. I particularly liked the chapter about The Veil. I thought The Letter was very thought-provoking. I was laughing out loud when I read the chapter The Wine. I highly recommend it!
The Help by Kathryn Stockett
purchase the Kindle, paperback, or hardcover on Amazon
About The Book: Three ordinary women are about to take one extraordinary step. Seemingly as different from one another as can be, these women will nonetheless come together for a clandestine project that will put them all at risk. And why? Because they are suffocating within the lines that define their town and their times. And sometimes lines are made to be crossed.
I’m ashamed to admit I haven’t read this book yet, but I did love the movie!
Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver
purchase the Kindle, paperback, or hardcover on Amazon
About The Book: Set in the mountains of southern Appalachia, this is the story of a boy born to a teenaged single mother in a single-wide trailer, with no assets beyond his dead father’s good looks and copper-colored hair, a caustic wit, and a fierce talent for survival. In a plot that never pauses for breath, relayed in his own unsparing voice, he braves the modern perils of foster care, child labor, derelict schools, athletic success, addiction, disastrous loves, and crushing losses.
Many generations ago, Charles Dickens wrote David Copperfield from his experience as a survivor of institutional poverty and its damages to children in his society. Those problems have yet to be solved in ours. Dickens is not a prerequisite for readers of this novel, but he provided its inspiration. In transposing a Victorian epic novel to the contemporary American South, Barbara Kingsolver enlists Dickens’ anger and compassion, and above all, his faith in the transformative powers of a good story.
My Review, 5 Stars
I’ve never read Barbara Kingsolver before but now I’m on the train and I’ll definitely be reading more. This book was excellent. It hits hard, it goes in-depth and it is one of those books you remember for life.
You can’t help but fall in love with Demon. I will say it did take me a few chapters for me to become completely invested and I did appreciate his childhood story more than his coming into adulthood. This book gives you the real tragedies that occur during the foster care system, poverty, and drug addiction. It is more centered around a rural environment and hits in child labor plus so much more. It’s not just a great book it is an important read. I am in love with Barbara’s blunt writing style. It’s amazing and I look forward to reading my next book by her.
Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus
purchase the Kindle, paperback, or hardcover on Amazon
About The Book: Chemist Elizabeth Zott is not your average woman. In fact, Elizabeth Zott would be the first to point out that there is no such thing as an average woman. But it’s the early 1960s and her all-male team at Hastings Research Institute takes a very unscientific view of equality. Except for one: Calvin Evans; the lonely, brilliant, Nobel–prize-nominated grudge-holder who falls in love with—of all things—her mind. True chemistry results.
But like science, life is unpredictable. Which is why a few years later Elizabeth Zott finds herself not only a single mother, but the reluctant star of America’s most beloved cooking show Supper at Six. Elizabeth’s unusual approach to cooking (“combine one tablespoon acetic acid with a pinch of sodium chloride”) proves revolutionary. She’s daring them to change the status quo.
My Review, 5 Stars
Don’t let the cover fool you this isn’t some fluff-stuffed romance! It is about a woman scientist and single mom in the 60s.
Based on the cover (yea, I know.) I thought this book was going to be a little frivolous but it absolutely isn’t.
It’s about a woman scientist in the 1950s and 60s. It covers some difficult topics but also it isn’t too heavy and still somehow maintains cleverness and comical aspects. How the little girl Mad got her name was enduring to me and Elizabeth is an interesting character.
I liked how the secretary and Elizabeth come together over time and it’s an ironic part of the book. This book shines a light on sexism and very serious gender divides that are still a problem today. Why haven’t we ever had a female president even today in 2023?
This book is good! Read it! You’ll love it.
Uhhh, Yea! We are on Pinterest. Share our cool shit!
Leave me a comment! Have you read and enjoyed any of these books written by women? Did I miss a great book that needs to be added to this list asap?
I Chug My Wine 
Fantastic post – will definitely be looking into some of these!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you. Let me know which one you try and if you like it or not! Happy reading girl!
LikeLike