100 Best Books By Woman Author

Contribution of woman authors to English literature is remarkable. This is a list of books written by woman authors. This list includes books from 1958 onwards. 

The Velveteen Rabbit

(By: Margery Williams )
The story is written in such way that the author has given life to a stuffed toy rabbit. This is a classic tale of the transformative power of love. This is the perfect Christmas gift.

Orlando: A Biography

(By: Virginia Woolf )
The story is of Orlando who was born in the Elizabethan era to position and wealth. He was one of the celebrated characters that was liberated from the constraints of sex and time.

The Dispossessed: An Ambiguous Utopia

(By: Ursula K. Le Guin)
The story is of a brilliant physicist named Shevek who has decided to take action, ask questions and seeks answer also to tear down the hatred walls around the planet of anarchist.

A Good Man Is Hard to Find and Other Stories

(By: Flannery O'Connor)
This is another collection of short stories. Compassion, art, truth and farce are the perfect adjectives that can be used for this book. There are 10 short stories in total.

Villette (Bantam Classic)

(By: Charlotte Bronte )
The book is the highest peak of the artistic power of Charlotte Bronte. The narrator of the book is Lucy Snowe who is narrating the story in autobiographical manner as an instructor.

A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous 14th Century

(By: Barbara W. Tuchman)
The book is the perfect mixture of history, characters and sparkling prose to curate an astounding portrait of medieval Europe. The 14th century classic shows two contradictory images of the times.

The Left Hand of Darkness

(By: Ursula K. Le Guin )
The story narrates how Genly Ai is sent to the planet of Winter, Gethen by the outsiders who have the experience of being in that extreme arctic climate. Will Genly’s mission be a success? Let’s see.

To Kill a Mockingbird

(By: Harper Lee )
This is a deeply moving, dramatic, unforgettable and compassionate novel of a childhood that was growing up in a sleepy South town along with the crisis of conscience that has fueled it.

A Room of One's Own

(By: Virginia Woolf )
The story is about the landmark inquiry in Virginia Woolf about the role of a woman in the society. It is believed by Virginia Woolf that Shakespeare had a sister who was equally talented and genius but with different legacy.

Out of Africa: and Shadows on the Grass

(By: Isak Dinesen )
The book is the experience of the author Isak Dinesen’s experience of the time he spent in Africa. The set of the book is between 1914 and 1931. He was working as a manager in a Kenya coffee estate.

To the Lighthouse

(By: Virginia Woolf)
This is the story that is developed in the wake of First World War. The story narrates the times of Ramsays who visits his summer home and the visits is surrounded by chatter and excitement.

84, Charing Cross Road

(By: Helene Hanff )
The book is nothing more than a simple story narrating love affair between New York based Miss Helene Hanff and Messrs. Marks and Co that sells rarely available second hand books.

Mrs. Dalloway

(By: Virginia Woolf )
The story is about Clarissa Dalloway staying in Virginia Woolf and preparing for a party which she hosts. She explores the hidden springs of thoughts along with the one day action that in the life of a woman.

Possession

(By: A.S. Byatt )
The story is full of romance and wit. It is a triumphant love story with an intellectual mystery. The story narrates the tale of couple of young scholars engrossed in research of two Victorian poets’ lives.

Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl

(By: Anne Frank )
The book is the outcome of the remarkable diary of Anne Frank, which was found in the attic where she spent the last days of her life. The story narrates how her and her family’s life was during Nazis.

Frankenstein

(By: Mary Shelley)
This is the story of the terrible creation of Victor Frankenstein, which created havoc as well in the horror and suspense genre inspiring not only the readers but also the writers in the genre.

Girl, Interrupted

(By: Susanna Kaysen)
This is the story set in 1967, where an 18 year old girl, Susanna Kaysen, was sent to the mental asylum post her unsuccessful session with the psychiatrist where she was treated for about two years.

The Shipping News

(By: E. Annie Proulx )
This is an atmospheric and touching novel that is set among the Newfoundland’s fishermen. The story is narrated by Proulx about Quoyle, who is neither witty not talented and there is no sign of brilliance as well.

North and South (Penguin Classics)

(By: Elizabeth Gaskell )
The story starts with a compelling love story that moved to become a clash between the humanitarian ideals and pursuit of profit. The story is centered on Margaret Hale, uprooted from her home.

The Fountainhead

(By: Ayn Rand )
This is a must have collectible for every reader. It is a boxed set of two much admired novels of Ayn Rand – The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged. This is the original piece of work of Rand.

Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe (Ballantine Reader's Circle)

(By: Fannie Flagg )
The novel is the story of two women during the 1980s time. The story is narrated Evelyn by an old woman named Mrs. Threadgoode. The old woman narrates the story of tomboy Idgie and her friend called Ruth.

Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit

(By: Jeanette Winterson )
The story is narrated by the author Jeanette herself and cuts her teeth on the ground that she is one God’s elects. The narration is done in terms of the preferences of her sex and the peculiar balance.

The Adventures of Pippi Longstocking

(By: Astrid Lindgren)
This is a new illustrated collection of charmingly popular Pippi stories. The story narrates the adventures that Pippi Longstocking was enduring and is guided by the girl with braids upside-down.

Wives and Daughters (Penguin Classics)

(By: Elizabeth Gaskell )
This is a story of scandal, romance and intrigue. The plot of the story is set in the gossiping and watchful English village in the early 19th century. The story narrates the life and times of 17 year old Molly Gibson.

The Handmaid's Tale

(By: Margaret Atwood )
This is the tale of a handmaid who left the house of Commander and his wife to lead a different life. She could not study as the society did not allow and she remembers days with her husband and daughter.

Atlas Shrugged

(By: Ayn Rand )
This is an astounding story featuring a man who was believed to be the stopper for the motor of the world. The story is breathtaking and full of suspense and scope.

Tenant of Wildfell Hall (Wordsworth Classics)

(By: Anne Bronte )
The novel narrates a powerful and violent story of love, expectation, sin, betrayal, religion and oppression. The story is of Helen Huntingdon whose marriage was in disintegration state for her alcoholic husband.

Girl with a Pearl Earring: A Novel

(By: Tracy Chevalier )
The book is the perfect blend of fiction and history. The story beautifully described sensual awakening and artistic vision narrating the story of 16 year old Griet whose life gets transformed with a brief encounter with genius.

The Blind Assassin: A Novel

(By: Margaret Atwood)
It is science fiction story that was narrated by two unnamed lovers met in the dingy room in the backstreet. The story is weaved beautifully with seemingly disparate elements with astonishing vision having unforgettable impact.

White Teeth: A Novel

(By: Zadie Smith )
The central characters of the story are two unlikely friends name Samad Iqbal and Archie Jones. Being the hapless veterans of Second World War, the families of both of them became agents of irrevocable transformation of England.

Silent Spring

(By: Rachel Carson)
This book is the voice of the outcry of the banning of DDT and making the air, water and land pollution free. The book has beautifully described the revolutionary changes in law that brought the ban on DDT.

Wuthering Heights (Penguin Classics)

(By: Emily Brontë / Pauline Nestor )
This classic drama intensified when the conversation starts between convalescing new tenant and an elderly housekeeper. This is actually a story within a story and its good when heard as an audio.

I Capture the Castle

(By: Dodie Smith )
The story is of 17 years old Cassandra and her family. They are living their life in a kind of poverty state and an old English castle is their home. Cassandra strives for six months to hone her writing skills.

Middlemarch (Penguin Classics)

(By: George Eliot )
This is the Victorian masterpiece created by George Elliot where he has magnificently created a portrait of the inhabitants of a provincial town and the town itself. The story explores the fictional 19th century Midlands.

Practical Magic

(By: Alice Hoffman )
The story is set up in the Massachusetts town where everything is blamed on the Owens women whenever there is something wrong. This happens for 200 years and Gillian and Sally take it as their fate.

Sense and Sensibility (Penguin Classics)

(By: Jane Austen )
The story is about Marianne Dashwood who wears her heart on the sleeves. She falls in love with dashing John Willoughby ignoring the warning from her sister Elinor as John was unsuitable for her.

The Color Purple

(By: Alice Walker )
This is beautiful and touching story of two sisters who are staying apart from each other just by the distance and remain loyal to each other across the silence, distance and time.

The Secret Garden

(By: Frances Hodgson Burnett )
This is a timeless classic poignant tale of a lonely orphan girl named Mary. She was sent to the Yorkshire mansion where she met Dickon, a local boy, which changed her perspective towards the place.

The Secret Life of Bees

(By: Sue Monk Kidd )
The novel tells about the story of Lilly Owens, a lady whose life is shaped around the memory of her mother’s killing that is highly blurred. Lilly’s mother was a black fierce-hearted woman.

Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China

(By: Jung Chang )
This is regarded as one of the best books ever produced with 13 million copies being sold. This is a story of critically acclaimed China, which is a tragic story of utter cruelty, bravery and survival.

Beloved

(By: Toni Morrison )
The story is set by looking into the abyss of slavery. This splendid novel has beautifully transformed history into a story, which is intimate like a lullaby and powerful like Exodus.

Kindred

(By: Octavia E. Butler)
This is an intense kidnapping story of a modern black woman named Dana. The incident happened when she was celebrating her 26th birthday with her new husband. She is supposed to save Rufus, white of plantation owner.

Song of Solomon

(By: Toni Morrison )
This is lovely imagined fictional novel wherein a Milkman Dead was born just after the eccentric hurdle he faced during vain attempt of flight. He tried to fly for the rest of his life.

The Guns of August: The Pulitzer Prize-Winning Classic About the Outbreak of World War I

(By: Barbara W. Tuchman )
The book narrates the happening of the First World War. The book is set in the first 30 days in the summer of 1914, which was the reason for onset of the conflict.

The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter

(By: Carson McCullers)
The story is written with the central character named John Singer, a deaf and dumb person who has become culprit for different type of misfits during the 1930s in Georgia mill town.

The Lovely Bones

(By: Alice Sebold )
The story is of a 14 year old girl named Susie Salmon. The story is set back in 1973 when Susie disappeared under mysterious circumstances and she narrates her dreadful story sitting in the heaven.

The Tale of Peter Rabbit

(By: Beatrix Potter)
This book is one of the famous Beatrix Potter’s Peter rabbit book with full of illustration and lovely writing. This is a tale that is stand at the test of time.

The Westing Game (Puffin Modern Classics)

(By: Ellen Raskin)
The book is an all-in-one story – super sharp mystery, clever plot and very funny writing. The story starts with bizarre events that started with the gathering of 16 unlikely people in the event of Samuel W. Westing’s will reading.

Brokeback Mountain

(By: Annie Proulx)
This book is one of the brilliant work of contemporary literature that has moved many readers and reviewers. The book narrates the story of two ranch hands – Jack Twist and Ennis del Mar.

Memoirs of Hadrian (FSG Classics)

(By: Marguerite Yourcenar )
This book is a lovely blend of reflection on the meaning of history and the exploration of characters. The author has revealed boyhood, reversal, triumphs and role of Emperor Hadrian as an emperor.

My Sister's Keeper: A Novel (Wsp Readers Club)

(By: Jodi Picoult )
This is the story of a girl who taking decision of suing her parents for her rights to her own body. The author has chosen a controversial subject and has tackled it gracefully exploring the requirement to be a good person.

The Lottery and Other Stories (FSG Classics)

(By: Shirley Jackson )
This book is considered to be a classic work of combination of short fiction stories. The stories are remarkable in terms of its combination of subtle suspense along with perfect descriptions of mundane and chilling effect.

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (Modern Classics)

(By: Betty Smith )
This is one of America’s beloved classic that narrates the story of a young girl who is come to age in the turn of the century. The story is full of compassion anf cruelty.

Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation

(By: Lynne Truss)
This book is more like a shout out of the author, who eventually was an editor earlier, Lynne Truss towards the grammatical errors that are made during writing for which she is gravely concerned.

Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil (Penguin Classics)

(By: Hannah Arendt)
The book is a controversial journalistic analysis of the mindset that has fostered Holocaust. The book is a stunning and authoritative report by Hannah Arendt prepared on the trial of Nazi leader Adolf Eichmann.

Jane Eyre (Penguin Classics)

(By: Charlotte Brontë)
If you want to read an intense and intrigue novel that depicts the quest of a woman for freedom, this book is the best choice. This is the story of Jane Eyre narrating her horror story as an orphan girl.

Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell: A Novel

(By: Susanna Clarke )
The story starts at the dawn of 19th century when two different magicians came up with the intension to change the history of England. The story started in the year 1806 with the extension of Napoleonic War.

Rebecca

(By: Daphne Du Maurier )
The story is narrated by Mrs. Maxim de Winter who recalls the chilling events in the verge of beginning her new life when she is a new and young bride to a husband whom she didn’t know much.

The Glass Castle: A Memoir

(By: Jeannette Walls )
This book is a memoir of the author Jeannette Walls who grew up in a family where her parents were stubborn and ideals. It was both salvation and curse for all four children of Rose and Rex Walls.

The History of Love

(By: Nicole Krauss)
The book is about connecting an old man who is searching for his with a girl who is looking out for a cure to treat the loneliness of her widowed mother.

The Joy Luck Club: A Novel

(By: Amy Tan )
This is a story set in the year 1949 and is of four Chinese women who had recently migrated to the US. These four women meet every week for playing mahjong and share their stories back from China.

The Outsiders

(By: S. E. Hinton )
This is a heroic story of belonging and friendship. It is an enduring work of fiction narrates how Ponyboy was sure to count on his friends Two-Bit and Johnny and brothers Sodapop and Darry.

Their Eyes Were Watching God

(By: Zora Neale Hurston )
This deep and soulful novel is a classic tale and blend cruelty and love. The beautiful story has nicely separated the small hearts from the bigger ones but does not lose the sympathy at all.

Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic

(By: Alison Bechdel )
This book is a funny story of family tale. The icing on the cake is pitch-perfect illustrations made by the sweetly gothic drawings of Bechdel. The story is distinguished by sexual angst, a family funeral home and gothic twists.

Goodnight Moon

(By: Margaret Wise Brown / Clement Hurd)
The story narrates a little bunny is tucked away in the bed of a great green room. This is a classic modern children literature that is loved by listeners and readers of all generations.

Half of a Yellow Sun

(By: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie)
The book is written effortlessly by the author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. The author has beautifully illuminated the seminal moment of modern African history and it is set during the 1960s Nigeria.

The Thirteenth Tale: A Novel

(By: Diane Setterfield )
The book is a collection of 12 enchanting stories. She has tactfully chosen the name – with 12 stories in it and the 13th one is the book itself. The 12 stories are of 12 different tastes.

Tuck Everlasting

(By: Natalie Babbit )
The story is about Tuck family who are doomed to or blessed with eternal life after consuming water from the magic spring. The life takes a turn when the 10 year old Winnie Foster came to their life.

Water for Elephants: A Novel

(By: Sara Gruen)
This book is about the more than 90 years old mind of Jacob Jankowski where there are numerous memories dwelling in. The memories of Jacob are young in itself and is tossed by faith.

Daughter of Fortune: A Novel

(By: Isabel Allende )
The story is of Eliza Sommers who was raised by a Victorian spinster and her brother in Valparaiso, Chile. Eliza finally followed her lover to California during the time of Gold Rush in 1849.

Sarah's Key

(By: Tatiana de Rosnay)
The story is a subtle and compelling portrait of France when it was under occupation. The author has slowly and beautifully revealed the silence and taboos that is surrounding this painful episode.

The Elegance of the Hedgehog

(By: Muriel Barbery )
The set of the story in an elegant apartment located in the center of Paris, which is inhabited by bourgeois families. The story is of Renée who witnesses vacuous and lavish lives of her many employers.

The God of Small Things: A Novel

(By: Arundhati Roy)
This novel is a widely read novel. The story is comprised of powerful family saga, piercing political drama and a forbidden love story. It is a story of an affluent Indian family.

The Poisonwood Bible: A Novel

(By: Barbara Kingsolver)
The story is of Nathan Price, an evangelical and fierce Baptist whose story is narrated by his wife and four children. Nathan takes his mission and family to Belgian Congo in 1959.

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings

(By: Maya Angelou)
The book is equally joyous and painful. The story has perfectly blended mystery and memorability in terms of childhood itself. The story captures the longing of lonely Maya and her brother who live with their grandmother.

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

(By: Annie Barrows / Mary Ann Shaffer)
The story starts in January 1946 in London from the shadow of Second World War. The story tells how writer Juliet Ashton who is looking out for the subject for her next book.

The Historian

(By: Elizabeth Kostova)
The novel has numerous settings and three basic stories are compiled in it in a straight manner. The story starts in 1972 Amsterdam where a teenage girl found a mediaeval book.

The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie: A Novel

(By: Muriel Spark)
The story is of an extraordinary teacher Miss Jean Brodie. She is highly passionate about applying her unorthodox teaching methods. She has attraction towards a married art teacher and affair bachelor music teacher.

The Year of the Flood

(By: Margaret Atwood)
The story is regarded as the remarkable work narrating a touching tale of lasting friendship and also classic work of speculative fiction. This is the second installment of the MaddAddam trilogy.

A Visit from the Goon Squad

(By: Jennifer Egan)
The book narrates the story of Bennie who was record executive and punk rocker and Sasha who is a passionate yet troubled young woman whom Bennie employed. As the story progresses the has revealed their past.

And Then There Were None

(By: Agatha Christie)
This book is written by Agatha Christie, one of the most famous mystery writers. This is the story about ten strangers stranded in an island and disappear one-by-one under mysterious circumstances.

Ella Enchanted (Trophy Newbery)

(By: Gail Carson Levine)
The story is how a blessing from a fairy can turn to be a curse for Ella of Frell. She was given a gift from a foolish fairy and it was “gift of obedience”.

Room: A Novel

(By: Emma Donoghue )
The book is about a room of a five year old boy named Jack, for whom this room is the world. This his birth place and he plays, eats and sleeps in the room with his Ma.

The Help

(By: Kathryn Stockett )
This is the story of a black maid, Aibileen, during the 1962 in Jackson, Mississippi. She quietly takes orders but she is unable to hold back her bitterness off late and the recipient is her friend Minny.

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

(By: Rebecca Skloot )
The story is of a poor black tobacco farmer named Henrietta Lacks who was popularly known as HeLa among the scientists. Her cells were taken in 1951 for medicinal research and became most important tool.

The Second Sex

(By: Simone de Beauvoir )
The masterpiece by Simone de Beauvoir is a powerful analysis of women in terms of Western notion. It also has given a ground breaking exploration of otherness and inequality. It is original French text translated into English.

Bastard Out of Carolina: A Novel

(By: Dorothy Allison )
The novel portrays the family dynamics and depicts the life and times of the Boatwright family in the rural South. The center of the story is little girl Ruth Anne Boatwright.

Lady Susan

(By: Jane Austin)
The main character of the story is by the name of the book itself. She is widow and looking out for a new husband not only just for her but also for her young daughter.

Persuasion

(By: Jane Austen )
The story is about Anne Elliott who got engaged with an intelligent and handsome sailor Frederick Wentworth but finally dumps him. When she is 27 her father experienced a financial crisis and struggle.

The Night Circus

(By: Erin Morgenstern )
This story is about a circus that arrives without any prior warning and announcements. The circus is going to give an utterly unique experience in the black and white striped canvas.

The Scarlet Pimpernel

(By: Baroness Emmuska Orczy)
The book is about the story of a group of friends in England during the time of French Revolution. These friends are in a mission in France to rescue the French aristocrats.

Cranford

(By: Elizabeth Gaskell)
The novel is the story of a woman named Mary Smith and her friends who are living in a secluded village in England called Cranford, which is inhabited by women and return of Mary’s brother was a dramatic event.

The Casual Vacancy

(By: J. K. Rowling )
This is regarded as the big novel of a small town. After the death of Barry Fairbrother at the age of early 40s, his hometown Pagford moved into a shocked state.

The House of Mirth

(By: Edith Wharton)
The novel is regarded as the novel of remarkable power and the way Edith Wharton has produced the story it has made the readers to think that she indeed was a victim of our society and civilization.

The Mill on the Floss

(By: George Eliot )
The novel is the story of two siblings Maggie and Tom Tulliver who have grown up together in the banks of a river in the 19th century England. Tom is reserved character and Maggie is idealistic.

The Secret Keeper: A Novel

(By: Kate Morton )
The novel is a story of family secrets, enduring love and a murder. The story starts with a picnic of 16 years old Laurel Nicolson’s family in the English countryside where she witnessed a shocking crime.

A Little Princess (Puffin in Bloom)

(By: Frances Hodgson Burnett )
The story is of wealthy Sara Crewe, alone in new country trying to settle herself and making new friends in new boarding school. But her life turns upside down with the news that she can’t see her father again.

Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret.

(By: Judy Blume )
The story is of Margaret Simon, a 12 year old girl, who shares her spirituality and secrets. She likes tuna fish, pink color things, long hair and the smell of rain.

Black Beauty

(By: Anna Sewell )
The book was an instant hit as soon as its release and author Anna Sewell lived for just five months and saw the success of her novel. This book is the front-runner in the children literature genre.

Emma

(By: Jane Austen)
This is a novel about youthfulness and misconstrued romance. The story narrates the difficulties and concerns faced by a woman named Emma in Georgian-Regency England. The story also has hints of little comedy as well.

Gone Girl

(By: Gillian Flynn)
This is the story of a missing wife during their fifth marriage anniversary. The story takes the shape when everyone points out to Nick for disappearance of Amy. But will that be the truth? Let’s see.

Northanger Abbey

(By: Jane Austen)
This novel is the tale of Catherine Morland, a Gothic novel-obsessed has given the fans of Austen how her later works would be. The story is written with wit and can be used as a reference.

Pride and Prejudice

(By: Jane Austen)
This is a novel of manners and the main character of the story is Elizabeth Bennet, who deals with certain issues like morality, upbringing, manners, marriage and education in the British Regent society.

Silas Marner: The Weaver of Raveloe (Standard Classics)

(By: George Eliot )
The novel is in the name of the character Silas Marner who is just a simple weaver who is living reclusive life in a south England village. He has been framed for a theft and had to flee his ancestral home.

The Awakening

(By: Kate Chopin )
The story is set during the end of the 19th century in Southern Louisiana coast and New Orleans. The story is about Edna Pontellier and her struggle of reconciling unorthodox view about motherhood and femininity.

The Time Traveler's Wife

(By: Audrey Niffenegger)
This is the most untraditional love story of all times. This is the story about passionate affair of Henry DeTamble, an adventure-loving and dashing librarian and Clare Abshire, an artist.

Anthem

(By: Ayn Rand )
The first publication of the book was in 1938. The story takes place in an unspecified future date wherein another dark age engulfs the mankind, which is characterized by socialist thinking, economics, irrationality and collectivism.

My Antonia

(By: Willa Cather)
This novel was the final book of the "prairie trilogy" by American writer Willa Cather. This book is considered as one of her best works of all time and has got much accolades from the readers.

The Age of Innocence

(By: Edith Wharton)
This is the 12th book by Edith Wharton, which was released in four serial parts in 1920 in Pictorial Review magazine and later released as a book. The story is set in the 1870s New York city’s upper class population.

The House of the Spirits: A Novel

(By: Isabel Allende )
The novel narrates the tragedies and triumphs of the three generations of Trueba family. The central character, Esteban, is a patriarch, volatile and a proud man having high pursuit of political power.

The Shell Seekers

(By: Rosamunde Pilcher )
It is a captivating story of love and life. It is an enduring classic that has the ability to touch millions of hearts. This is a complete family story involving daughters and mothers, lovers and husbands.

This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. The Climate

(By: Naomi Klein )
The author argues only climate is not just the one that the world is suffering from. It is also argued that the change in our relationship as well has an impact on the overall quality of life.

Uncle Tom's Cabin

(By: Harriet Beecher Stowe )
This is an anti-slavery novel written by Harriet Beecher Stowe, which is believed to lay the ground work for the American Civil War. This book was acclaimed as the bestselling novel of 19th century.