Top 20 Novels From Women Authors I Reviewed

It is the International Women’s Day today (8th March), and I am celebrating this event by showcasing an incredible talent of female authors. I am listing 20 fiction books from 20 amazing women that received top marks on my website. This list is in no particular order and, thus, I am not numbering it.

Edith Wharton – The House of Mirth

Olga Tokarczuk – Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead

Eileen Chang – Half a Lifelong Romance

Patricia Highsmith – Edith’s Diary

Anita Brookner – Hotel du Lac

Daphne du Maurier – The Scapegoat

Clarice Lispector – The Hour of the Star

Fumiko Enchi – The Waiting Years

Willa Cather – A Lost Lady

Rumer Godden – Black Narcissus [1939]

Vera Caspary – Laura

Arundhati Roy – The God of Small Things

Bessie Head – When Rain Clouds Gather

Susanna Clarke – Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell

Siri Hustvedt – The Blazing World

Yōko Ogawa – The Memory Police

Meg Wolitzer – The Interestings

Eleanor Catton – The Luminaries

Hanya Yanagihara – A Little Life

Paulette Jiles – News of the World

Has your favourite author/book made this list? Do share your favourites.

21 thoughts on “Top 20 Novels From Women Authors I Reviewed”

  1. Great list. I’m sorry to say that I haven’t read any of these. Some of my favorite novels by female authors are Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver, Beloved by Toni Morrison, Kitchen God’s Wife by Amy Tan, The Secrets Between Us by Thrity Umrigar, Homegoing by Yaa Gyazi, The Round House by Louise Erdrich, The Secret History by Donna Tartt, and Suite Française by Irene Némirovsky.

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    1. Thank you. Poisonwood Bible has just narrowly missed my list. I loved the first part of the book, but the last one hundred pages or so let down my experience of the book. I love Donna Tartt, too, but because I haven’t reviewed any of her books on my site, she is not on the list. I’ve got to look up Thrity Umrigar, thanks for sharing your favourites!

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      1. If you do audiobooks, I recommend that format for Umrigar’s book. The narrator does an amazing job with all the accents. Her performance is equal in stature to the quality of the story.

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  3. Diana — I am negligent or at least not that up to speed when it comes to woman authors. Of those on your list, I liked Rumer Godden’s novel The River, which was made it to a wonderful film bu Jean Renoir; and I like and admire Willa Cather. Cather has the ability to write plainly and wonderfully … I liked My Ántonia.

    You didn’t include Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein — guess it’s not quite a novel.

    Louisa May Alcott is regarded as a writer for girls; the author of Little Women. She is actually a damned good writer, period. Her novel Work: A Story of Experience (1873) is outstanding. Before reading this novel, I wrote a blog post about Alcott:

    https://rogersgleanings.com/2018/04/29/louisa-may-alcott/

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    1. I think my post title is misleading, my fault. These are just the top books by female authors I happened to review on my blog, not my all-time favourites. I loved Alcott’s Little Women, and will surely check out the book you mention. Thank you also for the link!

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  4. An excellent list. I have read and loved a few of them : Hotel du Lac, The Memory Police, The Waiting Years, Drive Your Plough, Black Narcissus, The Blazing World, Strange and Norrell. Many of those would make my list too though maybe different books by the same authors. They’re all exceptional anyway.
    I would add to your list: Nicola Barker, Deborah Levy, Ruth Ozeki, Elizabeth von Armin, Annie Dillard, Marilynne Robinson, Olivia Laing. Oh I could go on. So many wonderful writers.

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  6. Good idea for today’s topic. I have read only a few, The House of Mirth, The God of Small Things, Jonathan Strange, and some other books by Olga Tokarczuk, Patricia Highsmith, and Willa Cather. But it was nice finding some other ideas here.

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  11. Thank you for this list. I have not read any of these books yet, but mean to start with “Drive your plow over the bones of the dead”. I am a female author myself. I am wondering if you take requests for book reviews at all?

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