Books Every Woman Should Read

A host of websites and blogs have posted lists of books every woman should read. These selections, and a handout with more recommended titles, are available at the Lititz Public Library.

The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion
Literary journalist and novelist presents an autobiographical portrait of marriage and motherhood.

Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail by Cheryl Strayed
An inspiring memoir recounts a 1,100 mile solo hike that took a young woman from emotional desolation to triumph.

The Immortal Life of Henrietta LacksThe Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot
A poor Southern woman’s cells – taken without her knowledge – became one of the most important tools in medicine.

Her: A Memoir by Christa Parravani
An identical twin struggles after her sister’s life veers off the path into depression, drugs and a shockingly early death.

The Language of Flowers by Vanessa Diffenbaugh
A woman uses her gift for flowers to change the lives of others even as she endeavors to confront her painful past.

Three Junes by Julia Glass
Set on both sides of the Atlantic, a recently widowed patriarch becomes infatuated with a young American artist while traveling through Greece and is compelled to relive the secret sorrows of his marriage.

Their Eyes Were Watching God : A NovelTheir Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
In the 1930s, a Southern black woman journeys from being a free-spirited girl to a woman of independence and substance.

The Best of Everything by Rona Jaffe
Set in the late 1950s, five young employees of a New York publishing company face personal and professional challenges.

Moon Tiger by Penelope Lively
An aging historian and former war correspondent lies in a bed dying of cancer and reflects on her life and work.

Property by Valerie Martin
A pretty and self-absorbed woman comes to a sugar plantation as a bride with her prized piece of property, the young slave Sarah, only to see Sarah become her husband’s mistress and bear his child.

The Heart Is a Lonely HunterThe Heart is Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers
A deaf-mute becomes the confidant for various types of misfits in a Georgia mill town during the 1930s, each one yearning to escape small town life.

Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson
Two sisters grow up first under the care of their grandmother, then with two bumbling great-aunts and finally with the eccentric and remote sister of their dead mother.

Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi
The outspoken daughter of radical Marxists, the great-granddaughter of Iran’s last emperor, experiences a childhood entwined with the history of her country.

Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout
A retired schoolteacher, who deplores the changes in her town and in the world at large, doesn’t always recognize the changes in those around her.

BrooklynBrooklyn by Colm Toibin
Leaving her home in post-WWII Ireland to work as a bookkeeper in Brooklyn, a woman discovers romance in America with a charming Italian man before devastating news threatens her happiness.

The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton
Faced with an array of wealthy suitors, a New York socialite falls in love with a lawyer whose lack of money spoils their chances for happiness.

Possession by A.S. Byatt
Two contemporary scholars, each immersed in the study of one of two Victorian poets, discover evidence of a previously unimagined relationship between their subjects.

February 19, 2016