50 Years of Innovative Books by Female Authors

From Erica Jong’s Fear of Flying in 1972 to Torry Peters’ Detransition, Baby in 2021, the last 50 years has seen some powerful, innovative and provocative books by women writers. Here is a list of 50 amazing books written by amazing women in the last 50 years.


  1. Fear of Flying, by Erica Jong
  2. The Optimist’s Daughter, by Eudora Welty
  3. The Dispossessed, by Ursula K. Le Guin
  4. Corregidora, by Gayl Jones
  5. A Book of Common Prayer, by Joan Didion
  6. Foreigner, by Nahid Rachlin
  7. The Dream of a Common Language, by Adrienne Rich
  8. God on the Rocks, by Jane Gardam
  9. Kindred, by Octavia E. Butler
  10. The Clan of the Cave Bear, by Jean M. Auel
  11. The Color Purple, by Alice Walker
  12. The House on Mango Street, by Sandra Cisneros
  13. Foreign Affairs, by Alison Lurie
  14. The Good Terrorist, by Doris Lessing
  15. The Handmaid’s Tale, by Margaret Atwood
  16. The Bone People, by Keri Hulme
  17. Beloved, by Toni Morrison
  18. Geek Love, by Katherine Dunn
  19. Breathing Lessons, by Anne Tyler
  20. The Joy Luck Club, by Amy Tan
  21. A Thousand Acres, by Jane Smiley
  22. The Volcano Lover, by Susan Sontag
  23. The Shipping News, by E. Annie Proulx
  24. The Stone Diaries, by Carol Shields
  25. We Were the Mulvaneys, by Joyce Carol Oates

  1. The God of Small Things, by Arundhati Roy
  2. Charming Billy, by Alice McDermott
  3. Interpreter of Maladies, by Jhumpa Lahiri
  4. Three Junes, by Julia Glass
  5. Purple Hibiscus, by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
  6. We Need to Talk About Kevin, by Lionel Shriver
  7. Gilead, by Marilynne Robinson
  8. March, by Geraldine Brooks
  9. Fun Home, by Alison Bechdel
  10. The Inheritance of Loss, by Kiran Desai
  11. Olive Kitteridge, by Elizabeth Strout
  12. The Lacuna, by Barbara Kingsolver
  13. A Visit from the Goon Squad, by Jennifer Egan
  14. The Round House, by Louise Erdrich
  15. Family Furnishings, by Alice Munro
  16. Everything I Never Told You, by Celeste Ng
  17. The Goldfinch, by Donna Tart
  18. The Sixth Extinction, by Elizabeth Kolbert
  19. The Invention of Wings, by Sue Monk Kidd
  20. An American Marriage, by Tayari Jones
  21. Such a Fun Age, by Kiley Reid
  22. Remembered, by Yvonne Battle-Felton
  23. The Book of Unknown Americans, by Cristina Henriquez
  24. No One is Talking About This, by Patricia Lockwood
  25. Detransition, Baby, by Torrey Peters

Did we leave out some of your favorites? Let us know in the comments below, and don’t forget to celebrate Women’s History Month by picking up these books and more at your local HPB or HPB.com.  Happy reading!

This post has 1 Comment.

  • How could you leave out To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee? Also Pilgrim At Tinker Creek by Annie Dillard is one of the best non-fiction books, revitalizing the personal essay. And what about House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende, which introduces us to magical realism?