500 Great Books by Women

Add to my lists | Print this list

This list is a great way to discover a range of women’s writing.

From the book 500 Great Books by Women: A Reader’s Guide by Erica Bauermeister, Jesse Larsen, & Holly Smith.

Note: There are actually more than 500 books listed in the original book (and on this list.)

The list is alphabetical by author.

Pages: 1 2 3 ... 11

  1. 1.
    Womenfolks: Growing Up Down South
    by Shirley Abbott

    Drag me to re-order


  2. 2.
    ?
    A Bridge Through Time: A Memoir
    by Laila Abou Saif

    Drag me to re-order


  3. 3.
    A Natural History of the Senses
    by Diane Ackerman

    Drag me to re-order


  4. 4.
    ?
    Bake-Face and Other Guava Stories
    by Opal Palmer Adisa

    Drag me to re-order


  5. 6.
    Changes: A Love Story
    by Ama Ata Aidoo

    Drag me to re-order


  6. 7.
    Women of Sand and Myrrh: A Novel
    by Hanan Al-Shaykh

    Drag me to re-order


  7. 8.
    Mrs. Vargas and the Dead Naturalist
    by Kathleen Alcala

    Drag me to re-order


  8. 9.
    Little Women
    by Louisa May Alcott

    Drag me to re-order


  9. 10.
    Family Album
    by Claribel Alegria

    Drag me to re-order


  10. 11.
    ?
    Nampally Road
    by Meena Alexander

    Drag me to re-order


  11. 12.
    ?
    The Stillborn (Longman African Classics)
    by Zaynab Alkali

    Drag me to re-order


  12. 13.
    ?
    Grandmothers of the Light: A Medicine Woman's Sourcebook
    by Paula Gunn Allen

    Drag me to re-order


  13. 14.
    The House of the Spirits
    by Isabel Allende

    Drag me to re-order


  14. 17.
    Tirra Lirra by the River

    Drag me to re-order


  15. 18.
    ?
    The Butcher's Wife
    by Li Ang

    Drag me to re-order


  16. 19.
    I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
    by Maya Angelou

    Drag me to re-order


  17. 20.
    Aquamarine
    by Carol Anshaw

    Drag me to re-order


  18. 22.
    Incantations and Other Stories
    by Anjana Appachana

    Drag me to re-order


  19. 23.
    ?
    Alicia: My Story
    by Alicia Appleman-Jurman

    Drag me to re-order


  20. 24.
    ?
    The Twilight Years
    by Sawako Ariyoshi

    Drag me to re-order


  21. 26.
    ?
    A Midwife's Story
    by Penny Armstrong

    Drag me to re-order


  22. 27.
    The Dollmaker
    by Harriette Arnow

    Drag me to re-order


  23. 28.
    Cat's Eye
    by Margaret Atwood

    Drag me to re-order


  24. 29.
    Emma (Oxford World's Classics)
    by Jane Austen

    Drag me to re-order


  25. 30.
    The Land of Little Rain (Modern Library Classics)
    by Mary Austin

    Drag me to re-order


  26. 31.
    So Long a Letter (African Writers Series)
    by Mariama Ba

    Drag me to re-order


  27. 32.
    Gorilla, My Love
    by Toni Cade Bambara

    Drag me to re-order


  28. 33.
    Artemisia (Second Edition) (European Women Writers)
    by Anna Banti

    Drag me to re-order


  29. 34.
    A Week Like Any Other: Novellas and Stories
    by Natalya Baranskaya

    Drag me to re-order


  30. 35.
    Regeneration
    by Pat Barker

    Drag me to re-order


  31. 36.
    Nightwood
    by Djuna Barnes

    Drag me to re-order


  32. 37.
    The Good Times Are Killing Me
    by Lynda Barry

    Drag me to re-order


  33. 38.
    Composing a Life
    by Mary Catherine Bateson

    Drag me to re-order


  34. 39.
    ?
    Yes Is Better Than No
    by Byrd Baylor

    Drag me to re-order


  35. 40.
    The House of Ulloa (Penguin Classics)
    by Emilia Pardo Bazan

    Drag me to re-order


  36. 42.
    ?
    A Belfast Woman
    by Mary Beckett

    Drag me to re-order


  37. 43.
    Yoruba Girl Dancing
    by Simi Bedford

    Drag me to re-order


  38. 44.

  39. 46.
    Plain and Simple: A Woman's Journey to the Amish
    by Sue Bender

    Drag me to re-order


  40. 47.
    ?
    Farm Under a Lake
    by Martha Bergland

    Drag me to re-order


  41. 48.
    The World and the Bo Tree
    by Helen Bevington

    Drag me to re-order


  42. 49.
    When I Was a German, 1934-1945: An Englishwoman in Nazi Germany
    by Christabel Bielenberg

    Drag me to re-order


  43. 50.
    Circle of Friends
    by Maeve Binchy

    Drag me to re-order


Pages: 1 2 3 ... 11

This is a community list. You can contribute, edit, or help maintain it by adding it to your lists.
Created by desertlizard on Jul 17, 2006.
 

Comments

Ouch, no Ayn Rand? — 8 weeks ago

Not that big a fan, but I’m sure The Fountainhead or Atlas Shrugged is more deserving than some of the books on this list.


Melissa B.
Oklahoma City

Saints and Strangers — 1 year ago

The book listed at #93 appears to be written by an actual man (as opposed to being written by a woman under a male pseudonym). I don’t have access to the source book for this list, but based on where it is on the list alphabetically—between “Carson” and “Cary”—I’m inclined to think that the book is supposed to be the “Saints and Strangers” by Angela Carter.


Untitled — 1 year ago

Number 283 is misspelled, the correct english title should be “The Löwensköld ring”. I went to the editing page, but could not figure out how to edit the title, maybe someone with more experience of this site could fix it?


Untitled — 1 year ago

Thanks for doing this list!
There were some misspelled titles & right-title-wrong-authors on here, so I fixed those.