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

26. The God of Small Things, by Arundhati Roy
27. Charming Billy, by Alice McDermott
28. Interpreter of Maladies, by Jhumpa Lahiri
29. Three Junes, by Julia Glass
30. Purple Hibiscus, by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
31. We Need to Talk About Kevin, by Lionel Shriver
32. Gilead, by Marilynne Robinson
33. March, by Geraldine Brooks
34. Fun Home, by Alison Bechdel
35. The Inheritance of Loss, by Kiran Desai
36. Olive Kitteridge, by Elizabeth Strout
37. The Lacuna, by Barbara Kingsolver
38. A Visit from the Goon Squad, by Jennifer Egan
39. The Round House, by Louise Erdrich
40. Family Furnishings, by Alice Munro
41. Everything I Never Told You, by Celeste Ng
42. The Goldfinch, by Donna Tart
43. The Sixth Extinction, by Elizabeth Kolbert
44. The Invention of Wings, by Sue Monk Kidd
45. An American Marriage, by Tayari Jones
46. Such a Fun Age, by Kiley Reid
47. Remembered, by Yvonne Battle-Felton
48. The Book of Unknown Americans, by Cristina Henriquez
49. No One is Talking About This, by Patricia Lockwood
50. 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!