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In Her Words: Womenâ??s Fiction Highlights
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Updated February 26, 2023
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Wyndham Library
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Agnes Grey
Brontë, Anne
Concerned for her family's financial welfare and eager to expand her own horizons, Agnes Grey takes up the position of governess, the only respectable employment for an unmarried woman in the nineteenth century. Unfortunately, Agnes cannot anticipate the hardship, humiliation, and loneliness that...
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A room made of leaves : a novel
Grenville, Kate
What if Elizabeth Macarthur-wife of the notorious John Macarthur, wool baron in the earliest days of Sydney-had written a shockingly frank secret memoir? And what if novelist Kate Grenville had miraculously found and published it? That's the starting point for A Room Made of Leaves, a playful...
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Circe
Miller, Madeline
This #1 New York Times bestseller is a "bold and subversive retelling of the goddess's story" that brilliantly reimagines the life of Circe, formidable sorceress of The Odyssey (Alexandra Alter, TheNew York Times). In the house of Helios,...
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Enola Holmes and the black barouche
Springer, Nancy
"A young girl who is empowered, capable, and smart...the Enola Holmes book series convey an impactful message that you can do anything if you set your mind to it, and it does so in an exciting and adventurous way."--Millie Bobby Brown Enola Holmes is back! Nancy Springer's...
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Does My Body Offend You?
Mayra Cuevas
A timely story of two teenagers who discover the power of friendship, feminism, and standing up for what you believe in, no matter where you come from. A collaboration between two gifted authors writing from alternating perspectives, this compelling novel shines with authenticity, courage, and...
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Pandora's jar : women in the Greek myths
Haynes, Natalie
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER "Funny, sharp explications of what these sometimes not-very-nice women were up to, and how they sometimes made idiots of . . . but read on!"--Margaret Atwood, author of The Handmaid's Tale The national bestselling author of A Thousand Ships returns with a...
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Cinderella is dead
Bayron, Kalynn
_______________'Kalynn Bayron does more than re-write a fairytale ... She breaks it apart and rebuilds it into a wholly original and captivating story where girls finally decide for themselves who lives happily ever after' - New York Times bestselling author Brigid Kemmerer'A...
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Scary monsters
De Kretser, Michelle
Finalist for the 2022 Kirkus Prize for Fiction Shortlisted for the 2022 Miles Franklin Literary Award Shortlisted for the 2023 Rathbones Folio Prize Longlisted for the 2022 Gordon Burn Prize (UK) A profoundly original exploration of racism, misogyny, and ageism-...
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The personal librarian
Benedict, Marie
In her twenties, Belle da Costa Greene is hired by J. P. Morgan to curate a collection for his newly built Pierpont Morgan Library. Belle becomes a fixture on the New York society scene and one of the most powerful people in the art and book world as she helps build a world-class collection. But...
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The Women Could Fly
Giddings, Megan.
Reminiscent of the works of Margaret Atwood, Shirley Jackson, and Octavia Butler, a biting social commentary from the acclaimed author of Lakewood that speaks to our times--a piercing dystopian novel about the unbreakable bond between a young woman and her mysterious mother, set in a world in...
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The mercies : a novel
Hargrave, Kiran Millwood
After the men in an Arctic Norwegian town are wiped out, the women must survive a sinister threat in this "perfectly told" 1600s parable of "a world gone mad" (Adriana Trigiani). Â Finnmark, Norway, 1617. Twenty-year-old Maren Magnusdatter stands on...
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Vox
Dalcher, Christina.
ONE OF ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY'S AND SHEREADS' BOOKS TO READ AFTER THE HANDMAID'S TALE "[An] electrifying debut."--O, The Oprah Magazine * "The real-life parallels will make you shiver."--Cosmopolitan Set in a United States in which half the population...
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When women were dragons a novel
Barnhill, Kelly Regan
A GOODREADS BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR * A fiery feminist fantasy tale set in 1950s America where thousands of women have spontaneously transformed into dragons, exploding notions of a woman's place in the world and expanding minds about accepting others for who they really are. Â ...
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Girl, woman, other
Evaristo, Bernardine
NATIONAL BESTSELLER WINNER OF THE BOOKER PRIZE "A must-read about modern Britain and womanhood . . . An impressive, fierce novel about the lives of black British families, their struggles, pains, laughter, longings and loves . . . Her style is passionate, razor-sharp, brimming with...
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Ella enchanted
Levine, Gail Carson.
This beloved Newbery Honor-winning story about a feisty heroine is sure to enchant readers new and old. At her birth, Ella of Frell receives a foolish fairy's gift--the "gift" of obedience. Ella must obey any order, whether it's to hop on one foot for a day and a half, or to chop off...
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Hag-seed : The tempest retold
Atwood, Margaret
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * The beloved author of The Handmaid's Tale reimagines Shakespeare's final, great play, The Tempest, in a gripping and emotionally rich novel of passion and revenge.  "A marvel of gorgeous yet...
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Her body and other parties : stories
Machado, Carmen Maria
Finalist for the National Book Award for Fiction "[These stories] vibrate with originality, queerness, sensuality and the strange."--Roxane Gay "In these formally brilliant and emotionally charged tales, Machado gives literal shape to women's memories and...
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Ithaca
North, Claire.
From the multi-award-winning author Claire North comes a daring reimagining that breathes life into ancient myth and gives voice to the women who stand defiant in a world ruled by ruthless men. It's time for the women of Ithaca to tell their tale . . . "North...
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Little women
Alcott, Louisa May
The illustrations for this series were created by Scott McKowen, who, with his wife Christina Poddubiuk, operates Punch & Judy Inc., a company specializing in design and illustration for theater and performing arts. Their projects often involve research into the visual aspects of...
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Madam
Wynne, Phoebe
"The simmering menace and mystery kept me absolutely gripped...a smoldering novel that I could not put down." --Jennifer Saint, author of Ariadne "Rebecca meets The Secret History: gloriously dark, gloriously Gothic." --Sara Collins...
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Mrs Dalloway
Woolf, Virginia
Heralded as Virginia Woolf's greatest novel, this is a vivid portrait of a single day in a woman's life. When we meet her, Mrs. Clarissa Dalloway is preoccupied with the last-minute details of party preparation while in her mind she is something much more than a perfect society hostess. As she...
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Ship of magic
Hobb, Robin
Bingtown is a hub of exotic trade and home to a merchant nobility famed for its liveships-rare vessels carved from wizardwood, which ripens magically into sentient awareness. Now the fortunes of one of Bingtown's oldest families rest on the newly awakened liveship Vivacia. For Althea Vestrit, the...
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Salt slow
Armfield, Julia
Shortlisted for the Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year Award From White Review Short Story Prize winner Julia Armfield, a brilliant, provocative debut story collection for fans of Carmen Maria Machado and Kelly Link. In her electrifying debut,...
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The witch's heart
Gornichec, Genevieve
Angrboda's story begins where most witch's tales end: with a burning. A punishment from Odin for refusing to give him knowledge of the future, the fire leaves Angrboda injured and powerless, and she flees into a remote forest. There she is found by a man Loki, and her initial distrust grows into a...
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The bell jar
Plath, Sylvia
A Special Hardcover Edition to Commemorate the 50th Anniversary of the Publication of Sylvia Plath's Remarkable Novel "It is this perfectly wrought prose and the freshness of Plath's voice in The Bell Jar that make this book enduring in its appeal." -- USA Today ...
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Lacuna
Snyckers, Fiona.
Winner of the Sala Novel Award Winner of the Humanities and Social Sciences Award for the Novel A cry for reparations for Lucy Lurie. She is the victim of an act of terrible sexual violence that devastes her life. Afterwards, she becomes obsessed with the author John Coetzee, the man...
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Spinning silver
Novik, Naomi
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLERÂ *Â "One of the year's strongest fantasy novels" (NPR), an imaginative retelling of the Rumpelstiltskin fairy tale from the bestselling author of Uprooted.NEBULA AND HUGO AWARD FINALIST * NAMED ONE OF PASTE'S...
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The case of the bizarre bouquets
Springer, Nancy
Fourteen-year-old Enola Holmes, disguised as a beautiful woman, finds clues in floral bouquets as she searches for the missing Doctor Watson, a companion of her famous older brother, Sherlock.
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The case of the cryptic crinoline
Springer, Nancy
Enola#65533;s landlady, Mrs. Tupper, is the closest thing Enola has to family these days, besides her occasional run-ins with her brother Sherlock. Even though Mrs. Tupper is nearly deaf and can barely cook, she#65533;s an endearing presence as Enola longs for her absent mother. So imagine her...
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The color purple
Walker, Alice
Now a Broadway musical featuring Jennifer Hudson Winner of the Pulitzer Prize Winner of the National Book Award  Published to unprecedented acclaim, The Color Purple established Alice...
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Gender swapped fairy tales
Fransman, Karrie
Imagine a world where kings prick their fingers as they sew, wolves wear heels, and princesses race to rescue sleeping princes...
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The dictionary of lost words
Williams, Pip
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * REESE'S BOOK CLUB PICK * "Delightful . . . [a] captivating and slyly subversive fictional paean to the real women whose work on the Oxford English Dictionary went largely unheralded."--The New York Times Book Review "A marvelous...
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The invisible life of Addie LaRue
Schwab, Victoria
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER USA TODAY BESTSELLER NATIONAL INDIE BESTSELLER THE WASHINGTON POST BESTSELLER Recommended by Entertainment Weekly, Real Simple, NPR, Slate, and Oprah...
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The end of men
Sweeney-Baird, Christina
"The End of Men is a fiercely intelligent page-turner, an eerily prescient novel, at once thoughtful and highly emotive." --Paula Hawkins, #1 internationally bestselling author of The Girl on the Train Set in a world where a virus stalks our male population, The End...
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The handmaid's tale
Atwood, Margaret
Now a Hulu series starring Elizabeth Moss. The Handmaid's Tale is an instant classic and eerily prescient cultural phenomenon, from "the patron saint of feminist dystopian fiction" (New York Times) The Handmaid's Tale is a novel of such power that the reader will be unable to forget its...
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Six of crows
Bardugo, Leigh
See the Grishaverse come to life on screen with the Netflix series, Shadow and Bone -- Season 2 streaming now! Meet Kaz Brekker and his crew: Jesper, Inej, Wylan, and the star-crossed Nina and Matthias, on the heist of a lifetime in Six of Crows from #1...
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Kim Jiyoung, born 1982 = Palsip yi nyeon saeng Kim Jiyeong
Cho, Nam-ju
Truly, flawlessly, completely, she became that person. In a small, tidy apartment on the outskirts of the frenzied metropolis of Seoul lives Kim Jiyoung. A thirtysomething-year-old "millennial everywoman," she has recently left her white-collar desk job--in order to care for her newborn...
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The lost sisterhood : a novel
Fortier, Anne
From the author of the New York Times bestseller Juliet comes a mesmerizing novel about a young scholar who risks her reputation--and her life--on a thrilling journey to prove that the legendary warrior women known as the Amazons actually existed. Â Oxford lecturer Diana...
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The priory of the orange tree
Shannon, Samantha
Get ready for Samantha Shannon's new novel, A Day of Fallen Night, coming in February 2023! The New York Times bestselling "epic feminist fantasy perfect for fans of Game of Thrones" (Bustle). NAMED A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR BY: AMAZON (Top...
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The once and future witches
Harrow, Alix E.
"A gorgeous and thrilling paean to the ferocious power of women. The characters live, bleed, and roar. "―Laini Taylor, New York Times bestselling author A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * Winner of the British Fantasy Award for Best...
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The Penelopiad
Atwood, Margaret
"Homer's Odyssey is not the only version of the story. Mythic material was originally oral, and also local -- a myth would be told one way in one place and quite differently in another. I have drawn on material other than the Odyssey, especially for the details of Penelope's...
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Daughter of the forest
Marillier, Juliet
Daughter of the Forest, the first book in Juliet Marillier's award-winning Sevenwaters Trilogy. Lovely Sorcha is the seventh child and only daughter of Lord Colum of Sevenwaters. Bereft of a mother, she is comforted by her six brothers who love and protect her. Sorcha...
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Violeta
Allende, Isabel.
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * This sweeping novel from the author of A Long Petal of the Sea tells the epic story of Violeta Del Valle, a woman whose life spans one hundred years and bears witness to the greatest upheavals of the twentieth century. "An immersive saga...
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Ines of my soul
Allende, Isabel.
From Isabel Allende, author of novels beloved across the globe, comes a magisterial work of historical fiction that chronicles the astonishing life of In s Su rez, a daring Spanish conquistadora who toiled to build the nation of Chile--and whose vital role has too often been neglected by history....
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Louisa May Alcott's Little women
Archer, Mandy
BabyLit Storybooks are a great way to introduce young readers to the classics, with easy to read storylines and bright illustrations. They are part of the bestselling BabyLit series, which provides a literary education for your brilliant children. BabyLit® primers have become...
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Island beneath the sea : a novel
Allende, Isabel.
"Allende is a master storyteller at the peak of her powers." -- Los Angeles Times From the sugar plantations of Saint-Domingue to the lavish parlors of New Orleans at the turn of the 19th century, the latest novel from New York Times bestselling author Isabel Allende (Inés of...
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Home fire
Shamsie, Kamila
"Ingenious... Builds to one of the most memorable final scenes I've read in a novel this century."Â --The New York Times WINNER OF THE 2018 WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR FICTION FINALIST FOR THE 2019 INTERNATIONAL DUBLIN LITERARY AWARD LONGLISTED FOR...
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Women talking
Toews, Miriam
The internationally bestselling novel based on real events. Now a major motion picture from writer/director Sarah Polley, starring Rooney Mara, Claire Foy, Jessie Buckley, with Ben Whishaw and Frances McDormand. "This amazing, sad, shocking, but touching novel, based on a real...
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Who is Vera Kelly?
Knecht, Rosalie
New York City, 1962. Vera Kelly is struggling to make rent and blend into the underground gay scene in Greenwich Village. She's working night shifts at a radio station when her quick wits, sharp tongue, and technical skills get her noticed by a recruiter for the CIA. Next...
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Liberation
Kealey, Imogen
Inspired by the true story of World War II's greatest heroine, this international bestseller and "cinematic treat" tells the story of Nancy Wake and the impact she had on the world (Publishers Weekly). Hero. Soldier. Spy. Leader. Her name is Nancy Wake. ...
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Uprooted
Novik, Naomi
WINNER OF THE NEBULA AWARD FOR BEST NOVEL * Naomi Novik, author of the New York Times bestselling and critically acclaimed Temeraire novels, introduces a bold new world rooted in folk stories and legends, as elemental as a Grimm fairy tale. HUGO AWARD FINALIST * NAMED...
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The Underground Railroad
Whitehead, Colson
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER *Â PULITZER PRIZE WINNER *Â NATIONAL BOOK AWARD WINNER * AÂ magnificent tour de force chronicling a young slave's adventures as she makes a desperate bid for freedom in the antebellum South. * Now an original Amazon Prime Video series directed by...
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The testaments
Atwood, Margaret
NEW YORK TIMES BEST SELLER * WINNER OF THE BOOKER PRIZE * The Testaments is a modern masterpiece, a powerful novel that can be read on its own or as a companion to Margaret Atwood's classic, The Handmaid's Tale. More than fifteen years after the events of...
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Sherwood
Spooner, Meagan
Fans of Danielle Paige, Marissa Meyer, and Alex Flinn will devour New York Times bestselling author Meagan Spooner's next fierce fairy tale-inspired story, which Illuminae author Amie Kaufman calls "a kick-ass, gender-flipped feminist retelling." Robin of Locksley is dead. Maid...
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The red tent
Diamant, Anita
Her name is Dinah. In the Bible, her life is only hinted at in a brief and violent detour within the more familiar chapters of the Book of Genesis that are about her father, Jacob, and his dozen sons. Told in Dinah's voice, this novel reveals the traditions and turmoils of ancient womanhood - the...
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The case of the left-handed lady
Springer, Nancy
In her follow-up to The Case of the Missing Marquess, Springer brings readers back to the danger and intrigue of Victorian London as she continues the adventures of Sherlock Holmes's sister.
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The case of the gypsy good-bye
Springer, Nancy.
Don't miss Enola Holmes: The Case of the Missing Marquess! Now a Netflix original movie starring Millie Bobby Brown, Henry Cavill, and Helena Bonham Carter! Enola Holmes--younger sister to Sherlock Holmes--is back on another case! As Enola searches...
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