Women's History Past and Present: Adult Fiction

Fiction titles for adults that chronicle the lives of extraordinary women, examine historical movements, and address feminist issues.

Updated February 5, 2025
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The Turtle House : a novel
Churchill, Amanda
Paper Book
"A heartbreakingly resonant debut, The Turtle House is a tender, big-hearted story about women, family, and the complicated history of Texas. These characters, and their tentative, flawed stumblings toward grace, will stay with me."--Elizabeth Wetmore, author of Valentine ...
Redwood court : fiction
Dameron, DéLana R. A.
Paper Book
REESE'S BOOK CLUB PICK * "[A] richly textured and deeply moving debut" (The New York Times Book Review, Editors' Choice) about one unforgettable Southern Black family and its youngest daughter's coming of age in the 1990s. "A triumph . . . Redwood Court is storytelling...
Crow Mary : a novel
Grissom, Kathleen
Paper Book
The New York Times bestselling author of the book club classics The Kitchen House and Glory Over Everything returns with a sweeping and "richly detailed story of a woman caught between two cultures" (Sandra Dallas, New York Times bestselling author) inspired by the...
Grown women : a novel
Johnson, Sarai
Paper Book
A New Yorker Best Book of the Year · NAACP Image Award Winner for Outstanding Debut Literary Work "This is a tender, deeply perceptive tale of what kin owes kin, and how we might work to mend old wounds together."--Elle In this stunning debut novel, four generations of complex Black...
The lion women of Tehran
Kamali, Marjan
Paper Book
NATIONAL BESTSELLER An "evocative read and a powerful portrait of friendship, feminism, and political activism" (People) set against three transformative decades in Tehran, Iran--from nationally bestselling author Marjan Kamali. In 1950s Tehran,...
The mother of all things : a novel
Landau, Alexis
Paper Book
A daring novel from the acclaimed author of Those Who Are Saved: female rage, grief, and creativity collide in the present and animate the past, when a woman reconnects with her essential self during a summer journey, and discovers an ancient female world that offers parallels to her own<...
The Hazelbourne ladies motorcycle and flying club : a novel
Simonson, Helen
Paper Book
NATIONAL BESTSELLER * "Historical fiction of the highest order . . . an absolute joy of a book, warm and romantic, and with so much to say about the lives of women in the years following World War I."--Ann Napolitano, bestselling author of Hello Beautiful A timeless...
Where they last saw her : a novel
Rendon, Marcie R.
Paper Book
NATIONAL BESTSELLER * From the award-winning author of the Cash Blackbear series comes a compelling novel of a Native American woman who learns of the disappearance of one of her own and decides enough is enough. A WASHINGTON POST AND BOOK RIOT BEST BOOK OF THE...
The women
Hannah, Kristin
Paper Book
A #1 bestseller on The New York Times, USA Today, Washington Post, and Los Angeles Times! From the celebrated author of The Nightingale and The Four Winds comes Kristin Hannah's The Women--at once an intimate portrait of coming of age in a...
The first ladies
Benedict, Marie
Paper Book
The Instant New York Times Bestseller!  A novel about the extraordinary partnership between First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt and civil rights activist Mary McLeod Bethune--an unlikely friendship that changed the world, from the New York Times bestselling...
Fast girls : a novel of the 1936 women's Olympic team
Hooper, Elise
Paper Book
ONE OF THE MOST ANTICIPATED BOOKS OF THE SUMMER BY POPSUGAR, FROLIC, PARADE, TRAVEL & LEISURE, SHE KNOWS, and SHE READS!  NAMED A REAL SIMPLE BEST BOOK OF 2020 (SO FAR). "Fast Girls is a compelling, thrilling look at what it takes to be a female Olympian in pre...
The women's march : a novel of the 1913 woman suffrage procession
Chiaverini, Jennifer
Paper Book
New York Times bestselling author Jennifer Chiaverini returns with The Women's March, an enthralling historical novel of the women's suffrage movement inspired by three courageous women who bravely risked their lives and liberty in the fight to win the vote. Twenty-five-year...
The American daughters : a novel
Ruffin, Maurice Carlos
Paper Book
"An enthralling tale of a secret resistance movement run by Black women in pre-Civil War New Orleans."--Time "Stirring . . . In telling this important, neglected history with imagination-fueled research, The American Daughters offers an inspiring story of people...
A right worthy woman : a novel
Watson, Ruth P.
Paper Book
In the vein of The Personal Librarian and The House of Eve, a "remarkable and stirring novel" (Patti Callahan Henry, New York Times bestselling author) based on the inspiring true story of Virginia's Black Wall Street and the indomitable Maggie Lena Walker, the...
Good night, Irene
Urrea, Luis Alberto
Paper Book
This New York Times bestselling novel tells an exhilarating World War II epic that chronicles an extraordinary young woman's heroic frontline service in the Red Cross. "Urrea's touch is sure, his exuberance carries you through . . . He is a generous writer, not just in his...

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