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 28, 2026
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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...
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, a...
The lion women of Tehran
Kamali, Marjan
Paper Book
A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER From nationally bestselling author Marjan Kamali, this perfect book club read is "evocative...and a powerful portrait of friendship, feminism, and political activism" (People) set against three transformative decades in 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<...
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 daughter of formerly enslaved parents, Mary McLeod Bethune refuses to back down as white supremacists attempt to thwart her work. She marches on as an activist and an educator, and as her reputation grows she becomes a celebrity, revered by titans of business and recognized by U.S. Presidents....
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...
Let's call her Barbie
Rosen, Renée
Paper Book
When Ruth Handler walks into the boardroom of the toy company she co-founded and pitches her idea for a doll unlike any other, she knows what she's setting in motion. It might just take the world a moment to catch up. In 1956, the only dolls on the market for little girls let them pretend to be...
Eleanor and the cold war
Yardley, Ellen
Paper Book
For fans of Colleen Cambridge, S.K. Golden, Jacqueline Winspear, and Ashley Weaver, a brilliant 1950s Cold War historical mystery debut featuring the former First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt's indispensable assistant as an equally resourceful sleuth. New York City and Washington...
Harriet Tubman: live in concert : a novel
Bob, the Drag Queen
Paper Book
THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER Most Anticipated LGBTQ+ Books of 2025 by Pride * Best New Books of Spring 2025 by Bustle * Most Anticipated Books of 2025 by LitHub * Biggest Books of March by Book Riot * Most Anticipated Books of March by...
Malinalli
Chapa, Veronica
Paper Book
Book Riot's Best New Book Releases A 2025 Latino Book Award Winner, Gold Medal for Best Novel -- Historical Fiction -- English "A vivid and unprecedented journey into the Spanish invasion of Aztec Mexico." --Luis Alberto Urrea, acclaimed...
Harlem rhapsody
Murray, Victoria Christopher
Paper Book
In 1919, as civil unrest grips the county, in a flourishing part of New York City called Harlem, something special is stirring. Here, the New Negro is rising and Black pride is evident everywhere... in music, theatre, fashion and the arts. And there on stage in the center of this renaissance is...
Mary and the birth of Frankenstein : a novel
Eekhout, Anne
Paper Book
"A beautiful, hallucinatory dream of a novel." -J.M. Miro, Author of the National Bestseller Ordinary Monsters "A fantastically moody, unsettling novel."-Sarah Waters, New York Times bestselling author of The Paying Guests and Fingersmith A "bold ......
Finding Margaret Fuller : a novel
Pataki, Allison
Paper Book
A "sweeping" (Entertainment Weekly) novel of America's forgotten leading lady, the central figure of a movement that defined a nation--from the New York Times bestselling author of The Magnificent Lives of Marjorie Post "Soul-stirring . . . brings to life the...
The secret war of Julia Child : a novel
Chambers, Diana R.
Paper Book
An instant international bestseller and a USA Today bestseller! A Washington Post Best Historical Fiction Book of 2024! A People magazine Best Book of Fall! A New York Post Book of the Week! Before she mastered the art of French cooking in midlife, Julia Child found...
A pair of wings : a novel
Hopson, Carole
Paper Book
An airline captain crafts a riveting, adventurous novel inspired by the remarkable true life of pioneer aviatrix Bessie Coleman, a Black woman who learned to fly at the dawn of aviation and found freedom in the air A few years after the Wright brothers' first flight, Bessie...
Katharine, the Wright sister
Wood, Tracey Enerson
Paper Book
A "stirring tribute to an unsung trailblazer" and "a gripping tale of perseverance." - Publishers Weekly She helped her brothers soar... but was the flight worth the fall? It all started with two boys and a bicycle shop. Wilbur and Orville Wright, both unsuited to...

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