40 Before 40: Challenge #29

One of my challenges for my #40Before40 is to read every book on the 40 Books that Every Woman Should Read list.

My reasoning behind this was that I predominately read books my male authors; more by accident than design. I recently discovered that the Norwegian writer, Jo Nesbo, is actually male. All this time I thought he was a woman, mainly because in English “Jo” is a woman’s name and “Joe” is a man’s name. So, this list will hopefully redress the balance.

There are a number of books on this list that I have part read and not finished. Some of them I definitely started as a young teenager and never go round to finishing.

Of course, I have read all of the Harry Potter books. I was a bit late to the party. I read all of them, one after another, in the summer of 2015. Some of the authors are not as famous as J.K. Rowling but I am sure that their books are equally as worthy of being on the list.

Below is the complete list. Those books highlights in red I have already read. Out of 40 I have read 4. Time to get reading!

1. The Age of Grief by Jane Smiley
2. Beloved by Toni Morrison
3. Unaccustomed Earth by Jhumpa Lahiri
4. A Visit From the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan
5. The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
6. The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton
7. The History of Love by Nicole Krauss
8. Near to the Wild Heart by Clarice Lispector
9. The House of Spirits by Isabelle Allende
10. Random Family by Adrian Nicole LeBlanc
11. Play it as it Lays by Joan Didion
12. The Awakening by Kate Chopin
13. Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
14. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
15. The Secret History by Donna Tartt
16. Runaway by Alice Munro
17. The Thing Around Your Neck by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
18. Sexing the Cherry by Jeanette Winterson
19. White Teeth by Zadie Smith
20. Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic by Alison Bechdel
21. Cherry by Mary Karr
22. The Color Purple by Alice Walker
23. Bastard Out of Carolina by Dorothy Allison
24. The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand
25. My Antonia by Willa Cather
26. Drinking Coffee Elsewhere by Z.Z. Packer
27. Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling
28. Willful Creatures by Aimee Bender
29. Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
30. The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
31. The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank
32. The Blue Flower by Penelope Fitzgerald
33. Love Medicine by Louise Erdrich
34. The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan
35. The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold
36. What Was She Thinking? by Zoe Heller
37. The Golden Notebook by Doris Lessing
38. Broken Harbor by Tana French
39. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
40. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

Tags: 40Before40, books, challenge, female authors, geek, inspiration, learning, list, literature, read, reading, turning 40