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!
- The Age of Grief by Jane Smiley
- Beloved by Toni Morrison
- Unaccustomed Earth by Jhumpa Lahiri
- A Visit From the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan
- The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
- The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton
- The History of Love by Nicole Krauss
- Near to the Wild Heart by Clarice Lispector
- The House of Spirits by Isabelle Allende
- Random Family by Adrian Nicole LeBlanc
- Play it as it Lays by Joan Didion
- The Awakening by Kate Chopin
- Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
- Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
- The Secret History by Donna Tartt
- Runaway by Alice Munro
- The Thing Around Your Neck by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
- Sexing the Cherry by Jeanette Winterson
- White Teeth by Zadie Smith
- Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic by Alison Bechdel
- Cherry by Mary Karr
- The Color Purple by Alice Walker
- Bastard Out of Carolina by Dorothy Allison
- The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand
- My Antonia by Willa Cather
- Drinking Coffee Elsewhere by Z.Z. Packer
- Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling
- Willful Creatures by Aimee Bender
- Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
- The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
- The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank
- The Blue Flower by Penelope Fitzgerald
- Love Medicine by Louise Erdrich
- The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan
- The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold
- What Was She Thinking? by Zoe Heller
- The Golden Notebook by Doris Lessing
- Broken Harbor by Tana French
- Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
- To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
I haven’t read anywhere near enough books on this list!
I’m happy to see Tana French on there. I loooove her books. I would probably have picked a different one though – Broken Harbour isn’t my favourite of hers.
I know – scary isn’t it! I haven’t read any Tana French but looking forward to it!