1900’s M to Z
You may click on the titles to buy the books from Amazon, or use this list as a resource when you go to the library or the bookstore of your choice. Click here to find an independent bookstore at IndieBound.
Place of Setting | Author | Title | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
Malaysia | Choo, Yangsze | The Night Tiger | Surreal story of a dressmaker, a houseboy, and a tiger-man. |
Malaysia | Manicka, Rani | The Rice Mother | A matriarch of a large family |
Mexico | Esquivel, Laura | Like Water for Chocolate | Passion, cooking, and magical realism in early 1900s |
Mexico | Maum, Courtney | Costalegre | Teenage girl discovers herself among surrealist artists |
Mexico | Mujica, Barbara | Frida | Based on the life of painter Frida Kahlo |
Mexico | Poniatowska, Elena | Here’s to You, Jesusa! | Based on the life story of Josefina Borquez, who fought in the Mexican Revolution |
Mexico | Poniatowska, Elena | Tinisima | Based on the life of actress and Communist agent Tina Modotti |
Morocco | Mangan, Christine | Tangerine | Two Western women whose friendship has gone awry meet in Tangier in the 1950s. |
Palestine | Diamant, Anita | Day After Night | Holocaust survivors in an internment camp in Palestine |
Palestine | Grant, Linda | When I Lived in Modern Times | A Jewish woman from London moves to Palestine |
Poland | Pearl, Sydelle | Wordwings | 12-year-old girl keeps diary during Nazi occupation |
Polynesia | Ciment, Jill | The Tattoo Artist | A woman artist marooned on an island in the South Pacific learns the art of tattooing |
Portugal | Pedrosa, Ines | In Your Hands | Three generations of women |
Romania | Shea, Christina | Smuggled | During World War II, a Jewish girl grows up Catholic in Romania |
Russia | Levy Mossanen, Dora | The Last Romanov | A relative of the assassinated Tsar Nicholas II searches to find the true heir |
Russia | Meads, Kat | For You, Madam Lenin | Based on the life of Nadya Krupskaya, wife of Vladimir Lenin |
Russia | Richler, Nancy | Your Mouth Is Lovely | Jewish revolutionaries |
Russia | Silber, Alexandra | After Anatevka | Continuation of Hodel’s story from Fiddler on the Roof |
Russia | Yakhina, Guzel | Zuleikha | Peasant woman copes in Soviet Russia |
Scotland | Livesey, Margot | Eva Moves the Furniture | A motherless girl tries to understand two mysterious visitors in her life |
Scotland | Seckel, Emma | The Wild Hunt | Murder mystery with supernatural creatures |
South Africa | Kohler, Sheila | Love Child | A white South African woman reflects on her past in the apartheid era |
South Africa | Mutch, Barbara | The Housemaid’s Daughter | Friendship between an Irish immigrant and her maid |
Sweden | Fredriksson, Marianne | Hanna’s Daughters | Three generations of women |
Turkey | Suman, Defne | The Silence of Scheherazade | Mother and daughter in Smyrna |
Ukraine | Gal, Valentina | Philipovna: Daughter of Sorrow | Young woman lives through Stalin’s rule |
United States | Adler, Elizabeth | Fortune Is a Woman | Women entrepreneurs /magnates |
United States | Albert, Susan Wittig | Loving Eleanor | Based on the relationship between Eleanor Roosevelt and Lorena Hickok |
United States | Attenberg, Jami | Saint Mazie | Proprietor of a NYC movie theater in 1920’s and 1930’s |
United States | Baggott, Juliana | The Madam | Based on the life of the author’s grandmother, who survived by running a house of prostitution |
United States | Baker, Ellen | I Gave My Heart to Know This | Several generations of women, starting with welders during World War II |
United States | Barnett, Lashonda Katrice | Jam on the Vine | African American woman journalist |
United States | Belfer, Lauren | A Fierce Radiance | A photojournalist during World War II |
United States | Benjamin, Melanie | The Aviator’s Wife | Based on the life of Anne Morrow Lindbergh |
United States | Benjamin, Melanie | The Girls in the Picture | Women in Hollywood before World War I |
United States | Bloom, Amy | Away | Jewish immigrants |
United States | Brown, Rita Mae | Six of One | Adventures of women in a small town in Maryland from the early 1900’s to the 1980’s |
United States | Burns, Mary | The Reason for Time | Irish immigrant in Chicago in 1919 |
United States | Celt, Adrienne | Invitation to a Bonfire | Russian refugees in New Jersey in the 1920s |
United States | Clarke, Breena | River, Cross My Heart | African American community in Washington, DC copes after a child’s death |
United States | Diamant, Anita | The Boston Girl | Daughter of Jewish immigrants grows up |
United States | Drew, Julie | Daughter of Providence | Family secrets in Rhode Island |
United States | Egan, Jennifer | Manhattan Beach | World War II — First female diver at Brooklyn Naval Yard |
United States | Erdrich, Louise | The Last Report on the Miracles at Little No Horse | A priest to the Ojibwe is really a woman in disguise |
United States | Erdrich, Louise | The Painted Drum | A real estate agent finds an ancient ceremonial drum that belongs to the Ojibwe people |
United States | Fajardo-Anstine, Kali | Woman of Light | Five generations of Indigenous Chicano family |
United States | Feldman, Ellen | Lucy | Based on the life of Lucy Mercer, who had an affair with Franklin Roosevelt |
United States | Feldman, Ellen | Next to Love | Three young women during World War II |
United States | Fields, Jennie | The Age of Desire | Based on the life of author Edith Wharton |
United States | Flagg, Fannie | Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe | Owners of a small diner in 1930s Alabama |
United States | Fowler, Karen Joy | The Sweetheart Season | Women’s baseball team |
United States | Fowler, Therese Anne | Z: A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald | Based on the wife of writer F. Scott Fitzgerald |
United States | Franks, Julia | Over the Plain Houses | An Appalachian farm wife befriends a woman government agent |
United States | Gilbert, Elizabeth | City of Girls | 1940s New York theater world |
United States | Harrison, Jamie | The Widow Nash | Daughter disguises herself to search for father’s fortune |
United States | Henderson, Eleanor | The Twelve-Mile Straight | Georgia woman gives birth to one white and one black twin |
United States | Henderson, Genie Chipps | A Woman of the World | Based on the life of photographer Margaret Bourke-White |
United States | Horan, Nancy | Loving Frank | Based on the companion of Frank Lloyd Wright |
United States | Ivey, Eowyn | The Snow Child | 1920s Alaska — magical realism |
United States | Joy, Avril | Sometimes A River Song | 15-year-old girl in Arkansas struggles to escape male domination |
United States | Koe, Amanda Lee | Delayed Rays of a Star | Follows lives of 2 actresses and a filmmaker |
United States | Laskas, Gretchen Moran | The Midwife’s Tale | 1920’s West Virginia — a family of midwives |
United States | Mathis, Ayana | The Twelve Tribes of Hattie | African-American mother in 1920s Philadelphia. |
United States | McCracken, Elizabeth | Bowlaway | A ghost opens a bowling alley |
United States | McGraw, Erin | The Seamstress of Hollywood Boulevard | A young mother flees small-town Kansas for California |
United States | Montgomery, Jess | The Widows | Inspired by the first woman sheriff in Ohio |
United States | Nichols, Tanya | The Barber’s Wife | A nurse in a small town in Oklahoma |
United States | O’Connor, Sheila | Evidence of V | Fact and fiction blend to tell the story of a woman imprisoned for unplanned pregnancy. |
United States | Otsuka, Julie | When the Emperor Was Divine | Japanese-American internment during World War II |
United States | Pietrzyk, Leslie | Pears on a Willow Tree | Polish-American family |
United States | Poliner, Elizabeth | As Close to Us as Breathing | Three Jewish sisters in the 1940s |
United States | Prescott, Lara | The Secrets We Kept | Women from CIA involved with smuggling Dr. Zhivago into Soviet Union |
United States | Schlenker, J. | Sally | Based on the life of an African-American woman, Sally Ann Barnes. |
United States | Schultz, Connie | The Daughters of Erietown | Working-class family in NE Ohio |
United States | See, Lisa | China Dolls | In 1938, three Chinese-American girls from different background become friends |
United States | Sharp, Adrienne | The Magnificent Esme Wells | First person view of Hollywood from 1939-1953 |
United States | Shields, Sharma | The Cassandra | During World War II, a secretary of Hanford nuclear site sees visions of disaster. |
United States | Smith, Lee | Guests on Earth | Inmates of a mental hospital in North Carolina in the 1920’s |
United States | Spera, Deb | Call Your Daughter Home | Three small-town southern women tackle crisis |
United States | Tsukiyama, Gail | The Brightest Star | Based on the life of silent film star Anna May Wong |
United States | Tuccelli, Jessica Maria | Glow | A young woman learns about her Cherokee heritage. |
United States | Ulleseit, Linda | Under the Almond Trees | Three generations of women in Northern California. |
United States | Urquhart, Rachel | The Visionist | Takes place in a Shaker community |
United States | Verble, Margaret | Stealing | Cherokee/white woman reminisces |
United States | Vo, Nghi | Siren Queen | Monsters in Hollywood |
United States | Walbert, Kate | A Short History of Women | Five generations of women influenced by a matriarch suffragist |
United States | Walker, Alice | The Color Purple | African-American women in the southern United States. This novel won the Pulitzer Prize. |
United States | Walls, Jeannette | Half Broke Horses | Based on the life of the author’s grandmother, a pilot and rancher |
United States | Weber, Christin Lore | Altar Music | Three Catholic women grapple with their faith and their independence |
United States | Weber, Katharine | Triangle | Survivor of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire. |
United States | Weisgarber, Ann | The Personal History of Rachel DuPree | An African-American ranch wife struggles to survive in 1917 |
United States | Weisgarber, Ann | The Promise | A young pianist from Ohio seeks to make a new life for herself in Texas |
United States | Zacharias, Karen Spears | Mother of Rain | Women in Appalachian Tennessee |
United States | Zacharias, Lee | Across the Great Lake | Five-year-old girl sails across Lake Michigan with her father in 1936 |
Vietnam | Nguyen Phan Que Mai | The Mountains Sing | Woman tries to reunite with her children through tragic events |
West Indies (Cuba and Dominican Republic) | Alvarez, Julia | In the Name of Salome | Alternating stories of a Spanish professor and her mother, a revolutionary poet |
West Indies (Dominican Republic) | Alvarez, Julia | In the Time of the Butterflies | Based on the lives of four revolutionary sisters |
West Indies (Guadeloupe) | Schwarz-Bart, Simone | The Bridge of Beyond | An old slave recollects her life |
West Indies (Jamaica) | Young, Kerry | Gloria | 1938 – two sisters flee their home to the city of Kingston |