I am open to any genre, but I’d like the main character to be a woman that’s strong, independent and resilient in some way.
I have read Eleanor Oliphant, Convenience Store Woman and the other popular ones that usually get brought up and loved them all. I’m looking for something on similar reigns.
by igloogly
1 Comment
Contemporary / Literary:
Luster by Raven Leilani – sharp, biting, and character-driven; messy but compelling.
Where’d You Go, Bernadette by Maria Semple – eccentric, witty, and centered on a brilliant but troubled woman.
Weather by Jenny Offill – fragmented but thoughtful, with a sharp female voice.
Speculative / Sci-fi / Fantasy:
The Power by Naomi Alderman – speculative, global in scope, women at the center of a world-shifting change.
Kindred by Octavia E. Butler – time-travel sci-fi with a resilient Black woman navigating impossible circumstances.
Binti by Nnedi Okorafor – novella trilogy about a brilliant young woman leaving her home planet; adventure and growth, not romance-focused.
The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin – not female-led but worth noting; for a Le Guin female focus, Tehanu and The Tombs of Atuan.
Classics / Quieter gems:
Villette by Charlotte Brontë – an overlooked Brontë with a fiercely independent female narrator, minimal romance.
The Stone Diaries by Carol Shields – spanning a woman’s whole life, beautifully written and resilient.
The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath – iconic, strong voice, not romance-centred.
Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout – interconnected stories of a sharp, formidable woman in small-town Maine.