Looking for a book with a strong female protagonist.. Suggestions?
Looking for a book with a strong female protagonist…
Suggestions?
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Looking for a book with a strong female protagonist…
Suggestions?
Villette by Charlotte Brontë
Jane Eyre, Pride and Prejudice
1st is on hold 2nd checked out
Jane Eyre is my FAVORITE.
Outlander!
Checked that out
Rizzoli & Isles, 2 strong women!
Power by Naomi Alderman
“Strong” women in many senses of the word.
Anything by Laini Taylor
Lioness Quartet by Tamora Pierce technically a YA series but I love it
I discovered the first three books of that series as a tween/ early teenager. They were phenomenal.
Really any of her books
Manhattan Beach.
JD Robbs Eve Dallas In Death series
The Orphan’s Tale
Prodigal Summer
The Fifth Season
The Lioness of Morocco
Toni Morrison’s Sula.
Making Faces by Amy Harmon. It’s in my top 3 favorite books of all time.
I love anything I read by Amy Harmon. I’m glad to see someone discovered her. I love “A Different Blue”.
@Jessica are you in her reader group?
When She Woke
So Big by Edna Ferber
The girl on the train
Lillian Boxfish Takes a Walk…Rules of Civility…
I love Lillian — I was so sad when I got to the end of the book!
The Nightingale
Red Cell series by Mark Henshaw.
Gone with the wind, Giant
I was going to say GWTW. They don’t come stronger than Scarlett.
Need to Know by Karen Cleveland.
Midwife’s Revolt (and the other books after).
Their Eyes Are Watching God
Any of Sidney Sheldon’s novels. All strong women.
Bone Music
White oleander
She was such a sociopath!!!
Ok, yes, but I loved her
And you have to feel bad/root for her bc of all she had to endure
The Alice Network
The Dovekeepers
Kinsey Mulhoney in the alphabet mystery series by Sue Grafton. (Not sure about that last name?)
Milhone ?
Yes! Love the alphabet books!
The Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes series by Laurie King.
Gone With the Wind
The girl with the dragon tattoo, the 100, annihilation, the hunger games, the stand,
Vera by Ann cleeved
How do you feel about one with a kick-ass lead, but some romance in there? https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/38619.Magic_Bites
Best line: ‘here kitty, kitty’
I know, right? I LOVE that!
The Nightingale, The Color Purple, The Coldest Winter,The Help, Gone With the Wind.
I agree with Philip, a wonderful series.
MY NAME IS MARY SUTTER by Robin Oliveira
The Alice Network
loved this book!
Mary Russell books by Laurie King
The Nightingale
For fun reads, Jana DeLeon’s Miss Fortune cozy mysteries. Older women and a younger woman solving crimes in a small southern town.
Alice Network!!
Also winters bone
The War That Saved My Life – a realistic, struggling- growing girl – set in WWII.
Absolutely agree. Have you read the sequel? It’s still on my list.
Graceling by Kristin Cashore. Beautiful fantasy.
Their Eyes Were Watching God, The Color Purple, Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe.
Nightingale
And Great Alone
All the Pretty Girls
Browse Barnes and Noble’s Subjects it is awesome. That is how I found Twilight (before it was TWILIGHT) and the Sookie Stackhouse series (before it was TRUE BLOOD). Their breakdowns are awesome and deep. You can go Fiction > Women’s Fiction > Unquiet minds or what ever topic interests you.
Anne McCaffery Dragon series and Harper Hall series
Hunger Games Trilogy
I was gonna say..how has no one said this yet?
Circe by Madeline Miller!
Atlas Shrugged
Really? I have that on hold.
@Atlanta yes! I love Dagny Taggart. Here’s a quick article summarizing her strengths as a female lead.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/meghancasserly/2011/04/15/atlas-shrugged-ten-lessons-from-dagny-taggart/
@Elizabeth spoilers
Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead, All the Light We Cannot See, the Maisie Dobbs series.
The Millennium Series….which is known more for it’s first book, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.
So good!
@Joy’s Hell or High Water and Nearer Home
Mary Coin by Marisa Silver
Elizabeth Strout’s Olive Kitteridge
Deeper Than the Dead by Tami Hoag
Love Lauraine Snelling’s An Untamed Land. Ingeborg Bjorklund is such a brave woman, as well as all of the strong female characters throughout her Red River Series.
Gone with the Wind. Scarlett O’Hara will not disappoint!
I’ve read it before but I could read it again
Where’d You Go, Bernadette by Maria Semple.
The Hero and the Crown
The Road from Home by David Kherdian
The Zookeeper’s Wife – WWII setting
The Kay Scarlett’s series by Patricia Cornwell.
Laurie R. King’s Mary Russell series. The Glass Castle by Jeanette Walls
The NIghtingale by Kristin Hannah
“The Mists of Avalon” by Marion Zimmer Bradley. Wonderful book about the tales of King Arthur told from the point of view of the women.
“The Widows of Malabar Hill” by Sujata Massey and the “No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency” novels by Alexander McCall Smith.
Cynthia Ann Parker bio. A book with strong women and bond of friendship is Saving Grace.
Circe. Incredible book.
Is that one a stand alone book or a sequel?
@Natalie stand alone! I believe…I mean I haven’t quite finished it but I can’t imagine it having a sequel
Widow Cliquot, a biography of the woman who founded Cliquot. I can’t remember the author
A Thousand Splendid Suns!
Outlander series, once you get past the first couple hundred pages. The Hot Zone for non fiction. The Help, The Book Thief.
Read the Hot Zone years ago, as well as the others, but don’t remember that one having a strong female protagonist? Am I misremembering? 🙂
One of the main scientists/vet is Nancy Jax. There is not really a single protagonist, but I always admired her courage.
@Hillary I had to think for a minute to come up with Nancy Jax, but I LOVED that book!
@Teri , isn’t it funny how books come across to different people? I related to Dr. Jax (I am also a woman in medicine and am fascinated by microbiology), so she was a main character to me?
I actually read The Hot Zone twice… and I never do that. I completely felt the stress she felt raising her kids and juggling her career.
Anything by Jane Austen. JANE EYRE, WUTHERING HEIGHTS, GONE WITH THE WIND.
…and The Tenant of Wildfell Hall 🙂
The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah. The Book Thief.
Jean Auel’s Clan of the Cavebear, and the rest of the series.
Absolutely!!
These might be some lesser known stories but, Circling the Sun by Paula McClain if you like historical fiction based off a real life lady badass, Girl in Translation by Jean Kwok if youre into immigration literature, & The Lilac Girls tells the story of 3 badass women who are thrust into different roles within WW2.
Paper moon. Shes 11 and will knock your socks off 🙂
The Kopp Sisters series by Amy Stewart. Based on actual sisters in the early 1900’s New Jersey. Constance was one of the first female police officers in the US. And Amy Stewart is fun, herself!
Widow’s War by Sally Gunning.
Pride and Prejudice.
Definitely The Alice Network, The Nightingale, The Girl with The Dragon Tattoo, In the Midst of Winter by Isabel Allende
The Nightingale by Kristen Hannah.
Tearling trilogy by Erika Johansen. Post apocalyptic saga about a young queen with magical bloodline.
“Handmaid’s Tale.”
The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, Clan Of The Cave Bear, The Kathy Mallory series
The Throne of Glass series by Sara J Maas. Phenomenal series, and the last book comes out at the end of this year!
Also, Amy Tan’s books are all female centric with great characters. I particularly liked The Bonesetter’s Daughter.
The Bonesetter’s Daughter is soooooo good but very sad.
Like most of Tan’s work.
The Informationist by Taylor stevens!
Behind Closed Doors has a great protagonist, but is disturbing.
She’s a kid, but Lyra in The Golden Compass (His Dark Materials series) is a total badass.
Far From the Madding Crowd
For dystopian, 5th Wave has a great female protagonist.
Ditto
The Invention of Wings
Still think Miss Fisher by Kerry Greenwood is the best out there.
Room mother and son are awesome characters.
Wild by Cheryl Strayed
The Alice Network or The Invention of Wings.
I love the Alice Network
@Tammy Me too!
YA: Dread Nation
The Bee Keeper’s Apprentice by Laurie R. King (the first book in a very good series). The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson (also the first book in a good series).
Little Fires Everywhere
Loved it!
‚The girl who kicked the hornet‘s nest‘ by Stieg Larsson.
Outlander
Elly Griffith’s Ruth Galloway series is good- she’s an archaeologist involved in a lot of murders involving digs- just reading her latest now, so she comes to mind right away
Hunger Games
Their trashy, but I like the Sookie Steakhouse novels by Charlene Harris. Guilty pleasure I guess
It gives you pleasure, it’s legal, it’s not fattening. Don’t be guilty.
A Wrinkle in Time
Wizard of Oz books
The girl with the dragon tattoo
Poet X
Alice
Brown girl dreaming
North and South
Circe, Girls Burn Brighter, Red Clocks, Song of a Captive Bird
Lilac Girls
Kinsey Milhone series. (A is for Alibi etc.)
Anna Pigeon mysteries
Love her books!
Outlander
Reading that now
Americanah
Half-Broke Horses.
The Help
Heroically strong women.
I liked it!
The Amelia Peabody series by Elizabeth Peters.
Girl Waits With Gun
The Secret Life of Bees
YA: Hunger Games, The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks
Little Fires Everywhere, Where’d You Go Burnadette?, Blackbird House, Sharp Objects
Nightingale
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.
The Nightingale
into the wilderness seriesw
Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston, Kindred by Octavia Butler, Esperanza Rising by Pam Muñoz Ryan, Katherine Arden’s Winternight Trilogy, Willa Cather’s O Pioneers.
Mattie Ross , Charles Portis “TRUE GRIT”- “THE COUNSELOR” Cormac Mccarthy if one views pure evil as “STRONG””Diary Of Anne Frank” Anne frank/
The Kitchen House, Their Eyes Were Watching God, The Red Tent
Fried green tomatoes
The Alice Network by Kate Quinn
Any Jane Austen book
Willa Father’s My Antonia
Gone With the Wind.
Their Eyes Were Watching God, Gone With the Wind, Pride and Prejudice
Life After Life
Secret Life of Bees
Liked this one!
The Indigo Girl
Auntie Mame.
Do you like Regency romances ? If so I reccommend Slightly Scandalous by @Mary. The entire series has strong women characters, but this one is my favorite. Another series you might like starts with Louisiana Longshot. Funny stories about a CIA assassin forced to hide out in Louisiana . For adventure check out The Hit by David baldacci starring a another female assassin Jessica Reel.
Anything by Gail Godwin
The Rook by Daniel O’Malley , A Town Like Alice by Nevil Shute
“A Woman of Substance” by Barbara Taylor Bradford.
Girl Waits With Gun by Amy Stewart and if you like it there are two more books in the series: Lady Cop Makes Trouble and Miss Kopp’s Midnight Confessions
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.
Lillian Boxfish Takes A Walk
Americanah
My absolute darling
Anything by Julia Alvarez, Caramelo by Sandra Cisneros
Oh, and The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery
The Nightingale
The All-Girl Filling Station’s Last Reunion, The Good Sister, Sleeping Beauties.
Ran across the All Girl Filling Station by accident on the discount table, bought it, read it, several times. Will have to try the other 2.
Outlander by Diana Gabaldon
Clan of the Cave Bear-Jean Auel
If you like older science friction, Friday by Robert Heinlein or The Cat that Walked Through Walls, same author.
any of Dana Stabenow’s stories about Kate Shugak, also Taylor Stevens’ books …
Also books by Sara Paretsky
Pope Joan, by Donna Woolfolk Cross..you will love this..I promise…also The Passion of Artemisia (about a woman who was a famous painter in Renaissance Italy..true story..and what she had to do to get there.
There’s a Kushiel series by Jacqueline Carey. Phaedra is an excellent female protagonist!
Almost any book by Laurie King.
Outlander, Diana Gabaldon. ???
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
I’ve read this more than once!
The Nightingale by Kristen Hannah
Absolutely!
I just finished reading Circe by Madeline Miller. AMAZING BOOK!
IM ALMOST DONE. OBSESSED.
I just finished it as well…I just had to sit there for a minute. I LOVED IT!!!!!!
I can recommend The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller as well bc I immediately bought it (I buy the Audible versions bc I LOVE the narrators and because I have a long commute). Not a book about a female protagonist, but if you loved Circe, you will also enjoy The Song of Achilles.
@Miranda I want to read it! I have been listening to Circe on Audiobook and I love the narrator as well.
@Lara I would leave for work early just to listen a little longer. I sat in my car in the parking garage. I’m sure people thought I was crazy.
It was one of those books that I was disappointed to see end.
SO good!
My Name is Clara Barton by Elizabeth Strout. Loved it! Achingly beautiful observations about life.
Also I just started it but my best friend highly recommended it and I love it so far: the Essex serpent by Sarah Perry.
Hidden Figures
Oh yeah, Handmaid’s Tale
Yes! Most things by Margaret Atwood I would say
I read, ‘THE ROBBER BRIDE’ over, and over.
Little Women, The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle
Two novels with the primary theme of a weak woman who eventually finds her voice and becomes strong are Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier and The Painted Veil by W. Somerset Maugham.
Salt to the Sea by Ruta Sepetys
The Book of the Unnamed Midwife
I’m reading A Place Called Freedom by Ken Follett. Lizzie is a woman ahead of her time. I’m only half way through and have a hard time walking away from the story to actually get things done at home.
My favorite author! Will put this on my ever expanding tr list?
Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe by Fannie Flagg. One of my favorites!
The series, The House of Many Windows, The Spirit of Wallace Paine, The Haunting of Eveline Paine and lastly Turbulent Times. A woman’s life with a husband that is less than one.
Almost any book by Kaye Gibbons. My favorites are Charms for the Easy Life and A Virtuous Woman.
Ken Follett writes books with strong female characters.
I love Alice Hoffman. Probably best known for Practical Magic, but she has written many, many more books with memorable and strong women characters.
FRIED GREEN TOMATOES AT THE WHISTLE STOP CAFE.
Also, the All Girl Filling Station
An Unnecessary Woman
Vanishing Act by Thomas Perry is the first in a series with a very strong female main character. Also, the Mary Russell/Sherlock Holmes series by Laurie King is fabulous if you like mysteries.
The cellist of sarayevo
In the Time of the Butterflies by Julia Alvarez (as family of real life strong female protagonists)
Loved this and movie was even good
Thank you for reminding us of this novel. Alvarez is a fine writer; her account of the real-life Mirabal sisters who paid the ultimate price for standing against Trujillo is also suitable for older teens as well as adults.
Any if Octavia Butler’s book—of them, I’d first choose Kindred or Parable of a Sower.
My hubby introduced me to her..we audited them all..she was amazing.
Kindred is an awesome book with a magnificent heroine.
Nonfiction – Educated by Tara Westover; it doesn’t get any stronger than Tara!
VARINA by Charles Frazier
It’s historical biography of the wife of Jefferson Davis. She was her own person.
No Angel by Penny Vincenzi
Garden spells, Reading Lolita in Tehran, I am Malala, The War That Saved my Life, All the Light We Cannot See, The Fault in Our Stars. Just a few of my favorites.
The Zookeeper:s Wife.
The Time Treveler’s Wife is one of my absolute favorites!
yes, amazingly well written!
Textbook grooming going on in that book
Loved spells and Tehran..two excellent ones I have read
The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo..three in series.. lone Salandar! Also really loved Swedish movies of all three. Obviously books better but the female who played her ..and the others..excellent.
Outlander series!
Call the Midwife, Material Witness, any of the Miss Marple
I agree Outlander series! Also try the Court of Thorn and roses series if you like fantasy and the Mercy Thompson series by Patricia Briggs if you like werewolves and vampires, which i do
Vasilisa in “The Bear and the Nightingale”
The nightingale
So many. Daughter of Fortune by Isabel Allende, Cimarron by Edna Ferber, The Time in Between by Maria Duenas, The Help by Kathryn Stockett, The Autobiography of Mrs. Tom Thumb by Melanie Benjamin, The Invention of Wings by Sue Monk Kidd, The Zookeeper’s Wife, and all the Kinsey Milhone books of Sue Grafton.
Zookeepers Wife!!
”Women Who Run With the Wolves” by Clarissa Pinkola Estes, Ph.D
Anita Blake series
Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood
Dietland by Sarai Walker. She starts off in a bad place, but you see her change and grow and find her strength. Very empowering.
The invention of wings
I know, FABULOUS RIGHT!!
Outlander!
Jane Hawk series by Dean Koontz!
A Woman of Independent Means by Elizabeth Forsythe Hailey.
The Secret Life of Bees
Graceling
Miss Julia Speaks Her Mind by Ann B Ross.
First in a series that will make you laugh out loud about a Proper Southern Lady.
The help
Pride and Prejudice
The Amelia Peabody books by Elizabeth Peters.
A Woman of Substance
Yes!!!
It’s non-fiction, not a novel, but I Am Malala is great.
Clan of the Cave Bear series. The Girl with the Dragoon Tattoo series.
Cotton Club Princess by @Karla
Destiny by Sally Beauman. Favorite novel EVER.
Please read Olivia Oliphant Is Just Fine. I think this has a strong female character.
Mists of Avalon which i saw posted in a different post a moment ago
Read the series, Girl With a Dragon Tattoo
Their eyes were watching God
The Veronica Speedwell series by Deanna Raybourn is fantastic! And the audio book versions of them are VERY well done as well.
Gail Carriger’s Soulless; Daisy Dalrymple Series by Carols Dunn; Amelia Peabody series by Elizabeth Peters
Outlander!
My guilty pleasure is the Lady Emily series by Tasha Alexander.
Definitely Outlander.
The “In Death” series by J. D. Robb
The Hero and the Crown
Robin McKinley
I’m gonna suggest the one as old as time …Elizabeth Benett from pride and prejudice
In The Bleak Midwinter by Julia Spencer-Fleming…A Natural History of Dragons: A Memoir by Lady Trent by Marie Brennan…Baltimore Blues: The First Tess Monaghan Novel by Laura Lippman…Zipporah, Wife of Moses by Marek Halter…The Master’s Muse by Varley O’Connor…Follow the River by James Alexander Thom …Sacajawea by Anna L Waldo…The Alice Network by Alice Quinn…Daughter of Fortune by Isabel Allende…The Moonspinners by Mary Stewart…Hidden Figures: The American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Women Mathematicians who Helped Win the Space Race by Margot Lee Shatterly …Native Tongue by Suzette Haden Elgin…A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness…
That’s a great list!
@Kit Thanks Kit, tried to give a wide variety so as appeal to a lot of different tastes…
Lizabeth Salander in the Millennium Series by Steig Larrson
agree
The Girls of Atomic City
The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane
Jane Eyre!
The Outlander series!
Secret life of bees
Sue monk kidd
Outlander series.
When She Woke, if you like dystopian fiction.
My favorite book, White Oleander by Janet Fitch ❤️
Girl Waits with Gun by Koop Sisters. Just delightful and talk about a strong women! I really enjoyed it.Jayne
Sorry that Koop Sisters.
Outlander
Flavia DeLuce, Mary Russell, Anna Pigeon, Amelia Peabody, Alexandra Cooper, Precious Ramotswe series
Am a big fan of Anna Pigeon & Amanda Peabody but i do not know Flavia DeLuce!
Atlas Shrugged, Little Women, Island of the Blue Dolphins, the Handmaid’s Tale.
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo series, the In Death books by JD Robb, The Secret Life of Bees.
All great choices!
The Invention of Wings should be near the top of the list!
The Invention of Wings by Sue Monk Kidd
The Nightingale
Any of the early Patricia Cornwell crime novels featuring the Dr. Kay Scarpetta character who is a medical examiner.
The Girl With The Dragon Tatoo – series
JD Robb’s In Death series.
Educated
Also, Flavia de Luce series.
I love this series by Alan Bradley
Anytime I can recommend it, I do! It’s such a great series.
Willa Cather books all have strong women.
The Nightingale
The Master Butchers Singing Club by Louise Erdrich
Anything by Barbara Kingsolver
The Hunger Games
“Lady Fortescue Steps Out.” Added bonus of having a strong OLDER female protagonist.
GWTW <3
breakfast @ tiffanys, truman capote <3
The signature of all things
Oh my gosh! This list is amazing!! I’ll be reading for years …happily. 🙂
“The Handmaid’s Tale” “Pride and Prejudice” Memoirs of a Geisha” “The 13th Tale”
#1 Ladies Detective Agency. Takes place in Botswana. Love the lead character and her assistant
The 13th Tale is a fabulous story, very twisty and surprising in all the best ways. The Ladies’ Detective series is fabulous as well. The audible versions…the reader… really adds to the enjoyment of the stories about Botswana.
Queen of the South
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society
East of Eden.
????
A Woman of Independent Means, written in series of letters over a lifetime.
A woman of substance, Barbara Taylor Bradford, the handmaids tale. Memoirs of a geisha
More good choices! Woman of Substance- I think that’s the original book that meets this criteria!
I loved that book!! Read it many many years ago!
The Tea Rose by Jennifer @Donnelly
The Signature of All Things
The Nightingale
Lillian Boxfish Takes a Walk
So nice to see this post, Loved this book!
Me too
Evergreen Belva Plain
Girl with the dragon tattoo
Ahab’s Wife.
The Tightrope Walker by Dorothy Gilman. One of my favorites.
West with the night; Out of Africa
Nevada Barr’s Anna Pigeon.
Graceling
The Great Alone, Educated
The Red Queen
Ooh good one!
Poisonwood Bible
Lilac Girls.
Rules of Civility
The Poisonwood Bible (one of my favorites)
The Hunger Games
The Help, The Nightingale, The Kitchen House
Also The Alice Network.
The Help, The Book Thief
The Nightingale
The Hummingbirds Daughter
To Kill A Mockingbird
A Town Like Alice.
Outlander series
Remarkable Creatures by Tracy Chevalier
the lover, marguerite duras <3
The Color Purple
Dune:
Lady Jessica
Chani
Reverend Mother Mohiam
Alia
Shaddout Mapes
Cold Mountain
Mists of Avalon
Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.
The last girl, The paper magician, anything by Octavia Butler, Purple Hibiscus.
Outlander.
Dolores Claiborne and Big Driver by Stephen King have great female protagonists
Lizzy Bennet,Pride and Prrejudice
Outlander series
The Dime by Kathleen Kent. A mystery.
1000 White Women
That sure was an incredible story. Based on fact, if I remember correctly.
@Susan historical fiction. The theory was true but never put into practice.
@Gayle ? That’s a relief! It was an interesting book, nonetheless.
Amy Stewart’s Kopp sisters. Start with Girl Waits With Gun.
I forgot those. I love them, and there’s a fourth one coming out in September.