50 Books Every Woman Should Read Before She Turns 40 (2024)

Pity any woman who had to suffer through puberty without this book on her shelf. Margaret is the 12-year-old everywoman, waiting for her first period and literally praying for breasts.

In her Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, Egan weaves together vignettes of a group of New York friends who are struggling with that miserable goon: time.

The social activist contributed a key chapter to the canon of female experience with this book, which examines the devaluation of black women throughout history.

Frank perished in a concentration camp during World War II, but the diary she kept in captivity survives. It remains a moving reminder of how hope can be found anywhere — even in an attic during one of the darkest moments in human history.

The term "feminist" has always been a polarizing one, but Gay examines her own feelings through the lens of pop-culture items like Sweet Valley High and Orange Is the New Black.

Kingsolver's first novel is the quirky, relatable story of a woman who heads west to flee her small hometown in Kentucky, finding adventure (and an abandoned toddler) in the process.

She published two books of poetry by age 21, but that's not her only medium. Adichie's powerful fiction skills are on display here, as she follows a couple pulled between modern lives in the United States and Nigeria.

If it's obvious now that the media messes with women's views of their bodies, it wasn't always. Wolf's seminal book and its examinations of plastic surgery and eating disorders are as relevant today as they were in 1990.

The only novel Plath produced in her tragically short life gives the semi-autobiographical story of a girl who struggles to figure out which path she should take in life.

Morrison has produced a stunning catalogue of novels about the black experience in America, and "Beloved" is perhaps the most lauded and the most devastating. The dark horror of the central plotline is a terrifying glimpse into the psychology of slavery.

Saturday Night Live's first female head writer has, over and over again, succinctly answered the (absurd) question of whether or not women are funny.

Before there were Renee Zellweger movies, there was Fielding's novel, which takes the form of journal entries from the perpetually single thirtysomething gal of the title.

She produced plenty of emotionally wrenching books about the inner lives of women, but this extended essay is a great foray into the Woolf canon. In it, she argues that "a woman must have money and a room of her own" if she is going to write fiction (or fill in your passion here).

Walker's best-known work, which follows the horrific violence and oppression of several African-American women in the 1930s, won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction as well as the National Book Award, and has been adapted into a film and Broadway show.

While occasionally viewed as a corny navel-gazer about a very privileged woman and her travels, Gilbert's book was a hit for a reason: It's a true-life fantasy about one woman choosing to escape her life for an incredible year.

Friedan's iconic examination of housewives and their unfulfilled inner lives is widely considered the kick-off point to the second wave of feminism in the early 1960s.

The prose isn't exactly ground-breaking, but its literary merits are beside the point. James's fanfic erotica trilogy became an international sensation, reminding the world once again that women can enjoy sex — and enjoy reading about it.

The Bechdel test has become a key judge of cultural equality — does this movie feature a scene with two women talking about something other than men? But that's not all the writer has given society. Her 2006 graphic memoir was later turned into a Tony award-winning musical.

In a novel that President Obama has called one of his favorites, a dying man composes life lessons in a letter to his young son. What results is a moving consideration of the role of religion and spirituality within each of us.

Tartt's worldwide bestseller is a 773-page epic about a boy who survives a terror attack and grows up to obsess and long for the mother he lost in the disaster.