A male ally recently asked me for fiction book recommendations with female protagonists.
While I’m a lot more inclined towards non-fiction recommendations, I do also really enjoy fiction.
And it is so important for men to read books about women.
Why?
Men are 4x less likely to read a book by a woman
As early as elementary school, boys are socialized to believe they can only relate to stories about men. Growing up, I could read Harry Potter, but my brother couldn’t read Babysitters Club.
I could read Horrible Harry, but my brother couldn’t read American Girls.
I could read Artemis Fowl, but my brother couldn’t read Ella Enchanted.
Girls are taught to find themselves in every story they read.
But we don’t teach boys to do the same?
This data is carried out in adulthood. Women read books by (and about) all genders equally. While men are 4 times more likely to read a book by a man.
To be a better ally, you can learn to find humanity in every story you read—even books with female protagonists.
27 fiction books that feature women for male allies to read
Here are a few of the fiction books I shared with this male ally, as well as some books recommended by other women in my network. I hope you enjoy curling up with these novels!
(In alphabetical order)
1. American Dirt by Jeanine Cummins
My review: Gripping and beautifully written. Having visited or lived in so many of the locations in the book made it even more real to me—and the fact that the mom and son were so close in age to me and my son. I just kept picturing my 8-year-old every time I read sensitive, smart, learning-to-be brave Luca.
2. An Elderly Lady is up to No Good by Helene Tursten
My review: Perfectly dark and surprising. I loved the short story format too.
Goodreads review: Maud is 88 years old and as spry and sharp as she’s ever been. With no family or friends, she has to rely on herself to solve any problems that come up. But sometimes problems have a way of being unsolvable, unless you don’t mind a little murder. And Maud certainly doesn’t.
3. Anxious People by Fredrik Backman
My review: Beautiful. I love Backman’s style, his honesty, his characters. TW: Suicide.
Goodreads review: A poignant, charming novel about a crime that never took place, a would-be bank robber who disappears into thin air, and eight extremely anxious strangers who find they have more in common than they ever imagined.
4. Carrie Soto is Back by Taylor Jenkins Reid
My review: I really vibe with Reid’s pacing. Nothing fluffy, but plenty of time to build characters. The relationship with her father was so relatably emotional. (And she throws in feminist one-liners right when I need them.)
Goodreads review: TJR’s heroines are flawed, but brave enough to rise from the ashes, learning from their mistakes by taking risks and challenges. Sometimes you really hate them or resent them, but they always find a smart and unique way to get under your skin and charm you with their power, endurance, resilience, and bravery.
5. Chain-Gang All-Stars by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah
Goodreads review: This is one of the most emotionally daunting books I’ve read in a long time. I needed to keep putting some distance between it and my reader’s heart. It honestly felt like the not so distant future—genuinely too real. And it’s terrifying. Sure, there is a lot of action and momentum, it’s easy to get swept up in the narrative but those footnotes! The footnotes ground the reader back in reality. This dystopian society is our own.
6. Clytemnestra by Costanza Casati
Goodreads review: I am enjoying this trend of taking women from Greek mythology and showing them in a new light. I did think this one was a little slow in the beginning and the lapses of time seemed to not develop growth in the characters, but overall I found this an enjoyable story. Clytemnestra was Spartan trained to fight from a young age and hardened into the tough woman that Sparta needed to continue to remain strong. Unfortunately the rest of the world saw women as property and Clytemnestra was betrayed over and over again. It was nice to see some familiar names in this story and also some I didn’t already know. It was also nice to read about Greek mythology without appearances by the gods. This story is about betrayal, revenge, power, and whether it is better to be forgotten or remembered for how much you were feared.
7. Great Circle by Maggie Shipstead
Goodreads review: “Great Circle” tells the story of Marian Graves, a fictional female pilot who disappeared in 1950 while attempting an unprecedented north south circumnavigation of the earth. She had only one leg left in her trip, a final leap from Antarctica to New Zealand, when she vanished, Earhart-style in the South Pacific. “This book is framed as a kind of passage through the world”.
8. Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi
My review: Lovely writing, characters, and generational story. Because the book followed a specific lineage, there wasn’t really a driving narrative (and I wasn’t quite satisfied by the last chapter). But if you read it like a bunch of short stories, it’s a lovely book.
Goodreads review: Very powerful. Watching the generations of this novel progress was so sad at times, but an important thing to witness. America has been terrible to Black people, both overtly and insidiously. This book gives us a small glimpse of these atrocities and its effects on the lives of black people and their progeny. Sometimes it got a little confusing to remember who was connected to whom, but maybe that’s part of the novel’s point. That without purposeful intent in seeking it out, we can forget where we come from and fail to see how we are products of our family’s past as well as the foundation for our family’s future.
9. Honor by Thrity Umrigar
My review: Tragic, lovely, not perfect, but would recommend. The Indian setting is so charming in spite of its flaws. I think many of us can relate to finding our way “home” with a more nuanced perspective.
Goodreads review: Author Thrity Umbrigar’s new novel “Honor” reveals the sad reality of India’s ingrained culture in the unseemly rural side of the country. Far from the bustling and socially enthusiastic cities, deep in the rural areas are poverty, violence, caste hierarchies, religious fundamentalism, and misogyny. It is the misogyny that Umbrigar is the heart of the violence.
10. Kitchen by Banana Yoshimoto
Goodreads review: Yoshimoto is not for everyone; she’s a minimalist storyteller, at least in my opinion, able to turn the emotional state of the right reader with the flick of just one beautiful perfect phrase, but only if you’re ready to catch that beautiful perfect phrase and appreciate it for what it is.
Actually consisting of two novellas, Kitchen (named after the better of the two) is the story of 1990s urban life in Japan, full of quirky postmodern characters right at the beginning of an age where the Web let everyone on the planet understand that. If you liked the movie “Amelie,” you’ll love the sparse, haunting story of a hurt woman being told here, who slowly learns to trust the world again through the relative warmth of urban kitchens; like I said, the finale can be heartbreaking if you let it.
11. Never Let Me Go by Ishiguro Kazuo
Goodreads review: Despair. That’s what I felt after reading this book. The kind of despair that suffocates you, that makes you want to break things, or, at the very least, go out for a run so you can let out the agony bubbling inside you. It’s ironic, but Never Let Me Go is about three friends who are destined to let go of everything – their bodies, their dreams, their lives and the people they love. And there’s NOTHING they can do to avoid that fate. I hate (and love) this book for all the right reasons.
12. Romantic Comedy by Curtis Sittenfeld
My review: It’s in the name—romance and comedy, not much more than that. But the leading lady was smart and flawed and feminist. The first section was basically behind-the-scenes of SNL which was super fun, the email section threw me back to early 2000s, and the Covid section was surprising, heavy, touching.
Goodreads review: ALL THE STARS!! I always have enjoyed Curtis Sittenfield’s work, and this may be her best one yet! Capitalizing on the current zeitgeist of SNL’s male writers hooking up with female celebs way more attractive & famous than them (think Pete D. & Colin J.), she flips the gender switch so well here & makes lots of very insightful points about our current gender views.
13. Small Great Things by Jodi Picoult
My review: This was a heavy and hard read, but it challenged my thinking in really meaningful ways. It follows a black L&D nurse charged with infanticide by a white supremacist. The attorney who defends her has a really relatable storyline—someone who swears she’s not racist, but finds she has a lot to learn. 10/10 recommend.
14. The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden
Goodreads review: A beautiful, pastoral fairy tale set in a fantasy version of medieval Russia.
Narrated in lyrical prose and third-person past tense, Arden weaves a tale no less compelling for its slow, gradual development. Like all the best fairy tales, the author draws on the setting – a village in the northern woods of Rus’ – to create an atmosphere that promises magic and suggests many horrors.
A haunting story; one so deeply atmospheric that you can almost feel the cold air on your skin as you’re reading.
15. The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery
Goodreads review: If you are an artist, a thinker, someone who longs for more, an aestheticist, a dreamer, a seeker…. then read this book. it made me laugh and cry in a way that only a well crafted, well loved, well written book can.
Goodreads review: I must admit this wasn’t a 5-star read until the last 50 pages, which may actually make this a 6-star read. This book is beautiful for its underlying truth: we are all worthy of love, love that will surely be given, if we will but believe we are worthy.
16. The Girl Who Drank the Moon by Kelly Barnhill
Goodreads review: Stunning language and memorable characters. Worthy of a spot alongside Susan Cooper, Ursula LeGuin, and Lloyd Alexander. The sort of book that makes you believe in magic (and love).
17. The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
My review: I read it in one night. Terrifying, but believable.
Goodreads review: I didn’t like this book; I loved it. And I hated it. I lost sleep over it. I lived in it. I was so completely absorbed into this world, into this dark but oddly quiet dystopian reality. There is something about the tone of Atwood’s novels that works like a knife to my heart. Quiet, rich, the drama just bubbling under the surface of the prose. Atwood doesn’t waste words, she doesn’t sugarcoat her stories with meaningless phrases, everything is subtle and everything is powerful.
18. The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas
My review: Heavy and light and real and so important.
Goodreads review: The Hate That U Give is an important story about humanity. As much as we think life is “us against them” it is really “us against us”. Across all races there are good and bad people, wise and reckless decisions are made, opinions formulated, etc. But, in the end, there is not much difference between all of us.
19. The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab
My review: I’m stumped. I mean, I liked it, but didn’t love it. The way the characters’ stories overlapped was interesting and the story felt somewhat unique. Some of the flashbacks felt unnecessary. And then, was the ending satisfying? Also, having a book written inside a book feels trite.
Goodreads review: Oh, to be a French girl who knelt in the woods, on the eve of a wedding she did not want, and prayed for freedom to a god—or perhaps a devil—who made her a deal that’ll grow to be like a thorn in her, a goad: she will live forever, but she will be forgotten by everyone she meets, always slipping out of reach. An eternity of flitting from one place to another, never feeling quite at home anywhere, and from one person to another, leaving behind only the phantom feel of her touch, and the faint memory of seven freckles dotting her cheeks, like a scattering of stars.
That is, until a boy born with a broken heart says, “I remember you”, and it feels like a prayer. Like a crack in the mortar of her curse.
20. The Midnight Library by Matt Haig
My review: Started out a bit Christmas Carol, but it grew on me. Still ended as I predicted, but I enjoyed the process of getting there.
“You don’t have to understand life. You just have to live it.”
Goodreads review: While a little simplistic in parts, and “unrealistic”, I thought this was a beautiful story of a woman waking up to beauty and mystery of being alive. In many was I have similar feelings and reflections after reading this that I recall having the first few times I watched Jimmy Stewart in “It’s a Wonderful Life”. While some may criticize such stories like this that seem to be trying to teach a lesson, I think our world could use much more of them. (This would make for a great reading companion to Daniel Pink’s latest “The Power of Regret” actually!)
21. The Neapolitan Novels by Elena Ferrante
Goodreads review: This was a slow burn for me, but I ended up being pretty impressed with the author’s sparing craft. She didn’t beat you over the head with adjectives or details. She let the characters grow organically. Ended with a good cliffhanger after I deeply invested in the characters’ fate. Looking forward to reading the sequels.
22. The Patron Saint of Liars by Ann Patchett
Goodreads review: The Patron Saint of Liars was the debut novel by one of my favorite contemporary writers, Ann Patchett. And it was a beautiful book that spoke to faith, love, mother-daughter relationships, and what constitutes family, but most important is the sense of miracles that is woven throughout this beautiful tale.
23. The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett
My review: Breathtaking. The pacing was a bit unconventional, but it worked to keep you engaged in the story and grow attached to every character. I wanted to spend even more time with them.
Goodreads review: Brit Bennett’s intricate plot lines and ability to weave family dramas that stretch through years is definitely something to be admired. My only wish is that her characters would jump off the page a bit more rather than just remain vessels/outlines for her stories to play out through. However, I think this book deserves much of the hype it has received and the complex look it provides at race, identity, and motherhood (among other things) while remaining very accessible is truly where it’s at.
24. The Women by Kristin Hannah
Goodreads review: This book is heartbreaking. Kristin Hannah does a phenomenal job bringing to light the horrors of the Vietnam war and the terrible way the women serving there were treated. But this book was bleak. It was one hard knock after another and hard to keep reading.
25. Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
Goodreads review: A story as melancholic for its relationship to the writer’s own life/destiny as another Southern masterpiece “Confederacy of Dunces.” I cannot imagine that this isn’t Toni Morrison’s true foundations of prose–the beauty of which borders on the sublime. The modernism of “Their Eyes” lies in the intermixing of 1930’s black vernacular with poetic lines which themselves carry astute and precise craft–this is outstanding. Lightning in a bottle–that’s what this book reads like.
26. Turtles All the Way Down by John Green
My review: Came for the fugitive story, stayed for the first-person mental illness.
Goodreads review: Aza, the main character suffers under terrible anxiety that stands between her and her interest in Davis. She can’t stop worrying about infecting with an infection involving clostridium difficile and avoids – to the best of her ability- nearly every situation that confronts her anxiety. Writing about this anxiety John Green takes up a serious topic and stands out from the crowd that does only briefly mention this sort of teenager problem in their books.
27. Yellowface by R.F. Kuang
Goodreads review: This is a compelling, cynical, and thought-provoking satire that delves into themes of plagiarism, racism, and internet trolling. It offers a realistic portrayal of the publishing industry within the framework of a heart-pounding thriller. The story revolves around an anti-heroine driven by power and insecurity, who assumes the identity of her deceased friend to publish a masterpiece. Loneliness and the desperate desire for recognition serve as driving forces, pushing the protagonist to extreme measures.
There were so many awesome crowdsourced recommendations that I can’t list them all—go to the crowdsourced list here and add your faves!
Rachel Cottam 