Crooked Little Heart, by Anne Lamott.  Just into her teens, missing her deceased father, and feeling like a loser in every respect, Rosie, a tennis player, is impatient with her mother’s warnings about a man who appears to be stalking her.  Fiction L2355cro

Dolley, by Rita Mae Brown.  As the War of 1812 strikes the nation, President Madison’s society hostess wife grows into a brave leader, sustained by the love of her husband and by friendships of the women around her.  Fiction B8795do

The Edge of Heaven, by Marita Golden.  “She was my mother. I knew they would take her away from me. We would all pay for what she had done."  This gripping story of a Black family’s mending after the death of a child traces the intersections of justice, forgiveness, redemption, and love.  Fiction G6168ed

Evensong, by Gail Godwin.  In a story of psychological and spiritual affirmation, a woman pastor comforts and inspires her congregation, listens openly to the young people in her life, stands up for her religious beliefs, encourages her husband, who is inclined to depression, and shows hospitality toward an elderly stranger with a checkered background.  Fiction G5915ev

Fire in Beulah, by Rilla Askew.  The transgressive relationship of an African American and a white woman is examined in the midst of the notorious Tulsa riots that met their nadir in the burning down of “Black Wall Street.”  Fiction A8351fi

The Good Negress, by A.J. Verdelle.  A young woman from rural Virginia adjusts to the pace of big city life and weighs family duty against self-fulfillment through education.  Fiction V4835go

The House on Mango Street, by Sandra Cisneros.  With daring and humor, Esperanza, a Chicana girl, overcomes “the shame of being poor, of being female, of being not-quite-good-enough."  Fiction C5795ho

I, Tituba, Black Witch of Salem, by Maryse Conde.  Based on a true story, this historical fiction allows Tituba to meet Hester Prynne and to be freed by a scorned Jewish man, but the prevailing fury and panic of the trials mean certain execution for her. African Am. Fic. C7454i

I Was Amelia Earhart, by Jane Mendelsohn.  A beautifully rendered fictional account of the ambitious aviator’s last journey.  Fiction M5377wa

Liliane, by Ntozake Shange.  The story, in many voices, of the political, esthetic, and romantic development of an African American artist.  Fiction S52853li

I Loved You All, by Paula Sharp.  Eight-year-old Penny watches as her sister, Mahalia, grows attached to conservative Isabel Flood, while their widowed mother is in rehabilitation for the alcoholism that overtook her when she became a single mother.  A nightmare to library lovers is depicted when Isabel destroys the local high school library because she disapproves of a book there.  Fiction S53187i

The Magician’s Assistant, by Ann Patchett.  During her marriage, Sabine knew and accepted that her husband was also involved in a gay relationship, but only after his death does she become acquainted with the family he said he did not have.  Fiction P2945mag

Memory Mambo, by Ache Obejas.  The heroine of this both witty and poignant novel unravels the tangled nostalgia of her Cuban-born family in a search for true stories and true love.  Fiction O1235mem

Objects in the Mirror Are Closer than They Appear, by Katharine Weber.  Newly in love, a successful photographer visits a friend engaged in an affair with a married man, ponders her own family history, and emerges with astonishing self-insight. Fiction W3747ob

Redemption Song, by Bertice Berry.  Marrying romance and African American history, a man and a woman come together as they read a slave woman’s memoirs.  African Am. Fic. and Fiction B53425red

Rich in Love, by Josephine Humphreys.  A teenager is forced to learn why her mother precipitously deserted her family and how a balance of self-love and solicitousness for others solidifies relationships.  Fiction H9277ri

Rocking the Babies, by Linda Raymond.  As they care for the infants, two apparently dissimilar African American women volunteers in a neonatal clinic describe their successes and losses—and come to care for each other as well.  African Am. Fic. and Fiction R2695ro

Sea of Light, by Jenifer Levin.  “Whatever we put our most into, like our time, and sweat and blood, well that is the thing we make our own.”  Through mutual support, three competitive swimmers surmount obstacles and claim their individuality.  Fiction L6657se

Sights Unseen, by Kaye Gibbons.  In spite of the challenges of mental illness in the family, the Barnes women, mother and daughter, hold their heads high in a town that sometimes fails to embrace differences.  Fiction G4415si

Working Parts, by Lucy Jane Bledsoe.  Lori hates libraries—entire buildings devoted to books she cannot read—because she is illiterate.  At the library, however, she enrolls in a reading program, and, as her self-esteem rises, she is also able to help her tutor, whose marriage is crumbling.  Fiction B64625wor

The World Below, by Sue Miller.  Reeling from the incongruities of a bumpy romance, a young woman learns the real foundations of her grandmother’s marriage. Lobby Fiction M6515wo

Yo!, by Julia Alvarez.  Everyone is telling tales about ebullient Yolanda, a writer, who has used their lives as material for her books.  The stories do not hurt her or anybody else, though.  In illustrating family and community ties, the recollections strengthen them. Fiction A4733yo

For more reading suggestions, please consult:

• Fiction Catalog. NY: H.W. Wilson, 1942- . R016.82 W6917
  
• NoveList, at www.npl.org/Pages/InternetResources
  
• What Do I Read Next, at www.npl.org/Pages/InternetResources

• Consider these books:

  Becoming a Heroine: Reading about Women in Novels, Rachel Brownstein. NY: Viking, 1982. 823.009352 B82

  The Female Hero in American and British Literature. Carol Pearson and Katherine Pope. NY: Bowker, 1981. 823.009352 P31

  Heroines: Demigoddess, Prima Donna, Movie Star, Norma L. Goodrich. NY: HarperCollins, 1993. 809.89287 G62

  Masterplots II: Women’s Literature Series. Pasadena, CA: Salem Press, 1995. Arts & Hum. Ref. 809.89287 M39

  Oxford Companion to Women’s Writing in the United States. NY: Oxford, 1995. Arts & Hum. Ref. 810.9928703 Ox2

  Saints, Sinners, Saviors: Strong Black Women in African American Literature, Trudier Harris. NY: Palgrave, 2001. Weeq. 810.9352042 H243sa

• Consult the library catalog under such subjects as "American literature--Women authors," "Women and literature," "Women in literature," and "Women authors."
• Additional resources are provided in the Library’s guide to websites concerning women.