Girl Crazy: 15 Literary Ladies You’ll Want to Know

March 29 2016
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Here’s a party game for you: Can you name a “girl” book? Of course you got Gone Girl and The Girl on the Train, but there are lots of other girl books that you’ll want to add to your reading list. Whether you like thrillers, literary fiction, or history, these “girls” all have one thing in common—they are compulsively readable. Here’s a list of some of our favorites.

The Boston Girl
by Anita Diamant

Meet Addie Baum, the spirited daughter of Jewish immigrants born at the turn of the twentieth century. Her intelligence and curiosity take her far beyond the tenements of her childhood.

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The Boston Girl
Anita Diamant

Girl Crazy: 15 Literary Ladies You’ll Want to Know

Here’s a party game for you: Can you name a “girl” book? Of course you got GONE GIRL and THE GIRL ON THE TRAIN, but there are lots of other girl books that you’ll want to add to your reading list. Whether you like thrillers, literary fiction, or history, these “girls” all have one thing in common—they are compulsively readable.

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The Summer Girls
by Mary Alice Monroe

Nothing says summer more than being on an island. For three sisters, three months back at the summer home of their youth offers a chance to heal the past and forge new beginnings.

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The Summer Girls
Mary Alice Monroe

Three sisters reunite on Sullivan’s Island off the coast of South Carolina after years of separation in this first installment of the Lowcountry Summer trilogy. Fans of Elin Hilderbrand and Dorothea Benton Frank will be charmed by this heartwarming series that explores the depths and complexities of sisterhood, friendship, and forgiveness.

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Kiss the Girls
by James Patterson

When his niece gets abducted, police detective Alex Cross finds himself chasing after two serial killers who just might be working together.

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Kiss the Girls
James Patterson

When his niece gets abducted, police detective Alex Cross finds himself chasing after two serial killers who just might be working together.

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MENTIONED IN:

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Certain Girls
by Jennifer Weiner

Who doesn’t love a mother-daughter story? CERTAIN GIRLS is a charming story about love, loss, and the bonds of family.

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Certain Girls
Jennifer Weiner

Who doesn’t love a mother-daughter story? CERTAIN GIRLS is a charming story about love, loss, and the bonds of family.

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The Other Boleyn Girl
by Philippa Gregory

Two sisters, one king. Philippa Gregory brings the glamour, intrigue, and danger of Henry the VIII’s Tudor court to life.

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The Other Boleyn Girl
Philippa Gregory

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Girl with a Pearl Earring
by Tracy Chevalier

A richly imagined historical novel about the artist Johannes Vermeer and the servant girl who modeled for one of his most famous paintings.

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Girl with a Pearl Earring
Tracy Chevalier

Johannes Vermeer’s GIRL WITH A PEARL EARRING has remained a beautiful enigma for centuries. In her atmospheric novel, Tracy Chevalier imagines the painting’s subject to be a young girl hired by the Vermeer household, whose rise from maid to assistant to model brings with it a world of jealousy, intimacy, and secrets.

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The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
by Stieg Larsson

Lisbeth Salander is the girl with the dragon tattoo. She’s feral and skittish but also a superhacker, called upon by a disgraced journalist who needs help solving a decades-old disappearance.

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The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Stieg Larsson

Mikael Blomkvist, a crusading journalist, and tattooed punk prodigy Lisbeth Salander team up to investigate the 40 year disappearance of Harriet Vanger, a scion of one of Sweden's wealthiest families. Stieg Larsson's THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO combines murder mystery, family saga, love story, and financial intrigue into one satisfyingly complex and entertainingly atmospheric novel.

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The Girls of Atomic City
by Denise Kiernan

This is the unforgettable true story of the top-secret World War II town of Oak Ridge, Tennessee, and the young women brought there unknowingly to help build the atomic bomb.

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The Girls of Atomic City
Denise Kiernan

Intimate and detailed, Denise Kiernan explores the untold story of the thousands of young women of Oak Ridge, Tennessee, who unwittingly played a crucial role in one of the most significant moments in American history: the creation of the atomic bomb.

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The Girl You Left Behind
by Jojo Moyes

From the bestselling author of ME BEFORE YOU and ONE PLUS ONE, this novel tells the story of two women, one painting, and the place where their lives intersect.

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The Girl You Left Behind
Jojo Moyes

From the bestselling author of ME BEFORE YOU and ONE PLUS ONE, this novel tells the story of two women, one painting, and the place where their lives intersect.

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The Flood Girls
by Richard Fifield

When recovering alcoholic Rachel Flood comes back to her small Montana hometown, it isn’t a grand reception. This sassy novel will have you laughing through tears.

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The Flood Girls
Richard Fifield

When recovering alcoholic Rachel Flood comes back to her small Montana hometown, it isn’t a grand reception. This sassy novel will have you laughing through tears.

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Luckiest Girl Alive
by Jessica Knoll

Her perfect life is a perfect lie. An unreliable narrator at the heart of this page-turner keeps you guessing until the very end.

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Luckiest Girl Alive
Jessica Knoll

Ani FaNelli has a covetable life: a glitzy magazine job, a blue blood fiancé, and a wardrobe to match. But when a violent, public trauma from her past threatens to destroy the life she’s worked tirelessly to attain, Ani must carefully weigh her chance at redemption. Jessica Knoll brilliantly constructs a new literary frenemy you’ll love to hate in this New York Times instant bestseller.

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Some Girls, Some Hats and Hitler
by Trudi Kanter

This unusual memoir tells the astonishing story of an Austrian Jew who fashioned hats as a milliner in late 1930s Vienna. This is the story of the courage and resourcefulness that got her and her beloved out of Nazi-occupied Austria.

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Some Girls, Some Hats and Hitler
Trudi Kanter

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Funny Girl
by Nick Hornby

Set in 1960s London, FUNNY GIRL is a lively account of the adventures of the intrepid young Sophie Straw as she navigates her transformation from provincial ingénue to television starlet amid a constellation of delightful characters.

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Funny Girl
Nick Hornby

Set in 1960s London, FUNNY GIRL is a lively account of the adventures of the intrepid young Sophie Straw as she navigates her transformation from provincial ingénue to television starlet amid a constellation of delightful characters.

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The Good Girl
by Mary Kubica

An addictively suspenseful and tautly written thriller, THE GOOD GIRL is a propulsive novel that reveals how even in the perfect family, nothing is as it seems.

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The Good Girl
Mary Kubica

An addictively suspenseful and tautly written thriller, THE GOOD GIRL is a propulsive novel that reveals how even in the perfect family, nothing is as it seems.

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The Girls from Ames
by Jeffrey Zaslow

This moving tribute to female friendship follows a group of young girls from the small town of Ames, Iowa who grow up, move to different states, go to college, get married, date, divorce, and struggle with the loss of loved ones.

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The Girls from Ames
Jeffrey Zaslow

This moving tribute to female friendship follows a group of young girls from the small town of Ames, Iowa who grow up, move to different states, go to college, get married, date, divorce, and struggle with the loss of loved ones.

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