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

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.