20 books every woman should read

Esquire recently posted a list of 75 books every man should read. It was in fact a list of fine literature, but we couldn’t help but notice that the compilation was very bland (as in, a mere four authors are non-white and only one is a woman) listing Bukowski’s misogynistic Women as a must-read is kind of offensive. 


Jezebel decided to make their own list of the 20 books every woman should read, and these selections are much more on target—and yay for female authors! Slouching Towards Bethlehem would rank highly on my list, but my all-time favorite book? Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. Sure it’s a children’s book, but I think it could make the cut. 


Check out Jezebel’s picks below and share with us: What books do you think every woman should read? 

1. The Lottery, Shirley Jackson
   
2. To the Lighthouse, Virginia Woolf
   
3. The House of Mirth, Edith Wharton
   
4. White Teeth, Zadie Smith
   
5. The House of the Spirits, Isabel Allende    
   
6. Slouching Towards Bethlehem, Joan Didion
   
7. Excellent Women, Barbara Pym
   
8. The Bell Jar, Sylvia Plath
   
9. Wide Sargasso Sea, Jean Rhys
   
10. The Namesake, Jhumpa Lahiri
    
11. Beloved, Toni Morrison
    
12. Madame Bovary, Gustave Flaubert
    
13. Like Life, Lorrie Moore
    
14. Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen
    
15. Jane Eyre, Charlotte Brontë
    
16. The Delta of Venus, Anais Nin
    
17. A Thousand Acres, Jane Smiley
    
18. A Good Man Is Hard To Find, Flannery O'Connor
    
19. The Shipping News, E. Annie Proulx
    
20. You Can't Keep a Good Woman Down, Alice Walker