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This list emphasizes fiction that centers on everyday women and their lives… often featuring eccentric characters. They range in style, time period, and setting. Some dwell on race relations—others are more geared toward women’s friendships.
Berg, Elizabeth. We Are All Welcome Here. (2006) ISBN: 9780812971002 $15.00 pbk
Set in Tupelo, Mississippi during the summer of 1964, 13-year-old Diana butts heads with an African-American caregiver helping her to look after her mother, who has been paralyzed since she contracted polio shortly before Diana was born.
Blake, Sarah. The Postmistress. (2010) ISBN: 9780425238691 $15.00 pbk
The stories of a small Cape Cod postmistress and an American radio reporter stationed in London collide on the eve of the US’s entrance into WWII, a meeting that is shaped by a broken promise to deliver a letter. Also appeals to fans of Guernsey Literary & Potato Peel Pie Society.
Cook, Claire. The Wildwater Walking Club. (2009) ISBN: 1401341233 $13.99 pbk
This is a character-driven and witty novel in which friendship is a main topic. Three women who are neighbors share their struggles with unfaithful men, rebellious children, and parental expectations while taking long walks near their homes on Wildwater Way.
Devoto, Pat C. The Summer We Got Saved. (2005) ISBN: 9780446697156 $21.99 pbk
While Tab Rutland secretly learns about the Civil Rights movement from her aunt, her African American friend Maude helps her Alabama neighbors prepare for voter registration, and her father considers going against his fellow farmers and voting against George Wallace in the upcoming election.
Feldman, Ellen. Next to Love. (2011) ISBN: 9780812992717 $25.00 HC
Follows the stories of three young couples whose lives are irrevocably changed in the years following World War II, a period during which they struggle with difficult losses and witness profound transformations in American culture.
Jordan, Hillary. Mudbound. (2008) ISBN: 9781565126770 $13.99 pbk
Laura McAllan, a white woman and her family move to a Mississippi farm after WWII to endure a life of privation made worse when her racist father-in-law moves in with them. When Laura’s nephew, a veteran, befriends another veteran – a black man – tragedy ensues.
Marshall, Bev. Right as Rain. (2004) ISBN: 9780345468420 $13.95 pbk
A book that explores issues arising from racial and class boundaries in the South from the 1940s to the 1960s, using interracial friendships to portray challenges to the white-dominated class structure. This is fast-paced, moving Literary or Domestic fiction set in the mid-twentieth century American South. The author also uses strong female characters to explore issues of race, class, and gender within communities undergoing profound societal changes.
Mayhew, Anna Jean. The Dry Grass of August. (2011) ISBN: 9780758254092 $15.00 pbk
A white teenage girl discovers the effects of racism on black women in the mid-1950s South.
Naslund, Sena Jeter. Four Spirits. (2003) ISBN: 006093669X $14.95 pbk
In the wake of racial tensions in 1960s Alabama, sheltered white college student Stella participates in her first freedom movement and finds her life changed in several ways when she develops friendships with local African Americans.
Nicholas, Denise. Freshwater Road. (2005) ISBN: 9781416571230 $7.99 pbk
Celeste Tyree, a black 19-year-old college student, travels to Mississippi to take part in the 1964 summer campaign to register disenfranchised African American voters.
Smith, Lee. The Last Girls. (2002) ISBN: 9780345464958 $15.00 pbk
Smith builds this absolutely inviting, completely compelling novel around the idea that “whatever you’re like in your youth, you’re only more so with age.” Thirty-five years after a trip down the Mississippi on a raft with their classmates, four women are reunited to cruise the river once again where they plan to release the ashes of a fellow rafter, Margaret “Baby” Ballou.
Stefaniak, Mary Helen. The Califfs of Baghdad, Georgia. (2010) ISBN: 9780393341133 $15.95 pbk
In this inventive and comic story, eleven-year-old Gladys Califf and her Depression-era community are turned upside down when a worldly teacher, who is fascinated with all things Arabian, moves into the small town. Though set a generation earlier and in a different sociological stratum, this novel should appeal to fans of The Help.
Umrigar, Thrity. The Space Between Us. (2006) ISBN: 9780062067890 $16.99 pbk
In contemporary India, housewife Sara and her maid Bhima see each other through the ups and downs of marriage and motherhood, until a secret is exposed and they can no longer ignore the class line drawn between them.
