The best books about wasted women

By Paige Harbison

Who am I?

I have spent my entire life in the literary industry, first being raised by an author and her two published sisters, then signing my own book deal at age nineteen. So basically, I am completely incapable of seeing the world through anything but a bookish lens. For this little project, I was asked to make some recommendations based on a subject I care about. I chose Wasted Women. These are books about women who deserve more out of life than they have—and about the consequences of letting a clever woman stay caged.

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The books I picked & why

Gone Girl

By Gillian Flynn,

Why did I love this book?

If you haven’t read Gone Girl by now, then stop everything and pick it up. What fascinates me about this book is the main character, Amy, and what drives her. She is a wasted woman—that is to say, she is a brilliant woman living a life too small, and this is a book about the consequences of that.

Gone Girl

By Gillian Flynn,

Why should I read it?

19 authors picked Gone Girl as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

THE ADDICTIVE No.1 BESTSELLER AND INTERNATIONAL PHENOMENON
OVER 20 MILLION COPIES SOLD WORLDWIDE
THE BOOK THAT DEFINES PSYCHOLOGICAL THRILLER

Who are you?
What have we done to each other?

These are the questions Nick Dunne finds himself asking on the morning of his fifth wedding anniversary, when his wife Amy suddenly disappears. The police suspect Nick. Amy's friends reveal that she was afraid of him, that she kept secrets from him. He swears it isn't true. A police examination of his computer shows strange searches. He says they weren't made by him. And then there are the persistent calls on…

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Psychology

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Shanna

By Kathleen E. Woodiwiss,

Why did I love this book?

A classic that probably hasn’t made its way onto many modern lists. But this book, in its nearly seven hundred pages, will absolutely carry any reader away. Shanna is a feisty, rambunctious, often bitchy, often wrong, character. She’s so clever that she gets in her own way. You never know what she’s going to do, but you know she’s too big for the life she is being threatened with and that she’ll do anything to make sure she doesn’t fall victim to a life that will bore her. She refuses to be a wasted woman. Also? This book is jampacked with very, very hot sexual tension.

Shanna

By Kathleen E. Woodiwiss,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Shanna as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

"Shanna" is a magnificent tale of freedom and passionate destiny from incomparable storyteller Kathleen Woodiwiss. In 1749, heiress Shanna Trahern marries convict Ruark Beauchamp, only to abandon her bridegroom to set sail to the Caribbean, with her determined bridegroom in pursuit.

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The Caribbean

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Gods in Alabama

By Joshilyn Jackson,

Why did I love this book?

This book. I can hear the cicadas now. I love this book because our main character is guided by self-imposed rules for herself that she desperately wants to abide. At first glance, she seems like she might be just anyone—but she has a wild past you can hardly believe she moved beyond. The women in this book are more powerful than the world they are in.

Gods in Alabama

By Joshilyn Jackson,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Gods in Alabama as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

For 10 years Arlene has kept her promises, and God has kept His end of the bargain. Until now. When an old schoolmate from Possett turns up at Arlene's door in Chicago asking questions about Jim Beverly, former quarterback and god of Possett High, Arlene's break with her former hometown is forced to an end. At the same time, Burr, her long-time boyfriend, has raised an ultimatum: introduce him to her family or consider him gone. Arlene loves him dearly but knows her lily white (not to mention deeply racist)Southern Baptist family will not understand her relationship with an African…

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Coming soon!

The Midnight Library

By Matt Haig,

Why did I love this book?

This is a book that’s landed on a million lists in the last few years. I ignored it for a long time, and when I ultimately read it, I fell completely under its spell. It’s rare that without venturing into the genre of fantasy, we get to be so swept away into the magic of a world like this. Despite being set, mostly, in our everyday world, it feels enchanting the whole way through. The main character doesn’t know how big she is. (Sub-plug, it’s very in the world of the excellent new film Everything Everywhere All at Once.)

The Midnight Library

By Matt Haig,

Why should I read it?

18 authors picked The Midnight Library as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

The #1 New York Times bestselling WORLDWIDE phenomenon

Winner of the Goodreads Choice Award for Fiction | A Good Morning America Book Club Pick | Independent (London) Ten Best Books of the Year

"A feel-good book guaranteed to lift your spirits."-The Washington Post

The dazzling reader-favorite about the choices that go into a life well lived, from the acclaimed author of How To Stop Time and The Comfort Book.

Somewhere out beyond the edge of the universe there is a library that contains an infinite number of books, each one the story of another reality. One tells the story of…

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How to Murder Your Life: A Memoir

By Cat Marnell,

Why did I love this book?

This one is literally about a wasted woman. It’s a fascinating non-fictional journey to be taken on by the author, who has led a fascinating, glittering New York life working for Conde Naste and other high-profile jobs. A life that she is consistently self-sabotaging through the abuse of drugs—particularly the ones prescribed to her by her father when she was a child. She is smart, sharp, interesting, interested in the world around her, and yet she continues to burn everything down time and time again.

How to Murder Your Life: A Memoir

By Cat Marnell,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked How to Murder Your Life as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

'I was twenty-six years old and an associate beauty editor at Lucky, one of the top fashion magazines in America. That's all that most people knew about me. But beneath the surface, I was full of secrets: I was a drug addict, for one. A pillhead. I was also an alcoholic-in-training who guzzled warm Veuve Clicquot after work alone in my boss's office with the door closed; a conniving and manipulative uptown doctor-shopper; a salami-and-provolone-puking bulimic who spent a hundred dollars a day on binge foods when things got bad (and they got bad often); a weepy, wobbly, wildly hallucination-prone…

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5 book lists we think you will like!

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The best books if you want to escape this reality for a little bit

The best original stories that make you think

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Interested in fashion, decision making, and clothing?

9,000+ authors have recommended their favorite books and what they love about them. Browse their picks for the best books about fashion, decision making, and clothing.

Fashion Explore 47 books about fashion

Decision Making Explore 71 books about decision making

Clothing Explore 30 books about clothing

And, 3 books we think you will enjoy!

We think you will like Dubliners, Things Fall Apart, and The Road if you like this list.

Dubliners

By James Joyce,

From the list on the essence of the Irishman’s melancholic emotions.

By David W. Berner Author

Why did David love this book?

What can one say about this classic? It is the quintessential story of old Dublin.

Published in 1914, the collection of fifteen short stories takes the reader on a journey through middle-class Ireland, touching on Irish nationalism and country pride, but also on the forces that were slowing changing Ireland at the time. The stories move chronologically from boyhood to manhood and culminate with what some critics say is the finest short story ever written, “The Dead.”

This story, like many others in Dubliners is both a meditation on everyday urban life and a study of human relationships, including how we live with our memories, our heritage, and how we find ways to manifest our personal emotions.

Dubliners

By James Joyce,

Why should I read it?

5 authors picked Dubliners as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

A definitive edition of perhaps the greatest short story collection in the English language

James Joyce's Dubliners is a vivid and unflinching portrait of "dear dirty Dublin" at the turn of the twentieth century. These fifteen stories, including such unforgettable ones as "Araby," "Grace," and "The Dead," delve into the heart of the city of Joyce's birth, capturing the cadences of Dubliners' speech and portraying with an almost brute realism their outer and inner lives. Dubliners is Joyce at his most accessible and most profound, and this edition is the definitive text, authorized by the Joyce estate and collated from…

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Things Fall Apart

By Chinua Achebe,

From the list on disability human rights in the Global South.

By Christopher Krentz Author

Why did Christopher love this book?

I love reading and teaching this classic of postcolonial literature. Written in spare, accessible style on the eve of Nigerian independence from Britain, Achebe tells the story of British colonization of an Igbo clan in Southeast Nigeria near the end of the 19th century. Even as the novel portrays the appalling damages of European colonialism, it subtly critiques the traditional Igbo exclusion of disabled people. It demonstrates one of the paradoxes of human rights: victims of human rights abuses can also be perpetrators of them. The British missionaries first gain a foothold by welcoming those stigmatized people marginalized by the Umoufians, indicating how Achebe promotes compassion of all people.

Things Fall Apart

By Chinua Achebe,

Why should I read it?

6 authors picked Things Fall Apart as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Winner of International Man Booker Prize 2007.

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The Road

By Cormac McCarthy,

From the list on losing faith in humanity but having a good time.

By Stefán Máni Author

Why did Stefán love this book?

This is one of the bleakest books I have ever read. And then I read it again, and again.

Why? Because it is scary as hell, and extremely well written. It sets its claws into you and it won’t let go.

The Road is a dystopian masterpiece. The World has ended and what is left is mostly nothing but also horror almost beyond comprehension.

Murder, starvation, cannibalism, you name it. The book is scary because this could happen.

You are also deeply worried about the protagonists; the father and son of the story. In a World without hope, they manage to find it and keep it alive in their hearts. I still have not seen the movie and I do not want to. I love the book too much.

A well-written story creates magic in your brain. This book is magical. A must-read. But a tough one.

The Road

By Cormac McCarthy,

Why should I read it?

25 authors picked The Road as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • WINNER OF THE PULITZER PRIZE • A searing, post-apocalyptic novel about a father and son's fight to survive, this "tale of survival and the miracle of goodness only adds to McCarthy's stature as a living master. It's gripping, frightening and, ultimately, beautiful" (San Francisco Chronicle).

A father and his son walk alone through burned America. Nothing moves in the ravaged landscape save the ash on the wind. It is cold enough to crack stones, and when the snow falls it is gray. The sky is dark. Their destination is the coast, although they don't know what, if…

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Literary fiction

The best books about wasted women

Who am I?

I wrote...

Anything to Have You

What is my book about?

The books I picked & why

Why did I love this book?

Why did I love this book?

Why did I love this book?

Why did I love this book?

Why did I love this book?

5 book lists we think you will like!

Interested in fashion, decision making, and clothing?

And, 3 books we think you will enjoy!

Who am I?

David's book list on the essence of the Irishman’s melancholic emotions

Why did David love this book?

Who am I?

Christopher's book list on disability human rights in the Global South

Why did Christopher love this book?

Who am I?

Stefán's book list on losing faith in humanity but having a good time

Why did Stefán love this book?