Mid-life for women is many things, including greatly underrepresented in the stories around us. I am forever in awe of the women around me as they continue to rise to each crazy occasion that life presents, managing and coping with wisdom, humor, and strength. This is why I am recommending these books about kickass middle-aged women. I wrote a novel inspired by some of my own challenges in mid-life. It was published by Atria Books, Simon & Schuster. I hope you love the recommendations as much as I do and that you’ll be inspired to check out my book as well.
I love Eve Fletcher, who hates to be called Mrs. Fletcher, particularly now that she is divorced from Mr. Fletcher and her only son Brandan is off to college.
This story about a woman in mid-life reigniting her own sexuality and reinventing herself is at times hilarious, disturbing, raunchy, melancholy, deeply sad, and very sweet. There’s a lot of porn, which is equal parts silly, sexy, and strange. Another great character is Margo, a trans woman who teaches Eve’s Gender Studies class at the local community college.
I read this book in two days while routing for all the brave and imperfect characters as they struggle with their physical and emotional needs.
New York Times bestseller! Now a major Sky/HBO TV series
From the bestselling author of The Leftovers and Little Children comes a penetrating and hilarious new novel about sex, love, and identity on the frontlines of America's culture wars.
Eve Fletcher is trying to figure out what comes next. A forty-six-year-old divorcee whose beloved only child has just left for college, Eve is struggling to adjust to her empty nest when one night her phone lights up with a text message. Sent from an anonymous number, the mysterious sender tells Eve, "U R my MILF!" Over the months that follow,…
One of the best parts of reaching middle age (with all the scrapes and scars of the forty-year trip) is admitting that the mess of life is what makes life pretty damned fun. I’m an expert on little but have a whole lot to say. I love reading stories about people being themselves, figuring out what it means to grow and change, and screwing up along the way. I believe the disaster of admitting I’m a mess has been the journey of a lifetime. We’re all just getting from one point to another in the best way we can—imperfections. I’m here to throw a party for the blips along the way.
As a new inductee to midlife, I was excited to read the funny tales of this book. As I age, I feel like a new member of a club that I didn’t necessarily want to be a part of. I didn’t mean to register or apply, but here I am. The author of this book would certainly commiserate because here she is, too.
We are both navigating what it’s like to be in a body that’s older in years than we feel. Likewise, we understand what it means to have a new generation become the louder voice in the room. Navigating aging is a wild ride, and it’s nice to have bedfellows as messy as me punching tickets for the seat next to me.
If nothing else, we can swap stories about creaking knees and complain about gas prices until we reach our destination. I love the humor and naked…
A laugh-out-loud spin on the realities, perks, opportunities, and inevitable courses of midlife.
Laurie Notaro has proved everyone wrong: she didn't end up in rehab, prison, or cremated at a tender age. She just went gray. At past fifty, every hair's root is a symbol of knowledge (she knows how to use a landline), experience (she rode in a car with no seat belts), and superpowers (a gray-haired lady can get away with anything).
Though navigating midlife is initially upsetting-the cracking noises coming from her new old body, receiving regular junk mail from mortuaries-Laurie accepts it. And then some. With…
I’m a voracious reader, an author, and also a book critic, so hundreds of books cross my desk. What I love the most is the feeling of discovery—reading a book whose likes I haven’t seen on any bestseller list or on a front display in a bookstore. There are so many, many hidden gems—books that have stayed with me long after the publication day, and I always want others to have the same devotion to them that I do!
A dark, suspenseful, page-turner from acclaimed novelist Clea Simon.
Middle-aged rocker Gal must grapple with memories of the past as she investigates a murder—and as she does so, she has to reexamine her own darker-than-dark past and the mistakes she made. Love. Music. Murder. What more could any lucky reader want? Simon is known for her cozy mysteries about cats—but make no mistake, this isn’t cozy! Instead, you’ll be gripping the pages so hard, they might tear!
A riveting work of dark suspense from acclaimed author Clea Simon
Gal, a middle-aged musician, is back in Boston to play a memorial for her late drummer/best friend, when she finds herself freezing on stage at the sight of a face in the crowd. The next day, she learns that the man she saw has been killed - beaten to death behind the venue - and her friend's widower is being charged in connection with his death. When the friend refuses to defend himself, Gal wonders why and, as the memories of begin to flood back, she starts her own…
One of the best parts of reaching middle age (with all the scrapes and scars of the forty-year trip) is admitting that the mess of life is what makes life pretty damned fun. I’m an expert on little but have a whole lot to say. I love reading stories about people being themselves, figuring out what it means to grow and change, and screwing up along the way. I believe the disaster of admitting I’m a mess has been the journey of a lifetime. We’re all just getting from one point to another in the best way we can—imperfections. I’m here to throw a party for the blips along the way.
Okay, the author of this book is Generation X. Though I am an elder millennial, thereby not allowed in the elite ranks of the generation before me, I absolutely love this book. From the very jump, with a reference to one of my all-time favorite movies, Reality Bites, I was sucked in.
This author readily admits to being a white-hot mess with little hope of ever being a true expert on anything. Same, girl. Same. It is so refreshing to read someone else’s story that feels true to my own. Our situations, circumstances, and specific happenings are so different, but the common thread of sheer messiness runs true through both of our lives.
When I’m running late to school car line, swearing at the punk student driver in front of me, dreading my kid’s piano lessons, I don’t need to read another manual from a have-it-all perfect Pinterest mom.…
A smart, personal, darkly funny examination of what it’s like to be a woman at the crossroads of a midlife crisis, from the New York Times bestselling author of People I Want to Punch in the Throat
“I inhaled this book in one sitting; it’s a must-read for anyone over forty. This should become the gift all girlfriends give one another.”—Zibby Owens, host of the award-winning podcast Moms Don’t Have Time to Read Books
Jen Mann had what appeared to be the perfect life: a successful career as a bestselling author and award-winning blogger, a devoted husband, teenage kids who…
I am an astrophysicist. I am a mother. I am an author. I am a cleaner of dishes, a cooker of meals. I am a daughter, a friend on the end of the phone, a reader of bedtime stories, and the one who hugs away the tears and kisses it better. But I am also just me. Emma. And the books I read are always to escape or understand the internal fight I have between identities and the feeling that pursuing one is failing all the others. Lift yourself above it all, breathe, and read yourself into a different world.
Despite the title, I think that any gender can draw something from this book. It is the sequel to her phenomenally successful book “How to be a woman”, which quite frankly changed my life and made me decide to have children. This new book can be read as a stand-alone and charts Caitlin’s thoughts on her late 30s and 40s. It begins with her usual hilarious and irreverent tone, speaking about the pressures put on you by children, parents, work, best friends, basically everything. It suddenly becomes very serious in a way I didn’t expect though, and the message of balance is one that is important for anyone to read in this way. I rarely say this and mean it but… it made me laugh and it made me cry.
'Exceptionally brilliant and powerful' Marina Hyde
'This book is a hilarious memoir, a passionate polemic, and a moving manifesto on how to be a decent person and try, in the face of countless stresses, to live a full open-hearted, joyous life' Sunday Times
A decade ago, Caitlin Moran thought she had it all figured out. Her instant bestseller How to Be a Woman was a game-changing take on feminism, the patriarchy, and the general 'hoo-ha' of becoming a woman. Back then, she firmly believed 'the difficult bit' was over, and her forties were going…
I have never been much of a fantasy reader. I just couldn’t relate to the characters, or perhaps it was because the classics were thrust on me with more vigor, and I just didn’t know what fantasy has to offer. But when my other best friend recommended the Leveling Up Series, I couldn’t resist—a middle-aged woman leaves her stifling life and gets magical powers! Isn’t that what we were all promised with menopause?
The books are hilarious, with unforgettable characters that I think are all a little bit of me. I definitely have an old woman who throws rocks at tourists in me, and I think a bit of a control freak butler. This whole series makes me feel seen and helps me to rest and de-stress. I tend to read dense books where I learn a lot, so a light, funny, sexy series was brain candy I didn’t know…
The signs are unmistakable, Momar isn't just targeting Austin's brother.
When one of Momar's grunts breaks into Austin's territory looking to grab Jessie for questioning, Jessie and her crew realize they are under fire. In order to protect themselves, it becomes obvious they need backup.
Thankfully, the basajaun's people have invited Jessie and her crew into the basajaunak lands. This is their golden opportunity to seek their help.
The problem is, a host of mages and mercenaries are following them. Once they take Jessie this time it won't be just for questioning, and she won't be coming back.
This small-town romance centers around a middle-aged
actress, Margot Hughes, and a big-shot actor, Max Russo, who come
together to save Cambria’s historic theater through a summer season of
Barefoot in the Park.
The story is set in another California coastal
community, much like my book, and features seasoned characters
questioning their life choices and the opportunities presented to them. A
warm hug of a book, this romance is perfect for theater lovers who
believe everyone deserves a shot at love no matter the age or stage of
life.
Love isn’t just an act in this captivating and flirty romance by New York Times bestselling author Jane Porter.
Forty-nine-year-old Margot Hughes has lived and breathed theater for the past twenty-five years. After a devastating breakup with her playwright fiancé, she wants nothing to do with the industry. She has sworn off New York, theater, actors—all of it. She returns to her hometown on California’s central coast and takes a job in real estate, where she manages significant investment properties. But Margot’s suddenly thrown back into the theater world when Sally, her friend and boss, who had been restoring and…
I love writing about families and what makes them tick: the minor dramas being played out behind every front door, make for intriguing reading. As a journalist, I have interviewed so many people with fascinating stories to tell, and with my fiction I throw my characters into a tricky situation and see what unfolds. Inevitably, if you pull one playing card from the bottom, the whole house of cards comes tumbling down. When faced with unexpected challenges, my characters often behave badly, make poor decisions and get themselves into the kind of mess that makes you want to read one more chapter before turning out the light at night.
Jane Fallon does seriously good messed-up families. I’ve read most of her books, but particularly enjoyed this one – the characters aren’t all likeable by any means, but the set-up is great and you’re desperate to find out how things will be resolved. Helen has been having an affair with a married man, Matthew, for four years when he suddenly turns up on her doorstep, announcing he has left his wife and twin daughters; the timing is unfortunate because Helen has just decided she wants to dump him. Rather than doing the sensible thing and knocking the relationship on the head, Helen goes rogue and ends up befriending Matthew’s wife and getting off with his grown-up son (she’s his age, and initially doesn’t know they’re related). Not surprisingly, chaos ensues.
Breaking up is hard to do. Especially when he's left his wife for you . . .
What to do if Matthew, your secret lover of the past four years, finally decides to leave his wife Sophie and their two daughters and move into your flat, just when you're thinking that you might not want him anymore . . .
PLAN A: Stop shaving your armpits. And your bikini line. Tell him you have a moustache that you wax every six weeks. Stop having sex with him. Pick holes in the way he dresses. Don't brush your teeth. Or your…
When I was ten, I found a book on witchcraft on the shelves of my local bookstore and eagerly set out to learn how to practice magic. I had very little success—one rain spell maybe worked, but to be honest, rain was in the forecast anyway. So instead I became a novelist who likes to write about people who can do magic. I love books that not only sweep you into other worlds but show you how it really feels to live there. I hope these five novels give you a truly magical escape.
Cynthia, a forty-something English professor in the throes of perimenopause, develops unusual abilities and slowly learns to channel them, with help from a visiting faculty member from Faerie. I was lucky enough to read this book in an early draft, and then in its final version. What I love about this novel is how it treats magic as yet another weird thing that happens to you as you get older. I also relished watching Cynthia figure out her new powers in the context of ordinary life: navigating faculty politics, being a mom, working on her marriage. A smart, wry twist on the School for Magic trope.
What if women gained uncanny power at middle age? In Unbecoming, Cyn's family is shattering, and she is at war with her own body. Then, when her best friend flies off on a mysterious faculty exchange program, a glamorous stranger takes her place--Fee Ellis, a Welsh poet who make it all look easy. But it may be costly to welcome this charismatic outsider to their little college town. Cyn's best friend, meanwhile, communicates only in ominous fragments.
I'm normally a fast reader--which can be both a blessing and a curse. I can speed through books, but sometimes I miss out on the scenery along the way. As soon as I started Sandwich, I wanted to slow down so I could thoroughly enjoy Catherine Newman's hilarious and moving story of a woman "sandwiched" between her mostly-grown kids and her aging parents, and filled with love for both. The narrator's memories of early parenthood echoed my own--the exhaustion! the exhilaration!--while her descriptions of life nearing menopause had me laughing out loud (my favorite: a relatable mishap during a conversation with an AirBNB host).
Discover the joyful summer read from the bestselling author of WE ALL WANT IMPOSSIBLE THINGS, perfect for fans of Marian Keyes and Nora Ephron
'Sandwich is joy in book form. I laughed continuously, except for the parts that made me cry. Catherine Newman does a miraculous job reminding us of all the wonder there is to be found in life.' ANN PATCHETT, New York Times bestselling author of Tom Lake
'A holiday reading gem for summer' STYLIST
'Funny, wise, poignant and beautifully written' NINA STIBBE, author of Love, Nina
