The most recommended books about middle-aged women

Who picked these books? Meet our 27 experts.

27 authors created a book list connected to middle-aged women, and here are their favorite middle-aged women books.
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Book cover of More Than a Woman

Emma Chapman Author Of First Light: Switching on Stars at the Dawn of Time

From my list on escape from the darn kids.

Why am I passionate about this?

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.

Emma's book list on escape from the darn kids

Emma Chapman Why did Emma love this book?

Despite the title, I think that any gender can draw something from this book. It is the sequel to her phenomenally successful book ā€œHow to be a womanā€, 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 Caitlinā€™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 didnā€™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 butā€¦ it made me laugh and it made me cry.

By Caitlin Moran,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked More Than a Woman as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

THE SUNDAY TIMES NUMBER ONE BESTSELLER

'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 goingā€¦


Book cover of Magical Midlife Challenge

Cassi Clark Author Of Breastfeeding Is a Bitch: But We Lovingly Do it Anyway

From Cassi's 3 favorite reads in 2023.

Why am I passionate about this?

Author Thinker/Putter togetherer Gardener Climber Defunder of diet culture Stubborn optimist

Cassi's 3 favorite reads in 2023

Plus, Cassi's 11-year-old's favorite books.

Cassi Clark Why did Cassi love this book?

I have never been much of a fantasy reader. I just couldnā€™t relate to the characters, or perhaps it was because the classics were thrust on me with more vigor, and I just didnā€™t know what fantasy has to offer. But when my other best friend recommended the Leveling Up Series, I couldnā€™t resistā€”a middle-aged woman leaves her stifling life and gets magical powers! Isnā€™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 didnā€™t knowā€¦

By K.F. Breene,

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

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.

To omitā€¦


Book cover of Hold Me Down

Caroline Leavitt Author Of With or Without You

From my list on hidden gems that wonā€™t stay hidden for long.

Why am I passionate about this?

Iā€™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 discoveryā€”reading a book whose likes I havenā€™t seen on any bestseller list or on a front display in a bookstore. There are so many, many hidden gemsā€”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!

Caroline's book list on hidden gems that wonā€™t stay hidden for long

Caroline Leavitt Why did Caroline love this book?

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 murderā€”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 catsā€”but make no mistake, this isnā€™t cozy! Instead, youā€™ll be gripping the pages so hard, they might tear!

By Clea Simon,

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

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 ownā€¦


Book cover of Halfway There

Kate Moseman Author Of Silver Spells

From my list on finding magic at midlife.

Why am I passionate about this?

Iā€™ve always loved fantasy books with female main characters, but as Iā€™ve grown older, itā€™s been difficult to find contemporary womenā€™s fantasy with main characters over the age of thirty-five. So when I discovered paranormal womenā€™s fiction, a new genre label for stories of midlife women with magic, I was instantly hooked. I read everything I could get my hands on. After that, I was so inspired that I decided to write a contemporary fantasy series of my own, one in which every protagonist was a woman over the age of forty.

Kate's book list on finding magic at midlife

Kate Moseman Why did Kate love this book?

I love this book because it realistically portrays a middle-aged woman coming out of a bad marriage and adjusting to a new life. One with magical powers, of course! 

The main character in Halfway There feels so genuine that you can't help rooting for her to succeed in her quest to solve the mysteries surrounding her newfound powers.

By Eve Langlais,

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

A Paranormal Women's Fiction novel for anyone who thought adventure and magic stopped at forty. Guess again, itā€™s just the beginning.I never expected Iā€™d be one of those people who had a midlife crisis. Sure, Iā€™m over forty, and married, but my kids are grown and moved out. Life is steady, if predictably boring.That all changes when my husband asks for a divorce and my whole world crashes. Everything I thought I knew, everything I am, gone in an instant.But I am not about to give up. After all, at my age, technically, Iā€™m only halfway there.I am ready toā€¦


Book cover of Flirting With Fire

Angela Lam Author Of Last Chance

From Angela's 3 favorite reads in 2023.

Why am I passionate about this?

Author Author Artist Community Reader Runner

Angela's 3 favorite reads in 2023

Angela Lam Why did Angela love this book?

This small-town romance centers around a middle-aged actress, Margot Hughes, and a big-shot actor, Max Russo, who come together to save Cambriaā€™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.

By Jane Porter,

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

Love isnā€™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 fiancĆ©, she wants nothing to do with the industry. She has sworn off New York, theater, actorsā€”all of it. She returns to her hometown on Californiaā€™s central coast and takes a job in real estate, where she manages significant investment properties. But Margotā€™s suddenly thrown back into the theater world when Sally, her friend and boss, who had been restoring andā€¦


Book cover of Someone Else's Shoes

Erin La Rosa Author Of The Backtrack

From my list on for anyone who still wonders, "What if...?".

Why am I passionate about this?

I wanted to write my book (below) because I often wonder, ā€œWhat if?ā€ about many things in my life. What if Iā€™d stayed in-state for college? What if Iā€™d never moved to California? What if Iā€™d stayed together with my high school boyfriend? This book answered those questions for me, and I know that reading any of the books below will not only do that for you but also bring lots of reading joy.

Erin's book list on for anyone who still wonders, "What if...?"

Erin La Rosa Why did Erin love this book?

I wanted to read this because the title made me think, "Yes, I want to know what it's like to be in someone else's shoes." And...yes, this delivered. I really enjoyed the journey that Nisha and Sam go on, swapping places. Along with the other supporting female characters, what I read felt so feminist and empowering.

As a reader, I marveled at all of the subtle messages we were given about what it means to truly support other women. This all came in a very fun, entertaining, and page-turning book! Loved!

By Jojo Moyes,

Why should I read it?

4 authors picked Someone Else's Shoes as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

A story of mix-ups, mess-ups and making the most of second chances, this is the new novel from international sensation Jojo Moyes, author of Me Before You and The Giver of Stars

'A delightful reverse-Cinderella story of two women who seem polar opposites - until circumstance forces them to experience each other's lives. Nobody writes women the way Jojo Moyes does - recognizably real and complex and funny and flawed' JODI PICOULT

Who are you when you are forced to walk in someone else's shoes?

Meet Sam . . .
She's not got much, but she's grateful for what sheā€¦


Book cover of The Wild Oats Project: One Woman's Midlife Quest for Passion at Any Cost

Carolyn Lee Arnold Author Of Fifty First Dates After Fifty: A Memoir

From my list on that model older women unabashedly enjoying sex.

Why am I passionate about this?

Iā€™ve been a very sexual woman since my twenties, and provided sex education for women as a young feminist. When I embarked on a fun dating project in my late fifties to date 50 men in order to find the right partner for me, I knew that many of my dates would include sexual encounters. My upbeat memoir about that project, Fifty First Dates After Fifty, includes the sex scenes, because I wanted to provide healthy, satisfying images of older women enjoying sex so that our sexuality would be validated and visible to each other and the world. The sex-positive books I recommend celebrate the variety of womenā€™s sexuality.

Carolyn's book list on that model older women unabashedly enjoying sex

Carolyn Lee Arnold Why did Carolyn love this book?

I love this memoir because Robin Rinaldi fiercely loves and trusts herself for being sexual, and shows us from the inside what it means to positively claim our sexuality in midlife.

Rinaldi undertook a brave and vulnerable journeyā€”a year-long break from her companionable but passionless marriage to find passion by pursuing a variety of sexual traditions and relationships with men. Her story is not only an entertaining page-turner, but deeply vulnerable and satisfying. 

She chronicles her heart as well as her body, and reminds us that it is not always easy to take risksā€”there are challenges, heartaches, and rewards in creating a deeply satisfying life. Further modeling bravery, she also wrote an Atlantic article about transcending the slut shaming she received from writing the book.  

By Robin Rinaldi,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Wild Oats Project as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

What if for just one year you let desire call the shots?

The project was simple: Robin Rinaldi, a successful magazine journalist, would move into a San Francisco apartment, join a dating site, and get laid. Never mind that she already owned a beautiful flat a few blocks away, that she was forty-four, or that she was married to a man she'd been in love with for eighteen years. What followed-a year of abandon, heartbreak, and unexpected revelation-is the topic of this riveting memoir, The Wild Oats Project.

Monogamous and sexually cautious her entire adult life, Rinaldi never planned onā€¦


Book cover of The Slaves of Solitude

Gerard Woodward Author Of Nourishment

From my list on human stories behind World War Two.

Why am I passionate about this?

My novel Nourishment is loosely based on stories I was told about the war by my parents who lived through it. My mother was a firewoman during the Blitz and my father was in Normandy after the D-Day landings. They married during the war. I wish now Iā€™d written down the stories my parents used to tell me. There was always humour in their stories. My parents could both see the absurdity and the dark comedy that can sometimes be present in wartime situations, especially on the home front, and I hope some of that comes through in Nourishment.

Gerard's book list on human stories behind World War Two

Gerard Woodward Why did Gerard love this book?

Patrick Hamilton has a wonderfully simple and direct style, and is always utterly compelling, no matter if heā€™s writing about ordinary people going about their daily lives. This wartime novel seems to happen a long way from the war itself, though it is set in Maidenhead, which was far enough away from the capital to be thought safe for evacuees. We spend our time with a wonderfully cliquey and gossipy set of boarding house tenants who constantly compete with each other and have their own little wars and conflicts. Like many of Hamiltonā€™s novels it has a theatrical quality, reading it is almost like watching actors performing on a stage. Indeed, one of the characters is an actor, and theatre provides a note of redemption in this beautifully bleak novel. 

By Patrick Hamilton,

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

As World War II drags on, the lonely Miss Roach flees London for the dull but ostensible safety of a suburban boarding house in this comically rendered ā€œmasterpieceā€ from the author of Gaslight (The Times Literary Supplement)

England in the middle of World War II, a war that seems fated to go on forever, a war that has become a way of life. Heroic resistance is old hat. Everything is in short supply, and tempers are even shorter. Overwhelmed by the terrors and rigors of the Blitz, middle-aged Miss Roach has retreated to the relative safety and stupefying boredom ofā€¦


Book cover of The Change

Jill Stoddard Author Of Imposter No More: Overcome Self-Doubt and Imposterism to Cultivate a Successful Career

From Jill's 3 favorite reads in 2023.

Why am I passionate about this?

Author Book nerd Podcaster Professional speaker Family gal French bulldog lover

Jill's 3 favorite reads in 2023

Jill Stoddard Why did Jill love this book?

This is a book that kept me thinking about it for weeks after I finished it!

It's not my typical book; I had to suspend some disbelief and be willing to think metaphorically rather than literally, and if it hadnā€™t been recommended to me, I probably would have judged the book by its cover and not read it. Iā€™m SO glad I did!

The middle-aged woman-power that jumps off the pages of this book made me (even more) proud to be a middle-aged woman. The characters were so relatable, and I couldnā€™t not cheer for these women every step of the way. It also gave me some ideas for how to handle my awful neighbors, but I held back (tee hee.)

I highly recommend this unique, powerful, and much-needed read for women over 40 who want to see themselves better represented in fiction. 

By Kirsten Miller,

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

'A perfect contradiction, existing in the shades of grey that real life is so often painted in . . . A story that's as furious as it is tender' Emily Henry

'A roar of rage, a pacy page-turner, I loved it with all my broken heart. Read it. You'll love it' Marian Keyes

'A propulsive plot and characters that roar off the page, this is a novel that's unafraid to take on societal misogyny while being satirical and even funny at the same time' Guardian

'An addictive, fast-paced crime novel like nothing you've ever read before' Red magazine

* *ā€¦


Book cover of Unbecoming

Emily Croy Barker Author Of The Thinking Woman's Guide to Real Magic

From my list on fantasy about learning magic.

Why am I passionate about this?

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 successā€”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. 

Emily's book list on fantasy about learning magic

Emily Croy Barker Why did Emily love this book?

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.

By Lesley Wheeler,

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

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.


Book cover of More Than a Woman
Book cover of Magical Midlife Challenge
Book cover of Hold Me Down

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