Celebrate the women who have shaped your life with these spectacular books with female friendships.
I may be a bit biased but almost nothing compares to the power of female friendship. My female friends have been with me through all my ups and downs and have helped me discover myself again whenever I feel lost.
Female friendships can be intense, sometimes lifting you up when it feels like the sky is falling but also sometimes pushing you down when you are at your weakest. With tales of glorious friendships, unlikley friendships, toxic friendships, and everything in between, this list of books with female friendships will give you food for thought.
Go ahead and scroll through the list. I’m positive you’ll find something great for your next book club night.
Best Books About Female Friendships
My Brilliant Friend
Elena Ferrante
An epic coming of age story from Italian author Elena Ferrante, My Brilliant Friend is the first in her acclaimed Neapolitan Novels. In a poor neighborhood on the outskirts of Naples, bookish Elena meets the fiery Lila, and they strike up a friendship that will last them decades as they grow from school girls into women while post-World War II Italy transforms around them.
A Thousand Splendid Suns
Khaled Hosseini
In A Thousand Splendid Suns, Hosseini covers thirty years in Afghanistan, from the Soviet invasion to the post-Taliban years. Illegitimate child Mariam is forced to marry Rasheed, a man thirty years her elder. Stuck in a horrible marriage, Mariam’s life changes when they take in a teenage girl. Discussing family, friendship, and the struggle to survive, A Thousand Splendid Suns is a thought-provoking read and one of the best books with female friendships.
Firefly Lane
Kristin Hannah
In 1974, Kate Mularkey becomes best friends with the cool new girl at school, Tully Hart. As Tully becomes a celebrity news anchor and Kate chooses to be a stay-at-home mom, their friendship full of love, jealousy, anger, and laughter will shape their lives over the next three decades. You’ll love the dynamics of the relationship between Kate and Tully, watching them renegotiate their friendship and struggle with their codependency as they each grew in different directions.
Sula
Toni Morrison
Toni Morrison’s classic book about female friendship focuses on Sula and Nel who grow up in the small town of Bottom on the top of a hill. Nel is a mild-mannered mama’s girl and Sula is a wild child who does want she wants. Despite their opposite natures, Nel and Sula share an intense bond as children. As they age, Nel becomes a traditional housewife and Sula continues her wild ways, eventually leading to a betrayal that will turn the whole town, Nel included, against her.
The Island of Sea Women
Lisa See
On the island of Jeju just off the Korean peninsula lives a society where women are the breadwinners. They are sea divers risking untold hazards to provide for their families from the ocean. Among them are best friends Mi-ja and Young-sook, two girls just entering their village’s diving collective. Telling the account of their lives from the Japanese occupation in the 1930s, through World War II and the tumultuous aftermath up to the present, Lisa See’s historical fiction novel is a beautifully written account of female friendships.
Big Little Lies
Liane Moriarty
A tale of secrets and lies among perfectly respectable parents, powerful Maddie, gorgeous Celeste, and timid Jane. The three women’s lives cross ending in an (accidental?) death. Discussing serious topics like domestic abuse, Big Little Lies perfectly balances humor and suspense to keep you coming back for more.
Historical Fiction Female Friendships
The Lion Women of Tehran
Marjan Kamali
When her father unexpectedly dies, seven-year-old Ellie and her mother are thrust from the 1950s upper class in Tehran to live in a tiny home downtown. Ellie soon befriends Homa and the two girls are inseparable, sharing dreams of becoming “lion women” someday. After her family fortunes change, Ellie rejoins the wealthy ranks of society, becoming the most popular girl at her elite high school. Just as Iran is reaching a political breaking point, politically active Homa reappears in Ellie’s life causing a disruption that will change them both forever.
Code Name Verity
Elizabeth Wein
Code Name Verity immerses you in a world of intrigue with the story of a British spy, Agent “Verity.” Captured when her plane crashes in occupied France, Verity is interrogated by the Gestapo in an attempt to learn of her mission. As she confesses under torture, you’ll find yourself on the edge of your seat wondering what secrets she is willing to exchange for her life. How far is she willing to go for her mission? A brilliant and emotional read that makes a great book club recommendation if you are looking for books with female friendships.
Kin
Tayari Jones
From the author of An American Marriage comes a tale of two lifelong friends who were raised without much warmth by female relatives. Vernice and Annie both grew up as motherless children in Louisiana – as a baby, Vernice’s mother was murdered by her father and Annie’s mother abandoned her. Determined to find her mother, Annie runs away in a journey of love and adventure that begins to turn into obsession. Vernice attends Spelman College in Atlanta where she must navigate the wealth and class of her dormmates and decide what matters most to her.
Lady Tan’s Circle of Women
Lisa See
The granddaughter of one of the only female doctors in China, Yunxian is taught all about women’s illnesses, alongside her best friend Meiling, a midwife-in-training. When Yunxian becomes a wife in an arranged marriage, Yunxian is forbidden from speaking to Meiling or helping the household women. Determined to break away from tradition, Yunxian goes on to treat women from every level of society in this novel about female friendship based on a true story from the Ming Dynasty.
The Rose Code
Kate Quinn
During World War II, three women become unlikely friends while working as code breakers at Bletchley Park: Osla is desperate to prove she’s more than just a society girl; Mab is determined to rise above the poverty of her birth; and both encourage Beth, a shy local spinster, to step up and use her brilliant mind. Years after the war, the three women must come together one more time to help uncover a spy who was working in their midst.
The Invention of Wings
Sue Monk Kidd
On her eleventh birthday, Sarah Grimke is given a slave, Handful, as her present. As they grow, both Sarah and Handful strive to find greater meaning in their lives. Based on a true story, Sarah Grimke eventually became one of the pioneers of the women’s abolitionist movement. While Handful was a real slave, her story is more fictionalized, but still incredibly powerful.
The Family
Naomi Krupitsky
In Red Hook, Brooklyn during the 1930s, Sofia and Antonia are best friends and neighbors, members of “The Family,” the local Italian mafia. When Antonia’s father is disappeared, a wedge develops between the girls that will affect them as they grow older and begin to question the demands of their “family.”
Complicated Books About Friendship
Swing Time
Zadie Smith
An unnamed narrator reflects upon her life and a childhood friendship that changed its course forever. Growing up in London, she meets Tracey in a tap dance class. Although Tracey is the more talented dancer, the narrator manages to find a career as an assistant to a world-famous pop star and her friendship with Tracey takes a turn for the worse.
In Five Years
Rebecca Serle
Lawyer Dannie Cohan knows exactly where she’ll be in five years – until the night of her engagement. In her post-engagement bliss, she has a vision of herself in five years engaged to someone else. She doesn’t think much of it, until years later when she finds he is dating her best friend. While the premise sounds light-hearted, partway through the story, beach read goes out the window and thought-provoking steps in. You’ll feel compelled to know if the vision came true and surprised at how well Serle counters your expectations.
The Bandit Queens
Parini Shroff
Five years ago, Geeta’s no-good husband simply walked away and she never heard from him again. However, in her small Indian village, the rumor persists that Geeta killed him. Geeta doesn’t mind her black widow reputation; until women start asking Geeta for advice on how to off their own husbands and they won’t take no for an answer. Heartwarming and hilarious all at once, The Bandit Queens has a well-rounded story with witty characters and a dark sense of humor that makes for an enjoyable, yet thought-provoking, read.
Yellowface
R. F. Kuang
If you want a book about toxic female friendship, Yellowface is a discussion-worth read. Although June and Athena went to school together, Athena has found major success as an Asian-American novelist while June struggles to get a foot in the door, probably because she’s just another basic white girl. When June witnesses Athena’s death in a freak accident, she impetuously snatches up Athena’s unfinished work. Publishing it as her own, June rebrands herself as a racially ambiguous Juniper Song and becomes an instant bestseller. Yet as the truth threatens to come out, June must decide how far she is willing to go to keep her secret.
Another Brooklyn
Jacqueline Woodson
When August returns home to bury her father, she runs into an old friend and begins reminiscing. Growing up in Brooklyn, August and her best friends dreamed of the big future they have ahead of them. However alongside the magical Brooklyn of their childhood lived another Brooklyn, a dark world rife with dangers for young women.
We All Want Impossible Things
Catherine Newman
Since childhood, Edith and Ashley have been best friends, through childhood, marriages, infertility, and children. Sadly, Edi has been diagnosed with ovarian cancer and is spending her last days in a hospice near Ash. As Edi and Ash remember their lives, Ash struggles to come to terms with her imperfections as a friend, a wife, and a mother.
Fiona and Jane
Jean Chen Ho
In her debut work, Jean Chen Ho tells the tale of two Taiwanese-American friends throughout their tumultuous lives. Growing up in LA, Jane always knew that Fiona, with her fierce ambition and drop-dead beauty, was destined to leave. When Fiona moves to New York and Jane stays in LA grieving her father’s death, their friendship waxes and wanes but never breaks.
Thriller Books with Female Friendships
We Were Never Here
Andrea Bartz
Among the top thriller books with female friendships, We Were Never Here tests the loyalty between two travel companions. On their annual girls’ trip, Emily and Kristen are having the time of their lives in Chile. On the last night, Emily comes back to the hotel to find Kristen with a dead body. Kristen claims she killed him in self-defense. Except, the same thing happened last year to Emily. As Emily’s guilt over the cover-ups reaches a boiling point, Kristen makes a surprise trip to visit her and Emily has serious doubts about their friendship.
Listen for the Lie
Amy Tintera
For Lucy, the night five years ago still remains a blank though their entire Texas town knows that Lucy killed her best friend Savvy. When a popular true crime podcaster chooses to investigate Savvy’s murder, Lucy finally returns home at her grandmother’s insistence. Now Lucy must face her ex-husband and her distrust family while trying to find out the truth about Savvy’s death, even if it ends up pointing to herself. Lucy’s cynical sarcasm will make you laugh and the podcast chapters sounded so realistic in the audiobook version that you will be gripped from the start.
What Lies in the Woods
Kate Alice Marshall
At age eleven, best friends Naomi, Cassidy, and Olivia spent the summer roaming the woods. Until Naomi was attacked, surviving 17 stab wounds, and the girls’ testimonies put a serial killer in prison for the death of six other women. Except, they lied. Now Olivia wants to tell and Naomi must discover the dangerous truth of what really happened in the woods that summer. If you are looking for a solid thriller book about female friendship, What Lies in the Woods delivers a fun quick read.
Counterfeit
Kirstin Chen
Just as strait-laced Ava Wong’s perfect life begins to crumble, her former roommate from mainland China appears with a scheme to make them both rich. Winnie has an audacious plan to import near-perfect fakes of expensive luxury handbags from China, but she just needs someone with an American passport to pull it off. Yet when the enterprise goes south, Winnie disappears, leaving Ava to face the consequences.
The Hunting Wives
May Cobb
After Sophie O’Neill leaves her big Chicago career to settle down in a small Texas town with her husband and son, she quickly becomes restless. Then she meets Margot Banks, a socialite with a penchant for late-night target practice and heavy partying. As Sophie gets drawn into Margot’s group of Hunting Wives, she soon finds herself tangled in the middle of a murder investigation.
Classic Novels About Female Friendship
The Color Purple
Alice Walker
In this modern classic novel about female friendship, poor young Black girl Celie writes letters to God in the early 1900s, begging for help from her father who beats and rapes her. After Celie is married off to an abusive man and helps her sister run away, Celie begins writing letters to her sister. Talking frankly about domestic and sexual abuse and homosexuality, The Color Purple won the Pulitzer Prize in 1983.
Anne of Green Gables
L. M. Montgomery
Every girl should be required to read the adventures of orphan Anne Shirley. A redheaded orphan on Prince Edward Island, Anne uses all her imagination and spunk to win the hearts of everyone around her. She’s the girl every girl wishes she could be and her friendship with Diana is perfect. Rereading this childhood classic, I found it just as entertaining as an adult and loved every minute of it.
The Joy Luck Club
Amy Tan
How well do you know your mother? In 1949, four Chinese women, all recent immigrants to San Francisco, gather together weekly to play Mahjong, chat about their pasts, and hope for the future for their daughters. This tale of mothers trying to pass on their wisdom to their American-born daughters who don’t truly understand them will make you want to learn more about your own mother.
Cat’s Eye
Margaret Atwood
Returning home for an exhibit of her art, controversial painter Elaine Risley contemplates her childhood friendships. After a life spent traveling, at age eight, Elaine discovers the joys of having girlfriends when she meets Carol and Grace. After a summer away, Elaine returns to find a new girl who has completely changed the group’s dynamics.
Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe
Fannie Flagg
In the throes of a middle-aged crisis, Evelyn unexpectedly finds comfort from the elderly Mrs. Threadgoode. Mrs. Threadgoode tells her a fascinating tale of two women, Idgie and Ruth, who ran the Whistle Stop Cafe in Alabama in the 1930s – an era of hard luck, racism, small-town problems, lots of laughter, and the occasional murder.
Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood
Rebecca Wells
When Siddalee Walker describes her mother Vivi as a “tap-dancing child abuser” in an interview, Vivi disowns her. Desperate for forgiveness, Sidda postpones her wedding trying to reconnect with her mother. To help, Vivi’s friends send Sidda a scrapbook of their girlhood mementos with Vivi to allow Sidda to better understand her mother.
Enjoyable Books with Female Friendships
The Five-Star Weekend
Elin Hilderbrand
A popular food blogger, Hollis Shaw’s life is not as picture-perfect as it seems. When her husband is killed in a car accident after an argument and her daughter pulls away, Hollis decides to try a “Five-Star Weekend.” She gathers her best friend from her teens, 20s, 30s, and midlife together for a weekend in Nantucket. But the perfect weekend might turn sour when her friends don’t all get along and her childhood friend invites Hollis’s first love along.
The Book Club for Troublesome Women
Marie Bostwick
In her perfect 1960s life, Margaret Ryan feels like something is missing. When Charlotte moves into the neighborhood, Margaret concocts a book club so she can socialize with the new arrival. Together, Margaret, Charlotte, Bitsy and Viv shares secrets, cocktails and reactions to the newly published The Feminine Mystique. The books they read and the friendships they build hold them together through the ups and downs of their ensuing years.
Summer Sisters
Judy Blume
Jenna Bush Hager is picking an old favorite as the perfect beach read about female friendships to end the summer. During the summer of 1997, Vix Leonard’s world changes forever when she is swept into a world of unimaginable privilege after she becomes best friends with Caitlin Summers. Even though they haven’t been close in years, Caitlin begs Vix to be her maid of honor at her wedding. Vix agrees, hoping to discover what caused the rift between them that summer long ago.
The One Hundred Years of Lenni and Margot
Marianne Cronin
If you like books about unlikely friendships, Lenni, a dying 17-year-old girl, befriends Margot, an 83-year-old woman awaiting heart surgery, at the art room of a Glasgow hospital. Together, they decide to make 100 paintings to celebrate the 100 years they have lived between them. Cronin’s debut novel is heartwarming and sweet, playing on your emotions as it weaves between grief and joy, loss and love, and all the things that make up a life.
The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants
Ann Brashares
When Carmen gets a pair of jeans at the thrift store, she feels tempted to throw them out but her friends love them. They each decide to try to them and magically the pants look amazing on each of them despite their wildly different body types. As they separate for the summer, they send the traveling pants between them in this coming-of-age young adult book about female friendship.
Beyond the Point
Claire Gibson
On the eve of 9/11, three women entering the U.S. Military Academy at West Point form an enduring friendship to see them through the years ahead. Dani, the star athlete determined to break barriers; Hannah, the Army brat guided by her faith; and Avery, the wild child pushing boundaries. Covering women in the military and the history of West Point as well as the post-9/11 years, Gibson’s debut novel has plenty to set it apart among the novels about female friendship.
Nonfiction Books About Friendship
Big Friendship
Aminatou Sow and Ann Friedman
Long-time friends and podcast co-hosts Aminatou Sow and Ann Friedman wrote an entire nonfiction book about female friendship. Together, they reveal how their friendship has endured over the years. With hilarious honesty, the two give a rundown on how to find, keep, and sustain life-changing friendships.
Truth & Beauty
Ann Patchett
In 1981, Ann Patchett met Lucy Grealy in college, and, after attending a writer’s workshop, a close friendship bloomed that would last decades. As a child, Lucy lost half her jaw to childhood cancer. Through the years of reconstructive surgery, Ann and Lucy’s bound remains strong only to be separated by Lucy’s death at a young age.
Text Me When You Get Home
Kayleen Shaefer
A validation of female friendship, Kayleen Schaeffer discusses the millennial take on friendship. Mixing historical research, pop culture, and Schaeffer’s experiences, Text Me When You Get Home highlights that modern female friendships are making women stronger than ever.
Everything I Know About Love
Dolly Alderton
Writer Dolly Alderton’s humorous memoir recalls the ups and downs of dating in her twenties. The sharp British journalist and podcast host shares stories of falling in love, finding a job, getting drunk, and getting dumped, Yet nothing compares to the value of her female friendships who help her realize she is enough.
Do You Enjoy Reading Books About Female Friendships?
What do you think? Do you agree or disagree with my Books about Female Friendship list? What books with female friendships have I forgotten? As always, let me know in the comments!
More Books on Friendships Reading Lists:
Ashley says
The Help and The Calamity Club by Kathryn Stockett and The Women by Kristin Hannah feature great female friendships.