women-centred fiction recommendations for a holiday read

[BananaPeachPie]

I’m on holiday so would like a new book. I like an enjoyable read but that doesn’t make me feel like I’m wasting my time, so no twee romance, I really don’t enjoy mystery and crime books. I seem drawn to books with women at the centre where I can learn a little of their lives and history but ultimately have a good storyline and great characters.
I’ve just finished The Women and The Nightingale by Kristen Hannah and Small pleasures, all of which I enjoyed. I also enjoyed books like A Thousand Splendid Suns and The Book Seller of Kabul. I like to feel that there is a little hope left in humanity.
Does anyone have a recommendation that might fit the bill? Thank you

Great Circle by Maggie Shipstead would hit your targets I think- it alternates the story of an aviatrix in the 1920s with that of an actress playing her in a film in the present day

A bit different from the others mentioned - Katherine by Anya Seton - story of Katherine Swynford, Geoffrey Chaucer's sister-in-law. Fascinating life and great read

Oh and My Dark Vanessa

It’s not fiction, but Wild by Cheryl Strayed is amazing. Incredible true story, woman centred, very powerful.

Oh yes, I found the film adaptation charming but the book is unsurprisingly better.

Two very different recommendations, but I've loved both Stepping Up by Sarah Turner and American Dirt by Jeanine Cummins. VERY different novels but both brilliant in different ways.

Ooo yes, this is one of my favourite novels!

Amazing! Thank you so much everyone. These will keep me going all year. I really didn’t expect so many good options.

Oh, I loved American Dirt. I’ll try your other suggestion.

I had heard great things about this book. Thank you

Darling By India Knight, very funny

Three Weddings & A Proposal by Sheila O'Flanagan
It sounds twee from the title but was deliberately written with a strong career woman as main character.

Larchfield by Polly Clark. Fresh Water for Flowers by Valerie Perrin.

She’s a local girl to me, Croydon too!

I was just coming on to recommend Tracy Chevalier. A Single Thread is lovely, so evocative of post WW1 life for single women. I've also enjoyed The Last Runaway and Remarkable Creatures.

Oh another writer Elizabeth Strout, any of hers. Olive Kitteridge is good. City of Girls by Elizabeth Gilbert. A real roller coaster of a book spanning the years about independent women.

If you’d like school stuff but going on through life, try Suzannah Dunn, Blood Sugar and Venus Flaring, the latter is about a friendship and is stunningly well written. The Barracks John McGahern is about a woman on her first marriage to a widower (Irish guard, police) with children in Ireland. Very hypnotic.

Last but not least, rosamond Lehman, invitation to the Waltz and The Weather in the Streets (the main subject in it was groundbreaking for its time) and get a big Elizabeth Taylor short stories book. Also virago book of Victorian ghost stories or others there are a few but most are by women.

A Single Thread was good but I love any Chevalier, Lady with a Unicorn is also good.

I've just finished The Frozen River by Ariel Lawhon and loved the fiction version of Martha Ballard (midwife and healer in the late 1700's)

Mad Mabel by Sally Hepworth is great.

The Venice hotel by Tess woods I also loved.

Another vote for The Frozen River. Also adding:

Circe by Madeline Miller
The Lion Women of Tehran by Marjan Kamali
The Correspondent by Virginia Evans
Tom Lake by Ann Patchett
Firekeepers Daughter by Angeline Boulley (YA but hard hitting)
The Briar Club by Kate Quinn
Pachinko by Min Jin Lee

Remarkable Creatures by Tracy Chevalier- its about Mary Annings discovery of an unusual skeleton in the cliffsof Lyme Regis, sparking scientific controversy while forming an unlikely friendship with Elizabeth Philpot amid social prejudices.

Oh, I forgot this was on my wish list. Thank you. I read Circe by Madeline Miller last year, which is also very good if you haven’t read it.

I quite enjoyed The Glassmaker (Tracey Chevalier) when it was serialised on Radio 4, though I haven't actually read it.

If you are up for a challenge, Thomas Mann's 'Lotte in Weimar' is excellent, though not an easy read.

I absolutely loved this book!