Toni Morrison and 9 other women authors to watch in 2015

Candace Bushnell

Sex and the City‘s Candace Bushnell once again uses her barbed pen to poke fun at pop culture in her latest novel, Killing Monica. Sometimes you gotta fake your own death to get your life back.

Harper Lee

Unless you have been living under a rock for the past couple of months, you already know about the most highly anticipated (and most controversial) book release of 2015: Harper Lee’s Go Set a Watchman. Written before her classic To Kill a Mockingbird, Watchman features many of the same characters, 20 years later. Considering many have voted Mockingbird the greatest novel of all time, fear of a sophomore slump looms large, making many question if Watchman’s release has Harper Lee’s full blessing. Still, we’re all gonna be, er, watching for this one.

Helen Macdonald

Helen Macdonald’s H is for Hawk is collecting accolades everywhere, which may be surprising since it’s a seemingly niche-ish memoir about a woman who lives with and trains a goshawk (for those of you not hip to the bird world, this is a particularly bloodthirsty bird of prey, and Macdonald bestows a deceptively un-bloodthirsty name upon hers: Mabel). Now you’re probably thinking, ‘This is just not my thing.’ But you’d be surprised. At its heart, Hawk is about grieving for the loss of a loved one.

Jill Alexander Essbaum

Jill Alexander Essbaum’s debut novel Hausfrau has been widely described as “Madame Bovary meets Fifty Shades of Grey.” It so isn’t, so please don’t curl up with this one and your favorite pair of furry handcuffs. Unlikable female protagonists seem to be all the rage these days (Amy from Gone Girl, Rachel from The Girl on the Train) and Anna is no exception: a train wreck you can’t look away from.   

Judy Blume

You probably know and love her as the author of children’s classics like Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret and Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing, but Judy Blume proved her adult writing chops with Summer Sisters and her latest, In the Unlikely Event, promises to do the same.

Kate Atkinson

Gillian Flynn, author of the aforementioned Gone Girl, called Kate Atkinson’s Life After Life “one of the best novels I’ve read this century.” The editorial team at Amazon agreed, anointing it our pick for the best book of 2013. So, you can imagine how excited we are that the follow-up, A God in Ruins, will be released this year. It’s about an average Joe who is thrown into extraordinary circumstances.

Sophie Kinsella

“Adult” authors like Jodi Picoult and Sophie Kinsella are pulling a Judy Blume in reverse by releasing YA crossover titles this summer. Kinsella, author of the popular Shopaholic series, has written Finding Audrey, about a girl with an anxiety disorder whose budding friendship with her brother’s teammate just might be the key to helping her recover.

Stephanie Clifford

Fans of Candace Bushnell will also probably enjoy the debut novel by an author being dubbed the “21st-century Edith Wharton.” Wharton was known for her ironic depictions of high society and Stephanie Clifford’s Everybody Rise does the same, as she points out the perils of climbing the social ladder.

Toni Morrison

Anyone familiar with Nobel Prize-winning Toni Morrison’s oeuvre (The Bluest Eye, Beloved) knows that she isn’t shy about lingering uncomfortably long in the bleakest of places, and at times the weight of her slender novel God Help the Child seems almost too much to bear. But it has an important and empowering lesson on offer — that the sins of others need not define you.

Una LaMarche

I defy anyone to look at this cover and not be irresistibly compelled to display the same toothy grin, which is what you’ll be wearing for the duration of time spent reading Unabrow, a collection of essays and life lessons that Una LaMarche has written for her children (although this is decidedly not a children’s book). For anyone hesitant to let their freak flag fly, this is the book for you.

Pin it!