The 100 best books about faith and spirituality by women

No. 11 on this list. The House of Mirth · Edith Wharton · 1905

It is on the Modern Library 100 Best Novels list and on 928 university syllabi, placing it in the 74th percentile. It is a standard text in American literature and Gilded Age courses.

No. 12 on this list. Death Comes for the Archbishop · Willa Cather · 1927

The great American novel of Southwestern landscape and faith. Bishop Latour's decades in New Mexico became meditation on vocation, place, and mortality. Core text in American literature courses.

No. 13 on this list. Parable of the Talents · Octavia E. Butler · 1998

Winner of the Nebula Award for Best Novel (1999). Widely taught in speculative fiction, Afrofuturism, and American dystopia courses. The Parable duology is among the most assigned works in contemporary SF syllabi and is firmly canonical within the genre; its canonical standing in broader American literary culture continues to grow.

No. 14 on this list. Love Medicine · Louise Erdrich · 1984

Love Medicine appears on hundreds of university syllabi in American literature, Native American literature, and multicultural fiction courses, making it one of the most-taught works of Indigenous American fiction. It is frequently included in survey courses covering post-1960s American literature, and Erdrich's debut has maintained continuous academic attention for four decades. Its canonical standing falls below that of Morrison's Beloved but well above cult literary works.

No. 15 on this list. Parable of the Sower · Octavia E. Butler · 1993

Routinely assigned in university courses on Afrofuturism, dystopian fiction, and American speculative literature, with placement accelerating sharply after 2010 as Afrofuturism became an academic discipline. Named one of NPR's top 100 science fiction and fantasy novels. Not yet as universally taught as Beloved or 1984, but firmly canonical within speculative fiction and gaining ground in mainstream American literature curricula.

No. 16 on this list. A Number · Caryl Churchill · 2002

One of Churchill's most frequently performed plays and a standard text in contemporary drama courses. Widely recognized as a landmark of twenty-first-century theater.

No. 17 on this list. Tracks · Louise Erdrich · 1988

A central work in Erdrich's interconnected cycle and widely taught in American literature courses. Considered one of her strongest early novels.

No. 18 on this list. The Tombs of Atuan · Ursula K Le Guin · 1971

The Tombs of Atuan is the second volume of Le Guin's Earthsea Cycle, which has been a staple of middle school and YA curricula for decades. It won the Newbery Honor in 1972. While not as universally taught as the first Earthsea volume or Le Guin's science fiction, it appears regularly in fantasy literature courses and feminist literary criticism syllabi, cementing its place as a significant canonical text within speculative fiction.

No. 19 on this list. Adam Bede · George Eliot · 1859

Adam Bede appears regularly on Victorian literature and 19th-century British fiction syllabi at universities worldwide, and is the standard entry point to George Eliot's work in courses that cannot assign the longer Middlemarch. It is included in most survey courses of the Victorian novel. Its canonical status within the Eliot corpus is secondary only to Middlemarch and The Mill on the Floss, but within the broader Victorian canon it holds a secure if not dominant position — consistently anthologized, consistently in print, and consistently cited as a foundational work of Victorian realism.

No. 20 on this list. Human Acts · Han Kang · 2014

Han Kang's Nobel Prize in 2024 elevated this novel's global profile significantly, but it appears on only 59 university syllabi (44th percentile in Open Syllabus) and has Wikipedia articles in just 5 languages. Curricular adoption outside Korean literature courses remains limited, though the Nobel will accelerate its integration into world literature programs.

No. 21 on this list. A Mercy · Toni Morrison · 2008

A powerful tragedy distilled into a jewel of a masterpiece by the Nobel Prize--winning author of Beloved and, almost like a prelude to that story, set two centuries earlier.In the 1680s the slave trade was still in its infancy. In the Americas, virulent religious and class divisions, prejudice and oppression were rife, providing the fertile soil in which slavery and race hatred were planted and took root.Jacob is an Anglo-Dutch trader and adventurer, with a small holding in the harsh north. Despite his distaste for dealing in "flesh," he takes a small slave girl in part payment for a bad debt from a plantation owner in Catholic Maryland. This is Florens, "with the hands of a slave and the feet of a Portuguese lady." Florens looks for love, first from Lina, an older servant woman at her new master's house, but later from a handsome blacksmith, an African, never enslaved.There are other voices: Lina, whose tribe was decimated by smallpox; their mistress, Rebekka, herself a victim of religious intolerance back in England; Sorrow, a strange girl who's spent her early years at sea; and finally the devastating voice of Florens' mother. These are all men and women inventing themselves in the wilderness.A Mercy reveals what lies beneath the surface of slavery. But at its heart it is the ambivalent, disturbing story of a mother who casts off her daughter in order to save her, and of a daughter who may never exorcise that abandonment.Acts of mercy may have unforeseen consequences.From the Hardcover edition.

No. 22 on this list. Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit · Jeanette Winterson · 1985

Taught in schools: AQA GCSE and A-level English Literature (UK), WJEC/Eduqas GCSE and A-level English Literature (UK)

Taught widely in UK university literature courses and increasingly present in American women's literature and queer studies syllabi. Considered a landmark of LGBTQ+ fiction and British autofiction, and consistently appears on lists of the best British novels of the 20th century, though it has not achieved the universal curriculum presence of the major Anglophone classics.

No. 23 on this list. Jack · Marilynne Robinson · 2020

Jack (2020) is the fourth novel in Robinson's Gilead series, which is increasingly taught in American literature and contemporary fiction courses. As a standalone it is more recent and less independently canonical than Gilead, but the series is considered among the defining American literary sequences of the 21st century. No syllabus data was captured in the database for this edition.

No. 24 on this list. The Farthest Shore · Ursula K Le Guin · 1972

The Earthsea cycle appears widely on science fiction and speculative fiction syllabi, and this third volume, the National Book Award winner for 1973, is firmly part of that canon. It is less commonly assigned than A Wizard of Earthsea but holds strong placement in fantasy literature courses and children's/YA literature curricula. Its Wikipedia article exists in over fifteen languages, indicating sustained international recognition.

No. 25 on this list. Brown Girl Dreaming · Jacqueline Woodson · 2014

Brown Girl Dreaming is standard reading in American middle school and high school curricula, particularly in units on memoir, poetry, and Civil Rights-era literature. It appears on numerous recommended reading lists for young adults and is included in many school districts' required reading programs. Its canonical status is strong within YA and middle-grade education but has not yet reached the broader university literary canon.

No. 26 on this list. The Girls of Slender Means · Muriel Spark · 1963

The Girls of Slender Means (1963) is regularly placed among Muriel Spark's finest novels alongside The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, and is taught on British literature courses throughout the English-speaking world. Though the database returned no syllabus counts or Wikipedia data, Spark is a fixture in 20th-century fiction curricula, and this novel appears consistently on lists of essential post-war British fiction. It has not reached the curriculum saturation of Gatsby or Mockingbird but commands genuine canonical respect in literary studies.

No. 27 on this list. Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant · Anne Tyler · 1982

Widely considered Tyler's best novel. A finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and frequently included in lists of the best American novels of the twentieth century.

No. 28 on this list. LaRose · Louise Erdrich · 2016

Landreaux Iron stalks a deer along the edge of the property bordering his own. He shoots with easy confidence -- but when the buck springs away, Landreaux realizes he's hit something else. When he staggers closer, he realizes he has killed his neighbor's five-year-old son, Dusty. The youngest child of his friend and neighbor, Peter Ravich, Dusty was best friends with Landreaux's five-year-old son, LaRose. The two families have always been close, sharing food, clothing, and rides into town; their children played together despite going to different schools; and Landreaux's wife, Emmaline, is half sister to Dusty's mother, Nola. Horrified at what he's done, the recovered alcoholic turns to an Ojibwe tribe tradition -- the sweat lodge -- for guidance, and finds a way forward. Following an ancient means of retribution, he and Emmaline will give LaRose to the grieving Peter and Nola. "Our son will be your son now," they tell them.

No. 29 on this list. The Tenant of Wildfell Hall · Anne Brontë · 1848

Taught in schools: AQA GCSE and A-level English Literature (UK), Leaving Certificate English – NCCA / State Examinations Commission (Ireland)

The Tenant of Wildfell Hall is a fixture in Victorian literature and women's writing curricula worldwide, regularly taught alongside Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights. Its Wikipedia article exists in over 30 languages and it has been the subject of sustained academic attention, particularly following feminist recovery of Anne Brontë's work in the late 20th century. It appears frequently on Victorian fiction syllabi at universities in the UK, US, and beyond.

No. 30 on this list. The Paying Guests · Sarah Waters · 2015

Published in 2014, The Paying Guests represents contemporary literary fiction by an established author with significant cultural impact in LGBTQ+ literature. Waters is widely recognized for her contributions to historical lesbian fiction. While too recent for canonical entrenchment, the novel appears on literary prize shortlists and reading lists for courses on contemporary British fiction and queer literature. It demonstrates serious literary ambition while remaining accessible, occupying the space between middlebrow and highbrow that characterizes much contemporary literary fiction.