The 100 best books about madness and the mind by women

No. 11 on this list. Play It as It Lays · Joan Didion · 1970

Named to TIME's All-TIME 100 Novels (2005) and the Open Syllabus Top 500 Literature list. Appears on 250 university syllabi — the 59.9th percentile — taught in American literature, women's writing, and postmodern fiction courses. The NYRB Classics edition signals sustained readerly and scholarly investment.

No. 12 on this list. Ceremony · Leslie Marmon Silko · 1977

Tayo comes home from the Pacific War unable to sleep. The voices won't stop—Japanese soldiers shouting, his uncle Josiah calling to him through jungle heat, his cousin Rocky dying in the mud of a prison march. The VA hospital calls it battle fatigue. His grandmother calls for a medicine man. The land around Laguna Pueblo is in its sixth year of drought, and Tayo believes, with a guilt that sits in his stomach like a stone, that he caused it—that his wartime curse against the rain followed him home. Silko writes two novels at once: a realist account of a mixed-blood veteran's breakdown and his slow return to the living, and a mythic narrative of Laguna ceremony, the stories of Thought-Woman and Reed Woman and Hummingbird woven directly into the prose as poetry. The two registers don't sit beside each other—they bleed into each other, memory becoming hallucination, hallucination becoming vision, vision becoming healing. The spotted Mexican cattle Josiah bought before the war, wild and drought-adapted and worth finding, serve as Tayo's purpose and his proof that something can survive. The novel ends with resolution—Tayo completes his ceremony, the rain returns—but not before Silko has made plain what was nearly lost: the web of story that holds a people together, which colonial schooling nearly succeeded in cutting. This is a novel about what stories do when they are the only medicine left.

No. 13 on this list. Jazz · Toni Morrison · 1992

Jazz stands as the middle volume of Morrison's trilogy examining African American history through myth and music. While less taught than Beloved, it appears on graduate syllabi and critical studies of Morrison's work, recognized as an ambitious experiment in narrative voice and jazz-influenced form.

No. 14 on this list. The Unwomanly Face of War · Svetlana Alexievich · 1985

Taught in schools: Lithuanian literature curriculum (lietuvių kalba ir literatūra), UNAM Escuela Nacional Preparatoria – programas de Literatura (Mexico)

Widely taught in university courses on Eastern European literature, WWII history, and oral history methodology, though not a fixture of secondary school curricula in the West. The 2015 Nobel Prize dramatically expanded its global reach and translation into forty-plus languages. Its canonical standing is growing rather than settled.

No. 15 on this list. Family Ties · Clarice Lispector · 1960

Family Ties appears regularly on comparative literature and Latin American literature syllabi worldwide, and Lispector is among the most studied Lusophone writers in university world literature courses. No syllabus count was captured in the database, but her work has sustained continuous academic inclusion since the 1960s. Hélène Cixous's book-length critical study of Lispector (The Stream Running Nowhere) cemented the collection's place in the Western literary canon.

No. 16 on this list. The Complete Stories · Clarice Lispector

Lispector holds a firm place in comparative literature and Latin American literature syllabi globally, and her work appears in women's writing and world literature courses at major universities. No Open Syllabus data is available for this specific collection, but Lispector as an author is consistently included in world literature canons alongside Borges and García Márquez. The 2015 New Directions translation by Katrina Dodson dramatically expanded her anglophone reach and prestige.

No. 17 on this list. The Ravishing of Lol Stein · Marguerite Duras · 1964

On Le Monde's 100 Books of the Century, Le Ravissement de Lol V. Stein is a standard text in French literature courses and in feminist and psychoanalytic criticism. It is less widely read in English than The Lover.

No. 18 on this list. The Word for World Is Forest · Ursula K Le Guin · 1972

A fixture in SF studies, environmental humanities, and postcolonial literature courses at universities worldwide. Le Guin's work overall is more canonically established than this single novella — it appears regularly on SF syllabi and ecocriticism reading lists, taught alongside texts like Octavia Butler's Kindred and Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars trilogy, though without the 2000+ syllabus presence of Beloved or The Great Gatsby.

No. 19 on this list. Live or Die · Anne Sexton · 1966

Anne Sexton arranged these thirty-three poems in the order she wrote them — January 1962 to February 1966 — and called the result 'a fever chart for a bad case of melancholy.' Each poem arrives with a date at the bottom, evidence rather than ornament. The collection opens with her father, a wool salesman who drank in his bedroom and died on the road; within pages she has checked herself into a psychiatric ward, addressed Sylvia Plath's corpse ('Thief!— how did you crawl into, crawl down alone into the death I wanted so badly'), mourned a son she never had, and watched her daughter call on God instead of her mother when a horse crushes her foot. Sexton's language stays in the body. She counts out eight pharmaceutical capsules each night, arranges them 'as in the laying on of hands or the black sacrament.' Suicides, she observes, 'have a special language. Like carpenters they want to know which tools. They never ask why build.' The hospital and the suburban kitchen share equal authority. God appears, and Mary, and Judas, and Sylvia, and none of them offer adequate answers. The final poem, 'Live,' turns the collection's entire argument on its axis. Eight Dalmatian puppies survive the pails of water that waited to drown them. 'I am not what I expected. Not an Eichmann. The poison just didn't take.' The fever chart ends with a temperature that isn't, finally, fatal. This is the Pulitzer Prize-winning collection that defined confessional poetry as a form capable of sustaining both unbearable honesty and survival.

No. 20 on this list. Sing, Unburied, Sing · Jesmyn Ward · 2018

Sing, Unburied, Sing appears on 71 university syllabi — a solid midrange presence, placing it in the 46th percentile of works in the database. It is widely taught in contemporary American literature, Southern literature, and African American literature courses, though it has not yet achieved the deep canonical entrenchment of Morrison or Faulkner. Its teaching presence reflects a novel still being absorbed into the curriculum in the decade since its 2017 publication, with significant room for that footprint to grow.

No. 21 on this list. The Accidental · Ali Smith · 2005

The Accidental has achieved recognition as a significant 21st-century British novel, appearing on university syllabi and contemporary fiction reading lists. While not yet established in the permanent canon, it represents Smith's breakthrough to major literary prominence and exemplifies post-2000 experimental domestic fiction. Its status continues to grow with Smith's increasing reputation.

No. 22 on this list. The Volcano Lover: A Romance · Susan Sontag · 1992

The Volcano Lover is widely regarded as Sontag's major contribution to fiction and appears regularly on university syllabi in American literature, postmodern fiction, and historical novel courses. It is not, however, a stable university-assigned classic on the order of the novels it engages with, and its canonical position remains tied to Sontag's broader intellectual reputation rather than independent of it.

No. 23 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. 24 on this list. The Grass is Singing · Doris Lessing · 1950

Taught in schools: CSEC English B – Caribbean Examinations Council

Included in: Heinemann African Writers Series

Regularly appears on postcolonial literature syllabi and is considered essential reading within Lessing's body of work. No syllabus data is available in the database, but the novel has maintained continuous presence in academic courses on African literature, colonial fiction, and twentieth-century British writing since its 1950 publication.

No. 25 on this list. The Shawl · Cynthia Ozick · 1989

The Shawl is a fixture in Holocaust literature courses and Jewish-American literature syllabi at American universities, and 'The Shawl' story is one of the most anthologized short pieces in postwar American fiction. Its canonical status within its domain is high; it does not, however, appear on the broadest general literature reading lists with the frequency of Morrison or Fitzgerald.

No. 26 on this list. We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves · Karen Joy Fowler · 2014

Won the 2014 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction and appeared on numerous year-end best book lists, establishing it as a significant 21st-century literary novel. The book entered academic discourse around animal studies, narrative ethics, and contemporary fiction's engagement with science. While too recent for canonical permanence, it occupies a strong position in discussions of literary fiction addressing interspecies relationships and family trauma.

No. 27 on this list. The Round House · Louise Erdrich · 2012

In the lush and unforgiving landscape of a North Dakota reservation, a traumatic event shatters the life of a young boy and his family. The Round House, a piercing novel by Louise Erdrich, tells the story of a violent attack on a mother that shatters the fragile balance of her family, leaving her son to navigate the complexities of justice, identity, and belonging. Through lyrical prose, Erdrich weaves a narrative that explores the intersections of family, community, and the law. As the story unfolds, themes of trauma, loyalty, and the struggles of growing up on a reservation emerge, raising questions about the power of tradition and the reach of justice. Erdrich's writing is evocative and nuanced, conjuring the harsh beauty of the reservation and the deep-seated emotions of her characters. This book is ideal for readers who appreciate literary fiction that tackles tough subjects with sensitivity and depth. Be prepared for a gripping narrative that balances intensity with moments of tenderness and humor. With its well-crafted characters and thought-provoking themes, The Round House is a compelling read that will resonate with fans of character-driven fiction. Winner of the 2012 National Book Award, The Round House is a testament to Erdrich's skill as a storyteller and her ability to craft narratives that are both deeply personal and universally relatable.

No. 28 on this list. Breath, Eyes, Memory · Edwidge Danticat · 1994

Widely assigned in Caribbean literature, diaspora studies, and postcolonial fiction courses at American universities. Oprah's Book Club selection in 1998 cemented its classroom presence, and it appears consistently on syllabi focused on Haitian-American experience and the literature of trauma. Its reach falls below Nobel-era Caribbean writers like Derek Walcott but well above works with only genre-course placement.

No. 29 on this list. Zinky Boys · Svetlana Alexievich · 1991

Zinky Boys is taught in courses on Soviet literature, oral history methodology, war literature, and post-communist memory across European and North American universities. No database data is available for this specific title's syllabus appearances, but Alexievich's work as a whole gained canonical status after her 2015 Nobel Prize, and Zinky Boys is among her most cited individual works alongside Chernobyl Prayer and The Unwomanly Face of War.

No. 30 on this list. Lila · Marilynne Robinson · 2015

It is the third Gilead novel, a National Book Award finalist and Booker longlisted, and increasingly taught alongside Gilead and Housekeeping. It is still too recent to match canonical staples.