I'm all for supporting female novelists, and Feminista!'s "100 Great 20th Century Works of Fiction by Women" is well worth checking out. Myself, I'm good on 19th century novels (ooh, I love me some Brontes), but it's pretty shocking how many of these I have yet to read.

However, I can strongly recommend the following from the Feminista list -- all of which are appropriate for teenagers who know the facts of life, and all of which are reasonably fun reads and won't make you feel like you're in some horrible boring class on Literature with a capital "L."

Rebecca (for thrills) by Daphne Du Maurier
Possession (for history and passion) by A.S. Byatt
The Women's Room (for feminist awakening) by Marilyn French
The Talented Mr. Ripley (for more thrills) by Patricia Highsmith
Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (for laughs) by Anita Loos
The Shipping News (for thought) by E. Annie Proulx
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (for controversy) by Muriel Spark
The God of Small Things (for being carried away to another place) by Arundati Roy
The Joy Luck Club (for a good cry, and if your mother drives you nuts) by Amy Tan

Happy Reading!

-E