The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret AtwoodJane Eyre by Charlotte BrontëThe Bell Jar by Sylvia PlathThe Color Purple by Alice WalkerThe Awakening by Kate Chopin
Best Feminist Fiction
1,504 books — 2,674 voters

The Color Purple by Alice WalkerTheir Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale HurstonBeloved by Toni MorrisonThe Autobiography of Malcolm X by Malcolm XInvisible Man by Ralph Ellison
Best African American Books
1,043 books — 1,138 voters
The New Jim Crow by Michelle AlexanderBetween the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi CoatesThe Autobiography of Malcolm X by Malcolm XBury My Heart at Wounded Knee by Dee BrownThe Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot
Books White People Need to Read
1,310 books — 1,561 voters

The Joy Luck Club by Amy TanThe Kite Runner by Khaled HosseiniThe Namesake by Jhumpa LahiriThe House on Mango Street by Sandra CisnerosInterpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri
Immigrant Experience Literature
1,008 books — 1,448 voters

The Help by Kathryn StockettTo Kill a Mockingbird by Harper LeeThe Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk KiddFried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe by Fannie FlaggGarden Spells by Sarah Addison Allen
Quirky Southern Fiction
968 books — 1,906 voters