Women's fiction

'Good reads' novels about the often complex lives and friendships of modern women:

Anne Bartlett - Knitting

Elizabeth Berg - Year of pleasures, You are all welcome here

Rachel Billington - A woman's life

Liz Byrski - Bad behaviour

Anita Brookner - Leaving home, The rules of engagement

Elizabeth Buchan (her 'wife' series & many of her other titles)

Liz Byrski - Gang of four, Food, sex & money, Belly dancing for beginners, Trip of a lifetime

Mavis Cheek - Amenable women

Jennifer Chiaverini (all her 'quilt' series)

Meg Waite Clayton - The Wednesday sisters

Kirsty Crawford - Other women

Marisa de los Santos - Love walked in, Belong to me

Margaret Forster - Keeping the world away (travels of a painting), Is there anything you want? Diary of an ordinary woman

Karen Joy Fowler - The Jane Austen book club

Gloria Goldreich - Dinner with Anna Karenina

Ann Hood - The knitting circle

Kate Jacobs - Friday night knitting club

Janis Kaplan - Mine are spectacular

Sue Monk Kidd - Secret life of bees

Cassandra King -  The Sunday wife, Making waves, The same sweet girls

Gil McNeil - Diva's don't knit

Jo-Ann Mapson - The Owl & Moon Cafe, The Wilder sisters

Carole Matthews - The Chocolate Lovers' Club, The chocolate lovers' diet

Elizabeth Noble - The reading group, The Tenko club,  Alphabet weekends

Linda Olsshon - Let me sing you gentle songs

Libby Purves - A free woman, Love songs and lies

Kris Radish - Annie Freeman's fabulous travelling circus

Luanne Rice - Beach girls

Annie Sanders - Warnings of gales, Goodbye Jimmy Choo

Mary Ann Shaffer - The Guernsey Literary & Potato Peel Pie Society

Amy Tan - The joy luck club

Nancy Thayer - Between husbands and friends, Hot flash club series

Fay Weldon - Rhode Island blues, Big women

Rebecca Wells - Divine secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood, The Ya-Yas in bloom

Louise Wener - Worldwide adventures in love

Lolly Winston - Happiness sold separately, Sophie's bakery for the broken hearted

If you know of other books which should be on this list, please let us know.