The Baileys Women’s Prize for Fiction have launched #ThisBook, where they have asked nineteen well-known (in the UK but probably not elsewhere) women to nominate the novel written by a woman that most impacted, shaped or changed your life. The results are interesting, if not surprising. With the possible exception of Helen Forrester‘s autobiography, there is nothing obscure. Many of the books are very worthy. Only one book appears twice (To Kill a Mockingbird). Only one author has two different books on the list (Toni Morrison), though two sisters (the Brontës) appear. Surprise omissions – Jane Austen, Simone de Beauvoir, George Eliot, Doris Lessing, Carson McCullers, Sylvia Plath, Edith Wharton, Virginia Woolf. I am not sure that I can say that any novel, whether written by a man or a woman, has changed my life. However, I have a list of the 96 Best novels by women, which are all from the period covered by my site, i.e. 20th and 21st century. If I have to pick one novel by a woman that made the most impression on me, it would be Wuthering Heights or The Golden Notebook though I was very, very impressed by the novel I mentioned earlier today, Americanah. You can make your own nomination through Twitter at #ThisBook.