The Next Best Book Club discussion

This was brought up in another thread, and I realized that I have read far too few, so I thought that I would "officially" ask for recommendations for female authors.

Thanks in advance!

What kind of books do you like to read? Mysteries, horror, science fiction, or what?

All of the above, but I'm just looking for any and all recommendations for good books written by female authors. :)

Becky, some female writers I like books of are
Patricia Cornwell
Donna Leon
Kathy Reichs
Kate Mosse
Lisa See


Patricia Cornwell has a great 'serie' (you can read th books on their own too) with Kay Scarpetta a main character.
Donna Leon writes stories about Commissario Guido Brunetti. Everything appens in Venice. she writes nice, exiting detective stories.
Kathy Reichs writes stories like Patricia Cornwell but not at such a high level.

Kate Mosse wrote
Labyrinth and Sepulchre and some others. It are historical fiction stories, very good ones.

Lisa See wrote the lovely Snow Flower and the Secret Fan: A Novel


Minette walters is good too.

PD James (mysteries, dark and brooding ones)
Ruth Rendell, ditto

http://digital.library.upenn.edu/women/
but you can take your pick here... : )

I agree with hayes. PD james is good and Ruth Rendell too. haven't read anything by Paulina Simons but have two books I want to read from her.

Tuly and maybe Tatiana and Alexander

Jane Austen
Barbara Tuchman
Elizabeth George
P.D. James
Ellis Peters
Colleen McCullough

same of my favourites:


for mysteries:
ruth rendell, minette walters and patricia higshmith

for general fiction: margaret atwod. Love her.
the handmaids tale is one of "my books"

for fantasy and sf: marion zimmer bradley
the mists of avalon are a must read in my opinion

for paranormal/horror: anne rice, the vampire chronicles or the mayfair saga.

How could I forget Elizabeth George! I love ehr books!

Sue Monk Kidd- The Mermaid Chair & The Secret Life of Bees

Julie Garwood- I like her historical romances for a fun, fast read. Her heroines are not usually waiting around to be rescued.

Sophie Kinsella- Shopaholic Series- funny, fast chick-lit.

Philippa Gregory- loosely based historical fiction, usually involves romance. ex. The Boleyn Inheritance

Sarah Dunant- also loosely historical fiction, mostly based in Italy. Wrote In the Company of a Courtesean & The Birth of Venus

Lauren Weisberger- Funny chick-lit

Amy Tan- Her books mostly involve the Chinese Culture- ex. Joy Luck Club (if you like Lisa See you should check Amy Tan out)

Sara Gruen- Water for Elephants

Lauren Willig- loosely based historical romance with a bit of mystery thrown in. She has a flower series that I like.

What about Geraldine Brooks. Year of Wonders,March, and People of the Book: A Novel

Of course, Austen is required... I've read about 1/2 of her work (Mansfield Park, P&P, S&S, Persuasion) and loved all of it. I have Northanger Abbey and Emma and her unfinished works at home TBR.

I have Labyrinth by Kate Mosse on CD, but I don't like the reader, so I haven't listened to the whole thing. I'd like to read it though.

I've read some Cornwell, which is pretty good. PD James is one that I want to read, I loved the movie Children of Men.

Philippa Gregory is another that I want to read soonish.

Thanks for all the recommendations, keep 'em coming!

Colleen McCullough- I don't generally like romance, but her books are so sweeping, I forgive that.

Amy Tan-She really puts you right in her stories.

J.D. Robb- I skip over the sexy scenes, but her books are really quick, solvable mysteries. Along the lines of Patterson

Billie Letts-Like Tan, I feel like her characters are people I really know, and would recognize on the street.

Geraldine Brooks
Elizabeth Berg
Margaret Atwood
Kate Chopin
Amy Tan

Jane Austen & Virginia Woolf.

don't know Elizabeth Gaskell... research to do tomorrow!! Almost midnight - I'm off to bed and book!

Margaret Atwood
Amy Tan
Maya Angelou
Alice Walker
Jane Austen
Philippa Gregory

That's all I can think of right now :)

Fiona wrote: "Margaret Atwood! She's one I really want to read. I have a couple of her books, 3 actually The Blind Assassin, The Edible Woman (I think) and another I can't remember."

Have you read the Blind Assassin? I am desperately trying, but just can't get into it?

Oh, so many! Here are some of my favorite "classics":
Katherine Mansfield
Alice Hoffman
Margaret Atwood
Toni Morrison
Isabel Allende
Sylvia Plath
Marilynne Robinson

Here are some that may not be taught in English classes, but I still love:
Manette Ansay
Jenny Maxwell
Sue Monk Kidd
Anita Shreve
Anne Rivers Siddons

I forgot Joyce Carol Oates, another favorite - some of her books I like more than others, but her short stories are intense.

Edith Wharton is a must-read (The House of Mirth, The Age of Innocence).

I also highly recommend Margaret Atwood.
Others I would recommend:
Flannery O'Connor
Annie Dillard
Joan Didion
Cynthia Ozick
Hilda Doolittle (H.D.)
Anais Nin
Alice Munro
Doris Lessing
Charlotte Gilman Perkins
Toni Morrison
Kate Chopin

I really could go on forever... :)

Joy Fielding, Erica Spindler, Sandra Brown, Lisa Gardner (great mystery authors)

Jodi Picoult another favorite of mine.

Oh, and I forgot Ursula K. LeGuin. I've really liked some of her science fiction/fantasy novels.

I dont kow why, but the woman authors I have read tended to be chick lit authors.

Here are a few that were very well written, and a more mature type of chick lit:
Monica Wood - Any Bitter Thing
Michelle Wildgen - You're Not You

For fun chick lit:
Anna Maxted - Getting Over It
Sophia Kinsella - Shopaholic series
Aimee Bender - Invisble Sign of My Own

For fun paranormal lit:
Charlaine Harris - Sookie Southern Vampire series.

I read "The Handmaid's Tale" by Margaret Atwood and didn't love it, but it stays with me, and I find myself thinking of the world she created at odd times, so perhaps I should reread it. I may appreciate it more the 2nd time around.

I do have "Oryx and Crake" on my OTR (Owned to read) list, and I am looking forward to that one. Post-apocalyptic wasteland? Count me in!

Also, I picked up "Year of Wonders" today, by Geraldine Brooks. And I am planning on getting "Water For Elephants" tomorrow.

And then I'm done book-buying. Until 2010 that is. ;)

What about Maria Doria Russell and Andrea Barrett for general fiction and the Agatha Christie in mysteries.

I have read Mary Doria Russell... "The Sparrow" was pretty good, but I wasn't rushing off to get the sequel. One of these days, I do want to get "Thread of Grace" though. The historical-fiction aspect might be more up my alley.

Female Science Fiction writers:

Ursula K. LeGuin
Kate Wilhelm
Connie Willis(excellent)
Lois McMaster Bujold
Pat Murphy
C.J. Cherryh
Octavia E. Butler
Maureen F. McHugh
Susanna Clarke

and separately in another catgory
Native American Literature:

Louise Erdrich

Also Southern (US) Literature:

Carson McCullers
Harper Lee

and my current favorite:

Barbara Kingsolver

Thank you, Becky, for starting this thread!

Anytime Mosca... I've never really thought about how many female authors there are out there that I haven't read. My TBR shelf is going to be overflowing soon!

i agree with the recs of Elizabeth George, Anita Shreve, Anne Rice, Patricia Cornwell, Kathy Reichs, and Jodi Picoult.

i'd add Barbara Delinsky (her newer stuff is better) and also Jennifer Weiner. her stuff is mostly considered chic lit, but it's not all fluff.

on the chic lit strain, Jennifer Cruise is great (check out the two she co-wrote with male authors, they are laugh out loud funny) and Susan Elizabeth Phillips' Chicago Stars books. I haven't read any others from her, i couldn't get in to them. but the Stars books were really good.

Definitely check out Barbara Kingsolver

Non-fiction: Sarah Vowell.

I wish she had taught my history classes in school.

Some of these are repeats but here goes:

Amy Tan
Barbara Kingsolver
Anne Rivers Siddons - southern lit
Diana Gabaldon
Billie Letts
Anne Tyler
Annie Proulx
M M Kaye - The Far Pavilions
Kiran Desai - her second and latest book, 'The Inheritance of Loss', was very good

Great thread, I haven't read many of these ladies' works or haven't been exposed to them...

I love books written by Maeve Binchy too. There are full of feelings and most of the time situated in Ireland, mainly Dublin. I also start to like the books Cecelia Ahern. She wrote PS I love you and another one I really liked was THank you for the memories.

Hmm I guess I don't pay attention to male/female but on thinking - I read more male then female authors.

My favorite female authors that I can think of off the top of my head:

J.K. Rowling
Ursula K. LeGuin
Sara Guen (Water for Elephants is very special)

-- Wife of GR Author Michael J. Sullivan | The Crown Conspiracy | Avempartha

Barbara Hambly is probably my favorite female author. Followed closely by Ursula K. Le Guin. For light reading, I also enjoy Mercedes Lackey.

I started reading this thread thinking I had a few to add but by the time I got to the bottom of the list you guys had named almost everyone I thought of!

A few more additions:

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith

Marian Keyes-fun Chick lit
Emily Giffen-ditto
Marisa de los Santos-more women's fiction than chick lit

Jan Karon-The Mitford series

Iris Murdoch is my favorite female wordsmith and along a more contemporary line I enjoy Sarah Waters, Kate Mosse and Diana Setterfield.

I can't believe Dorothea Benton Frank's not on the list. She is one of my faves.....I met her at a book signing, and that made me like her even more. Her books are great.

Oh, and how could I forget Sara Douglas! Threshold is a must read.

Bettie wrote: "Iris Murdoch is my favorite female wordsmith ."

I have the book and the brotherhood on my tbr pille. i'm very curius about her

After all i heard about Iris Murdoch I am very curious too, since many years...but still haven't read anything yet to know what I think about it.

Jeane wrote: I also start to like the books Cecelia Ahern.

Jeane, I love Ahern's books. I've listened to them on CD which is a treat because the narrator speaks with an Irish accent so it really adds to the stories. I've listened to "PS I Love You" and "Wish You Were Here".

I love Shannon Hale, Sharon Creech and Gail Carson Levine if you like Y/A books.

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Offmatt - how do you do the thing with the book covers?

Robin I think you can click to choose that when you add a book or author with the button above right when you add a comment. There is the option as link or cover..

was gonna answer but jeane beat me to it, lolz.

During grad school I went through a phase of needing to read more women authors primarily assisted by:

and

I'd recommend:
Ceremony by Leslie Marmon Silko
Pavilion of Women by Pearl S. Buck
Suite Française by Irene Nemirovsky
Land of the Burnt Thigh by Edith Eudora Kohl
Bastard Out of Carolina by Dorothy Allison
How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents by Julia Alvarez
Regeneration by Pat Barker
Lizard by Banana Yoshimoto
Moo by Jane Smiley
Kindred by Octavia E. Butler
The Bone People by Keri Hulme
Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe: A Novel by Fannie Flagg
Martyrs' Crossing by Amy Wilentz
What I Loved by Siri Hustvedt
The Stone Diaries by Carol Shields
The Shipping News : A Novel by Annie Proulx
Stones from the River by Ursula Hegi
The Good Mother: A Novel by Sue Miller
Possession: A Romance by A.S. Byatt
The Women of Brewster Place by Gloria Naylor
My Antonia by Willa Cather

And if THAT isn't enough, I have a shelf named 500-women-all which lists the books included in 500 Great Books by Women