The Next Best Book Club discussion
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Female author recommendations?


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.

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


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.

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.

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!

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.


Amy Tan
Maya Angelou
Alice Walker
Jane Austen
Philippa Gregory
That's all I can think of right now :)

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

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 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... :)

Jodi Picoult another favorite of mine.
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.
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 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. ;)



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!


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.

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...


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


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



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


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'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
Books mentioned in this topic
Snow Flower and the Secret Fan (other topics)Moo (other topics)
Year of Wonders (other topics)
Regeneration (other topics)
Beloved (other topics)
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Authors mentioned in this topic
Edith Wharton (other topics)George Eliot (other topics)
Lisa See (other topics)
Louisa May Alcott (other topics)
Isabel Allende (other topics)
More...
Thanks in advance!