Great books by women, or with great female characters

[themagicpixie]

I agree, Fried Green Tomatoes is an excellent read... I'm trying to get my mother to read it at the moment...



A very modern book but a pretty good one is the cheesily-titled Dare Truth or Promise by NZ author Paula Boock, about two teenage girls who fall in love.



Article about it here:



www.arts.uwo.ca/~andrewf/.../boock.htm

[KISMIC]

Okay so you've all made my holidays into my own private book convention I borrowed 'Slammerkin', 'The Eyre Affair' and 'The Monkey's Mask'.


Sorry to say but I didn't enjoy 'The Monkey's Mask' at.all! Maybe it's the poetry that got to me, a whole book of it in story form, just didn't do anything for me.


'The Eyre Affair' THAT was interesting. I really enjoyed it, though it took a bit to get into it.


'Slammerkin' was not bad, a tad drawn out and I probably wouldn't rave about it to everyone, but still okay.





*~Kristy~*

[curly]

Tyler and Attwood.



Read 'em. Love 'em.

[tyche]

In the news this morning: 'Fingersmith' has been nominated for the Orange prize for fiction by women.

The other nominees are:

'No Bones' by Anna Burns

'The Siege' by Helen Dunmore

'The White Family' by Maggie Gee

'A Child's Story of True Crime' by Chloe Hooper

and 'Bel Canto' by Ann Patchett

(Source: The Guardian)

Discussion group for spoiled W/T shippers


I'm not sure you should say 'sex poodle' in your [wedding] vows. - Tara

[June Leigh]

I read the posts and there have been great book recs, but can anyone recommend any more good lesbian novels? I'm particularly looking for lesbian (or bi) books featuring or written by women of color.



So far, I have these books/authors on my list:



Annie on My Mind

Daughters of a Coral Dawn

The Sappho Companion

Anchee Min

Rubyfruit Jungle by Rita Mae Brown

Zami by Audre Lorde (I read this one--it is wonderful)

Stone Butch Blues

Jeannette Winterson

Nancy Garden

Gertrude Stein

The Well of Loneliness

Mrs. Dalloway

The Price of Salt



Thanks!



edited to add slayer747 and ms.checkmate's recs and to say I'm a Flaming O! Yippee!

Edited by: June Leigh at: 7/8/02 11:56:28 pm

[mscheckmate]

June, have you read "The Safe Sea of Women: Lesbian Fiction 1969-1989," by Bonnie Zimmerman?



This book gives a good overview and analysis of lesbian literature from that time frame, and also references some of the earlier books.

Xander: "Tara, nice axing." Tara: "My first."

[June Leigh]

No I haven't heard of that book, but I will definitely try to find it. I'm sorely lacking in knowledge about gay literature, so I haven't heard of many of these books. Thanks for your help!

Edited by: June Leigh at: 7/9/02 12:12:28 am

[Hyo Shin]

>I'm particularly looking for lesbian (or bi) books featuring or written by women of color.



How about Jewelle Gomez's The Gilda Stories? A nice lesbian vampire novel by an African American author.

[tyche]

Okay, somehow I managed not to notice this thread earlier today, and wound up posting about books in the TV recommendations thread - sorry.

Anyway, the legal column of my paper this morning included a review of a book which I thought might be of interest. I haven't heard of this author before, so I can't vouch for the book myself:

Quote:

---

Elizabeth Woodcraft's second novel Babyface (HarperCollins), amply fulfils the promise of her debut a couple of years ago. Heroine Frankie Richmond, a young lesbian barrister, finds herself dangerously enmeshed in the devious activities of a Birmingham criminal fraternity bossed over by her client, currently on trial for murder. The plot is clever and pacy, if a tad overwrought, but Richmond is lively and self-deprecatingly funny, and the frenetic, unreal atmosphere of the bar is portrayed with authenticity and wit.

---

Complete column here.

Don't keep up with the Joneses. Drag them down to your level. - Quentin Crisp

Bitterness Central

[xita]

Thanks, tyche, I'll keep my eye on it.



Ok is it me or has lesbian literature died? Is it cause I immersed myself so in Willow and Tara that I had no time for anything else. There was a time when Dorothy Allison was wowing them, up for a national book award. Nicola Grifith wrote the lesbian book ever (slow river). I think the last good book I read was Tipping the Velvet. So was it just me, does anyone know something recent that is quality?

- - - - - - - - - - - -

What's this? Bag of tricks?

Pack of lies

[WillowLikeWhoa]

fell wrote:

Quote:

---

I was just thinking the same thing, that Rubyfruit Jungle is still as current today as when I first read it. Another thing that hasn't changed is that Rita Mae Brown is still banned from a lot of libraries along with a number of my favorite authors: Maya Angelou, Kurt Vonnegut, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Judy Blume and, of course, Margaret Atwood.

---

Out of curiosity, why is Judy Blume banned?

~Michelle~
My Website

[Kieli]

Has anyone read "Salt Water"? The name of the author escapes me now for some reason. I have the book at home and think it was a delightful and intelligent read.



Toni



[edited to add: the author is Barbara Wilson. I've also been recently introduced to Getrude Stein's QED. I laughed out loud at the sharp witty dialogue]

Love is tricky. It is never mundane or daily. You can never get used to it. You have to walk with it, then let it walk with you. You can never balk. It moves you like the tide. It takes you out to sea then lays you on the beach again. Today's struggling pain is the foundation for a certain stride through the heavens. You can run from it but you can never say no. It includes everyone."--Amy Tan "The Hundred Secret Senses"

Edited by: Kieli at: 7/9/02 8:59:52 pm

[slayer747]

anything written by the following:



1. jeanette winterson

2. nancy garden

3. etta mae brown

4. gertrude stein

and for those depressive types:

5. redclyffe hall (esp. "the well of loneliness")

"Sometimes things happen between people that you don't really expect. And sometimes the things that are important are the ones that seem the weirdest or the most wrong, and those are the ones that change your life." - Jessie "Once and Again"

[areslei]

My 12th grade english teacher used to give me books out of her own private collection...got me addicted to Barbara Kingsolver. Bean Trees is probably still my fav.

you two are the two who are the two...


I never took us for granted and I always knew you and I are special but I never knew how much I'd miss you... 'Always Everywhere' K's Choice

[mollyig]

I adore Barbara Kingsolver's books. Bean Trees was my favourite until I read The Poisonwood Bible. I've read that book three times already, and each time it still enraptured me.

Adding up the total of a love that's true, multiply life by the power of two
Indigo Girls

[June Leigh]

Thanks everyone for the great recs! I'll go to the library and try to find some of these books.



I think that one of Judy Blume's books, Forever, was banned because it is "sexually explicit" (teens having sex and talking about sex). Four of her other books are also the 100 Most Frequently Challenged Books 1990-2000. Check out these links for more info: Banned Books Month and Banned Books Week.

Edited by: June Leigh at: 7/10/02 9:16:28 pm

[hilarita]

such great books!



surfacing by margaret atwood, i think its her first, is a really bizarre book and i think one of her best



im a big fan of the girls in john fowles' the magus- very interesting story, very interesting characters (especially considering that it was written 30 years ago)



maxine hong-kingston is a really amazing author- i recommend the warrior woman

[xita]

I am a big Nicola Grifith fan. Ammonite and Slow River are amazing books. Nothing comes close to the thrill of reading Slow River for me. I did not read The Blue Place mostly cause I am not a fan of that genre. Still she is amazing and has a sequel to the Blue Place called Stay. Check it out!

- - - - - - - - - - - -

"Oooh Xita!" - Amber Benson

[Thanatopsis]

I can't believe people actually banned both the American Heritage Dictionary and the Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary. Some people have way too much time on their hands.

--------------------
Too many of us live desert lives. ~Charles de Lint

[darkmagicwillow]

I would recommend anything by Patricia McKillip, particularly The Forgotten Beasts Of Eld. I also think that Robin McKinley is great. Deerskin is her best but it is a rather disturbing story involving sexual abuse. Try The Hero and the Crown for something less disturbing.



I saw an earlier recommendation for C.J. Cherryh. Let me second that and recommend her masterpiece Cyteen which deals with issues of resurrection and identity that writers of post season six story is might find very interesting. It also deals with the same issues that Brave New World does, but deals with them better.



If you like magical realism, let me also recommend Lisa Goldstein's The Dream Years and Walking The Labyrinth.



If your generally interested in women writers and would like to find their work that's out of copyright on the web, try "A celebration of women writers" at http://digital.library.upenn.edu/women/.


Edited to add: I wanted to add a couple more authors.



Gael Baudino's Gossamer Axe is a wonderful story of a woman trying to rescue her lost lover Judith with music from the land of the faerie where she was trapped many years ago when they foolishly met with the faerie to learn of their music.



Connie Willis' Doomsday Book is an amazingly emotional story of Kivrin, a history graduate student in an age when history is an experimental science due to time travel gets stuck in the past. I won't ruin it by telling you when and where she goes, but if you know of the historical book of the title then you have some idea already.

--
"Omnia mutantur, nihil interit. "   "Everything changes, but nothing is truly lost."

Edited by: darkmagicwillow at: 7/31/02 10:19:22 am

[Arafel the Witch]

DMW, you named some of my favorite writers. McKillip is one of my favorite fantasy writers, and the Forgotten Beasts of Eld probably my favorite. But I also love the 2 Cygnet books, the Sorceress and the Cygnet and Cygnet and Firebird. For someone looking for books with strong female characters, those are good ones.



I can heartily recommend anything byCJ Cherryh. She's been my favorite writer for a long time (she's also super nice). If you want to stay on the strong female character thread, try the 5 Chanur novels, set in an alien universe. The tales are told from the point of view of the Hani, a life form that is modeled after lions. They have lionine features, and like lions, the women rule the clan. I'd also HIGHLY recommend the Dreaming Tree, which concerns an elf woman named Arafel and her interactions with the local humans. (It's where I got my name from



Connie Willis is another fantastic writer. She writes either wonderful comic novels with a serious underside or ones where she kills everyone off (she's made joking comments about it at readings). For the former, try Bellweather and To Say Nothing of the Dog, both of which have a memorable heroine. For the latter, the aforementioned Doomsday Book is one of my favorites of all time. Her latest, Passages, is also excellent.



Another writer I'd check out is Lois McMaster Bujold. Most of her books concern Miles Vorkosigan, an extremely intelligent, energetic man living on Barrayar, a world with somewhat backward customs regarding women. However, Miles' mother is Cordelia Naismith, and she is about as close to a force of nature as you can get. The first two books in the universe, Shards of Honor and Barrayar, concern how Cordelia and Miles' father, Aral Vorkosigan, met and the early years of their relationship. The two have been published in one novel, Cordelia's Honor, that I'd say is one of my favorite novels ever. Because of Miles' mother, Miles always looks for strong women, and that thread wends its way through the later books. I'd recommend in particular Komarr, A Civil Campaign, and Diplomatic Immunity.



Anything by Jennifer Roberson is a good bet. The 5 Sword books, starting with Sword Singer, deal with a Northern-trained sword dancer named Del, short for Delilah, and her relatioship with a Southron sword dancer, Tiger. Set mostly in the South, Tiger slowly becomes less of a sexist pig in the first two, and by the end of the third, is able to acknowledge Del as an equal. The 8 Cheysuli books are also quite excellent. For ones with strong heroines, the first two, now collected in one book called Shapechanger's Song, feature a very memorable heroine named Alix, and her grudging acceptance of her Cheysuli heritage. The last book is also quite good.



Gael Baudino: Not in the same league as the previous writers, but still good. In addition to Gossamer Axe, the 4 elf books are pretty good. In the first one, in particular, the heroine is a human woman who can heal with a touch. She heals a man who then rapes her in her weakened condition, and the rest of the novel is about her quest for vengence. The other 3 center on Natil, an female elf, and her quest to save the powers of the elves as they die off.



For comic novels that center on women characters, Terry Pratchett's series on the witches can't be beat. Granny Weatherwax, Nanny Ogg, Magrat Garlick, and Agnes Nitt are some of my favorite characters ever. Start with Wyrd Sisters (based on MacBeth) and continue with the others. Witches Abroad has some of the funniest lines I've ever read, and the sequel, Lords and Ladies is equally good. The last two, Masquerade and Carpe Jugulum, aren't quite as good, but are still strong.



A book that doesn't quite center on women characters, but one in which they play an important part, is Starhawk's The Fifth Sacred Thing. It is set in a future in California where there are two competing societies, the militaristic one from the South that rapes the earth for its needs and the nature-centered one in the North. One major theme is whether a peaceful culture can fight a war without being irrevocably changed for the worse.

[Dumbsaint]

Oooh, DMW, The Hero and The Crown was one of the first fantasy books I read way back in middle school. I also really enjoyed McKinley's Outlaws of Sherwood back then.



You know what I read this summer and really, really dug? Jean Auel's Clan of the Cave Bear series, or rather "The Earth's Children" series, as I think it is generally called. I really dig ancient cultures and civilizations, so that one was great fun for me, despite her tendency for going on and on, repetitively, about the medicinal uses of plants. (The main character is a medicine woman.) There were also one or two rather callous homosexuality references early on in the series, though later on she gets into the relationship between queer/transgender identity and shamanism, if only a little. I'm hoping she continues in that vein in the next book, as she only just started to touch on it in the most recent one. I think what I dig most is just reading about a matriarchal, sex-positive culture. Pretty freakin' cool to soothe my Puritanism-weary brain with.

"It's not real. I mean, there are no vampires, there are no witches. Well, there are Wiccans, but they're not making out with Alyson, so..." -Amber Benson

[theatremouse]

i'm really into the mary russel novels lately.....as of like last week. but i'm totally digging them. good stuff, by laurie r king.

peace.

Willow: It's horrible! That's me as a vampire? I'm so evil and... skanky. And I think I'm kinda gay.

[darkmagicwillow]

CJ Cherryh: I love the Chanur books too. She has such great aliens from the Hani to the incomprehensible knnn (you know it's an alien when you can't communicate the concept of a one-way street or stop sign to someone after decades of contact). I haven't read The Dreaming Tree.



Lois McMaster Bujold: She's great. A Civil Campaign is one of my favorite comedies of all time. I love that dinner party. My favorites among her serious books are Mirror Dance and Memory, particularly as I was turning 30 with problems of my own when I read Memory.



Gael Baudino: I haven't read the Elf books, but I have read her Dragonsword series which is quite good.



Terry Pratchett: I love his Witches books, especially Witches Abroad.



Marge Piercy: I just read her novel of the French revolution, City of Light, City of Darkness. You get to see the revolution from all sorts of viewpoints, peasant, noble, male, female. It really makes the whole time period come alive and lets you understand why it happened by seeing it from the viewpoint of the people just before and in the early days of the revolution.

--
"Omnia mutantur, nihil interit. "   "Everything changes, but nothing is truly lost."

[Garner]

I haven't checked the entire thread, but I have to weigh in with a mention for David Weber's Honor Harrington series. It is military Sci Fi with a female main character who is very well done. The books follow her rise through the ranks from a cruiser captain up to a small fleet command and beyond. Weber has created a future with almost total equality of the sexes, and has a good ability for characterization, as well as detailed military action. I would highly recommend these books, all of the women in our SF club have loved them. The first book is On Basilisk Station.



Garner

[Arafel the Witch]

DMW, LOL, the dinner party scene is SOOOO fantastic. I like the denoument at the Vor council better though, when Lord Richars is trying to set up Miles. Just thinking about makes me want to go back and read it. There are so many wonderful scenes in the book.



And Witches Abroad. It's got so many wonderful throwaway lines, like the one about the Way of Mrs. Cosmopolite and the mantra the monks gain from sitting at her feet, like "If I see one more of you orange devils peering in at me he'll feel the edge of my hand, all right?" and their brand of martial arts, gleaned from their experiences, where they shout incomprehensibly at each other and then hit their opponent with a broom. Goddess it's wonderful.

[Tulipp]

Wow, there are a lot of great recommendations here.



I just wanted to put in a plug for Manda Scott, a Scottish author of a trilogy of mysteries featuring a lesbian veterinarian/climber/therapist. The three are Hen's Teeth, Night Mares, and No Good Deed.



Strong lesbian characters, deliciously understated writing style, good ploting, and...my favorite part, I think...an image of lesbian friendship as a sustaining force. Not romance, although there is that, too, but friendship.



I've read lots of lesbian mysteries, but there are truly a cut above the usual. It's interesting, really, that they are published not by one of the gay/lesbian houses but by something like Bantam or Random House.



I'll be checking out lots of these other books soon.

[darkmagicwillow]

After reading A Civil Campaign, I was afraid to invite friends over for dinner for a month afterwards, thinking about all the things that could go wrong although I'm sure I couldn't have gotten quite as many as happened in Miles' dinner. The ending was very good too--a unique way to make a marriage proposal.



I'd almost forgotten about Mrs. Cosmopolite. I loved everything about their travels in Witches Abroad, but the poor, abused vampire was one of the best. He'll never mess with a cat again.



Let me give one more recommendation: Neil's Gaiman's Death graphic novels. Both Death: The High Cost of Living and Death: The Time of Your Life are great. The Time of Your Life is a wonderful story of a lesbian relationship and a bargain with Death, while the High Cost of Living is the story of Death's one day a century that she spends as a mortal.



I love Gaiman's mythology. He really turns around so many of the traditional ideas and creates something that works even better. Death is the wise, hip older sister you always wished you had. She's too cute, much too positive, and likes Mary Poppins, but everyone has their faults right? *G*



Here's a picture of her with her umbrella from The Time of Your Life:

--
"Omnia mutantur, nihil interit. "   "Everything changes, but nothing is truly lost."

Edited by: darkmagicwillow at: 8/1/02 10:03:59 am

[Arafel the Witch]

Oh, the vampire!!!!! I'd forgotten. The flung open window and the sound of something going thud down on the ground. And the garlic sausage!!!!! Oh, I'm laughing just writing this. And remember when Greebo turns human and finds his claws still work? Tzing!



I haven't read Gaiman's death books, but he's great. The one he cowrote with Pratchett called Good Omens is hilarious. I reviewed Gaiman's last two books, Stardust and American Gods, for a big city paper. They were both excellent.



Here are two more to consider. One is David Brin. If you aren't familiar with sci-fi, you probably recognize him as the author of The Postman, a much better novel than movie. His Startide Rising and The Uplift War are both outstanding novels set in a universe where every instance of sentient life is the result of one species adopting another, tinkering with them genetically, and then forcing the adopted race into indentured servitude for 1000 years. Except for Earth, which seems to be a rogue planet. But humans have uplifted dolphins and chimps, so they aren't forcibly adopted. There is a human woman who ends up captaining a mixed dolphin/chimp/human ship in Startide Rising, and it is excellent. The novel won both the Hugo, for best novel voted by the fans, and the Nebula, voted by other sci-fi authors. Another Brin I HIGHLY recommend is Glory Season, set in a world ruled by women, where the reproductive cycle is ruled by nature's seasons. But the men essentially have no rights. What happens when a male spaceship captain crashes on the world and upsets their dearly held assumptions is great. His latest, while not concerning heroines spefically, is called Kiln People, and I think will win at least the Hugo, and probably the Nebula. It's set in a future world where you can create disposable golems that have your own personality imprint. You can send multiple golems that are essentially you into the world and then download their experiences at the end of the day. Quite fascinating.



Another writer I'd almost forgotten about is Suzette Hadin Elgin. She's written several I'd recommend. The Ozark Trilogy is a light-hearted romp of a fantasy that is excellent. Elgin is a linguist by trade however, and language fascinates her. She wrote a trilogy, the Native Tongue trilogy, that is outstanding. It's set in a world where alien contact has been made, and the way human's learn an alien tongue, and indeed the society, is ruled by the linguist clan, derisively nicknamed "Lingoes" by other humans. A linguist baby is stuck in a room with an alien for a couple of years till they master the tongue. The main plot however, concerns a struggle for women's liberation. It's set in a future where Ronald Reagan and John Paul II were just the start. Women have no rights, and have been officially classified as sub-human. However, the women of the linguist clan have started to develop a "women's language", called Laadan, which they believe women will be able to use to free themselves from male oppression. Elgin plays with many different concepts in the three books, all of which are excellent.



Finally, Sherri Tepper's Grass is one I would recommend for those seeking a book with a strong heroine who is trying to escape from a family ruled by conservative Roman Catholicism on a world where humans are trying to understand the local biology, which is deliciously complicated.

[Dumbsaint]

She wrote "Beauty," a novel that plays on Sleeping Beauty, among other fairy tales, which was a HUGE influence on me, formatively, as far as reading and writing are concerned.



Very different, it should be noted, from Anne Rice's version of Sleeping Beauty- also a personal favorite.