An article in SLATE said yes they do. But when I see lists of favorite books from men, women are rarely on them. How many of the forgotten books we have mentioned here are female-authored if we eliminate Bonne, Kerrie, Deb and me. Not many if I look back.
If I look across the room, Phil has read GONE GIRL and BURIAL RITES (Hannah Kent) in the last few months but could think of no more.
What books by women writers have you read recently?
23 comments:
Billie Sue Mosiman, THE SUBWAY COLLECTION
Sue Grafton, KINSEY AND ME
Livia Washburn, HALLAM COLLECTION
Lori Armstrong, MERCILESS
OK, it just worked out that way - mostly by what was available at the library by favorite authors - but I see I have read mostly male authors so far this year.
Jeff M.
There's Something in a Sunday by Marcia Muller and Fox Evil by Minette Walters.
Checking my list of Authors I have 2 women in my top 10 most read list - Christie and Marcia Muller - and two more in teh second ten - Rendell and Margaret Maron.
Jeff M.
Martha Wells, Emilie in the Hollow World. Just reviewed it the other day.
Some of my favourite writers just happen to be women:
Flannery O'Connor
Dorothy Allison
Amy Hempel
Megan Abbott
Sara Gran
and former lovers Vin Packer & Patricia Highsmith
Michael C.
Should add, I suppose, several of my favorites: Harper Lee, Flannery O'Connor, Leigh Brackett, C. L. Moore (with and without Kuttner). She and Kuttner likely wrote the three novellas I reviews not long ago, though they were published under his name.
Mine breaks down to roughly 50/50, Right now I am reading Elisabeth Sanxay Holding and Geraldine Brooks but I just finished Pronzini.
I've read almost all of Laura Lippman's books, all of Gillian Flynn's, all of Megan Abbott's, some Christa Faust, Sara Gran, Suzanne Collins' Hunger Games series, Gayle Forman, and gobs of others by women. White Horse by Alex Adams was a recent read, and it killed me. Also recently, The Age of Miracles by Karen Walker Thompson. Loved it.
Looking over my Goodreads list, I've read many more books by men. But I think that's a function of the genre I prefer, not the author's gender.
Gee, I have eight library books out right now, a mix of fiction and non-fiction, and I just checked and every last one is by a male author. I think Gone Girl might have been the last book by a female author that I read.
I don't take into account an author's gender when selecting books, but I sure seem to be skewing male in my reading recently.
Deb
I just checked my books read list for this year and see that I haven't read one book of fiction by a female author. I have bought books by Megan, Gillian Flynn, Sylvia Tyson, Charlotte Armstrong, Helen MacInnes, Mary Roberts Rinehart and Billie Sue Mosiman, but tend to grab male authors first. Last year I read Lori Armstrong, Gail Bowen, Tami Hoag, Roberta Isleib, P.J. Tracy and Cathi Unsworth and all but Isleib I will read again.
Elisabeth Sanxay Holding, Margaret Millar, Vin Packer, a little Craig Rice, and Louise Penny for me.
Oh, if we're talking favorites or all time the numbers would be very different - Julia Spencer-Fleming, Jill McGown Janet Evanovich, Cynthia Harrod-Eagles, Emma Lathen, Lee Martin/Anne Wingate/Martha Webb, Charlaine Harris, Susan Rogers Cooper, Dorothy Simpson, Dana Stabenow, Jamie Freveletti, Karin Slaughter, S. J. Rozan, Dorothy Sayers, Ngaio Marsh, Lisa Scottoline, Deborah Crombie, Charlotte MacLeod, Liza Cody, P. D. James and Mary Logue, who I'm reading at the moment.
But I took "recent" to mean this year....
Jeff M.
I probably read more women via nonfiction than fiction, but here are some recent favorites from the fiction side of things:
Joan Didion
Megan Mayhew Bergman
Kim Barnes
Pam Houston
Alethea Black
Sheri Holman
Louise Erdrich
Elizabeth Bear
I have to work hard to get to an even split, or skew towards women authors, in my reading--although it's easier when the authors are in the mystery or sci-fi genres and thus write series that I can tear through. But on the occasions when I buy books rather than borrow them, I try to buy more by women (if they're living).
Yeah, the recently went by the wayside. What is a wayside anyway?
I'm reading Louise Penny right now. And I just bought a handful of Kage Baker's books at a library sale.
Almost all dudes. Looking through the past twelve months I see that I personally chose only three or four women writers. The other women writers were for work.
Just finishes CRESCENDO by Deborah J, Ledford.
I thought I was doing a good job of keeping a balance between men and women this year. But I have only read twelve books by women writers this year. Last week's FFB was on a book by Virginia Perdue so I feel redeemed. Sort of.
I have just read two books back to back by the completely forgotten American mystery novelist Harriette Ashbrook who is very good. A shame that she somehow was dismissed or overlooked by nearly all the newspaper and magazine reviewers in the 1930s and 1940s.
I'm trying to make it a 50/50 mix in my reading this year, but somehow the men writers still outweigh the women in my reading lists.
THE HOUSE OF MIRTH by Edith Wharton. Her prose is sublime. Now I want to read all of her novels and stories.
I feel very Forgotten indeed by the subject here.
Waysides, of course, are the sides of the roads.
I've read some of your short stories recently. Mostly I read men, though. The three females I like are Megan Abbott, Sue Grafton, and Livia Washburn. I used to read the Kinsey Milhones as they came out, but I've had "U" sitting around for a long time and haven't bought a new one since. I guess I need to fix that.
Thanks! Doubly! I read all the Graftons up until about N, I think. And then I adopted my one author/ one book policy so I wouldn't die without trying every writer. I may alter it to read another Nameless Detective book though.
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