Last month, when I wrote that we need a female Dr Who, I was struck by the fact that, in the discussion on Twitter, quite a few people were mentioning female writers that I hadn’t heard of. I realised that my own knowledge of women writing in my favourite genres of science fiction and fantasy was lacking. I have vowed to remedy this through the simple expediency of reading the same number of books by women as by men. I couldn’t easily remember how many books I’ve read this year, though, so decided to list them (series are listed on a per book basis). I’ll keep this list up-to-date as the year wears on.
Women
- Anne McCaffrey, Crystal Line (in progress)
- JF Penn, Pentecost (in progress)
- Rosemary Sutcliff, The Eagle of the Ninth
- Rosemary Sutcliff, The Sliver Branch
- Rosemary Sutcliff, The Lantern Bearers
- Suzanne Collins, The Hunger Games
- Helen FitzGerald, The Duplicate (novella)
Men
- James Henry, The Cabinet of Curiosities (in progress)
- James Everington, First Time Buyers (short story)
- Nick Spalding, Love, From Both Sides
- Jasper Fforde, The Eyre Affair
- James Oswald, Natural Causes
- John Scalzi, Old Man’s War
- F Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby
- F Scott Fitzgerald, The Beautiful and the Damned (abandoned)
- Lloyd Shepherd, The English Monster
- Danny Rubin, How to Write Groundhog Day (non-fiction)
To reach a nice state of equilibrium, I need to read three books by women next. Already on my Nook I have Lauren Beukes’ Zoo City, Kelly Link’s Strange Things Happen and Magic for Beginners, Mercedes Lackey’s Secret World Chronicles, and Mimi Johnson’s Gathering String, and I do want to finish the Hunger Games trilogy so that’s another couple of books.
On my list of books to buy are Jo Walton’s Among Other, Sarah Pinborough’s A Matter of Blood, Jane Margolis’ Unlocking the Clubhouse (non-fiction), Cate Gardner’s Theatre of Curious Acts, and Molly Tanzer’s A Pretty Mouth. Who else should I add?
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