[ SECRET POST #3204 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #3204 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 03 pages, 052 secrets from Secret Submission Post #458.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

Same. I want to read more stories authored by women, but it seems the editorial world will only publish stories written by women when they're about shopping and romance. I'm sure it's not the case and there's lots of published fiction that is awesome, but I can't find it! Any recs please?

[(Anonymous)]

I'm sorry, I really don't mean to be rude, but... Have you actually looked even at all?

The complaint you're making is accurate as regards fiction specifically labeled as For Women but I have no idea how you could get that idea about fiction in general.

[(Anonymous)]

I was being hyperbolic hoping someone would be like I'LL PROVE YOU WRONG and list a bunch of awesome stuff.

But yeah I actually have :p I checked out some rec list in Good Reads and checked out some books from the library, but I couldn't get into them. Which to be fair is more because these days I have trouble focusing on what I'm reading. Nothing seems to hold my interest for more than a couple of pages.

[(Anonymous)]

It probably would've been easier to ask for recommendations of books by awesome female authors. People are often less inclined to help others if they think they person asking is being lazy and not doing any research whatsoever.

Mystery:

Elizabeth Peters - one series set in Victorian times about archaeology, the other set in... I dunno, the 80s? also with an academic/historical bent
C.S. Harris - Regency era mysteries

SF/Fantasy:

Lois McMaster Bujold - great fantasy author AND a the enormous and witty Vorkosigan saga
Robin Hobb - Assassin Trilogy, Tawny Man trilogy
Melanie Rawn - Dragon Prince and Dragon Star series
Mercedes Lackey

Classics:

Jane Austen
Elizabeth Gaskell

[(Anonymous)]

If you like mystery and SF/fantasy: Sue Grafton, Mary Higgins Clark, Margaret Atwood, Faye Kellerman, Nancy Kress, Sujata Massey, Connie Willis.

There are tons of books written by women that aren't about shopping and dating.

[(Anonymous)]

Thank you! I'll check these out :D I'm a fan of those genres so I'm excited about reading them!

[(Anonymous)]

You've probably heard of her since she got really popular, but if you like mysteries, Gillian Flynn. I liked Gone Girl and Dark Places a lot.

[(Anonymous)]

Man, "Gone Girl"-I started reading that book on my lunch breaks at work, and it soon got to the point where my break would be about up and I'd be like, "...okay, but this chapter's really short, so I'll just try and get this last one in and then I'll go back to work." :p. Very addicting, creepy story.

Haven't read any of her other books yet, but I may work on doing that sometime soon.

[dinogrrl]

Ursula Le Guin is another major fantasy writer! I haven't read her stuff yet myself but everyone I've talked to who has loves her work :}.

[sidewinder]

Another scifi rec: Karen Traviss' and her Wess'Har War series. First book starts a little slow but I loved the entire series. Very strong central female protagonist (she even gives herself an abortion at one point), an alien culture based around a matriarchy...while there is a bit of a love triangle element it's not central to the story and ends up as a f/m/m relationship at one point. I'd given up on reading for some time as I just wasn't finding books that grabbed me when I stumbled upon this series.

[dreemyweird]

*rubs hands* let's do this.

Elizabeth Gaskell, North and South. An awesome Victorian lady who wrote this novel about a conflict of different British mentalities - Southern (countryside) and Northern (urban, industrial). She's amazing at describing the Victorians' daily life, and the moral messages in her writing are very ambiguous and subtle.

Mary Shelley, Frankenstein. Maybe you've read it; if not, do. It's a very mature book full of gentle melancholy pondering the self-contradictory aspects of human nature. Also, a ten-foot-tall dude who looks like a zombie and talks like Shakespeare.

Tatyana Tolstaya, The Slynx. She's a very charismatic and sarcastic Russian lady; The Slynx is a hilarious macabre dystopia with strong undertones of the Soviet realities. The action takes place in the aftermath of a nuclear explosion.

While we're at that, Lyudmila Petrushevskaya's There Once Lived a Woman Who Tried to Kill Her Neighbor's Baby. This is a collection of modern horror fairy tales, if you're into this kind of thing.

Agatha Christie is pretty awesome!! I definitely recommend the Poirot and the Miss Marple series <3 For really good plot twists, see: The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, The Murder on the Orient Express.

[kallanda_lee]

that's a pretty great rec list, thanks!

[sarillia]

I'll second The Slynx. You're the first person I've come across around here who knows it.

I also adore Frankenstein and hate what that sensitive, eloquent creature got turned into by pop culture.

I'll add some others here too that ayrt will hopefully look at.

Patricia Highsmith wrote a lot of good suspense. Daphne du Maurier is most famous for Rebecca, which I love, but has a lot of other great writing too. Amelie Nothomb is another favorite of mine. My introduction to her was Hygiene and the Assassin. I also like Angela Carter. I happen to love Victorian sensation novels and Mary Elizabeth Braddon is a good place to start if you're interested in checking those out. Octavia Butler has written some of my favorite sci-fi.
I like Emma Donoghue, Sarah Waters, and Isabel Allende for historical fiction.

[dreemyweird]

Probably because I'm Russian :) I must say I'm pleasantly surprised anyone in the West knows it, and I'm very glad you like it! Tolstaya's one of my favourite writers.

Thank you for the recs, too - I've read almost none of the things you've mentioned.

[sarillia]

I haven't gotten around to looking at her other writing yet, so I'll have to do that. Are there any in particular you'd recommend?

[dreemyweird]

Her short stories are very nice! I think the English collection is called "The White Wall".

Her story about what would've happened if Pushkin survived his duel with Dantes and met Lenin is absolutely hilarious.

[(Anonymous)]

Not sure if you're still looking for more recs, but here's two:

The Secret History of Moscow by Ekaterina Sedia. Fab book, can't say enough about this urban fantasy/alternate history

The Benjamin January Mysteries by Barbara Hambly, set in 1830's New Orleans the protagonist is a "free man of color", trained doctor and solves murders. Awesome books

[(Anonymous)]

Margaret Atwood // Atwood is a literary treasure. Her novels are intelligent and they don't spoon feed you, but they're also engaging and enjoyable, not dry or tedious. Personally I like Alias Grace best of all her novels, but The Blind Assassin might be better place to start. Her Mad Addam series is really good, but be warned, the first book is by far the least enjoyable.

Donna Tartt // The Secret History is definitely her most accessible novel, and possibly her most engaging, so it's probably the one to start with.

A.S Byatt // This author will definitely not be to everyone's taste. She's extremely academic, and her novels can be overly intellectual, the the point where actual plot gets neglected or buried. However, her Booker winner Possession does not suffer from this problem, so it's what I would rec first. My personal favorite of Byatt's is The Children's Book, which is masterfully detailed and complex, but again, many readers may find it overly dry and directionless.

Edith Wharton // Wharton's writing has a kind of clever sharpness that almost makes it feel more like a modern novel set in the past than like an old classic. I like House Of Mirth the best.

Annabel Lyon // I often find historical fiction rather prosaic, but The Golden Mean was an excellent antidote to that. It's poetic but level-headed, and grim but not cynical. In writing about the interwoven lives of Aristotle and Alexander the Great, Lyon provokes questions about the nature of power, tragedy, depression, identity, intelligence, and aspiration. Her book of short stories, Oxygen, is also excellent.

Anne Michaels // Another author who may not be to everyone's taste, but she's long been a favorite of mine. My advice is, read the first twenty pages or so of Fugitive Pieces and if you don't like it, quit.

Jane Austen // I'm not madly in love with Austen, but I'm always happy to have read her works, and will probably read them all again at least once. They're very comforting, somehow - not for their romance, but maybe for their clear-eyed lack of cynicism. Her novels are smarter than they may at first seem and her writing doesn't take itself too seriously, so it never feels melodramatic. Personally I liked Sense and Sensibility the best, but I think it depends very strongly on which protagonist one most relates to, so YMMV. The only one I wouldn't recommend starting with is Northanger Abbey, as it was essentially intended as a bit of a send up of the Gothic romance novels of the time, and is therefore a little less substantial on its own merit.


Gillian Flynn // I'm only 100 pages into Gone Girl and I already have zero reservations about recommending this author. Her writing is smart, engaging, accessible, and exceptionally atmospheric.

Annie Proulx // The Shipping News was fantastic, very subtle and sensitive. A story about perserverance and growth for people who typically find such stories overly simplistic and saccharine.

Joyce Carol Oates // A strong and prolific writer who I've only just got started on. I recently finished reading Because It Is Bitter, And Because It Is My Heart, which I found impressive and powerful, though not wholly satisfying.

Geraldine Brookes // March was fantastic. The thing about history lessons is that they teach us what we should know about, but they aren't very good at getting us to care. This book opens up the American Civil War and just hits you with it so freaking hard.

Janet Fitch // Fitch may have been something of a one-hit wonder with White Oleander, but what a hit. White Oleander is vivid, harsh, lyrical and affecting. It put me under its spell. (I have read her most recent novel, Paint It Black, but would not recommend it. It came off like the extremely wobbly first novel of a young but promising writer with many years yet to hit their narrative stride - sadly an almost irreparable step back from the powerhouse that was her previous work.)

[(Anonymous)]

Jeanette Winterson, the author of Written on the Body and Oranges are Not the Only Fruit, has just written a book, The Daylight Gate, about the Lancashire witches.

Jo Baker: If you liked Pride and Prejudice, try Longbourn, in which Baker brings the shadowy presences of the Longbourn servants to life.

Sylvia Townsend Warner: Summer Will Show, The Corner That Held Them, Lolly Willowes.

Sigrid Undset: If you don't feel like tackling the massive Kristin Lavransdatter or Master of Hestviken, try Gunnar's Daughter, set 300 or so years earlier in the Saga Age, with a badass heroine.

Jane Smiley: I've heard nothing but good about Some Luck, a multigenerational story about an Iowa farm family.