Better Than Starbucks discussion

Over on Poetry! a member asked a question that honestly I found a little shocking:

My eyes were meandering across my bookshelves and it occurred to me that female American authors are, with the exception of Toni Morrison, absent from my reading. So, without someone suggesting 'Little Women' (how I cringe) can some of you from this American site suggest a reading list (if one can be compiled).

So I compiled my list. I dont generally think of good writers by gender, as I find I like males and females about equally, maybe on the whole a little more to the female writer, but not much.

Here is my list:


Books by female Writers that I have read and recommend
(there are plenty of female writers who write stuff I would never suggest)
If fact, there are several books by some of the following writers that i would not suggest, but all of the following were either great, or good,
either in a literary sense or at least in a fun to read sense.

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1969)

1938 The Yearling
1942 Cross Creek

Wild Seed (1980)
Kindred (1979)

The Secret History

The Last Report on the Miracles at Little No Horse (2001)
The Master Butchers Singing Club (2003)
The Round House (2012)

At Risk (1988)
Seventh Heaven (1990)
Turtle Moon (1992)
Second Nature (1994)
Practical Magic (1995)
Local Girls (1999)
The River King (2000)
Blackbird House (2004)
Skylight Confessions (2007)

To Kill a Mockingbird (1960)

The Last Day the Dog Bushes Bloomed (Harper & Row, 1968)

Delta Wedding, 1946
Losing Battles, 1970
The Optimist's Daughter, 1972

A New Lease of Death (1967) (American title: The Sins of the Fathers)
Wolf to the Slaughter (1967)
The Best Man to Die (1969)
A Sleeping Life (1979)
Simisola (1994)
Road Rage (1997)
Harm Done (1999)
The Babes in the Wood (2002)
End in Tears (2005)
The Vault (2011)
A Demon in My View (1976)
Live Flesh (1986)
Going Wrong (1990)
The Crocodile Bird (1993)
A Sight for Sore Eyes (1998)
Thirteen Steps Down (2004)
Portobello (2008)

Mother of Pearl (1999)
Chalktown (2001)

The Man With a Load of Mischief (1981)
The Old Fox Deceiv'd (1982)
The Anodyne Necklace (1983)
The Deer Leap (1985)
Rainbow's End (1995)
The Case Has Altered (1997)
The Grave Maurice (2002)
The Old Wine Shades (2006)
Dust (New York: Viking Penguin, 2007)
The Black Cat (New York: Viking Penguin, 2010)
The End of the Pier (Ballantine Books, 1993)

The Bluest Eye (1970; ISBN 0-452-28706-5)
Sula (1973; ISBN 1-4000-3343-8)
Song of Solomon (1977; ISBN 1-4000-3342-X)
Tar Baby (1981; ISBN 1-4000-3344-6)
Paradise (1997; ISBN 0-679-43374-0)

Gloria Naylor, maybe the greatest writer in the history of the English Language

The Women of Brewster Place (1982),
Linden Hills (1985),
Mama Day (1988),
Bailey's Café (1992),
The Men of Brewster Place (1999)

Callahan County
The Thing about Me

The Bean Trees, 1988,
Animal Dreams, 1990
Pigs in Heaven, 1993
The Poisonwood Bible, 1998
Prodigal Summer, 2000
The Lacuna, 2009

Mama Makes Up Her Mind,
Sleeping at the Starlite Motel,
Quite a Year for Plums.

Mules and Men (1935), non-fiction
Their Eyes Were Watching God (1937), novel

O Pioneers! (1913) (Prairie Trilogy)
The Song of the Lark (1915) (Prairie Trilogy)
My Ántonia (1918) (Prairie Trilogy)
Death Comes for the Archbishop (1927)

Jamaica Inn (1936)
Rebecca (1938)
The House on the Strand (1969)

This is by no means the complete list of good books by females,
only a pretty complete list of the books I have read and enjoyed by women.

Authors I would never recommend, besides 99% of bestsellers (male and female)

Jane Smiley
E. Annie Proulx
and with the exception of The House of the Spirits (1982)
Isabel Allende


any thoughts? add, take away, discuss....

A fascinating list! I'm having a little trouble commenting because the writers' names are mostly not mentioned, so if I don't know the title, I don't know if I've read anything else by that same writer. This would seem like a list to keep a single reader busy for quite some time. Many of my favorites are mentioned above (Barbara Kingsolver, Octavia Butler, Toni Morrison).

I know nothing about Gloria Naylor, so to hear such high praise certainly draws my interest.

Other, mostly late 20th century, female American writers I personally like:
- Katherine Dunn
- Nikki Giovanni
- Marilynne Robinson
- Lynne Tillman
- Sandra Cisneros
- Cynthia Ozick

Anthony's list (with authors):
Louise Erdrich (Round House)
Harper Lee (To Kill a Scrubjay)
Eudora Welty (Optimist's Daughter)
Toni Morrison (Song of Solomon)
Willa Cather (My Ántonia)
Jane Smiley (Thousands Acres)
E. Annie Proulx (Close Range stories)

Marc's list (with titles):
Marilynne Robinson (Gilead)
Sandra Cisneros (Caramelo, TBR)

Scott's List (with authors and titles):
Iris Murdoch (The Sea, The Sea)
Virginia Woolf (To The Lighthouse)
Sigrid Undset (Kristin Lavransdatter)
Irène Némirovsky (Suite Française)
Wisława Szymborska (Sounds, Feelings, Thoughts)
Assia Djebar (Women of Algiers in Their Apartment)

Scott, I had Wislawa on my list, too, until I realized we were only talking American writers (knocked Margaret Atwood and one other off my list, too) : (

Actually I jumped to English and even threw in Allende

You have both added a lot of works/authors to my own to-be-read list! ; )

Oops, I just realized that the topic was AMERICAN women writers. My apologies. Should I revise my post? If so, it will be pretty slim pickin's.

Scott wrote: "Oops, I just realized that the topic was AMERICAN women writers. My apologies. Should I revise my post? If so, it will be pretty slim pickin's."

I don't think you should revise. The original inquirer isn't even involved in this thread (at least, not yet).

Zora, Harper, Willa, kingsolver, erdrich , rawlings, Hoffman, naylor, bailey white, lee smith, Melinda Haynes, Octavia butler, Morrison, anjelou, not to mention some strong poets and several writers I don't recall this moment. Not very slim in my opinion....

Though this made me realize I left off a few favorite American female writers:
Annie Dillard (Pilgrim at Tinker's Creek)
Flannery O'Connor (Wise Blood)
Geraldine Brooks (March)

How could I forget O'Connor?!! I'm quite fond of Kate Chopin, too.

By "slim pickin's," I meant that the list I provided would be denuded if I took off all the non-American female writers (per my failure to read instructions, a problem I should fix before school restarts). I did not mean to imply that there are not any American female writers which I admire - Anthony's, Marc's and my revised list suffice to show that is not the case. This is obviously not one of my more astute online days :(

I second Katherine Dunn: GEEK LOVE is one of the most singularly twisted things I've ever read.

Marilynne Robinson Housekeeping
Grace Paley

Any Eudora Welty, Louis Erdrich, Hurston, but add Alice Walker short stories.
Barbara Kingsolver--Poisonwood Bible now appears regularly on AP Lit lists ,for what that's worth,

Dorothy Parker! poetry, et al.

I was pleasantly surprised by the depth of A TREE GROWS IN BROOKLYN
Gwendolyn Brooks for poetry---"We real cool.." etc..

Kiddie Lit that isn't, really: Louise Fitzhugh, the Harriet the Spy stuff--reminds me of Catcher in the Rye

no Joyce Carol Oates?
Carol Shields?
Amy Tan?
and from a Sf genre, Ursua le Guin?

and of course from across the waters, Doris Lessing
Margaret Atwood

S

of you list i like Amy Tan a lot, and never heard of Ursua le Guin, but am not much of a sci fi buff.

of course the real point is not that there are many great female writers, but that reading only one gender, no matter which, means we are missing half the great writing out there, as well as half the bad:)

Proportionally my list of faves and my list of most hated and pretty gender balanced!

But then there is Sena Jeter Naslund whose Ahab's Wife I loved, (after wading through her opening unending segment), while her 4 souls has drawn to start a few times but i can never get through it....

Shantakumar, those are all writers on my shelves who I haven't yet gotten to. If we start going international, there's no end to quality female writers. Didn't Hillary Mantel win a ton of prizes this year? I need multiple lifetimes just to enjoy all these writers!

Names to go with titles:

Maya Angelou

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1969)

Marjorie K Rawlings

1938 The Yearling
1942 Cross Creek

Octavia butler

Wild Seed (1980)
Kindred (1979)

Donna Tartt

The Secret History

Louise Erdrich

The Last Report on the Miracles at Little No Horse (2001)
The Master Butchers Singing Club (2003)
The Round House (2012)

Alice Hoffman

At Risk (1988)
Seventh Heaven (1990)
Turtle Moon (1992)
Second Nature (1994)
Practical Magic (1995)
Local Girls (1999)
The River King (2000)
Blackbird House (2004)
Skylight Confessions (2007)

Harper Lee

To Kill a Mockingbird (1960)

Lee Smith

The Last Day the Dog Bushes Bloomed (Harper & Row, 1968)

Eudora Welty

Delta Wedding, 1946
Losing Battles, 1970
The Optimist's Daughter, 1972

Ruth Rendell

A New Lease of Death (1967) (American title: The Sins of the Fathers)
Wolf to the Slaughter (1967)
The Best Man to Die (1969)
A Sleeping Life (1979)
Simisola (1994)
Road Rage (1997)
Harm Done (1999)
The Babes in the Wood (2002)
End in Tears (2005)
The Vault (2011)
A Demon in My View (1976)
Live Flesh (1986)
Going Wrong (1990)
The Crocodile Bird (1993)
A Sight for Sore Eyes (1998)
Thirteen Steps Down (2004)
Portobello (2008)

Melinda Haynes

Mother of Pearl (1999)
Chalktown (2001)

Martha Grimes

The Man With a Load of Mischief (1981)
The Old Fox Deceiv'd (1982)
The Anodyne Necklace (1983)
The Deer Leap (1985)
Rainbow's End (1995)
The Case Has Altered (1997)
The Grave Maurice (2002)
The Old Wine Shades (2006)
Dust (New York: Viking Penguin, 2007)
The Black Cat (New York: Viking Penguin, 2010)
The End of the Pier (Ballantine Books, 1993)

Toni Morrison

The Bluest Eye (1970; ISBN 0-452-28706-5)
Sula (1973; ISBN 1-4000-3343-8)
Song of Solomon (1977; ISBN 1-4000-3342-X)
Tar Baby (1981; ISBN 1-4000-3344-6)
Paradise (1997; ISBN 0-679-43374-0)

Gloria Naylor, maybe the greatest writer in the history of the English Language

The Women of Brewster Place (1982),
Linden Hills (1985),
Mama Day (1988),
Bailey's Café (1992),
The Men of Brewster Place (1999)

Brenda Black White

Callahan County
The Thing about Me

Barbara Kingsolver

The Bean Trees, 1988,
Animal Dreams, 1990
Pigs in Heaven, 1993
The Poisonwood Bible, 1998
Prodigal Summer, 2000
The Lacuna, 2009

Bailey White

Mama Makes Up Her Mind,
Sleeping at the Starlite Motel,
Quite a Year for Plums.

Zora Neale Hurston

Mules and Men (1935), non-fiction
Their Eyes Were Watching God (1937), novel

Willa Cather

O Pioneers! (1913) (Prairie Trilogy)
The Song of the Lark (1915) (Prairie Trilogy)
My Ántonia (1918) (Prairie Trilogy)
Death Comes for the Archbishop (1927)

Daphne Du Maier

Jamaica Inn (1936)
Rebecca (1938)
The House on the Strand (1969)

and adding:

Amy Tan

The Joy Luck Club (1987)
The Kitchen God's Wife (1991)
The Hundred Secret Senses (1995)
The Bonesetter's Daughter (2000)

Harriet Doerr

Stones for Ibarra 1984
Consider this, Senora 1993

Jane Anne Phillips

Shelter

Bernice McFadden

Sugar

hope that clarifies the works a bit.