Four Book Friday | International Women's Day!
I hope you enjoyed your International Women's Day! I had my purple on and picked up a couple of new books written by amazing female authors (Tomi Adeyeme's Children of Blood and Bone and Jessica Strawster's Not That I Could Tell). To keep things going for Women's History Month, I wanted to participate in the latest #BookishBloggersUnite. In today's topic, we're sharing some of our favorite female authors. Bookish Bron is our host!
Here are the prompts-
- A favorite female author whose writing you love and love to recommend (I've got two!)
- A female author's work you've read some of but would like to read more of and-
- One whose work you haven't read but you really want to!
In the Woods | Tana French
A writer I love and love to recommend
Tana French might be the author that I recommend to others the most. She's an American-Irish psychological mystery writer and author of the Dublin Murder Squad series. In The Woods is book One. I haven't quite finished the series, but was my favorite so far- a small town is rocked when a 12 year olds body is found in the woods. The murder affects everyone, but especially hits home for detective Rob Ryan, who also had an experience in the same woods while he was a kid. The story is gritty and realistic and French really brings you in to the action. Her storytelling is really a nice blend of plot and character driven. If you recently read The Dry and liked Aaron Falk as a character, you'll definitely like this series.
The Secret Life of Violet Grant | Beatriz Williams
A writer I love and love to recommend
I also love to recommend Beatriz Williams. She's got degrees from Stanford and Columbia and worked as a consultant before pursuing writing full time. (There's hope for all of us, eh?) Her books are rich with history and setting. I've not read all of her books yet, but the ones from the Schuyler Sister Series are my favorite. It's a trio of books and each book centers on one of the three sisters- Vivian, Tiny, and Pepper- but you get appearances from all of the sisters in each. They're set in the mid 60s and what I loved about these is how strong these women are. I liked getting a look at what it was like to be a woman in that time period and loved watching them go against the status quo. All 3 are great, but I'd have to pick The Secret Life of Violet Grant as my favorite. There was a fun little mystery tied into the main story that made me enjoy things even more. Honorable mention to A Hundred Summers- a delicious standalone that introduced me to the Great New England Hurricane in 1938, something that I hadn't heard of previously.
Kindred | Octavia Butler
A writer whose work I've read but want to read more of
Kindred is my first foray into Octavia Butler and I'm so glad I picked it up. I first heard about it on the Literary Disco podcast and they had me at science fiction slash time travel written by a woman of color and featuring an interracial couple. Dana is a woman living in modern day 1970s who is adjusting to being a wife when she suddenly gets ripped away form her current life and travels back in time to the Antebellum south. Unfortunately, she lands on a plantation and is regarded as a slave. She seems to keep getting pulled back in time to save the life of Rufus, her ancestor, and we see how their relationship evolves as he ages and goes from child to master. It was such a well constructed story that was amazingly accessible, a testament to Butler's writing. I listed to it on audio and it held up pretty well, despite having been recored in the early days of Audible. I might try the Parable duology next.
Bel Canto | Ann Patchett
One author you haven't read but want to.
I'm going to Nashville the summer and an impending visit to Parnassus Books the kick I needed to finally read an Ann Patchett novel. It's so easy for me to ease into reading thriller after thriller, but I want to continue to expand my horizons and give more of a literary fiction novel a chance. The premise is what inspired me to choose this book in particular- Set in an unnamed country in South America, international diplomats and business people are at the home of the country's vice president. Opera's most beloved soprano has been hired to entertain the international guests with her singing. Then- 18 gun-wielding terrorists take the entire party hostage, thus forcing unexpected bonds between the party goers, many of whom do not speak the same language. I'll be happy to have finally crossed Ann Patchett off my reading bucket list.
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