I had it in my notes to talk about the lack of representation from other continents and somehow completely failed to mention it in the video. So let me say it here! If you have a female author from Asia, Africa, Australia, or South America that you would have liked to see on this list, let me know in the comments!
Hi I'm all the way from Singapore and have some recommendations! 1. Erotic stories for Punjabi widows by balli Kaur jaswal 2. Woman at Point Zero 3. Good Women of China 4. Ministry of Moral Panic by Amanda Lee Koe 5. Chinese Cinderella by Adeline Yen Mah
The timing of this could not have been better. We are visiting bookshops this morning and will try to purchase those books we do not already own. I'm ashamed to say I had never heard of many of these authors and will be adjusting that! I agree with you on Morrison, Tartt, swap. My favorite female author is Nadine Gordimer.
Thank you for tackling this topic. I have been trying these last few years in particular to make sure I was reading widely and diversely. And thank you for pointing out the glaring omission of Toni Morrison on the list, as well as Joan Didion (I am reading one of hers now) and Jhumpa Lahiri. I am surprised by some other omissions--- like Zoa Neale Hurston ("Their Eyes Were Watching God" was my favorite book I read in high school). I was surprised Joyce Carol Oates didn't make the list. I am not a huge fan, though I have liked many things I have read by her, but she has been a major literary force in her life. In the same way, surprised that Iris Murdoch wasn't mentioned on the list, either. One of my absolute favorite living authors is Jesmyn Ward, and I particularly love "Sing Unburied, Sing." I think she is absolutely amazing. Lastly (this comment is way too long, sorry), thank you for bringing to light support for the trans community, and trans kids. It is scary the direct legislative attack on CHILDREN here in the United States that is happening by hypocrites claiming they want to protect kids. It is scary and awful. Thanks for using your channel for good.
For me, I would have liked to have seen Jeanette Winterson on the list, most likely Written on the Body and it’s ambiguity of the main character through whose eyes the whole book is seen. Winterson is most likely my favorite female author, perhaps tied with Virginia Woolf. And then I would also add The God of Small Things as well.
Thank you for reminding me of "Written on the Body". I have been so side tracked by all the hype about other books. I read it many years ago. I reread it a few times again. "Written on the Body" is the most beautiful romance story ever.
My favourite author of all time is Irène Némirovsky. Other female authors that I love are Astrid Lindgren, Christa Wolf, Erika Mann and Herta Müller. It's sad that books written by women aren't taken as seriously, especially classics.
To Kill a Mockingbird, Poisonwood Bible, and Gilead are some of my all time favorites. I am here for anyone who DNF’s The Goldfinch … ZZZZZZZ. I would add a play, A Raisin in the Sun. For nonfiction, Candace Millard is a brilliant historian, and Doris Kearns Goodwin is very prominent in the field. Also, I can’t leave out the science writers. I’m running errands, so this is all off the top of my head, but Hope Jahren, Elizabeth Kolbert, and Mary Roach come to mind. Great video!
The Goldfinch is so polarizing, but one of my favorites of all time. You should definitely read The Secret History, it's fantastic. And I would have included The Heart is a Lonely Hunter" by Carson McCullers - a masterpiece.
Oh Lord. The Goldfinch. I DNFed that book halfway through. I feel like Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata or The Vegetarian by Han Kang might be interesting options for books by female authors from Asia. Octavia Butler's fantasy could easily be on this list as well as some of Nnedi Okorafor's speculative fiction as well.
Glad to hear it! She's one of my favorites too. I just finished my 11th Cather novel, Lucy Gayheart, and loved it. She and Edith Wharton are tops for me!
@@SupposedlyFun I'm happy you've read some Wharton! The House of Mirth is a favorite of mine. Brilliant yet heartbreaking. I don't feel she ever wrote a bad book.
I love your additions I especially agree with Jhumpa Lahiri! I would say Shirley Jackson and for a short story in The Yellow Wallpaper (Charlotte Perkins Gilman). It deals pretty directly with mental health and sexism. I think The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath would also be a great one for that. And In The Dream House (Carmen Maria Machado) it deals not only with abuse but also queer identity and is nonfiction. Brown Girl Dreaming and Jacqueline Woodson totally deserve their place on the list. I'd also say Know My Name by Chanel Miller is a great choice. Several of the books deal with sexual violence but mostly as children, this one looks very directly on the experience women have and the way our bodies are viewed. I'd say Isabel Allende would be a great choice. She has brilliant books and adds a whole new continent to the conversation. And if you wanted to exchange Adiche for another Nigerian author that writes queer inclusive stories Butter Honey Pig Bread is a brilliant book by Francesca Ekwuyasi is a critically underhyped writer. Yaa Gyasi would also be a brilliant choice.
Thanks for such a considered and diverse discussion. I agree with you on the poll list with the exception of Miller, who I adore (but interestingly most of my gay book group also didn’t take to Achilles - it was just me who loved it - nevertheless attendance was hugely up when she came to our group). You may get on better with her Circe, which is a more forthrightly feminist novel. 100% agree on Morrison, an essential writer. I quite like the list being weighted more to the present, as it benefits the living (in most part). Classical fiction is another story, and definitely another battle with authors academically neglected and forgotten apart from the few ‘greats’ who get promoted constantly, not least through tv & movie adaptations. I read ‘Castle Rackrent’ by Maria Edgeworth earlier this year, which has interesting things to say about the colonial set up in Ireland, as well as having an experimental technique, structure, and style. Sir Walter Scott considered her a formative influence on his own work. When you get round to Frankenstein, I recommend the 1818 text, which is the most radical - Mary Shelley grew more conservative with age and in later editions tried to make the text more respectable. A huge personal favourite of mine is Alison Lurie (another American, I apologise!) - her ‘Foreign Affairs’ is in my all-time personal top 10. I read it first when I arrived in London and loved the culture-clash pride and prejudice theme. It really helped me settle into London.
I wrote a long comment, but it looks like it didn't post--- basically, thank you for using this platform to talk about this issue, and for speaking about trans rights. I am appalled by the hateful legislation popping up all over the country, much of it directed at trans children. It is unconscionable. It makes me so sad and angry. Also--- I have been making sure to read more and more female authors. My favorite book I had to read in high school was "Their Eyes Were Watching God" by Zora Neale Hurston. I was also shocked their list didn't have Toni Morrison. I was also surprised not to see Joyce Carol Oates--- not because I'm the biggest fan (though she is a good writer), but just because she has been such a literary force. One of my favorite living writers is Jesmyn Ward, and I especially love "Sing Unburied,, Sing". I will read everything she ever writes.
Well said about Adichie's views. I haven't read her in over 10 years but her novels do hold a place in my heart. JK Rowlings is even more problematic. Both very ignorant of them, which hurts to say that, when their books have given me a lot and I have really learnt a lot things from Adichie's novels. An Australian author that I think should be read more widely is Indigenous author, Alexis Wright, her novels are complex and intelligent. Could get a lot out of multiple readings of her works. I love Turkish writer, Elif Shafak's work too and possibly Indian author, Arundhati Roy, but I haven't read anything of hers in over 10 years too. Of the titles on the list, I've read all but The Colour Purple and The Vanishing Half (but I have read Passing). I need to fix that and read both of them. I've read Austen, Didion, Angelou and Waters. All the others that you've mentioned have been on my TBR for way too long except for Rubyfruit, that one is the only one not on my radar. A terrific discussion, thanks for sharing your thoughts. Wish my husband would read some mentioned but I'm sure he hasn't read even one of them.
love to see a bit of Joan Didion! she was a fantastic writer - I'd recommend Blue Nights as a 'sequel' to The Year of Magical Thinking if you haven't already read both together.
@@ameliabarlowbooks I was working part time in a Barnes & Noble when it was released and she did a signing. I couldn't attend, unfortunately, but I was very glad I managed to snag one of the signed books.
Nice! Two reccomendations from around the world: The Passion According to G.H., by Clarice Lispector (Brazil); Nervous Conditions, by Tsitsi Dangarembga (Zimbabwe)
Excellent video! Thanks for the info. about Adichie too! I've read a good 80% of the listed books, and think they're good choices, but am once more disappointed to see the scarcity of older literature. Edith Wharton? Virginia Woolf? George Elliot, etc.
Favourite classics by women are Little Women (which you covered), Wives & Daughters (unfinished) and Middlemarch (daunting...), so, difficult... I hated Wuthering Heights (toxic as Achilles/Patroclus, for my money), but loved Jane Eyre and Tenant of Wildfell Hall. Sadly the only author from a southern continent I've read a lot of is...Adichie. I can think of a few Europeans (Ferrante, Blixen, Wolf as noted below). I've read eight of the original ten (not Tartt or Bennett), five of yours. In 2019 I read NO fiction by men (bar some comics), which led to a (female) friend remarking 'Presumably you'll have a year of reading only men...?'
I’ve only read 2 of these Girl, Woman Other and Frankenstein. I think this list is missing Passing, The Death of Vivek Oji, Orlando or Mrs Dalloway, Beloved, The Haunting of Hill House, North and South, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl and if I could put two NF it would be Not that Bad: Dispatches from Rape Culture and Braiding Sweetgrass
I haven't yet read Frankenstein or The Vanishing Half, but the list is pretty good and the books worth anybody's time. I'm in a minority, I think, preferring The Goldfinch to The Secret History which I found over-stretched and unconvincing. I agree about the omission of Toni Morrison and Edith Wharton, but to that I would add Willa Cather's The Professor's House, which is similar in some ways to Stoner and every bit as good. The Regeneration Trilogy is wonderful and could well be read many years from now where other books will be forgotten.
I read Eliot in February because there is a monthly break between the winter and the summer term at the university. I had scheduled 30 pages a day and I got along with it (I m not an English native speaker). Actually, I was expecting more or less the fulfilling of somehow a duty but I was overwhelmed by the complexity of the novel and the emotions shown. At one point, I even cried although it doesn't happen often (reaction of Mrs Bulstrode to her husband´s failure).
Completely with you on Toni Morrison, Louise Erdrich, The Poisonwood Bible, and The Gold Finch. I highly recommend Tartt's other books. She should definitely not be judged solely on The Gold Finch. And The Secret History is a great audio listen-- read by Tartt. The Little Friend is a great read, not a good listen. I second those who mentioned Carson McCullers, and would also add Shirley Ann Grau--an under-celebrated Pulitzer winner for The Keepers of the House.
I’m surprised Agatha Christie didn’t make the list but I guess the list was leaning more literary than genre. I also think Circe would be better for the list than Song of Achilles for Madeline Miller
I talked about Circe in a recent book haul revisit and was surprised by how many Miller fans prefer Circe to Song of Achilles. That makes me think you are correct (I haven't read Circe yet).
I was about to recommend the audiobook of Dan Stevens reading Frankenstein to you but I see it’s a stupid Audible exclusive. He really does an incredible job. I just saw that there’s an audiobook of Kenneth Branagh reading it on Scribd which I may listen to. It’s been years since I listened to the other one. It really is a brilliant book. I was unaware of Adichie’s comments when she won the 25th anniversary Women’s Prize. I ordered the special edition from Waterstones excited to read it. Days after it was shipped, I heard about her anti-trans comments. Ugh. I just sold the book on PangoBooks two weeks ago. I had not read it. Somehow, it’s a lot easier for me to hate JKR for her horrible comments than Adichie. She was part of the Letters Live show I saw at Royal Albert Hall in London pre-pandemic in October 2019. I was so excited to see her and she was great. It’s really so disappointing. I wish this list hadn’t been created by poll. It’s a pretty weak list in some ways, but that usually happens when the public and social media are involved. You have some gorgeous covers, particularly the Wharton, in your collection.
Rowling is way more overt, nasty, and predatory in her comments for sure. But Adichie is still a negative force for trans people out there and it makes me uncomfortable. I do agree that the list being the result of a poll weakened it. That probably accounts for the recency bias (among other things). I didn't realize Branagh did an audio of Frankenstein! That sounds great.
Yikes-where were books like "Obasan", "Woman Warrior" or something by Eden Robinson or Cherie Dimaline? "Women Talking" would have been great and a short story collection would have been nice, too: "Cursed Bunny" or "The Secret Lives of Church Ladies"? Would have been nice to see some nonfiction, like "Braiding Sweetgrass", "Hood Feminism" or "Rage Becomes Her"/"No Visible Bruises". Since I haven't read "The Bluest Eye", I can't attest to it. However, I would have thought "Beloved" would have been there on that list (motherhood, race, historical fiction, class/economics, etc...), and I think I would choose "Emma" as a Jane Austen option for this list specifically. Also, where was rep from South American, Middle Eastern, Southeast Asian, etc... writers?
I had it in my notes to talk about the lack of representation from other continents and I completely missed it when I filmed and edited the video, so thank you for bringing it up. I almost included The Secret Lives of Church Ladies but was worried people are tired of hearing me talk about it by now. 😂 My thinking about Bluest Eye over Beloved is that if the assumption is that this list is for men who haven't read these authors yet, Bluest Eye is the book I recommend as an entryway to Morrison. But there is also a case to be made for jumping straight to the biggest work.
@@SupposedlyFun, no worries. My comment was more a response to the list and not your video :) I'll NEVER tire of hearing you praise "The Secret Lives of Church Ladies"! I read it on your recommendation and LOVED it!!! In fact, I'm going to try and get a friend to buddy read it with me (a regular commenter on Shawn [the Book Maniac]'s videos). Fingers crossed she agrees because I want to reread it so badly! ( > - < ) Yes, I mean, I haven't read "Bluest Eye", so it's likely the better choice. My thinking is that the dialect, thematic content and writing style are sooo good that it's one that shouldn't be missed. But I know it's not everyone's cup of tea, lol!
@@FMsukina Totally get it--your comment was just a good reminder that it is a definite issue with their list. I am so happy any time anyone spreads love for Secret Lives of Church Ladies so this makes me very happy. Bluest Eye also deals more specifically with the experience of being a black woman in the United States, so for this list it seems like a good fit. But Beloved's themes about how this country needs to reckon with the legacy of slavery and racism is essential, too. Maybe there should be TWO Toni Morrison books on this list.
@@SupposedlyFun, okay, phew! It is an AMAZING collection. Buddy reading Alice Walker's "You Can't Keep a Good Woman Down", and it's good so far :) I really need to read "The Bluest Eye". I've read some of Morrison's work, but NOT "The Bluest Eye". I loved "Sula", "Home" and "Recitatif" and "Beloved". Is "The Bluest Eye" your favourite of hers?
I've always been under the impression that I exclusively read women authors. However, after documenting my reading on goodreads I discovered it's actually closer to a 50/50 split. This year though is much more heavily skewed toward women, since I've spent all of April and June focusing on books by trans women. I side-eye Handmaid's Tale because all the stuff in the book has been and continues to happen to women of color, but when it happens to white women it's a shocking dystopian bestseller... 👀 I'm long overdue to read Color Purple. I hope I can get to it soon. I appreciate you addressing Chimamanda's transphobia, she's one I used to want to read but I've since been really disappointed with her. Ugh that quote was so effed up. Trans women don't experience male privilege the way cis men do, and it's something we struggle against the entirety of our before-transition experience. I've DNFd Frankenstein twice. It's so bad. Painfully boring, and then when the monster begins soliloquizing I just couldn't stay invested. We're supposed to believe this collection of disjointed body parts has such eloquent elocution? No, I'm not buying it. I really need to read Vanishing Half, the only reason I haven't is because I'm waiting to find a discounted copy- I hate buying books full price. You're right Toni Morrison needs to be on that list. She's one of my all-time favorite authors. I don't like Bluest Eye, though, it was the only book I've read from her that I did not care for. Ooh yes Passing is excellent!! I read A Room of One's Own in college, and I have no memory of the book's content because it was overshadowed by my discovering I was trans. I owe that epiphany to a classroom discussion of that book. Tipping the Velvet was one of my favorite reads last year, the lesbian romance brought me so much joy. Oh wow this was a long comment lol sorry!
Tartt is one of my favorite writers. In my mind, she’s a genius. I wouldn’t put the Goldfinch on the top of any list, unfortunately. I prefer The Secret History and The Little Friend. The Little Friend is very much underrated while The Goldfinch is too big for its britches, so to speak. Thanks for bringing up C.N.A.’s antiquated thoughts on trans women. I never knew that about her. I’m just finishing Jen Manion’s Female Husbands: A Trans History and it brushes on some of the feminists in history who excluded trans women because they are not “real” women and have experienced male privilege. It’s so disappointing to hear about influential women today with massive platforms that still fail to include trans women. Women need to uplift one another. ALL women. I’ll think twice about giving her a try.
I’ve only read 6 on that list and I DNFd 2 of those. I went to an all girls school so I think the books we covered were fairly even with male/female authors. My favourite female authors Ann Enright Ann Tyler Maggie O’Farrell Claire Keegan Hannah Kent Denise Mina Maggie Shipstead ☘️👋🍀📕☕️📚📖
I remember a few years back there was a PBS thing: The Greatest American Books of All Time or some such, and I thought, cool, PBS, they're no dummies, let’s see this list. But it turned out it was a poll of PBS viewers, and included crap (am I allowed to say crap?) like The DaVinci Code and those vampire books that I can't remember the names of, etc. So, yeah, you gotta take polls with a very large grain of salt. But since you're polling YOUR viewers 🙂 I would add the following names to the list: Anne Tyler, Ann Patchett, Willa Cather, Joyce Carol Oates, Elizabeth Strout, Lily King. Other than Cather, you added the obvious classic choices like the Brontes, Austen, Wharton, etc. Men don't know what they're missing!!
I haven't read The Goldfinch so I can only refer to The Secret History, but it's crazy to me that Donna Tartt is on this list - her book was fun, engaging and enjoyable, but hooorribly sexist xD The only female character in the novel was a caricature of a person inserted into the story in order for multiple male characters to fall in love with her and take action in her name. i'd put Elena Ferrante on the list, because I feel like her writing style is female in its nature (she sounds like a woman in the best sense) and My Brilliant Friend describes a very female experience. Why did you think Achilles/Patroclos relationship was toxic?
Everybody should read The Last One by Fatima Daas; Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982 by Cho Nam-Joo; Straight from the Horse’s Mouth by Meryem Alaoui. For Non-fiction I also strongly recommend The Right to Sex by Amia Srinivasan. However note that although THT by Atwood is Dystopia, everything that happens in it is based on real historical event, she didn’t make anything up.
You had me on your side until you decided to take Donna Tartt out from from the list. :) I am a guy and would probably add White Teeth by Zadie Smith, Kindred by Octavia Butler and something by Joyce Carol Oates and Sandra Cisneros. Also, read White Ivy by Susie Yang not too long and been thinking a lot about it. It might become a favorite too.
A couple comments. First of all I want to say that this is not meant as a criticism of you or of your channel. I really do enjoy watching you and I lke your channel a lot. I understand in a way what these two articles are trying to do here and that is introduce men to women writers. But I think it gets off on the wrong foot with the word should. I find the word should or essential to be turn offs. They smack of required reading from school which takes all the fun out of reading. And the name of your channel is Supposedly Fun, after all. I do not like to be told what I should or should not read. In some ways that sounds almost like censorhip. I like hearing the lists of what people like to read and even what they feel as to be the best. But when the words should or essntial are thrown in it implies something other than just mere preference. I am a male and a male whose favorite authors are mostly women. My list list of favorite woman authors only includes a couple of authors mentiioned in your video and all oif them are from your supplementary list. Among my favorite woman authors are Willa Cather, Eudora Welty, Flannery O'Connor, Carson McCullers Dawn Powell, Dorothy Parker, Eliizabeth Gaskill, George Elliiot, Elizabeth Taylor, Barbara Pym, Dorothy Sayers, Ngaio Marsh, Zora Neale Hruston, Alice Munro, to name a few, in addition to Jane Austen and Elizabeth Wharton that you mentioned. These are favorite authors of mine but I would never claim that someone should read them or that they are essential reading. The other comment I want to make is when you said your are not an expert. Why do you consider yourself to be an expert? This is your video on your channel. Of course you are an expert. All these lists are subjective and your opinion has a firm foundation on the amount you have read. You read a lot and the different authors that you read are wide ranging. Your opinion is as good as the people who put these articles together. Just because you are a man idoes not mean that your opinion regarding woman authors has any less value than that of a woman. In the course of this video you expressed guilt that you have not read a particular work. A lot of book tubers do that. I must admit I do that sometimes myself. But I try very hard not to do it. The list of books that I am interested in reading is very long. And the list gets longer also because of getting recommendations from you and other book tubers I watch. I know that I will never be able to read all the books I own nor all the books that I want to read that I do not yet own. There is just not enough time. Why should I take away from the joy of what I am reading now with angst about what I should have read but have not? I find it interesting that Frrankenstein was included on the list. I read it earlier this year based on recommendations from a number of different sources. I was really disappointed in it. In fact, I could say I did not like it. There were holes in the plot that were just too obvious for me to accept or overlook. There were some aspects of the book I liked but on the whole I just did not get it. It was also touted as being a work of feminitst fiction. I did not see it. Sorry that my comment went alot longer than I anticipated.
Two good lists... Like many of such lists they are not the most essential books, but maybe the most essential books written in the English language. I understand that the Women's Prize has this focus, and that the male writers who recommended books by female writers in that Guardian piece had this focus etc., but I would really love to see an international list which includes translated work.
Love this video. I find it disappointing that Adichie keeps appearing on lists like this. It's as though, because she writes literary fiction, she gets a pass in certain circles for all the offensive/damaging things she says. To argue that a trans woman benefits from her previous experience as a man is an ignorant thing to say, because that experience will surely have been impacted by her emotional and mental, and physical, trauma and unsettlement about not having been able to live as her authentic self. She won't have identified as a man at all, so won't have benefitted from any perception of typical masculinity! Yes, Morrison should DEFINITELY be on this list! Beloved is a favourite of mine. I've read Circe by Madeline Miller and was underwhelmed, so I would switch her out too. Didn't like The Secret History either, so wouldn't pick Tartt. Shelley having written Frankenstein so young is impressive, but I actually hate that book for the good = beautiful/bad = ugly dichotomy it makes use of. I hate when disability or disfigurement is demonised. I would put Austen on here, and the Brontës as a collective, actually. While Charlotte and Emily were the better writers, Anne's themes were ahead of their time for her day, and I think it's remarkable that they were able to create the way they did in such an isolated setting. One you haven't mentioned that I'd put on there is NK Jemisin. Her Broken Earth trilogy is up there with the most influential sci-fi/fantasy that's been written. Ursula K LeGuin should go in that category too; though her books aren't favourites for me, they were groundbreaking when they were written.
I had it in my notes to talk about the lack of representation from other continents and somehow completely failed to mention it in the video. So let me say it here! If you have a female author from Asia, Africa, Australia, or South America that you would have liked to see on this list, let me know in the comments!
Hi I'm all the way from Singapore and have some recommendations!
1. Erotic stories for Punjabi widows by balli Kaur jaswal
2. Woman at Point Zero
3. Good Women of China
4. Ministry of Moral Panic by Amanda Lee Koe
5. Chinese Cinderella by Adeline Yen Mah
@@shaynaloveswiss1 Thank you!
I hadn't heard about Adichie's remarks on trans women so I stand illuminated. Your bonus list is full of gems.
Adichie has very surprisingly been able to fly under the radar despite being pretty open about how she feels. It's kind of odd.
The timing of this could not have been better. We are visiting bookshops this morning and will try to purchase those books we do not already own. I'm ashamed to say I had never heard of many of these authors and will be adjusting that! I agree with you on Morrison, Tartt, swap. My favorite female author is Nadine Gordimer.
I haven't read Nadine Gordimer yet but she's on my list. I hope you enjoy any books you pick up!
I read Frankenstein recently and I was surprised at how much I loved it. I understand why it's considered a classic.
Speaking of Frankenstein: ruclips.net/video/ZugBt-cs-3U/видео.html
I hear that a lot when people read it. I would like to get to it myself someday.
Excellent review today. Thank you
Thank you so much!
I didn’t know about any of these controversies thank you for mentioning these things.
The one about Adichie has surprisingly flown under the radar.
As always, love your video and your continued advocacy through your platform!
Thank you so much! I really appreciate that.
Thank you for tackling this topic. I have been trying these last few years in particular to make sure I was reading widely and diversely. And thank you for pointing out the glaring omission of Toni Morrison on the list, as well as Joan Didion (I am reading one of hers now) and Jhumpa Lahiri. I am surprised by some other omissions--- like Zoa Neale Hurston ("Their Eyes Were Watching God" was my favorite book I read in high school). I was surprised Joyce Carol Oates didn't make the list. I am not a huge fan, though I have liked many things I have read by her, but she has been a major literary force in her life. In the same way, surprised that Iris Murdoch wasn't mentioned on the list, either.
One of my absolute favorite living authors is Jesmyn Ward, and I particularly love "Sing Unburied, Sing." I think she is absolutely amazing.
Lastly (this comment is way too long, sorry), thank you for bringing to light support for the trans community, and trans kids. It is scary the direct legislative attack on CHILDREN here in the United States that is happening by hypocrites claiming they want to protect kids. It is scary and awful. Thanks for using your channel for good.
Great video!
For me, I would have liked to have seen Jeanette Winterson on the list, most likely Written on the Body and it’s ambiguity of the main character through whose eyes the whole book is seen. Winterson is most likely my favorite female author, perhaps tied with Virginia Woolf. And then I would also add The God of Small Things as well.
I almost included Winterson but I've only read Lighthousekeeping and I was a little iffy on it. I should read more of her work.
Thank you for reminding me of "Written on the Body". I have been so side tracked by all the hype about other books. I read it many years ago. I reread it a few times again. "Written on the Body" is the most beautiful romance story ever.
@@18Alpine I'll have to try it!
Great call on _Regeneration_ for all the reasons you mentioned.
Lots of better choices for essential books by women than the survey produced.
Thank you!
My favourite author of all time is Irène Némirovsky. Other female authors that I love are Astrid Lindgren, Christa Wolf, Erika Mann and Herta Müller. It's sad that books written by women aren't taken as seriously, especially classics.
I haven't read any of those authors so I have work to do!
Christa Wolf's Cassandra was the first rewriting of Greek Myth I read, and I was absolutely blown away by it. @@SupposedlyFun
To Kill a Mockingbird, Poisonwood Bible, and Gilead are some of my all time favorites. I am here for anyone who DNF’s The Goldfinch … ZZZZZZZ. I would add a play, A Raisin in the Sun. For nonfiction, Candace Millard is a brilliant historian, and Doris Kearns Goodwin is very prominent in the field. Also, I can’t leave out the science writers. I’m running errands, so this is all off the top of my head, but Hope Jahren, Elizabeth Kolbert, and Mary Roach come to mind. Great video!
Those are great additions! I've never read a Doris Kearns Goodwin book 😱
The Goldfinch is so polarizing, but one of my favorites of all time. You should definitely read The Secret History, it's fantastic. And I would have included The Heart is a Lonely Hunter" by Carson McCullers - a masterpiece.
Ooh, I really want to read Heart is a Lonely Hunter.
Yes, Toni Morrison should be on the list...Doris Lessing as well !!
Fabulous video and presentation.
Thank you! I've never read Doris Lessing and need to.
Thanks for promoting the Protect Trans Kids message! 🏳️⚧️ Much appreciated!
Oh Lord. The Goldfinch. I DNFed that book halfway through.
I feel like Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata or The Vegetarian by Han Kang might be interesting options for books by female authors from Asia.
Octavia Butler's fantasy could easily be on this list as well as some of Nnedi Okorafor's speculative fiction as well.
Those are definitely good options for Asia--and Butler would have been a good choice.
Willa Cather is one of my favorite authors. She's not very popular these days but I love her books, especially O Pioneers!
I've only read My Ántonia and it was absolutely fantastic.
Glad to hear it! She's one of my favorites too. I just finished my 11th Cather novel, Lucy Gayheart, and loved it. She and Edith Wharton are tops for me!
@@barbaraboethling596 I've only read Age of Innocence and I LOVED IT, so I need to do better on both!
@@SupposedlyFun I'm happy you've read some Wharton! The House of Mirth is a favorite of mine. Brilliant yet heartbreaking. I don't feel she ever wrote a bad book.
@@barbaraboethling596 House of Mirth is the one I want to get to next .
I love your additions I especially agree with Jhumpa Lahiri! I would say Shirley Jackson and for a short story in The Yellow Wallpaper (Charlotte Perkins Gilman). It deals pretty directly with mental health and sexism. I think The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath would also be a great one for that. And In The Dream House (Carmen Maria Machado) it deals not only with abuse but also queer identity and is nonfiction. Brown Girl Dreaming and Jacqueline Woodson totally deserve their place on the list. I'd also say Know My Name by Chanel Miller is a great choice. Several of the books deal with sexual violence but mostly as children, this one looks very directly on the experience women have and the way our bodies are viewed.
I'd say Isabel Allende would be a great choice. She has brilliant books and adds a whole new continent to the conversation. And if you wanted to exchange Adiche for another Nigerian author that writes queer inclusive stories Butter Honey Pig Bread is a brilliant book by Francesca Ekwuyasi is a critically underhyped writer. Yaa Gyasi would also be a brilliant choice.
Thanks for such a considered and diverse discussion. I agree with you on the poll list with the exception of Miller, who I adore (but interestingly most of my gay book group also didn’t take to Achilles - it was just me who loved it - nevertheless attendance was hugely up when she came to our group). You may get on better with her Circe, which is a more forthrightly feminist novel. 100% agree on Morrison, an essential writer.
I quite like the list being weighted more to the present, as it benefits the living (in most part). Classical fiction is another story, and definitely another battle with authors academically neglected and forgotten apart from the few ‘greats’ who get promoted constantly, not least through tv & movie adaptations. I read ‘Castle Rackrent’ by Maria Edgeworth earlier this year, which has interesting things to say about the colonial set up in Ireland, as well as having an experimental technique, structure, and style. Sir Walter Scott considered her a formative influence on his own work. When you get round to Frankenstein, I recommend the 1818 text, which is the most radical - Mary Shelley grew more conservative with age and in later editions tried to make the text more respectable.
A huge personal favourite of mine is Alison Lurie (another American, I apologise!) - her ‘Foreign Affairs’ is in my all-time personal top 10. I read it first when I arrived in London and loved the culture-clash pride and prejudice theme. It really helped me settle into London.
I wrote a long comment, but it looks like it didn't post--- basically, thank you for using this platform to talk about this issue, and for speaking about trans rights. I am appalled by the hateful legislation popping up all over the country, much of it directed at trans children. It is unconscionable. It makes me so sad and angry.
Also--- I have been making sure to read more and more female authors. My favorite book I had to read in high school was "Their Eyes Were Watching God" by Zora Neale Hurston. I was also shocked their list didn't have Toni Morrison. I was also surprised not to see Joyce Carol Oates--- not because I'm the biggest fan (though she is a good writer), but just because she has been such a literary force.
One of my favorite living writers is Jesmyn Ward, and I especially love "Sing Unburied,, Sing". I will read everything she ever writes.
Well said about Adichie's views. I haven't read her in over 10 years but her novels do hold a place in my heart. JK Rowlings is even more problematic. Both very ignorant of them, which hurts to say that, when their books have given me a lot and I have really learnt a lot things from Adichie's novels.
An Australian author that I think should be read more widely is Indigenous author, Alexis Wright, her novels are complex and intelligent. Could get a lot out of multiple readings of her works.
I love Turkish writer, Elif Shafak's work too and possibly Indian author, Arundhati Roy, but I haven't read anything of hers in over 10 years too.
Of the titles on the list, I've read all but The Colour Purple and The Vanishing Half (but I have read Passing). I need to fix that and read both of them. I've read Austen, Didion, Angelou and Waters. All the others that you've mentioned have been on my TBR for way too long except for Rubyfruit, that one is the only one not on my radar.
A terrific discussion, thanks for sharing your thoughts. Wish my husband would read some mentioned but I'm sure he hasn't read even one of them.
love to see a bit of Joan Didion! she was a fantastic writer - I'd recommend Blue Nights as a 'sequel' to The Year of Magical Thinking if you haven't already read both together.
I read both when they were published. I actually have a signed copy of Blue Nights and it's one of my treasured books.
@@SupposedlyFun ahh, amazing, very jealous of that!
@@ameliabarlowbooks I was working part time in a Barnes & Noble when it was released and she did a signing. I couldn't attend, unfortunately, but I was very glad I managed to snag one of the signed books.
Nice! Two reccomendations from around the world: The Passion According to G.H., by Clarice Lispector (Brazil); Nervous Conditions, by Tsitsi Dangarembga (Zimbabwe)
My favorite female authors are: Gillian Flynn, Margaret Atwood, Agatha Christie, and Jane Austen.
I've only read Gone Girl by Flynn so I can't attest to her, but I agree on the others.
Excellent video! Thanks for the info. about Adichie too! I've read a good 80% of the listed books, and think they're good choices, but am once more disappointed to see the scarcity of older literature. Edith Wharton? Virginia Woolf? George Elliot, etc.
Yes, indeed, Middlemarch is one of the very greatest Victorian novels, for my money, better than anything by Dickens or Trollope.
Favourite classics by women are Little Women (which you covered), Wives & Daughters (unfinished) and Middlemarch (daunting...), so, difficult... I hated Wuthering Heights (toxic as Achilles/Patroclus, for my money), but loved Jane Eyre and Tenant of Wildfell Hall. Sadly the only author from a southern continent I've read a lot of is...Adichie. I can think of a few Europeans (Ferrante, Blixen, Wolf as noted below). I've read eight of the original ten (not Tartt or Bennett), five of yours. In 2019 I read NO fiction by men (bar some comics), which led to a (female) friend remarking 'Presumably you'll have a year of reading only men...?'
I’ve only read 2 of these Girl, Woman Other and Frankenstein. I think this list is missing Passing, The Death of Vivek Oji, Orlando or Mrs Dalloway, Beloved, The Haunting of Hill House, North and South, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl and if I could put two NF it would be Not that Bad: Dispatches from Rape Culture and Braiding Sweetgrass
Ooh, Gaskell would be a great author to include. I hadn't thought of her.
I haven't yet read Frankenstein or The Vanishing Half, but the list is pretty good and the books worth anybody's time. I'm in a minority, I think, preferring The Goldfinch to The Secret History which I found over-stretched and unconvincing. I agree about the omission of Toni Morrison and Edith Wharton, but to that I would add Willa Cather's The Professor's House, which is similar in some ways to Stoner and every bit as good. The Regeneration Trilogy is wonderful and could well be read many years from now where other books will be forgotten.
Australian authors=
Hannah Kent
Jane Harper
Emma Viskic
Thank you!
Surely you must add Kate Grenville to that list?
George Eliot, Virginia Woolf, Angela Carter!
I have never read Eliot and I should fix that at some point.
I read Eliot in February because there is a monthly break between the winter and the summer term at the university. I had scheduled 30 pages a day and I got along with it (I m not an English native speaker). Actually, I was expecting more or less the fulfilling of somehow a duty but I was overwhelmed by the complexity of the novel and the emotions shown. At one point, I even cried although it doesn't happen often (reaction of Mrs Bulstrode to her husband´s failure).
@@sabinelipinska8614 That's great!
Completely with you on Toni Morrison, Louise Erdrich, The Poisonwood Bible, and The Gold Finch. I highly recommend Tartt's other books. She should definitely not be judged solely on The Gold Finch. And The Secret History is a great audio listen-- read by Tartt. The Little Friend is a great read, not a good listen. I second those who mentioned Carson McCullers, and would also add Shirley Ann Grau--an under-celebrated Pulitzer winner for The Keepers of the House.
I feel like the list is quite US and UK-centric. I would like to see more books from other countries.
I had it in my notes to talk about that and failed to mention it somehow. I agree!
I’m surprised Agatha Christie didn’t make the list but I guess the list was leaning more literary than genre. I also think Circe would be better for the list than Song of Achilles for Madeline Miller
I talked about Circe in a recent book haul revisit and was surprised by how many Miller fans prefer Circe to Song of Achilles. That makes me think you are correct (I haven't read Circe yet).
I was about to recommend the audiobook of Dan Stevens reading Frankenstein to you but I see it’s a stupid Audible exclusive. He really does an incredible job. I just saw that there’s an audiobook of Kenneth Branagh reading it on Scribd which I may listen to. It’s been years since I listened to the other one. It really is a brilliant book.
I was unaware of Adichie’s comments when she won the 25th anniversary Women’s Prize. I ordered the special edition from Waterstones excited to read it. Days after it was shipped, I heard about her anti-trans comments. Ugh. I just sold the book on PangoBooks two weeks ago. I had not read it. Somehow, it’s a lot easier for me to hate JKR for her horrible comments than Adichie. She was part of the Letters Live show I saw at Royal Albert Hall in London pre-pandemic in October 2019. I was so excited to see her and she was great. It’s really so disappointing.
I wish this list hadn’t been created by poll. It’s a pretty weak list in some ways, but that usually happens when the public and social media are involved. You have some gorgeous covers, particularly the Wharton, in your collection.
Rowling is way more overt, nasty, and predatory in her comments for sure. But Adichie is still a negative force for trans people out there and it makes me uncomfortable.
I do agree that the list being the result of a poll weakened it. That probably accounts for the recency bias (among other things).
I didn't realize Branagh did an audio of Frankenstein! That sounds great.
Yikes-where were books like "Obasan", "Woman Warrior" or something by Eden Robinson or Cherie Dimaline? "Women Talking" would have been great and a short story collection would have been nice, too: "Cursed Bunny" or "The Secret Lives of Church Ladies"? Would have been nice to see some nonfiction, like "Braiding Sweetgrass", "Hood Feminism" or "Rage Becomes Her"/"No Visible Bruises".
Since I haven't read "The Bluest Eye", I can't attest to it. However, I would have thought "Beloved" would have been there on that list (motherhood, race, historical fiction, class/economics, etc...), and I think I would choose "Emma" as a Jane Austen option for this list specifically. Also, where was rep from South American, Middle Eastern, Southeast Asian, etc... writers?
I had it in my notes to talk about the lack of representation from other continents and I completely missed it when I filmed and edited the video, so thank you for bringing it up.
I almost included The Secret Lives of Church Ladies but was worried people are tired of hearing me talk about it by now. 😂
My thinking about Bluest Eye over Beloved is that if the assumption is that this list is for men who haven't read these authors yet, Bluest Eye is the book I recommend as an entryway to Morrison. But there is also a case to be made for jumping straight to the biggest work.
@@SupposedlyFun, no worries. My comment was more a response to the list and not your video :)
I'll NEVER tire of hearing you praise "The Secret Lives of Church Ladies"! I read it on your recommendation and LOVED it!!! In fact, I'm going to try and get a friend to buddy read it with me (a regular commenter on Shawn [the Book Maniac]'s videos). Fingers crossed she agrees because I want to reread it so badly! ( > - < )
Yes, I mean, I haven't read "Bluest Eye", so it's likely the better choice. My thinking is that the dialect, thematic content and writing style are sooo good that it's one that shouldn't be missed. But I know it's not everyone's cup of tea, lol!
@@FMsukina Totally get it--your comment was just a good reminder that it is a definite issue with their list.
I am so happy any time anyone spreads love for Secret Lives of Church Ladies so this makes me very happy.
Bluest Eye also deals more specifically with the experience of being a black woman in the United States, so for this list it seems like a good fit. But Beloved's themes about how this country needs to reckon with the legacy of slavery and racism is essential, too. Maybe there should be TWO Toni Morrison books on this list.
@@SupposedlyFun, okay, phew!
It is an AMAZING collection. Buddy reading Alice Walker's "You Can't Keep a Good Woman Down", and it's good so far :)
I really need to read "The Bluest Eye". I've read some of Morrison's work, but NOT "The Bluest Eye". I loved "Sula", "Home" and "Recitatif" and "Beloved". Is "The Bluest Eye" your favourite of hers?
@@FMsukina I really look forward to reading more of Morrison's books. I have a bunch more to go.
I've always been under the impression that I exclusively read women authors. However, after documenting my reading on goodreads I discovered it's actually closer to a 50/50 split. This year though is much more heavily skewed toward women, since I've spent all of April and June focusing on books by trans women. I side-eye Handmaid's Tale because all the stuff in the book has been and continues to happen to women of color, but when it happens to white women it's a shocking dystopian bestseller... 👀 I'm long overdue to read Color Purple. I hope I can get to it soon. I appreciate you addressing Chimamanda's transphobia, she's one I used to want to read but I've since been really disappointed with her. Ugh that quote was so effed up. Trans women don't experience male privilege the way cis men do, and it's something we struggle against the entirety of our before-transition experience. I've DNFd Frankenstein twice. It's so bad. Painfully boring, and then when the monster begins soliloquizing I just couldn't stay invested. We're supposed to believe this collection of disjointed body parts has such eloquent elocution? No, I'm not buying it. I really need to read Vanishing Half, the only reason I haven't is because I'm waiting to find a discounted copy- I hate buying books full price. You're right Toni Morrison needs to be on that list. She's one of my all-time favorite authors. I don't like Bluest Eye, though, it was the only book I've read from her that I did not care for. Ooh yes Passing is excellent!! I read A Room of One's Own in college, and I have no memory of the book's content because it was overshadowed by my discovering I was trans. I owe that epiphany to a classroom discussion of that book. Tipping the Velvet was one of my favorite reads last year, the lesbian romance brought me so much joy. Oh wow this was a long comment lol sorry!
Tartt is one of my favorite writers. In my mind, she’s a genius. I wouldn’t put the Goldfinch on the top of any list, unfortunately. I prefer The Secret History and The Little Friend. The Little Friend is very much underrated while The Goldfinch is too big for its britches, so to speak.
Thanks for bringing up C.N.A.’s antiquated thoughts on trans women. I never knew that about her. I’m just finishing Jen Manion’s Female Husbands: A Trans History and it brushes on some of the feminists in history who excluded trans women because they are not “real” women and have experienced male privilege. It’s so disappointing to hear about influential women today with massive platforms that still fail to include trans women. Women need to uplift one another. ALL women. I’ll think twice about giving her a try.
I’ve only read 6 on that list and I DNFd 2 of those. I went to an all girls school so I think the books we covered were fairly even with male/female authors. My favourite female authors
Ann Enright
Ann Tyler
Maggie O’Farrell
Claire Keegan
Hannah Kent
Denise Mina
Maggie Shipstead
☘️👋🍀📕☕️📚📖
I need to read more O'Farrell. I've still only read Hamnet. And I've only read one Anne Tyler book as well. Lots of work to do!
@@SupposedlyFun Try Anne Pratchett.
@@18Alpine I've read one Patchett book and did not like it (It was "Run"). At some point I'll have to try one of her other books instead.
It’s a travesty Toni Morrison was not included in that list. I think Kindred by Octavia Butler would be a good addition.
I remember a few years back there was a PBS thing: The Greatest American Books of All Time or some such, and I thought, cool, PBS, they're no dummies, let’s see this list. But it turned out it was a poll of PBS viewers, and included crap (am I allowed to say crap?) like The DaVinci Code and those vampire books that I can't remember the names of, etc. So, yeah, you gotta take polls with a very large grain of salt.
But since you're polling YOUR viewers 🙂 I would add the following names to the list: Anne Tyler, Ann Patchett, Willa Cather, Joyce Carol Oates, Elizabeth Strout, Lily King. Other than Cather, you added the obvious classic choices like the Brontes, Austen, Wharton, etc. Men don't know what they're missing!!
I haven't read The Goldfinch so I can only refer to The Secret History, but it's crazy to me that Donna Tartt is on this list - her book was fun, engaging and enjoyable, but hooorribly sexist xD The only female character in the novel was a caricature of a person inserted into the story in order for multiple male characters to fall in love with her and take action in her name.
i'd put Elena Ferrante on the list, because I feel like her writing style is female in its nature (she sounds like a woman in the best sense) and My Brilliant Friend describes a very female experience.
Why did you think Achilles/Patroclos relationship was toxic?
Everybody should read The Last One by Fatima Daas; Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982 by Cho Nam-Joo; Straight from the Horse’s Mouth by Meryem Alaoui. For Non-fiction I also strongly recommend The Right to Sex by Amia Srinivasan. However note that although THT by Atwood is Dystopia, everything that happens in it is based on real historical event, she didn’t make anything up.
You had me on your side until you decided to take Donna Tartt out from from the list. :)
I am a guy and would probably add White Teeth by Zadie Smith, Kindred by Octavia Butler and something by Joyce Carol Oates and Sandra Cisneros. Also, read White Ivy by Susie Yang not too long and been thinking a lot about it. It might become a favorite too.
A couple comments. First of all I want to say that this is not meant as a criticism of you or of your channel. I really do enjoy watching you and I lke your channel a lot. I understand in a way what these two articles are trying to do here and that is introduce men to women writers. But I think it gets off on the wrong foot with the word should. I find the word should or essential to be turn offs. They smack of required reading from school which takes all the fun out of reading. And the name of your channel is Supposedly Fun, after all. I do not like to be told what I should or should not read. In some ways that sounds almost like censorhip. I like hearing the lists of what people like to read and even what they feel as to be the best. But when the words should or essntial are thrown in it implies something other than just mere preference. I am a male and a male whose favorite authors are mostly women.
My list list of favorite woman authors only includes a couple of authors mentiioned in your video and all oif them are from your supplementary list. Among my favorite woman authors are Willa Cather, Eudora Welty, Flannery O'Connor, Carson McCullers Dawn Powell, Dorothy Parker, Eliizabeth Gaskill, George Elliiot, Elizabeth Taylor, Barbara Pym, Dorothy Sayers, Ngaio Marsh, Zora Neale Hruston, Alice Munro, to name a few, in addition to Jane Austen and Elizabeth Wharton that you mentioned. These are favorite authors of mine but I would never claim that someone should read them or that they are essential reading.
The other comment I want to make is when you said your are not an expert. Why do you consider yourself to be an expert? This is your video on your channel. Of course you are an expert. All these lists are subjective and your opinion has a firm foundation on the amount you have read. You read a lot and the different authors that you read are wide ranging. Your opinion is as good as the people who put these articles together. Just because you are a man idoes not mean that your opinion regarding woman authors has any less value than that of a woman.
In the course of this video you expressed guilt that you have not read a particular work. A lot of book tubers do that. I must admit I do that sometimes myself. But I try very hard not to do it. The list of books that I am interested in reading is very long. And the list gets longer also because of getting recommendations from you and other book tubers I watch. I know that I will never be able to read all the books I own nor all the books that I want to read that I do not yet own. There is just not enough time. Why should I take away from the joy of what I am reading now with angst about what I should have read but have not?
I find it interesting that Frrankenstein was included on the list. I read it earlier this year based on recommendations from a number of different sources. I was really disappointed in it. In fact, I could say I did not like it. There were holes in the plot that were just too obvious for me to accept or overlook. There were some aspects of the book I liked but on the whole I just did not get it. It was also touted as being a work of feminitst fiction. I did not see it.
Sorry that my comment went alot longer than I anticipated.
Austen? Romance? Eww, that's gross :)
Two good lists... Like many of such lists they are not the most essential books, but maybe the most essential books written in the English language. I understand that the Women's Prize has this focus, and that the male writers who recommended books by female writers in that Guardian piece had this focus etc., but I would really love to see an international list which includes translated work.
I think an international list would be a FANTASTIC idea.
Love this video. I find it disappointing that Adichie keeps appearing on lists like this. It's as though, because she writes literary fiction, she gets a pass in certain circles for all the offensive/damaging things she says. To argue that a trans woman benefits from her previous experience as a man is an ignorant thing to say, because that experience will surely have been impacted by her emotional and mental, and physical, trauma and unsettlement about not having been able to live as her authentic self. She won't have identified as a man at all, so won't have benefitted from any perception of typical masculinity!
Yes, Morrison should DEFINITELY be on this list! Beloved is a favourite of mine. I've read Circe by Madeline Miller and was underwhelmed, so I would switch her out too. Didn't like The Secret History either, so wouldn't pick Tartt. Shelley having written Frankenstein so young is impressive, but I actually hate that book for the good = beautiful/bad = ugly dichotomy it makes use of. I hate when disability or disfigurement is demonised. I would put Austen on here, and the Brontës as a collective, actually. While Charlotte and Emily were the better writers, Anne's themes were ahead of their time for her day, and I think it's remarkable that they were able to create the way they did in such an isolated setting. One you haven't mentioned that I'd put on there is NK Jemisin. Her Broken Earth trilogy is up there with the most influential sci-fi/fantasy that's been written. Ursula K LeGuin should go in that category too; though her books aren't favourites for me, they were groundbreaking when they were written.