Recommendations: Good Books with Female Protagonists
 

I honestly can't think of a single good book that I've read that has an interesting female central character... or even a female main character at all. All the best novels that I've read have only had male main characters.

Can anyone think of any books with an interesting female narrator and/or protagonist?

The Tombs of Atuan. Tehanu. Both written by feminist (and one of the five best writers of the past century) Ursula K. LeGuin. The only problem is that these are the second and fourth books of a series. The entire series is beyond brilliant, though. So read it! Seriously. Do yourself a favor. The name of the series is Earthsea. You can AND WILL thank me later.

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and pride and prejudice i guess, but i reccomend my first suggestion

A whole bunch of Terry Pratchett's Discworld series. And many of the ones with male main characters have a strong female supporting cast. I'd recommend Monstrous Regiment to the uninitiated.

Most of Isobelle Carmody's books but most of all the Obernewtyn series.

The Artemis Fowl books have a female co-lead.

Those are the first to come to mind.

Try the ''His Dark Materials'' novels by Phillip Pullman. Main character is a female and has some pretty good twists and plot.

There's a reason for that. Leave it be, woman!

Hmm, the only suggestion I've actually heard of is Pride and Prejudice. I may check out some of the others too.

Like Nate, feel free to suggest ones that at least have strong female supporting roles. Sometimes that can be just as good; for example, I adored Sonia in Crime and Punishment.

I really, really have to go with Le Guin on this one. She should easily make Grandmaster upon death.

Hmm your right! I have read a whole lotta books but most female protagonist in them arn't that interesting....

I'll go check my books to see if I can find anything :D

Kill yourself. Now. :|

I second what Nate said. Discworld rules. The books centered around Susan or the witches all have female protagonists, but those are comedic fantasy, so if you're not into that sort of thing you probably won't get much out of it.

I second Nate and third Facsimile. Or vice-versa... well, you know what I mean.

You could try Portrait Of The Serial Killer As A Young Woman by Edward Lee and Elizabeth Steffen. I wouldn't advise it if you are squeemish.

You could always find a biography of some woman who kicked male arse somewhere along the way. Say Golda Meir or Aung San Suu Kyi.

I thought the Hostile Takeover "Trilogy" by S Andrew Swann had some compelling heroines in it. I think the Haydon stuff about Rhapsody is solid also.

Oh gosh I love Pride and Prejudice!
The Tombs of Atuan was great too, but kinda short.

Sorry that I'm not following the flow of conversation.

I second...Super Munch. :D

The Sally Lockhart books.

Umm... Little Red Riding Hood?

Not much of a protagonist; she gets fooled by the wolf, then eaten then saved by the woodsman. Everything happens to her; the only choice she makes is a dumb one to stray from the path. Slut.

True.

I also like Jane Eyre. I recommend everyone to read it. It's a romance novel, but it's not overly mushy.

So... There are some good female protagonists out there beyond the ones in fairy tales. Huzzah!

I finally remembered a wonderful novel that I've actually read with one: To Kill a Mockingbird. Quite a classic.

I was going to mention that before, considering we've discussed it, but I thought maybe you didn't count it because you didn't like it or something.

Just remembered the When the War Began series which is a brilliant 'what-if' story about Australia being invaded and a small group of teenagers running a guerrilla resistance cell. The main character and narrator is female and she kicks major arse. The first (and best) book in the series is either 'Tomorrow When the War Began' or just 'When the War Began' depending on the printing.

There's also Gracie which is a pretty good story about an Aboriginal girl growing up in a small town.

Um I might be dating myself here but...

Have any of you ever read Nancy Drew?

I sure did. When I was 5.

You could read cs lewis. Lion,witch and wardrobe. It was the character Lucy who discover the wardrobe and the evil witch and there is a lion. Best not say much if you not read the book. Then again you've probably seen the movie:p

The other books in the series also have strong female characters.

From memory, The Chronicles of Prydain series has a fairly kickarse female supporting character.

I read a couple in my day. I'm working on War and Peace right now.

How's that going? I want to read it but my library doesn't have a copy. The movie goes for 12 hours, so my teacher told me.

Well, I'm still 200 pages into it although I borrowed it last month, I haven't been doing much reading since I was way caught up in my writing… Not to mention I’m reading it in Russian (lucky I am Russian) because it was written that way originally, you know?

Also part of it’s in French because nearly everyone spoke French back then, you see whole pages and pages of French (which I can’t read…yet) and there are these huge footnotes that take up like half the page and make reading very uncomfortable.

Ahem. But I’m rambling.

Well, it’s fairly interesting so far, but mostly I’m reading it for status…:D

I am reading a book right now called Daughter of the Forrest, the lead is a woman and is a very strong character.
I am nearly half way through and I like it. I didn't think I would because it's classified as Sci Fi and I don't normally like those kinds of books but my best friend gave it to me to read so I thought I'd try it.

Earth's Children.

There are 5 books in the series now (one more to come).

It starts with "Clan of the Cavebear" or something, and all 5 of them are brilliant.
And they have a female protagonist.

Oooh...I read Clan of the Cavebear in 4th grade. I liked that one too!

If you're looking for one that's reaonably long, but won't let you set it down, then I would highly recomend Wicked: The life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West. It centers around the life and times of (you guessed it) Elphaba, the Wicked Witch of the West in The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. It explores her early life, her friends, and just how she ended up so damn "evil." Oanst has read it too if I'm not mistaken, so you can ask him if you don't believe me. :fuzwink:

Ooh, yes. I can't believe I forgot that, seeing as I was reading it when this thread started. Finished it for the second time last week.

It's an odd book; rather opaque and vague at times but worth reading.

Hmm, very interesting. I've always liked reading the villian's view of the story and the like.

There's also a lot of references of our own world's worst faults cleverly built into the plot as well.

I will have to get the sequel sometime this summer, once I read all of these books I have collected over the holidays :rolleyes:.

Wicked was a fabulous book. I picked that for my book club.
I also read Confession of an Ugly Step Sister by the same author. I have to say that I found that one to be a much harder read.
I am curious about the musical. Everyone raves on how good it is but I just think that people tend to take something that rocks and f*ck it all up by making a Broadway show out of it.

Could have made a really cool movie tho.

It's completly different to the book - Elphaba is made much more likeable and Glinda is in it a lot more. But taken as a completely different story that has some parallels, it is amazing.

Nate dog is right. The musical has its dark parts but the story in the musical is much shorter and isn't as dark as the book, IMO.

I am eager to read Mirror Mirror someday. It's by Gregry Maguire as well, it takes place in the story of Snow white if I'm not mistaken.