Southern Women Fight the Patriarchy

Jenn Northington Aug 30, 2018

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Amanda and Jenn discuss romantic comedies, books about strong women, non-murdery true crime, and more in this week’s episode of Get Booked.

This episode is sponsored by Sadie by Courtney Summers, Mirage by Somaiya Daud, and Chica Chocolate.

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Feedback

For Bess who wants full cast audiobooks: Six of Crows and Crooked Kingdom by Leigh Bardugo both have great full cast recordings and I think they would work well for someone who liked His Dark Materials.
–Insider Sibyl

For the same person, anything by Tamora Pierce. At least one of her books was specifically written for audio and at least some were done by the company Full Cast Audio, who frankly has a lot of good middle grade fantasy stuff.
–Insider Alanna

Questions

1. Hello!

I’m a huge fan of your podcast! I was hoping you could help me find some books to get me through a sort of stressful time. For the next two months I’m going to be working three jobs in two states – with 7 hours of travel each way when I switch states every week! I’m hoping to find some lighthearted yet well-written romantic comedies to help me de-stress during the long bus rides.

I am open to almost any genre, as long as it’s smartly written. I love Jane Austen (though not Austen retellings unless they involve zombies), Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, Eleanor Oliphant, and This is Where I Leave You. Stardust is my favorite Neil Gaiman novel. I was less keen on Attachments and Eligible because they felt a bit heavy handed/cheesy.

It’s been tough to find the right balance of lighthearted without being too sugary, so I would love any suggestions!

Thanks!
–Andrea

2. Hello, ladies!
I’m looking for a book about strong women that has a specific flavor to it. I can’t describe it exactly, but books that have that feeling that I’ve read are The Help and Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistlestop Cafe. I love books that focus on women’s relationships with each other, bonus points if it’s historical fiction. Thanks in advance!
–Therese

3. Hi,
My mother retired a couple of years ago, and has been using some of her newfound free time to read a lot more. I am one of her main sources of reading recommendations, and am wondering if there is some stuff out there that I am missing that she might love. My recommendations tend to mostly be SFF, historical fiction, and non-fiction, with some YA that usually overlaps with SFF or historical. She also reads mysteries, but I am not looking for recommendations in that genre at this time.
One of my main goals in my recommendations has been writer and character diversity: there are enough recommendation lists out there of books by straight white guys. We are also both white women, so I feel that it is important for us to educate ourselves on the stories and perspectives of people different from ourselves.
Now, I am going to give a lot of examples of books she has read, because I worry about getting a recommendation back of something she has read. Of the books I have recommended, she has loved The Night Circus, A Tale for the Time Being, The Queen of the Night, Bad Feminist/ Difficult Women, The Signature of All Things, Tears We Cannot Stop, Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell, Books and Islands in Ojibwe Country, What Is Not Yours Is Not Yours, and Homegoing. She has also really liked books by Nnedi Okorafor, Connie Willis, Donna Tartt, Ruta Sepetys, Elizabeth Wein, Kate Atkinson, Ta-Nehisi Coates, Junot Diaz, Stacey Lee, Carlos Ruiz Zafron, and Ursula Le Guin, as well as You Can’t Touch My Hair, The Library at Mount Char, Never Let Me Go, Swing Time, Greenglass House, We Need New Names, Americanah, Lab Girl, Another Brooklyn, Garden of Evening Mists, and Kindred.
Books she just liked: Station Eleven, An Unnecessary Woman, Rise of the Rocket Girls, Everything Leads to You, Ninefox Gambit, Bone Witch, and Boy, Snow, Bird.
Books already on my suggestion list: Shrill, Radium Girls, I contain Multitudes, Behold The Dreamers, Pushout: the Criminalization of Black Girls in Schools, The New Jim Crow, Men Explain things to me, Pachinko, Inferior: How Science got Women Wrong, The Cooking Gene, the Winged Histories, The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead, The Hate U Give, Infomocracy, Citizen by Claudia Rankine, How to Slowly Kill Yourself and Others in America, Uprooted, Speak by Louisa Hall, The Fifth Season, Before You Suffocate Your Own Fool Self, George by Alex Gino, Monster by Walter Dean Myers, Too Like the Lightning, Electric Arches, Labyrinth Lost, N.K. Jemisin, Zen Cho, and Jesmyn Ward.
I would prefer backlist recommendations I may have missed, as I am pretty good at keeping up with new releases and determining if they seem interesting to either one or both of us.
Thanks!
–Mary

4. Hi! I’m wanting to read more fantasy and sci fi books as they’re two of my favorite genres even though I haven’t read a ton of books from either. I grew up reading Harry Potter. I’ve recently read The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss and Assassin’s Apprentice by Robin Hobb, and mostly enjoyed them but I was very disappointed in the lack of female characters. I would love to read a fantasy or scifi book where several of the main characters are women, and that isn’t graphically violent and doesn’t include explicit sex scenes. I’ve read and enjoyed the first two books in the Southern Reach trilogy by Jeff Vandermeer (reading 3 now) and Jasper Fforde’s Thursday Next series. Thanks!!
–Valerie

5. Hi, I’m looking for an audiobook for the Dr. I work for. He and his family with children aging from 18 to 6 years of age travel by car often. I’m looking for an adventure even a true life adventure, that would capture the attention of the children as well as the adults without a lot of swearing as they are a religious family. I know it’s last minute. Your help is much appreciated
–Tiffany

6. I need a recommendation to fulfill the Read Harder Challenge #2, a book of true crime. So far a lot of what I’m finding is things about serial killers or school shootings and for various reasons, books about murders, shootings, extreme violence etc are too triggering for me to get into a this point in life. But surely there must be true crime books about other topics? If it were a movie, I’d think something like Oceans 11 or Catch Me if You Can. Books about abductions or kidnapping are okay as long as they aren’t too grisly or graphic. Thanks in advance for your help!
–Jessica

7. Greetings, Jenn and Amanda! This is perhaps oddly specific, but I have recently realized that a premise I always love, whether in movie, TV, or books, is “unlikely group stranded together somewhere due to inclement weather.” I have always loved huge snowstorms and the resulting inability to go anywhere or do anything but hang out at home and read. I love seeing or reading about characters in a similar situation. It doesn’t necessarily have to be a snowstorm that’s keeping the characters stranded, but that’s my favorite. I am open to any genre, but prefer romantic or other interesting interpersonal plot points to scary ones (i.e. group of people stranded by snowstorm deals with deranged killer on the loose).

I love your show and I thank you!
–Darcy

Books Discussed

For a Muse of Fire by Heidi Heilig (out Sept 25)

Secondhand Time by Svetlana Alexievich

The Kiss Quotient by Helen Hoang

Heroine Complex by Sarah Kuhn

The Color Purple by Alice Walker

Girl Waits with Gun by Amy Stewart

The Kindness of Enemies by Leila Aboulela

Bone & Bread by Saleema Nawaz (TW: eating disorder)

The Five Daughters of the Moon by Leena Likitalo

Bannerless by Carrie Vaughn