Groupmind Query - The Heroine's Journey tales

[deborahjross]

I could use some help suggesting books for a friend of mine, who's not a sf/f reader but is interested in stories of ordinary women becoming extraordinary as they walk through dark times. She's open to sf/f, but not familiar with the tropes. What comes to mind?

Comments

[jpsorrow.livejournal.com]

I'd suggest my Throne books--SKEWED THRONE, CRACKED THRONE, and VACANT THRONE--but they may be too dark and gritty for her. She could read the first few chapters of the first book, SKEWED THRONE, up on my webpage to see if it's something she'd enjoy though. www.joshuapalmatier.com

[rosehelene.livejournal.com]

Urg....uhm... A Wrinkle in Time? Narnia? Howl's Castle?

Best I can do, sorry. :P

[auriaephiala.livejournal.com]

For non-SF, try Paulette Jiles, particularly Enemy Women. An amazing book about heroism during the American Civil War. She's written other good books as well.

Canadian writer Constance Beresford-Howe's books (if you can find them in the US) are also good in that vein as well. I particularly love The Book of Eve and A Population of One.

[anghara.livejournal.com]

Yes, I might suggest those, too! (I blurbed him - I know!)

If your friend wants to start out with something YA, she could try my Worldweavers books (samples etc up at www.worldweaverweb.com) (and like all good YA it's for kids from 9 to 99...) or else my Changer of Days books ("The Hidden Queen"/"Changer of Days" - and yes, it's a duology, no third book...)

Other than that, though, she might try some Octavia Butler - or, if into more urban fantasy, perhaps Kat Richardson's Graywalker series...

[auriaephiala.livejournal.com]

And also The Mistress of Nothing by Kate Pullinger, which is a historical set in 19th century Egypt (and a bit in England). It's a book about discovering yourself in a new culture: all the same tropes SF writers use, except set 150 years ago. The heroine is a maidservant who is abandoned. It won the Governor-General's Award (the premiere literary award here in Canada), and I think well deserved it (and it's also a really good read).

[morgan-dhu.livejournal.com]

Not SF/F, but I would heartily recommend Laurence Hill's The Book of Negroes (published as Someone Knows My Name in the US) and Camilla Gibb's Sweetness in the Belly. Both novels fit the description perfectly.

SF/F - Off the top of my head, Nalo Hopkinson's The Salt Roads, Ursula Le Guin's Lavinia, Lois McMaster Bujold's Paladin of Souls, and Elizabeth Moon's Remnant Population.

[klwilliams.livejournal.com]

How about Bujold's "Paladin of Souls"? I like it because the main character is a woman in her forties, who *isn't* a kickass swordswoman.

[sartorias.livejournal.com]

I was going to second that--it's also entertaining, with a lot of character complexity and insight.

[sartorias.livejournal.com]

Dark times--does she want grit and grim?

If she doesn't, she wants to be entertained, I recommend Annamarie Selinko's historical novel (based on quite a few true facts) called DESIREE. A very ordinary young woman, daughter of a silk merchant, ends up queen of Sweden by way of Napoleon . . . and the surprising thing is, that she was a real person, and that family still rules!

[meirwen.livejournal.com]

Paladin of Souls is a fine recommendation. If she can find it, a favorite from my youth is Combat Nurses of World War II. It's geared for young adults, but it certainly fits the bill.

[cheshire23.livejournal.com]

If she's OK with YA, Cynthia Voigt's Jackaroo is an old favorite of mine that fits that bill nicely.

[imhilien.livejournal.com]

I'd recommend 'The Soprano Sorceress' trilogy by L.E. Modesitt, about a middle-aged singer and music teacher transported to a world where music equals magic. The books have a gritty, realistic feel to them.

[http://users.livejournal.com/la_marquise_de_/]

Ursula LeGuin, Always Coming Home.
Eugenia Ginsberg, Into the Whirlwind and Within the Whirlwind. Ginsberg was a Russian academic who was sent to Siberia under Stalin: these two books are her autobiography -- grim in places, but riveting to read. She's one of my heroines.

[deborahjross.livejournal.com]

Just sent off these recommendations. A big group-thank you to everyone!