What books written by women should my husband read?

[MrsDrThorne]

By his own admission my well educated and pretty well read husband has read naff all books by women. He went to a boys only school with a teacher who was obsessed by a certain male author and didn't study English Literature past GCSE. So bar some Val McDermid, Wolf Hall, Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit and some Sarah Walters he has read NO books written by women. He reads a lot and likes crime, historical crime eg CJ Sansom, surrealist literature and dry humour. Among his favourite writers are Mikhail Bulgakov, Ian Rankin and Henning Mankell. (He loves a series). He doesn't want to read anything too 'challenging' but is going to try The Handmaid's Tale as we are both loving the C4 adaptation. I don't think he would like Eliot or Austen but am going to insist he tries Wuthering Heights. What else do you think he should try??

To Kill a Mockingbird?

Also Paullina Simons.

I think he should just read whatever he feels like reading, regardless of the author's gender.

Harper Lee, A.S.Byatt and Penelope Lively

All the above, plus J K Rowling writing as Robert Galbraith. Gillian Flynn? My husband enjoyed Gone Girl and her others. Michelle Paver's ghost stories 'Thin Air' and 'Dark Matter' were both enjoyed by him too. Definitely Atwood and The Secret History

I'm seconding Carol Sheilds, especially Happenstance as it's got the husband's and wife's points of view of their life story.

Apologies for typo. SHIELDS. Here: www.carol-shields.com/happenstance.html

Cannot recommend A Little Life by Hanya Yanighara highly enough. Brutal, believable heart breaking and sort of book where you forget you're reading and become utterly involved in the world. But literary too. Husband and other men I know loved it. (Mine usually reads male authors too.)
Also, agree with others about Donna Tart, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie too, and Patricia Highsmith

The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison.

It is fantasy, but reads more like a historical novel as there's very little magic. It has a crime subplot and the protagonist has a dry humour.

On the topic of Austen, I found Pride and Prejudice easiest to read, and also liked Sense and Sensibility. Persuasion, I found rather boring.

Wolf hall and bring up the bodies by mantel.

Why can't he look stuff up himself?

Whenever men ask me, as a woman, to recommend women's writing to them, I recommend reading Dworkin - particularly "Right Wing Women" or Daly "Gyn/Ecology" . And that they do their own research into further women's writing.

Americanah / by the Nigerian author

Fabulous book and so eye opening about love, women and race

Highly recommended

Agree with Morningsea although for a first Kate Atkinson for a bloke I would pick Case Histories.

Has he read The Woman in Bkack by Susan Hill?

Maddadam trilogy is great, DH loves them. Actually he loves all the Margaret Atwood he's read.

Donna tartt
Doris Lessing
Chimamanda ngozi (I can't remember her name)
Daphne du maurier

Perhaps some E. Annie Proulx? Dry, funny, weird, lots of rural crime stuff. Copious short stories if he needs a gentle lead-in.

Don't forget Jilly Cooper (Mount!) and her what wrote 50 shades

Anything by Jeanette Winterson!

And, erm...Harry Potter?

I love Backing Vocals' comment that perhaps you should leave him if he doesn't like Jane Austen.

I recently went to a talk by an Austen scholar who mentioned that once upon a time, any reader, regardless of gender, would read Austen. She wasn't considered to "girly" for men.

I absolutely love Kate Atkinson. Life After Life is one of my favourite books of all time, as is the first Case Histories book.

Books that I've read recently/have on my pile of books to read:
To Kill A Mockingbird - Harper Lee.
The Trouble With Goats and Sheep - Joanna Cannon.
The Power - Naomi Alderman (new but raved about by Margaret Atwood)
The Handmaids Tale - Margaret Atwood.

If he likes crime/thrillers and hasn't seen the films, The Girl on the Train and Gone Girl books are much better than the films IMO!

Oh another new favourite of mine was The Essex Serpent by Sarah Perry, and The Muse by Jessie Burton too! Both brilliant.

On Jane Austen, P&P a good starting point but Northanger Abbey also has all the satire of gothic novels, including ones by men (!). My favourite Bronte novel is The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by the less well known sister, Anne.

On a more modern note, Adrian Mole is of course a female creation.

Muriel Spark

I should say that if he's an Ian Rankin fan, Ian Rankin did postgrad study on Muriel Spark. I'm wondering if I should look for her influence on the Rebus novels!