My DH has expressed an interest in reading a book by a woman

[ringle]

He is an academic and very well and widely read. Save that he has never read a book by a woman.

He likes classic texts basically. Stuff that would make him better read.

Where to start? Could you help me make a shortlist?

Your DH is not well or widely read if he has never read a female author.

Not withstanding the ridiculousness of not having read a book by a woman...i googled it for you...here are three results.

bookriot.com/2017/03/10/100-must-read-classics-by-women/

www.sheknows.com/entertainment/articles/1112241/classic-novels-written-by-women

www.sheknows.com/entertainment/articles/1112241/classic-novels-written-by-women

How has he managed that? When choosing what to read, I don't think I even take the sex of the author into consideration.

George Eliot - at least she has a man's name, so your DH can pretend Middlemarch isn't written by a woman.

Seriously, your DH is not well read if he hasn't at the very least read Austen, Shelley, the Brontes, Woolf, Eliot - these Eng Lit 101, you are not well read without them.

I think he may be pulling your leg OP

He’s ‘expressed an interest’? That’s big of him

How has he not read any Atwood? Or Sue Townsend (he’s never read Adrian Mole? What a life wasted).

Genuine question.
How has he never read a book written by a woman?

Has he never read Harry Potter ??

Who is having a laugh - him or you?

Has he never read Harry Potter

Gosh no - an academic reading a non-academic book BY A MERE WOMAN? That would spoilt his reputation, surely?

Tell him we're not interested but thanks anyway.

Jane Austen and Virginia Woolf definitely.

Possession - AS Byatt
To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee

For something more modern, my favourite female authors are Barbara Kingsolver and Margaret Atwood.

I decided not to bother reading books by men for a while. Men seem to be better promoted, turned into films more often and generally have an unfair advantage over women authors.

Anyway - I am making this list for the benefit of women reading this post and not some lazy arse 'girl authors:go!' bloke. I've got Atwood, Helke Sander, Bella Pollen, Hong Ying, Beverley Naidoo, Margaret Foster & Suzanne Collins in my waiting to read pile. Plus a spooky Irish ghost one I can't remember and is upstairs but I cba to check.

Guys he's 'well and widely read' I think he can probably use Google. Let's let him do that, eh?

Evidently not if he needs the wife to do his research for him.

Well....how about he goes to a bookshop and looks on the book cover,where usually the authors name is found,see if it's a female name,read the blurb,and buy the book.
Or not,if he doesn't fancy it.Much like buying a book by a man really
And if he is old enough to be married,and an academic,how has he managed not to read any books written by women? He must be pretty embarrassed.......

I'd suggest Maeve Binchy, Kathy Lette and Miriam Keys.

Barbara Cartland wrote some classics.

He never read Bronte sisters, Virginia Woolf? Clearly not well read. As boy - Astrid Lindgren?

I’m guessing he read books by women but just assumed they were written by men.

Jeez really?!

George Elliot? Currer, Ellis and Acton Bell. Sigh.

Megalolz. What sort of an academic is he?!

Maybe he's an academic as in 'it's academic really'?

Deffo tell him to start with Enid Blyton.

Harriet Beecher Stowe's "Uncle Tom's Cabin", Michelle Magorian's "Goodnight Mr Tom" Harper Lee " To Kill a Mockingbird" definitely Mary Wollstonecraft's " A Vindication of the Rights of Woman". Poor you and what intellectual poverty your partner has 🤔