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?

Thanks for the posts.
Sadly I can't put this down to individual misogyny.

At his age he must have read Enid blyton books.

If it’s true, then he has deliberately, and at a very young age, made the decision to exclude female authors from his reading choices.

That just blows my mind! How could someone who holds such contempt for women manage to persuade one to marry him? How did he hide his true feelings for so long that you didn’t know him before marrying him OP?

Not English so no...

No? I'm over 40 and so is DH. We have both managed to read books by people of the opposite sex.
Sounds like he's taking pride in his misogyny.

He's not proud of it.

I think it's more about society than him as an individual.

Society doesn't stop him picking up a book written by a woman.
You sound very eager to make his excuses for him. He's an adult. He gets to choose his own reading material.

You think society kept those books from him?

It’ll be because they were only sold in the “silly wimmins scribblings” bookstores.

He's not as widely read as he thinks then. Blytons books sold worldwide and were translated into 90 different languages according to wiki.

Seconding lots of the recommendations here, for the classics and also Barbara Kingslover and Margaret Atwood (Alias Grace is my all time fave).

Some other ideas - Hilary Mantel - the Cromwell books and I love The Assasination of Margaret Thatcher which is a short story collection. Sarah Waters - great storytelling. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie - I liked Americanah. Flannery OConnor - again more short stories. Donna Tartt’s The Secret History is set in academic circles. Helen Dunmore also excellent. Kate Atkinson.

To be honest, unless it’s for a prompt in a reading challenge I do over on goodreads I tend to avoid Male authors these days, so bored of the masculine point of view!

Hmm

My DP is also over 40, not an academic, not particularly well read and has still managed to read books written by females.

I cannot fathom how on earth someone can believe they are “well read” when they haven’t read a single piece of literature written by a female.

Where is he from that they don’t have female authors? I’ve read female authors from almost every continent so I can’t understand it!

"To be honest, unless it’s for a prompt in a reading challenge I do over on goodreads I tend to avoid Male authors these days, so bored of the masculine point of view!"

I have been rebalancing more towards this -same thing re boredom.

Gone to Soldiers by Marge Piercy.

It's got "soldiers" in the title, so should appeal to his manly perceptions. And the author has the title "Professor", according to Amazon, so should appeal to his academic perceptions.

(Though she seems to only have that title via honorary doctorates, but you don't have to tell him that.)

Whatever his discipline, he would have read material written by women, but perhaps that didn't register with him, though I can't imagine what kind of discipline doesn't have women writing books about it. Even that last bastion of white male privilege of Philosophy.

Agatha Christie
Daphne du Maurier
Any of the Bronte sisters?

He clearly isn’t well and widely read. Blaming this on his age and saying it’s a ‘genartion thing’ is a cop out and silly.

What’s his field of study? I bet, whatever it is, there are (shock, horror) women who’re experts in it and have written papers etc on it.....

Not possible.

So he read books by women then

Yes Father Jack, I have identified three.

ringle are you from a culture where it is forbidden to read books by women? And if so, how have things changed now?
If you stopped talking in riddles we would be better able to help.

Hahahha, ‘society’.
Society has many faults, but preventing a well-educated, financially solvent male from reading books by women definitely isn’t one of them.

I am an acandeic, and some of my best friends are male academics , and do you know - some of them have even recommended books to me that were written by women (whisper it, some of those women weren’t even white )

"What’s his field of study? I bet, whatever it is, there are (shock, horror) women who’re experts in it and have written papers etc on it...."

He's Not Eng lit...(obviously)
There are v few influential women in the field. We know two of them. Both have experienced being the only woman in the room, having younger men asked questions about their own topic of expertise.

Re his background, I actually do think that a boy in the 70s and 80s not from a private school posh background who cared about reading did actually have to be careful.

Have to be careful? What does this even mean?

Sorry for the riddles. Gracious no, I am not from such a culture, am white English with a first degree in Eng. lit

I am a bit stuck. I should have name-changed before starting the thread. If I said his job title he could be identified in a few minutes.

Part of me, if I'm honest, is glad that there are areas of culture where I have been o be acknowledged to know more than him. Five years ago he was ignorant of Skakespeare too so he made an effort to read, talk and see plays. Now I notice that if the topic comes up he is asked for an opinion. I am not. This grates.