Feminist Friday ⁠— My Favorite Female Authors

Happy Friday everyone! I haven’t written a Feminist Friday post in awhile (I know, I’m sorry!) but I’m back again to share with you some of my favorite female authors. These ladies write some of the best books and always manage to write such strong, female characters. Some of these authors are non-fiction writers but they do feminism such JUSTICE. I would consider all of these auto-buy authors as well! Here’s a list of some of my favorite female authors:

  • V.E. Schwab / Victoria Schwab

V.E. SchwabHer Goodreads Author Description:

“Victoria is the product of a British mother, a Beverly Hills father, and a southern upbringing. Because of this, she has been known to say “tom-ah-toes,” “like,” and “y’all.”

She also tells stories.

She loves fairy tales, and folklore, and stories that make her wonder if the world is really as it seems.”

 

Listen, I will read anything that V.E. Schwab writes. I have read almost all of her books (I haven’t read the Archived or The Near Witch) and the ones I haven’t read are on my TBR already. I probably already own them too! I just recently got into her books last year whenever I read the Darker Shades of Magic trilogy for the first time. I fell in love with these books and the characters themselves. Her writing is impeccable — if you want to see intense world building at it’s finest, read a V.E. Schwab book. They’re always so intricate and captivating. I will continue to buy and read her books because they never fail to disappoint me. She’s also a female fantasy writer! I know that there’s more and more female fantasy writers nowadays, but it was a male dominated genre for so long. I’m pretty sure that’s why her adult books go by V.E. Schwab (bc sexism) but we still stan. Speaking of that, her female characters are always so BAD ASS. Lila Bard is the best but Marcella from Vengeful is insanely good too. I definitely recommend her books, if you couldn’t tell.

Read her books:

  • A Darker Shade of Magic (Darker Shades #1)
  • A Gathering of Shadows (Darker Shades #2)
  • A Conjuring of Light (Darker Shades #3)
  • Vicious 
  • Vengeful (Vicious #2)
  • the Truth Witch
  • & more!

 

  • Roxane Gay

Roxane GayHer Goodreads Author Description: “Roxane Gay’s writing has appeared in Best American Short Stories 2012, Best Sex Writing 2012, Oxford American, American Short Fiction, West Branch, Virginia Quarterly Review, NOON, The New York Times Book Review, Bookforum, The Los Angeles Times, The Nation, The Rumpus, Salon, The Wall Street Journal’s Speakeasy culture blog, and many others. She is the co-editor of PANK and essays editor for The Rumpus. She teaches writing at Eastern Illinois University. Her first book, Ayiti, is a collection of fiction and nonfiction about the Haitian diaspora experience. Her novel, An Untamed State, will be published by Grove Atlantic and her essay collection, Bad Feminist, will be published by Harper Perennial, both in 2014.”

 

Roxane Gay is an important author for me because her book, Bad Feminist, introduced me to feminist non-fiction. I’ve shelved every single non-fiction feminist book since I started to read her books because she made me genuinely excited about them. I loved Bad Feminist because it was the first non-fiction book that truly caught my attention and kept it throughout. I didn’t even need to listen to this on audiobook because it was so entertaining. This book was actually one of my Employee Recommendations when I used to work at Barnes & Noble. If you’re looking to start reading feminist non-fiction, I highly recommend all of Roxane Gay’s books, not just Bad Feminist. Hunger was one of my favorite books I read last year because Roxane Gay’s words are always so intelligent and well-spoken.

Read her books:

  • Bad Feminist
  • Hunger
  • Difficult Women
  • an Untamed State
  • Ayiti
  • & more!

 

  • Rainbow Rowell

Rainbow RowellHer Goodreads Author Description: “Rainbow Rowell writes books. Sometimes she writes about adults (ATTACHMENTS and LANDLINE). Sometimes she writes about teenagers (ELEANOR & PARK and FANGIRL). But she always writes about people who talk a lot. And people who feel like they’re screwing up. And people who fall in love.

When she’s not writing, Rainbow is reading comic books, planning Disney World trips and arguing about things that don’t really matter in the big scheme of things.

She lives in Nebraska with her husband and two sons.”

 

Rainbow Rowell is the author who I started out with whenever I started venturing into the YA genre. I remember a picture of my first sort of  YA book haul that featured two of her books (Eleanor & Park and Landline) and I ended up loving them both. These two are obviously not my favorites now (Fangirl and Carry On are) but her books still remain so important to me. I buy all her new releases from the indie bookstore she signs at (Bookworm Omaha) and I’m always excited to receive them. Her character, Cath, made me feel so seen whenever I was in middle school/high school. I’m forever grateful that I found her books when I did and will continue to read anything she writes!

Read her books:

  • Fangirl
  • Eleanor & Park
  • Carry On
  • Landline
  • Attachments
  • Kindred Spirits
  • & more!

 

  • Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Chimamanda Ngozi AdichieHer Goodreads Author Description: “Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie grew up in Nigeria.

Her work has been translated into over thirty languages and has appeared in various publications, including The New YorkerGrantaThe O. Henry Prize Stories, the Financial Times, and Zoetrope. She is the author of the novels Purple Hibiscus, which won the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize and the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award; Half of a Yellow Sun, which won the Orange Prize and was a National Book Critics Circle Award Finalist and a New York Times Notable Book; and Americanah, which won the National Book Critics Circle Award and was named one of The New York Times Top Ten Best Books of 2013. Ms. Adichie is also the author of the story collection The Thing Around Your Neck.

Ms. Adichie has been invited to speak around the world. Her 2009 TED Talk, The Danger of A Single Story, is now one of the most-viewed TED Talks of all time. Her 2012 talk We Should All Be Feminists has a started a worldwide conversation about feminism, and was published as a book in 2014.

Her most recent book, Dear Ijeawele, or a Feminist Manifesto in Fifteen Suggestions, was published in March 2017.

A recipient of a MacArthur Foundation Fellowship, Ms. Adichie divides her time between the United States and Nigeria.”

 

I discovered her books around the same time that I read Roxane Gay’s books and I am so glad I found them. She has two shorter books on feminism — We Should All be Feminists and Dear Ijeawele, or a Feminist Manifesto in Fifteen Suggestions! I loved both of them and actually used these for a feminist essay I did to finish off my COMP I class back in high school. Comp I is a college course but I took it early. I loved writing that essay and these books made me realize how badly I want to write my own feminist non-fiction. We Should All be Feminists is such a great intro read to feminism and it’s so short so anyone can read it. It’s also a TED talk but of course, I prefer the physical little book edition. I learned so much from Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and I own several of her fiction books. I plan to finally read Americanah by her this year and I can’t wait.

Read her books:

  • Americanah
  • We Should All Be Feminists
  • Dear Ijeawele, or a Feminist Manifesto in Fifteen Suggestions
  • Half of a Yellow Sun
  • The Thing Around Your Neck
  • Purple Hibiscus
  • and more!
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4 Books I Currently Have Pre-Ordered

Today, I wanted to talk about the books I currently have pre-ordered! If you didn’t know, pre-orders are so important for the authors and books. Pre-order numbers (the more, the better) usually determine if the book is going to be promoted more and the overall success of the book. Publishers often look to pre-order numbers to gain perspective about how well the book will do and if this author is someone they should keep around.

So, I tend to pre-order books for authors I know I already love and have been looking forward to their newest release. I usually don’t do this for debut authors or books but I think that’s where it’s most important. I recommend you watch this video by Ariel Bissett about why pre-orders are so important in the publishing world and what they can do for books. It’s short and an easy watch but you realize how much your simple pre-order can mean.

1.Wayward Son by Rainbow Rowell

51dj9suCPhL._SX324_BO1,204,203,200_I have always auto-bought Rainbow Rowell’s books so this is not surprise. Right whenever this book was announced and I could pre-order it, I did. I love Carry On so much. I can’t believe there was a time when people didn’t think there was going to be a sequel. When I finished Carry On, it felt like there was going to be a book two. Also, Rainbow Rowell’s love for Baz couldn’t deal with one book. I’m so excited for the sequel now that I obviously had to pre-order. The new cover was done by the same artist who did the Carry On paperback (which is beautiful). Definitely check out his art too because wow, he did Simon and Baz some serious justice.

Publication: September 24th, 2019

Pre-order it here.

 

 

2. Call Down the Hawk by Maggie Stiefvater

Dyv9YfOXgAACiXgThis is the first book of the brand new Dreamer trilogy. Now, Maggie Stiefvater has been talking about this Ronan trilogy for so long on twitter and she’s been hyping it up day by day. As someone who finished the Raven Cycle last year, I love Ronan and Adam so much. I was so devastated whenever I finished the Raven Cycle because I loved these characters so much and I didn’t want their adventures to end. It’s been so exciting to follow Maggie while she tweets about this trilogy. I remember telling her whenever I met her that the Dream Thieves was my favorite one out of the four and she said it’s hers too! I can’t wait to be able to dive back in to Henrietta and see what Maggie has in store for these characters again!

Publication: November 5th, 2019

Pre-order it here.

 

 

3. Again, but Better by Christine Riccio

81kW7J18kvLAlthough I received an ARC for this book, I still pre-ordered. The pre-order count on debut novels are so important so I can’t wait to receive this physical copy! I actually pre-ordered right when the description was available because it sounds so intriguing. If any of you are interested in reading my review, it’ll be posted on April 30th, 2019 at 12:00pm eastern standard time! I’m posting it so late after reading because I want to respect the release date and most of the time, authors prefer it closer to the release!

Here’s a short description for those who haven’t heard of Again, But Better yet: “Shane has been doing college all wrong. Pre-med, stellar grades, and happy parents…sounds ideal—but Shane’s made zero friends, goes home every weekend, and romance…what’s that?

Her life has been dorm, dining hall, class, repeat. Time’s a ticking, and she needs a change—there’s nothing like moving to a new country to really mix things up. Shane signs up for a semester abroad in London. She’s going to right all her college mistakes: make friends, pursue boys, and find adventure!

Easier said than done. She is soon faced with the complicated realities of living outside her bubble, and when self-doubt sneaks in, her new life starts to fall apart.

Shane comes to find that, with the right amount of courage and determination one can conquer anything. Throw in some fate and a touch of magic—the possibilities are endless.”

Publication: May 7th, 2019

Pre-order it here.

 

4. Tunnel of Bones (City of Ghosts #2) by Victoria Schwab

41E9OcgPS5L._SX331_BO1,204,203,200_I recently just pre-ordered this because I finally got around to reading City of Ghosts this month and I absolutely loved it. I missed reading middle grade so it’s so nice that one of my favorite authors, V.E. Schwab, has written some herself! I will buy anything that she writes anyway but I really enjoyed this one. I would share a description but this is a sequel so I don’t want to spoil anything. Unfortunately, I don’t have a review for this first book either because I don’t feel comfortable reviewing middle grade. I just read it for fun, not to review.

Publication: September 3rd, 2019

You can pre-order it here.

 

 

And that’s it! Those are the four books I currently have pre-ordered. I’m sure this list will get longer as we get farther into the year. I like to pre-order books closer to the release date (a few months) so I remember about the money being taken out. Amazon is amazing and they don’t charge you until the book has shipped. This is why I prefer to pre-order on there because other online retailers tend to charge right away and I don’t like that. I would prefer pre-ordering books from independent shops or bookstores but I don’t know any that don’t charge right away for pre-orders. If you do, let me know!

Do you have anything pre-ordered right now? I’d love to know.