I’ve got to ditto these. They are funny – they start out spoofing the intrepid Victorian gentlewoman explorer subgenre – but they are also great adventures, with Egyptology! great character development! great supporting characters! cats! Long live Amelia Peabody and Emerson!
Which reminds me, if the OP doesn’t mind the occasional chapter with a male viewpoint character, Gail Carriger’s steampunkish/Victorian Parasol Protectorate series is good, and amusing. The main protagonist is female, a “soulless” lady named Alexia Tarabotti.
I should have noted that the first two books are actually one book in two volumes. That is, Tower and Mage are not stand alone books, you need to read them in that order. There’s a cliffhanger at the end of Tower that is resolved in Mage.
Sounds like the Twilight series is perfect for you.
If you really don’t mind books that require little brainpower the Southern Vampire Mysteries series has a female protagonist as well.
If you’re open to urban fantasy, perhaps the October Daye novels by Seanan McGuire or C.E. Murphy’s Walker Papers. I prefer the latter, myself, though enjoyed both.
For something fun and cozy, try The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency, by Alexander McCall Smith. This series features a Motswana woman (of traditional build) who becomes Botswana’s first female private detective. These are quiet, charming books.
If you prefer non-fantasy: I recently read and really enjoyed Lisa Lutz’s entire Spellman Files series. It’s about a family of private investigators who are constantly tailing, wiretapping, and investigating one another. Funny books loaded with little mysteries.
If you like urban fantasy: Nancy Holzner’s Deadtown series. The protagonist is a demon-slaying shape-shifter named Victory Vaughn. She lives in Deadtown, a section of modern-day Boston populated by zombies and other paranormal entities.
More urban fantasy: Hunger and Rage by Jackie Kessler. First two books of a series about modern teenagers who become Riders of the Apocalypse. The first book, dealing with the rider Famine, has the most realistic, searing, painful depiction of anorexia I’ve ever read.
I just finished the Tomorrow, When The War Began series, which is kinda like Red Dawn in Australia. A group of seven teenagers goes on a long camping trip, and when they return to their small coastal town, it (and the rest of the country) has been invaded by a foreign army, all the residents rounded up into prison camps. The story’s told from the perspective of one of the girls in the group, Ellie.
Someone on this board once mentioned the Bloody Jack series; I started and finished the first book yesterday, so it’s a quick read. The story follows Mary Faber, an orphan in 1790s London who disguises herself as a boy named “Jackie” and gets a job as a cabin boy aboard a pirate-hunting ship. The Kindle edition of the first book is only $1.99 right now.
Janet Evanovich has a few other series, there are :
Bibliography
** Single Romance Novels**
(originally written under the name Steffie Hall)
[ol]
[li]Hero at Large (1987)[/li][li]Foul Play (1989)[/li][li]The Grand Finale (1988)[/li][li]Thanksgiving (1988)[/li][li]Manhunt (1988)[/li][li]Ivan Takes a Wife (1988)[/li][li]Naughty Neighbor (1992)[/li][li]Love Overboard (2005)[/li][/ol]
** Elsie Hawkins Series**
[ol]
[li]Back to the Bedroom (1989)[/li][li]Smitten (1990)[/li][li]Wife for Hire (1990)[/li][li]Rocky Road to Romance (1991)[/li][/ol]
** Stephanie Plum Series**
[ol]
[li]One for the Money (1994)[/li][li]Two for the Dough (1996)[/li][li]Three to Get Deadly (1997)[/li][li]Four to Score (1998)[/li][li]High Five (1999)[/li][li]Hot Six (2000)[/li][li]Seven Up (2001)[/li][li]Hard Eight (2002)[/li][li]To the Nines (2003)[/li][li]Ten Big Ones (2004)[/li][li]Eleven on Top (2005)[/li][li]Twelve Sharp (2006)[/li][li]Lean Mean Thirteen (2007)[/li][li]Fearless Fourteen (2008)[/li][li]Finger Lickin’ Fifteen (2009)[/li][li]Sizzling Sixteen (2010)[/li][li]Smokin’ Seventeen (2011)[/li][li]Explosive Eighteen (2011)[/li][li]Notorious Nineteen (November 20, 2012)[/li][/ol]
** Other Stephanie Plum**
[ol]
[li]The Last Peep (1997)[/li][li]Visions of Sugar Plums (2002)[/li][li]Plum Lovin’ (2007)[/li][li]Plum Lucky (2008)[/li][li]Plum Spooky (January 6, 2009)[/li][/ol]
** Diesel Series**
[ol]
[li]Wicked Appetite (2010)[/li][li]Wicked Business (June 19, 2012)[/li][/ol]
** The Barnaby Series**
[ol]
[li]Metro Girl (2004)[/li][li]Motor Mouth (2006)[/li][li]Trouble Maker 1, Trouble Maker 2 (2010)[/li][/ol]
** Full (Max Holt) Series with Charlotte Hughes**
[ol]
[li]Full House (1989)[/li][li]Full Tilt (2003)[/li][li]Full Speed (2003)[/li][li]Full Blast (2004)[/li][li]Full Bloom (2005)[/li][li]Full Scoop (2006)[/li][/ol]
** Hot (Cate Madigan) Series with Leanne Banks**
[ol]
[li]Hot Stuff (2007)[/li][/ol]
I also like Lois McMaster Bujold, she has :
Cordelia Naismith
[ol]
[li]Shards of Honor (1986)[/li][li]Barrayar (1991)—Hugo Award winner, Locus Award winner, 1992,[11] Nebula Award nominee, 1991[12][/li][li]Cordelia’s Honor (1996)—Combined edition of Shards of Honor and Barrayar with an afterword by the author.[/li][/ol]
** Chalion series**
In the fantasy-genre Chalion universe:
[ul]
[li]The Curse of Chalion (2001) Hugo, Locus Fantasy, and World Fantasy Awards nominee, 2002[20][/li][li]Paladin of Souls (2003) (sequel to The Curse of Chalion) Hugo, Nebula and Locus Fantasy Awards winner, 2004[21][/li][li]The Hallowed Hunt (2005) Locus Fantasy Award nominee, 2006[22][/li][/ul]
** Sharing Knife series**
The Sharing Knife is another fantasy-genre series:
[ul]
[li]Beguilement (2006)[/li][li]Legacy (2007)[/li][li]Passage (2008)[/li][li]Horizon (2009)[/li][/ul]
** Other titles**
[ul]
[li]The Spirit Ring (1993) Locus Fantasy Award nominee, 1993[23[/li][/ul]
David Weber has :
Honor Harrington series
[ol]
[li]On Basilisk Station (April 1993) ISBN 0-671-57793-X[/li][li]The Honor of the Queen (June 1993) ISBN 0-671-57864-2[/li][li]The Short Victorious War (April 1994) ISBN 0-671-87596-5[/li][li]Field of Dishonor (October 1994) ISBN 0-671-57820-0[/li][li]Flag in Exile (September 1995) ISBN 0-671-31980-9[/li][li]Honor Among Enemies (February 1996) ISBN 0-671-87723-2[/li][li]In Enemy Hands (July 1997) ISBN 0-671-57770-0[/li][li]Echoes of Honor (October 1998) ISBN 0-671-57833-2[/li][li]Ashes of Victory (March 2000) ISBN 0-671-57854-5[/li][li]War of Honor (October 2002) ISBN 0-7434-3545-1[/li][li]At All Costs (November 2005) ISBN 1-4165-0911-9[/li][li]Mission of Honor (June 2010) ISBN 1-4391-3361-1[/li][li]A Rising Thunder (March 6, 2012)[13][14] ISBN 1-4516-3806-X[/li][li]Shadow of Freedom[15] (March 5, 2013) ISBN 1-4516-3869-8[16][/li][/ol]
** Works related to the Honor Harrington series**
** Worlds of Honor anthologies**
Short stories related to the Honor Harrington series—edited by David Weber
[ul]
[li]More Than Honor (January 1998) ISBN 0-671-87857-3[/li][li]Worlds of Honor (February 1999) ISBN 0-671-57855-3[/li][li]Changer of Worlds (March 2001) ISBN 0-671-31975-2[/li][li]The Service of the Sword (April 2003) ISBN 0-7434-3599-0[/li][li]In Fire Forged (February 2011) ISBN 1-4391-3414-6[/li][/ul]
** Wages of Sin sub-series**
[ul]
[li]Crown of Slaves with Eric Flint (September 2003) ISBN 0-7434-7148-2[/li][li]Torch of Freedom with Eric Flint (November 2009) ISBN 1-4391-3305-0 [17][18][/li][/ul]
** Saganami sub-series**
[ul]
[li]The Shadow of Saganami (October 2004) ISBN 0-7434-8852-0[/li][li]Storm from the Shadows (March 2009) ISBN 1-4165-9147-8[/li][li]Cauldron of Ghosts (forthcoming)[/li][/ul]
** Young adult series**
Weber’s chronologically earliest Honorverse novel, it focuses on Stephanie Harrington and the discovery of treecats.
[ul]
[li]A Beautiful Friendship (October 2011) ISBN 978-1-4516-3747-2[/li][li]Fire Season[19] (forthcoming, October 2012) with Jane Lindskold, ISBN 978-1-4516-3840-0[/li][li]The Treecat Wars with Jane Lindskold[20][21] (forthcoming) with Jane Lindskold[/li][/ul]
These are SF/Fantasy focused.
Lois Bujold writes very strong female characters, I would recommend starting with her. Some of all of these authors are available free as ebooks on BaenEbooks.com so you can either read the whole book, or go to the author’s listings and get sample chapters to decide if you want to invest in the books.
What types of books are you willing to have a go at reading, SF. fantasy, romance, chick lit, urban horror chick lit [Mary Janice Davidson has a series called Undead and <various> that is a funny take on a fashionista into shoes that gets turned into a vampire. ]
I don’t believe that Jasper Fforde’s Thursday Next series has been mentioned yet. All are creative, very well done, riffs on English literature. Definitely in the ‘Modern Fantasy’ camp, but explicitly not cheesy like Twilight.
The Curse of Chalion has a male protagonist.
I am not the biggest fan of Science Fiction or Fantasy but I do like vampires, werewolves, etc. Romance…not so much. It’s okay if there is romance built into it but not straight up. Chick lit is fine.
I have read all the Amelia Peabody books. They are amongst my favourites. I have read Twilight (those books are like crack).
I also like Kelly Armstrong’s books.
And I have read ever Sookie Stackhouse book that has been put out.
So, really the key is that they are:
Not very intelectually intensive
Female protagonists
Many books as I read fast
So far, I have 13 new series to try from all the suggestions (limited mostly by the availability at the library of the books). If you guys have more, keep it up. This is great!
I see that Sharing Knife and Cordelia’s Honor already got mentions, so I’ll just toss in Sabriel by Garth Nix; There are other books in the series, but this one is far and away the best, and the protagonist is completely awesome.
Seconded. I’m still not sure if I actually like the protagonist, but I definitely like reading about her.
Seconded, thirded, then passed by fiat. Jame is my favorite protagonist of either sex, ever. (As to her accident-prone-ness…“In this household, invalids do not come casually tumbling downstairs.”) If you do ebooks, they’re available directly from Baen for $5 each.
Just what I came in to recommend. Fforde is a freaking genius - he manages to work in a lot of subtle in-jokes into an enormously complicated and intricate plot (for example, something the character does overtly in the first book of the series pops up in the fourth at a key moment). If you like Pratchett you’ll probably like Fforde.
Same here, and I started getting bored at about the same point. The Will-she-won’t-she-and-with-whom stuff wears thin after a while, but it’s fun early on. Also, I’d hate to be her auto insurer.
Seconded. The BBC television series based on these (starring Jill Scott) is also very good.
Philip Reeve has a number of books with strong female protagonists, although they’re rarely happy. The Mortal Engines books have a male and a female lead (and later another young girl becomes a key character), and the prequels in progress (the Fever Crumb books) have a female lead as well. Also check out his Here Lies Arthur - another young female lead and an interesting but cynical take on Arthurian legend.
I’ll admit that a lot of the appeal for me is the protagonist being based in Seattle. The first couple books had the action taking place in locations I’ve actually visited and so could see in my head. I’ve also done a bit of exploring of older parts of Seattle on foot, so for some of the non-specified locations I was able to picture likely places where the scene might be taking place. The author also mentioned, in the first book, I think, a Seattle business that is owned by a guy I worked for over here in Wenatchee, WA (well, I actually worked for his wife, who was from here; they bought a local bar and I cooked for them there). Labyrinth, the 4th(?*) book in the series has important scenes in and around Leavenworth, WA, about 25 miles from Wenatchee, and the author did a great job of describing it accurately.
*Book Pet Peeve: Publishers who don’t number the books in a series, even when the books need to be read in a certain order to fully understand the story. The hardcopy books in this series have no numbers on the covers, my Kindle copy of Labyrinth just says: “Labyrinth: A Greywalker Novel”. The only place I’ve found the proper sequence is Amazon.com, where they’ve added “Book One”, “Book Two”, etc. to the descriptions.
Have you ever looked at goodreads.com? It’s really excellent for looking up book series. The book titles always have a number and a link to the series list. An author’s page will have links to all of their book series. Here’s the Greywalker series: http://www.goodreads.com/series/41939-greywalker
Diane Mott Davidson has a series of cooking related murder mysteries featuring Goldy the caterer that I truly LOVE!
Lisa Scottoline might be a good option. The ones I’ve read have a female lead, most but not all are legal thrillers.
Carol O’Connor’s Mallory books are a good series of crime fiction, not for someone looking for primarily light-hearted diversions, though. The premise is that she is a functioning sociopath, who tries to act ‘as if’ she has a conscience. This is WAY before Dexter, I must point out.
Hey, thanks!