# Guys, which novels with a female main character do you particularly like? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 8, 2017, 1:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guys-which-novels-with-a-female-main-character-do-you-particularly-like/788407 "2017-06-08T01:31:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2017, 2:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guys-which-novels-with-a-female-main-character-do-you-particularly-like/788407/41 "2017-06-08T14:13:13Z")
> [@kenobi\_65](#): > > [The Deed of Paksenarrion](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Deed_of_Paksenarrion), by Elizabeth Moon. Fantasy novel (originally a trilogy), about a female paladin. Agreed. Most of the D&D Forgotten Realms books are trash but I still read a bunch of them back in high school and remember “Azure Bonds” to be a fairly enjoyable exception. ---
**Author:** ![cmkeller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmkeller/32/118_2.png) [@cmkeller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmkeller)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2017, 2:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guys-which-novels-with-a-female-main-character-do-you-particularly-like/788407/42 "2017-06-08T14:35:37Z")
I’m a big fan of Sue Grafton’s Kinsey Millhone series. ---
**Author:** ![Paintcharge](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/paintcharge/32/7946_2.png) [@Paintcharge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paintcharge)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2017, 2:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guys-which-novels-with-a-female-main-character-do-you-particularly-like/788407/43 "2017-06-08T14:48:46Z")
I just finished the [Fallen Empire](https://www.amazon.com/Star-Nomad-Fallen-Empire-Book-ebook/dp/B01FWOW72W/ref=sr_1_24?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1496933088&sr=1-24&keywords=Lindsay+Buroker) series. Which is kind of like gender swapped Firefly. I also love the Tuesday Next books by Jasper Fforde. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2017, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guys-which-novels-with-a-female-main-character-do-you-particularly-like/788407/44 "2017-06-08T15:16:07Z")
Quite a few, actually: _Pride and Prejudice_ by Jane Austen _A Tree Grows in Brooklyn_ by Betty Smith _To Kill A Mockingbird_ by Harper Lee _Friday_ by Robert A. Heinlein _Memoir of a Geisha_ by Arthur Golden _Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood_ by Rebecca Wells _Wicked_ by Gregory Maguire _The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency_ by Alexander McCall Smith _The Secret Life of Bees_ by Sue Monk Kidd _A Widow for One Year_ by John Irving _The Red Tent_ by Anita Diamant _The Time Traveler’s Wife_ by Audrey Niffenegger _The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo_ by Stieg Larsson _Gone Girl_ by Gillian Flynn _Life After Life_ by Kate Atkinson I’d be happy to go into more detail about any of these. > [@eburacum45](#): > > …_Contact,_ by Carl Sagan. Agreed, but this is one of the few times IMHO where the movie is actually better than the book. > [@Chronos](#): > > …Asimov’s _I, Robot_ isn’t really a novel, and different stories have different characters, but to the extent that there’s one main character of the book as a whole, it’s Dr. Susan Calvin… Yup. Read Harlan Ellison’s excellent unproduced screenplay, and she’s even more important. ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2017, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guys-which-novels-with-a-female-main-character-do-you-particularly-like/788407/45 "2017-06-08T15:16:16Z")
> [@Some\_Call\_Me.Tim](#): > > If she’s a second main character, the book still does not match the requirements requested by the OP, and underlined. :smack: ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2017, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guys-which-novels-with-a-female-main-character-do-you-particularly-like/788407/46 "2017-06-08T16:56:09Z")
> [@iiandyiiii](#): > > Terry Pratchett’s Discworld books about the witches (don’t recall their names) I like the Tiffany Aching series myself, along with the Witches- Wyrd Sisters , Witches Abroad, Lords and Ladies, Maskerade, & Carpe Jugulum. Hogfather &Thief of Time with Susan Sto Helit, Monstrous Regiment also have female protagonists. Tanya Huff. Connie Willis. Jessica Day George , Patricia C. Wrede . Do the Hawk & Fisher series with a wife and husband partner count? The Pern series. ---
**Author:** ![Balance](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ccd318/32.png) [@Balance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balance)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2017, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guys-which-novels-with-a-female-main-character-do-you-particularly-like/788407/47 "2017-06-08T18:27:56Z")
> [@Quartz](#): > > IIRC some of the Pern books have only one main character. Moreta, for instance, or Menolly. This is correct. _Dragonsong_ and _Dragonsinger_, from the _Harper Hall_ Trilogy, feature Menolly as the sole protagonist in a girl’s coming of age story. _Moreta_’s protagonist is a woman who has a semi-legendary status in books later in the chronology; the book is sort of the unabridged version of the ballad immortalizing her deeds. The two Menolly books have always been among my favorites in the series. They’re “young adult” books, but they’re a refreshing contrast to the heaviness of the main storyline. ---
**Author:** ![Ulf\_the\_Unwashed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Ulf\_the\_Unwashed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ulf_the_Unwashed)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2017, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guys-which-novels-with-a-female-main-character-do-you-particularly-like/788407/48 "2017-06-08T18:31:03Z")
Quite a few: Alice Walker’s _The Color Purple_ Pretty much anything by Laura Lippman (various characters, mostly in and around Baltimore) Many of the novels of Sharyn McCrumb (I was always partial to _If I’d Killed Him When I Met Him_) Sara Paretsky (the VI Warshawski novels) Some of Lisa Scottoline’s works (lawyers in Philadelphia) _Crow Lake_ (Mary Lawson) _To Kill a Mockingbird_ (Harper Lee) I liked the early Flavia de Luce novels by Alan Somebody (Bradbury, maybe?) And the early Scarpetta novels by Patricia Cornwell, till the series dived over a cliff. As an adult, I liked the Little House on the Prairie seres very much. (I didn;t read them as a kid.) There are others, I’m sure. I drew a sharp distinction as a boy between “books I would read” and “girls’ books,” and so did most of my (male) friends. What’s interesting, looking back, is how many books-with-girls-as-protagonists did not apparently qualify as “girls’ books.” I read, reread, and thoroughly enjoyed, among others Harriet the Spy Ramona the Pest Alice in Wonderland The Wizard of Oz A Wrinkle in Time …Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler Pippi Longstocking and certainly felt no embarrassment about being seen reading them. But things like the Betsy-Tacy books, or Little Women, or some other books that Madeleine L’Engle wrote, or A Little Princess…that was different, and I wouldn’t have been caught with one of those in my hands. (And maybe I knew something…I had to read a section of Little Women recently for a project I was wroking on, and we will just say it is very far from being my cup of tea…) Anyway, simply having a girl as the main character of a book did not damn it the eyes of me or my friends. ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_R.Mortiss](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tim_r.mortiss/32/142_2.png) [@Tim\_R.Mortiss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_R.Mortiss)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2017, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guys-which-novels-with-a-female-main-character-do-you-particularly-like/788407/49 "2017-06-08T18:49:35Z")
Jack Vance’s _Araminta Station_. And of course _Atlas Shrugged_. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2017, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guys-which-novels-with-a-female-main-character-do-you-particularly-like/788407/50 "2017-06-08T18:57:52Z")
> [@The\_Tooth](#): > > “The Mirror of her Dreams” and “A Man Rides Through” by Stephen R. Donaldson. > [@Ranchoth](#): > > _A Wrinkle in Time_ > [@dalej42](#): > > The Joanna Brady novels by J.A. Jance > [@Chronos](#): > > all of Pratchett’s Witches books and Monstrous Regiment (the Susan books arguably count as well, though they also feature DEATH as a major character) > [@Ulf\_the\_Unwashed](#): > > Many of the novels of Sharyn McCrumb (I was always partial to _If I’d Killed Him When I Met Him_) > Sara Paretsky (the VI Warshawski novels) All of the above, and I’ll add: Jan Burke’s Irene Kelly detective novels, especially from _Hocus_ on. ---
**Author:** ![GargoyleWB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gargoylewb/32/199_2.png) [@GargoyleWB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GargoyleWB)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2017, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guys-which-novels-with-a-female-main-character-do-you-particularly-like/788407/51 "2017-06-08T19:00:30Z")
_Tommyknoc-_ Ow! Who threw that? ---
**Author:** ![Telperion](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telperion/32/509_2.png) [@Telperion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telperion)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2017, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guys-which-novels-with-a-female-main-character-do-you-particularly-like/788407/52 "2017-06-08T20:59:58Z")
> [@GargoyleWB](#): > > _Tommyknoc-_ Ow! Who threw that? _Dolores Claiborne_ is really good though. Also Raymond E. Feists _Daughter of the Empire_ series. ---
**Author:** ![Dancer\_Flight](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dancer_flight/32/7601_2.png) [@Dancer\_Flight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dancer_Flight)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2017, 5:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guys-which-novels-with-a-female-main-character-do-you-particularly-like/788407/53 "2017-06-09T05:09:07Z")
Just picked up the latest Confederation (Peacekeeper) Book by Tanya Huff. The later books shift viewpoints, but the first had only Staff Sergeant Torin Kerr as the protagonist. This was my 5-6th ish reread of the series in prep for the new book. Also thirding (or whatevering) the Deed of Paksenarion (Elizabeth Moon), also Once a Hero (well, most of the Serrano Series), and Vatta’s War series, A Wrinkle in Time (L’Engle), Friday, To Sail beyond the Sunset (Heinlein), early Honor Harrington, In Fury Born (Weber) Cordelia’s Honor (Omnibus, Bujold) Dancer of the Sixth (out of print now, by Michelle Shirey Crean) Expendable, Vigilant, Ascending, Radiant (James Alan Gardner - The entire League of Peoples series is excellent, but the listed ones have female protagonists) -DF ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2017, 5:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guys-which-novels-with-a-female-main-character-do-you-particularly-like/788407/54 "2017-06-09T05:42:41Z")
I love Jasper Fforde’s Thursday Next series. Yes, she has a habit of getting saved from things to some extent. But I love her and the stories just the same. It’s just the right type of fantasy for me. And, while she has a husband, that means no romance plots thrown in, either. Oh, and she actually gets older. Nothing else comes to mind right now. But that series will always be in mind when people mention female protagonists. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2017, 6:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guys-which-novels-with-a-female-main-character-do-you-particularly-like/788407/55 "2017-06-09T06:52:33Z")
Another vote for Paksennarion; I’m actually re-reading the series right now in fact. ---
**Author:** ![Sangahyando](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f14d63/32.png) [@Sangahyando](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sangahyando)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2017, 9:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guys-which-novels-with-a-female-main-character-do-you-particularly-like/788407/56 "2017-06-09T09:37:22Z")
I’ll put in a word for the Daisy Dalrymple series of mysteries, by Carola Dunn, set in the 1920s. They’re on the “cosy” side of the mystery genre; and Daisy, the heroine and amateur sleuth, is a splendid character and all-round good egg – but IMO, none of all the foregoing, is as much thus as to be cloying / sickening: balance got just right, I feel. ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2017, 10:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guys-which-novels-with-a-female-main-character-do-you-particularly-like/788407/57 "2017-06-09T10:13:38Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > I love Jasper Fforde’s Thursday Next series. Yes, she has a habit of getting saved from things to some extent. But I love her and the stories just the same. It’s just the right type of fantasy for me. And, while she has a husband, that means no romance plots thrown in, either. Oh, and she actually gets older. Ooo yes. I absolutely second these (although the “Nursery Crime” spinoffs are not as good and don’t feature Thursday). ---
**Author:** ![Albert\_Rose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9de053/32.png) [@Albert\_Rose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Albert_Rose)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2017, 11:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guys-which-novels-with-a-female-main-character-do-you-particularly-like/788407/58 "2017-06-09T11:02:06Z")
I’ll heartily recommend any of the Jane Austen novels, especially **Emma** and **Pride and Prejudice**. My favorite author of recent times has been [Lois McMaster Bujold](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lois_McMaster_Bujold), who was already mentioned upthread; she tends to have strong female leads. I much enjoyed [Paladin of Souls](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paladin_of_Souls). It is an excellent book about finding our place in our own personal God’s plan for the world. A very satisfying story. (Second in a series) I’ll second **Chapterhouse: Dune** , although I do get a little put off sometimes by Herbert’s writing. If comics count, I’ll throw in Brian Bendis’s **Alias**. Jessica Jones is one of Marvel’s best characters. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2017, 1:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guys-which-novels-with-a-female-main-character-do-you-particularly-like/788407/59 "2017-06-09T13:18:50Z")
Some of my likes have already been covered, but I don’t think anyone has mentioned Tim Pratt’s [Marla Mason](http://marlamason.net/) books yet. ---
**Author:** ![Enter\_the\_Flagon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b9bd4f/32.png) [@Enter\_the\_Flagon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enter_the_Flagon)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2017, 2:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guys-which-novels-with-a-female-main-character-do-you-particularly-like/788407/60 "2017-06-09T14:15:53Z")
Tess of the d’Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guys-which-novels-with-a-female-main-character-do-you-particularly-like/788407.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/guys-which-novels-with-a-female-main-character-do-you-particularly-like/788407.md?page=4)