(no subject)

[lirazel]

A anon over on Tumblr dot com requested some recs for books about women that don't contain romance.

I answered with books in two categories:

Category 1: Books I love where there is a romantic interest, but it’s very much secondary and not the point of the book. A partnership might be there as part of the greater texture of human life, but it’s not the focus.

+ Till We Have Faces by C.S. Lewis

+ The Dazzle of Day by Molly Gloss

+ Tamsin by Peter S. Beagle

+ The Likeness by Tana French

+ Miss Pym Disposes by Josephine Tey

+ Picnic at Hanging Rock by Joan Lindsay

+ Rilla of Ingleside by L.M. Montgomery

+ The Steel Seraglio by the Careys

+ Kindred by Octavia Butler

Cateogry 2: books without any romance at all, not even as, like, a C-plot. The ones with * beside them have some subtextual stuff going on that some people (including me) often interpret as romantic, but it absolutely doesn't have to be.

+ Wise Child by Monica Furlong

+ The Tombs of Atuan by Ursula K. Le Guin*

+ Gullstruck Island, A Face Like Glass, or most Frances Hardinge books

+ Doomsday Book by Connie Willis*

+ Davita’s Harp by Chaim Potok

+ Chalice by Robin McKinley*

I will invite others to add to this list!