Anne Tyler is a great storyteller. Her stories are generally about families. I've just read "A Spool of Blue Thread" and thought some of you might like it because one of its themes is caregiving. The first third of the book focuses on an elderly woman who doesn't accept that she is declining and her adult children who try to take care of her. I think it presents both sides of this conflict very well. It reminded me of many posts on this site! The rest of the book is also about caring about and for family. Tyler is very good at showing an event from several different perspectives.
It brings back memories of a PBS program on women who worked at Bletchley Park during WWII. Fascinating, and wonderful to see a program of women at such important levels of the war effort.
Wanted a change of pace with a different historical slant so I'm now reading Steve Barry's The Lost Order, about knights which amassed a fortune. Sounds like it's based on the Templars.
And of course there are the ever present gardening magazines, especially The English Garden, which is like a visual combination of Godiva and Lindt chocolates, and truly inspirational.
Spencer Quinn's Chet and Bernie books are also good mysteries with dogs. Bernie is a private detective who solves mysteries with the help of his dog Chet, who narrates the books. Chet's take on events can be really funny. The first one is called Dog on It.
What are others reading?
Anne Bishop - novels of The Others - alternate world fantasy with werewolves, vampires, etc. She is a tremendous writer with a gift for writing ways about other Races, not just humans with super gifts. Relationship issues and the idea of human property rights.
Nora Roberts - also writes as J D Robb with Eve a strong female detective in future New York. Lots of sex, though, with her husband after much drama pre-wedding.
Seanan McGuire - also writes as Mira Grant - urban fantasy with great female character that combines modern earth with elves, etc. Under Mira Grant wrote a series about a zombie outbreak, government conspiracy and electronic journalism.
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Oh, goodness! I just did a google search and apparently there are a few! Lol.
She writes mostly about Ancient Egypt, though there was one about Boudica and the Roman invasion of Britain (The Eagle and the Raven) that was pretty good. Anyway, if you like the kind of historical non-romance novels where the writing is excellent, the women are strong characters, and where you almost feel you can actually see, smell, touch, hear, and taste everything, she's the one.
I recommend Child of the Morning to start, which is about Hatshepsut, the female Pharoah. That's the first one I ever picked up. I think the only thing she got wrong was how she died, and that's because it was written before they discovered how! So it was a pretty good guess. And also the two-parter, House of Dreams and House of Illusions, which is about a fictional peasant girl who rises up into Ramses III's harem. (I think these 2 had different names in some countries....Lady of the Reeds was one of the titles, maybe?)
the Jane Whitfield series by Thomas Perry (yes, I do sometimes read male authors, but the protagonist is still a kick ass woman!)
And if you like supernatural mysteries - Women of the Otherworld series by Kelly Armstrong, the Hollows series by Kim Harrison, Jane Yellowrock series by Faith Hunter, Mercy Thompson by Patricia Briggs, and the first few books of the Anita Blake series by Laurell K Hamilton (before the author discovered sex and turned them all into porn), oh, and the Sookie Stackhouse books by Charlaine Harris were a lot of fun!
Yeah, I gravitate toward women authors with strong female protagonists!
Oh, and Marcia Muller too.
Have you ever read Laurie R. King?