Confessions of a Sexist Reader

I just finished reading a great novel, “The Rules of Seeing“.

But here’s the thing: it was written by a man. Shock horror!

I can literally count on one hand the number of books by male authors I read in a year – which is quite sexist of me really, when you consider that I love to read, devouring roughly two novels per week.

But – most of the time, I only read books by female authors.

In fact, in the three years or so that I’ve been tracking my reading habits on Good Reads, only 11 male authors have cropped up in the list of 315 books I’ve read! I’m no good at maths but I’m pretty sure that’s less than 1%.

For a long time I refused to read any novel written by a man, mainly due to my taste in books. I enjoyed a steady diet of historical romance and chick lit, which tend to be written by women.

I was convinced that a mere man couldn’t write in a way that would be interesting to me as a woman. Men are from Mars Women are from Venus and all that – men just don’t get emotions and nuance and want to delve into characters – aren’t they all about the action?

There are a couple of notable exceptions – like Nicholas Sparks (“The Notebook“) and John Green (“The Fault in our Stars“).

I’ve never really been into crime, suspense, sci fi, thrillers, horrors, action and adventure, fantasy, westerns, detective novels, mysteries, and the like which means I haven’t read too many books by male authors.

However the last year or two I have consciously tried to expand my reading repertoire, dabbling in other genres – and I’ve discovered that men can write a great story too!

Here are some of the male authors and their books that I’ve enjoyed.

5 Male Authors to Try

Todd McCaffrey. One of my exes introduced me to the “Dragons of Pern” series, by Anne McCaffrey, over 30 years ago – best described as a mix of sci fi and fantasy. These days, her son Todd McCaffrey has picked up the pen and continues to write stories about the planet Pern. So it was relatively easy to transition to a male author in this case, as he was writing about the world his mother had created many years before.

Robin Sloan. I’m pretty sure that when I first picked up “Mr Penumbra’s 24 Hour Bookstore” I thought Robin was a girl. But I enjoyed the book so much I forgave him for being male, and went on to read “Sourdough“. Both delve into the realm of fantasy.

Daryl Gregory. My folks gave me “Spoonbenders” for my birthday one year and it was a rollicking good read about a family with psychic abilities. Not sure what genre it belongs to – sci fi? Fantasy?

Gregoire Delacourt. “The List of My Desires” is about a middle aged woman who wins millions on the lottery but doesn’t tell anyone. It’s been translated from the French by Anita Bell, so did I perceive a woman’s touch in the English version that may have been lacking in the original?!

Nicolas Barreau. I loved “Paris is Always a Good Idea” – how can you not love a book with that as the title. But guess what. Turns out ol’ Nicolas is actually a pseudonym of the German author Daniela Thiele – a woman!

So it turns out I’m a bit of a “reverse sexist” in my reading habits, but I *am* trying to change my ways.

Can you recommend any other male authors that are worth checking out?!

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