Need some author recommendations

[jbcohen]

My wife is in a local hospital as an in-patient and has a lot of time on her hands. I brought her down my copy of an early Clive Cussler, that did a belly flop. So I finally went to a local Barns and Nobels (she does not have an ereader of any sort, but that's another story) and got her A is for Alibi, her sister once commented that she likes Sue Grafton so I figured my wife would like it as well. My wife has not told me if she likes the book yet or not. What are a few good women's authors? She does not often read romance novels.

[Mike L]

What exactly do you mean by "women's authors"? An author that is read by women? But surely that would cover virtually every writer currently in print. Or, an author who writes books likely to appeal to women? But that would include just about every genre, from historical fiction to thrillers and back again.

Sorry, I'm not trying to be facetious. My point is that it's difficult to recommend a book without knowing the sort of stuff your wife likes to read.

Mike

[MickeyC]

Recommend you try Literature Map here http://www.literature-map.com/

You enter an author's name (for example: Sue Grafton) and hit return. That window closes and another opens with Sure Grafton's name in the center and other authors arrayed around her. The closer they are, the more like her they are.

[elemenoP]

What authors or books has she liked in the past?

[jbcohen]

[QUOTE=cassidym;2713943]Recommend you try Literature Map here http://www.literature-map.com/

I know about the literature map however I did not think about that one, you are probably right.

[Yapyap]

Some kind of starting point for what she's liked in the (recent) past would be helpful, yes. Women tend to like as many different things as men do - even if there are probably relatively more women into romance and relatively more men into thrillers and hard science fiction, it doesn't follow that any given woman will prefer romance or any given man will prefer hard science fiction and thrillers.

I am a woman and my favourite genres, currently, are urban fantasy (but not paranormal romance), mysteries (from cosy to police procedurals, depending on my mood), science fiction (space opera and character-driven, rather than hard), and speculative YA. I don't know I'd rec any of that to someone who might prefer historical fiction, epic fantasy or literary fiction instead, though.

As a very general guideline, if you don't know what she'd like, sticking to women authors whose books have women as protagonists might not be a bad idea, though. This is absolutely not a guarantee of any sort, obviously, but in a hit-or-miss situation, I think the likelihood of a total miss is a little bit smaller.

[Mike L]

Another idea: Have you asked your wife what kind of books she likes? Surely, she would know better than we do.

Mike

[NickyWithNook]

I could tell you what some of my favorite books are, as a woman who doesn't read romance novels (as opposed to novels that might or might not have romantic elements in them), but women have different tastes so I would also need a starting point.

[crich70]

Nancy Kopp is a good read. She has 5 books that are best described as legal thrillers. Patricia Cornwell is another good writer. Her Kay Scarpetta series is good.