readers advisory for all discussion

Let me clarify what I mean by "manly" here. I've noticed this trend in books where the female leads are all butch or coarse or in your face about whatever it is they are good at. They can kick your butt or stun you with a laser gun, and they're not afraid to tell you so.

I'm kind of sick of that. So what books have you read that have a female protagonist who doesn't need to spit and snarl in order to be strong?

Do you mean in fantasy, or sci fi? (You mention laser guns so I'm assuming you don't mean non-genre stuff. :D)

There's Patricia Briggs's Mercedes Thompson - she's not a girly-girl, but she is very definitely womanly. (Pretty much everything Patricia Briggs writes has strong female characters.)

Not sure if any of these are what you're looking for, but they're fantasies of all sorts which do feature strong female leads (if you're not looking for fantasy, then - move along, nothing to see here! XD) :

- Barbara Hambly's Bride of the Rat God
- Suzanne Johnson's Royal Street
- Sarah Rees Brennan's Unspoken
- Patricia C. Wrede & Caroline Stevermer - The Enchanted Chocolate Pot
- Rachel Caine's Weather Warden series
- Sharon Shinn's Twelve Houses
- Karen Marie Moning's Fever series

I could probably dig up some more if any of these sound good.

Shards of Honour
Traveling with the Dead
The Ships of Air
The Queen of Attolia

All fantasy, I think:
The Rising of the Moon
Dragonsbane
Gossamer Axe
Shades of Milk and Honey

Paladin of Souls

Sticking with the fantasy/science fiction direction as well, try these:

**Into the Forest by Jean Hegland
**The Freedom Maze: a novel by Delia Sherman
**Kindred by Octavia Butler
**Dawn by Octavia Butler
**Cold Magic by Kate Elliott
**Among Others by Jo Walton
**How I Live Now by Meg Rosoff
**The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms by N. K. Jemisin
**Remnant Population by Elizabeth Moon (this one stands out to me for having a much older female protagonist than most books do)

one more vote for Paladin of Souls, and becaue it's the last one I read by Patrician McKillip (I could pick any other book by her) : Alphabet of Thorn

One Green Bottle Cathy Canning, what a woman! Maybe too strong for her own good. It may be hard to get hold of though, my copy is included in One Step In The Clouds: An Omnibus Of Mountaineering Novels And Short Stories

Thank you for all these suggesitons! They look great.

And I do prefer fantasy, scifi, paranormal, or historical fiction, so these sound perfect.

one of my favorite scifi re-reads:

Hellspark

pjreads ♫ wrote: "one of my favorite scifi re-reads:

Hellspark"

+1

+2 - Been a while, but I loved that book.

This might provide more options: http://www.thegalaxyexpress.net/2012/...

So what books have you read that have a female protagonist who doesn't need to spit and snarl in order to be strong?

Jane Eyre

:-D

Sunshine by Robin McKinley has a very female yet strong protagonist. When she's not surviving kidnapping and ancient vampires she's baking delicious muffins.

This is a great question. Why are most of our answers sci-fi or fantasy?

I second Jane Eyre. She is my all time favorite heroine.

oh ok, this may be way out of line, but...

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13...

Shine, Shine, Shine, rises above the rest—and there are tons of recommendations i could give you—in its originality and uniqueness. The goodread reviews shift from people who LOVE it to people HATE it; a result, i think caused by over PR. It reminded me of Room, with its stark honesty, coupled with fault in our stars with its riveting and often revolting look into differences (but from a TOTALLY different perspective than no fault in our stars... she is bald!). There is no spitting. there is no claws. there is no snarls. But she is strength, in a very realistic, won't let her differences dictate who she is, sorta way. There is just love, disjointed by sickness, further agonized by miles and miles of universe.

I mentioned two others, Room, by Emma Donoghue; but in this case the female is sorta sidelined as a supportive character, but it fits your description, somewhat. This is most likely not what you are looking for, because the female character isn't central, nor is she on some epic journey. She is, however just trying to keep her sh*t together. There is a certain strength derived from motherhood that i totally respect, and partially don't understand.


Again, Fault in Our Stars is another recommendation of a strong female character, who, yes sometimes bites, sometimes spits, but only at herself. Of course she is not especially central to the book, as she shares the space with her lover, her companion. This doesn't diminish her role, which is clearly more central to the novel compared to other characters. It is her inner strength and courage that is especially noteworthy. I only recommend the latter because it is fresh in my mind, and it has radically changed my world view (in all seriousness).

i early said 'out of line' because, as you can see, these books share a certain psychological commonality. Central to each is a certain 'the threads of my life are tearing, and i am being torn asunder' sort of appeal that i love so much.