Below is my response to the Science Fiction Book Club's list of the most...

[catherineldf]

significant SF novels published between 1953-2006 (swiped from lj://user/tambyrd/ with apologies). The Book Club only managed to include six books by five women authors (Le Guin's listed twice), something which I found annoying.
The list below includes a number of works by women that I or other writers or readers I know have found influentual or significant. I have not, alas, read all of them yet. I cheated and included one short story by Tiptree and a lot of fantasy just because. It took me about a half hour of perusing my bookcases and one or two bibliographies; I wonder how long the SF Book Club took with theirs…
It is a meme of sorts. Feel free to add to it, pass it around and/or use it as a recommended reading list.

The meme part of this works like so:
Bold the ones you have read,
strike through the ones you read and hated
italicize those you started but never finished
and put a star next to the ones you love.

1. The Female Man, Joanna Russ *
2. The Left Hand of Darkness, Ursula K. Le Guin *
3. The Shattered Chain, Marion Zimmer Bradley *
4. The Mists of Avalon, Marion Zimmer Bradley
5. Witchworld, Andre Norton
6. Frankenstein, Mary Shelley
7. Walk to the End of the World, Suzy McKee Charnas
8. Volkhavaar, Tanith Lee *
9. Brown Girl in the Ring, Nalo Hopkinson *
10. Kindred, Octavia Butler
11. Memoirs of a Spacewoman, Naomi Mitchison
12. I, Vampire, Jody Scott
13. War for the Oaks, Emma Bull *
14. Native Tongue, Suzette Hadin Elgin
15. Handmaid's Tale, Margaret Atwood
16. Tomoe Gozen, Jessica Amanda Salmonson
17. The Oathbound, Mercedes Lackey
18. Shadow Man, Melissa Scott
19. Ammonite, Nicola Griffith
20. Four Ways to Forgiveness, Ursula K. Le Guin *
21. Eglalia's Daughters, Gerd Brantenberg
22. Dreamsnake, Vonda Mcintyre
23. Woman on the Edge of Time, Marge Piercy
24. The Wanderground, Sally Gearhart
25. "The Women Men Don't See," James Tiptree, Jr.
26. Sarah Canary, Karen Joy Fowler
27. God Stalk, P.C. Hodgell *
28. Deerskin, Robin McKinley
29. Stranger at the Wedding, Barbara Hambly
30. Les Guérrillès, Monique Wittig
31. Herland, Charlotte Perkins Gilman
32. Dawn, Octavia Butler
33. A Woman of the Iron People, Eleanor Arnason
34. Carmen Dog, Carol Emshwiller
35. The Sardonyx Net, Elizabeth Lynn
36. The Gate into Women's Country, Sherry Tepper
37. Beggers in Spain, Nancy Kress
38. Barrayar, Lois McMaster Bujold *
39. White Queen, Gwyneth Jones
40. Thinner than Thou, Kit Reed
41. The Travails of Jane Saint and Other Stories, Josephine Saxton
42. Saints and Sinners, Angela Carter
43. The Shore of Women, Pamela Sargent
44. Sister Light, Sister Dark. Jane Yolen
45. Through a Brazen Mirror, Delia Sherman *
46. The Book of Morgaine, C.J. Cherryh
47. Yesterday We Saw Mermaids, Esther Friesner *
48. Gossamer Axe, Gael Baudino *
49. The Snow Queen, Joan Vinge
50. Mindplayers, Pat Cadigan

Comments

The Women Men Don't See

[apostle-of-eris.livejournal.com]

“The Women Men Don't See,” James Tiptree, Jr.

is, for me, definitive. I still remember reading it in F&SF when it first came out, and was floored. It's stunningly complete. It says it all.

Re: The Women Men Don't See

[catherineldf.livejournal.com]

This is one of the reasons that I'm floored that none of Tiptree's work made the most 'significant' books list. It looks like they used the criteria of sales figures for several of the few women they included (Rice, Rowling, etc.) rather than putting any thought into what constituted a book being important or actually having an impact on the field. I mean how can you leave Octavia Butler off the list entirely and include ''The Sword of Shannara?" Who exactly did the latter influence (especially if LOTR's already included)? All in all, I thought the Book Club's list was pretty pathetic. :-(