Friday, March 11, 2011

I Desperately Need More Men (from Books) in My Life

While staring at the mountain of books stacked on my dresser, I realized that all of them had something in common.

They all feature female main characters.

This would be a bigger issue if I was reading the same kinds of books, but I'm really not. Sure, most of them are YA, but I have everything from paranormal to historical fiction to mystery to romance. I kid you not when I say that ALL OF THEM are lady-centric.

Now, part of this makes sense. I am of the lady persuasion (in case you were wondering), so it can be argued that I naturally migrate toward books about "people" I have something in common with. Apparently this thing is being female.

Another notable commonality is that the majority of these books are written by women. And women writing female characters makes perfect sense--you write what you know. I'm not saying that women are incapable of writing great male characters because I am ABSOLUTELY NOT saying that. Hello, female writers have blessed us with Jace, Cassel, the Salvatore brothers, MR. DARCY, and a slew of swoon-worthy others. I'm just saying that it makes sense for women to create female main characters and then, from there, surround them with amazing male characters.

But I digress.

What this all boils down to is my desire to read more books about male main characters. And if it's a book written by a man, awesome. If not, that's awesome too. So, I implore you, dear reader, to suggest books about dudes for me to read. Because I desperately need more men in my life.

3 comments:

  1. Twisted by Laurie Halse Anderson was amazing. It's a male MC, and he's awesome. So well written. I just, love me some LHA.

    Monster by Walter Dean Meyers. About a 16 yr old in prison, I believe awaiting trial, and it's always really vague about whether he is guilty or not. The book is written as if the MC is writing a screenplay/movie. So good.

    A Solitary Blue and The Runner by Cynthia Voigt. These are books 3 and 4 of The Tillerman Saga by Voigt, but are about side characters and don't *have* to be read in order, or with the other books. This IS one of my absolute favorite series from childhood, I think these books are amazing. I recommend all of them, beginning with Homecoming, but these two are most definitely among my favorites.

    The Pipers Son by Melina Marchetta is also a new favorite. Really, anything by Marchetta is brilliant, but TPS is narrated by a boy. It's a companion novel, and follows one of the characters from Saving Francesca. You don't *have* to read SF first, but I loved it, so I'd recommend it.

    The Replacement by Brenna Yovanoff is paranormal YA with a male MC. Also very good.

    You Don't Know Me by David Klass is another I'd highly recommend.

    Hope this helps some! :)

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  2. Anything by John Green. Please read him, you certainly won't regret it. He's just fantastic.

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  3. Thanks so much for the recs! Y'all are awesome!

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