VPL - Books Just For You - Short Stories, Fantasy, and Sci-Fi with a Feminist BentLike this list

15 items

• Salt Fish Girl

  a Novel

  Lai, Larissa

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  Set alternately in nineteenth-century China and a futuristic Pacific Northwest, this compelling read tells the story of a shape-shifter named Nu Wa and a troubled girl named Miranda. Though they’re separated by space and time, their lives are…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Annie and the Wolves

  Romano-Lax, Andromeda, 1970-

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  This genre-bending work of speculative fiction follows Ruth, a scholar obsessed with Annie Oakley. As a modern-day historian, Ruth's own theory is that Oakley's possibly traumatic past was the driving force that led her to shooting sports. A…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• The Office of Historical Corrections

  a Novella and Stories

  Evans, Danielle

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  Finalist for the Story Prize. Long listed for the Aspen Words Literary Prize. Character-driven short stories about race, grief, love, apology, and American history.

• Jagannath

  (stories)

  Tidbeck, Karin, 1977-

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  Surreal and fantastical short stories.

• The Future Is Female!

  25 Classic Science Fiction Stories by Women, From Pulp Pioneers to Ursula K. Le Guin

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  A collection of classic American science fiction by women from the 1920s to the 1960s. Including stories of gender-bending aliens and space-opera heroines among many more.

• The Fifth Season

  Jemisin, N. K.

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  Set on a planet known as the Stillness, where an environmentally disastrous "fifth season" occurs every few centuries. One day, Essun, a mother of two, finds that her daughter's been kidnapped and embarks on a quest to save her; however, the journey…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Burnt Sugar

  Doshi, Avni, 1982-

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  A love story of betrayal and obsession, not between lovers but between a mother and daughter. Shortlisted for the Booker Prize for Fiction.

• Falling in Love With Hominids

  Hopkinson, Nalo,

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  This collection from Canadian-Jamacian author Nalo Hopkinson, features women who rage against hierarchies and oppression, and contains many of her recurring themes - Caribbean folklore, race, class, sexuality and other cultural and social issues.

• Her Body and Other Parties

  Stories

  Machado, Carmen Maria

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  Carmen Maria Machado's takes pressing feminist narratives, adds magic realism, and wraps the whole thing in gorgeous prose in this feminist short story collection.

• Crooked Hallelujah

  Ford, Kelli Jo

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  A Cherokee mother and daughter move from their home in Eastern Oklahoma's Indian Country to 1980's-era Texas, just in time for the great oil bust.

• Native Tongue

  Elgin, Suzette Haden

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  Feminist science fiction set in a dystopian future where women have been stripped of their civil rights. As an act of resistance, a group of female linguists create their own new language.

• And Yet They Were Happy

  Phillips, Helen, 1981-

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  A collection of fantasy short stories rendered through poetic prose.

• Motherhood

  Heti, Sheila, 1976-

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  Written by the acclaimed Canadian novelist Sheila Heti, Motherhood is a wry and thoughtful novel about the idea of motherhood, what it means to be a mother, and whether or not one chooses to be a mother.

• The Vanishing Half

  Bennett, Brit

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  Spanning the 1950s through the 1980s, this is a remarkable novel exploring the struggles of twin Black sisters who live in two different worlds, one passing for white, the other living in the same southern Black community where they both grew up.…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• The Push

  Audrain, Ashley, 1982-

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  This novel topped a number of "most-anticipated books of 2021" lists. The Push is a psychological family drama about the dark side of motherhood. It begins with Blythe Connor, who in the early days of motherhood, senses that something must be wrong…Read moreRead more of this annotation