I am looking for some new ideas for our Women in STEM book club… usually these kind of book clubs tend to lean towards non-fiction/professional development, but we really all prefer to read fiction, and I would appreciate some recommendations from any fiction genre.
by eek5445
18 Comments
*Annihilation* by Jeff VanderMeer. Bonus points that it’s nice and short, about 200 pages. Great way to dip your toes into fiction as a club!
The Psychology of Time Travel by Kate Mascarenhas
Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus
Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins Reid
Three Body Problem
A lot of the answers here (understandably) assume you want female protagonists. But The Martian by Andy Weir is an excellent science based fiction book.
Maybe The Lady Astronaut series.
The Calculating Stars by Mary Robinette Kowal
Luminous, the story of a Radium Girl, by Samantha Wilcoxson
To Be Taught, If Fortunate by Becky Chambers
The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood — romance but the author has a background in STEM, so a lot of her books are about women in STEM/academia.
Maybe Tell Me an Ending by Jo Harkin? Speculative fiction about memory erasure, and the author did a fair amount of research into studies on memory, identity and selective amnesia.
If you want to go down the women in science in fiction written by women route, here are some books I think could work really well for a book club:
– Lady Tan’s Circle of Women: set in China. historical fiction about a groundbreaking female doctor
– There are rivers in the sky: multiple overlapping stories that are beautifully woven together. One story features a weather / water scientist. Water is a unifying theme through the boom (kind of like the overstory if you’ve read that)
– Orbital: set on the international space station with male and female astronauts. Filled with awe and wonder
– tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow: a group computer engineers build a game company. Feels like a romance novel but for friendship. Wonderful insight into the early computer game industry
– Lessons in Chemistry: a female chemist breaking glass ceilings in the 60s. This book got both my mum and dad out of reading slumps. It’s delightful.
The Only Woman in the Room
My Secret Garden, by Nancy Friday. Short story anthology.
Lessons in Chemistry
Slewfoot by Brom
All Fours by Miranda July
Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie
Good Night, Irene by Luis Alberto Urrea if you want to give some historical fiction a try. It is a story based on the author’s mother’s Red Cross service in WWII.
The Yellow Wife by Sadeqa Johnson if you want a very heavy topic, but one that is worth the time to know.
Take My Hand by Dolen Perkins-Valdez about a Black nurse in Alabama post-segregation
Although it’s nonfiction, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks has a really good narrative quality.
For fiction, agree with those recommending Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus and Atmosphere by Taylor Reid Jenkins. Wild Dark Shores by Charlotte McConaghy is also worth a look for something a bit darker.
I’d suggest books based on unorthodox thinking or strong women, rather than science themed per se – i find i nitpick books that have charicatures of women in science (lessons in chemistry) or ick factor from being reminded of a worship culture / people i dont love (tomorrow tomorrow tomorrow). what about a complicated kindness, cloud cuckoo land, the penelopiad?