Passes the "Bechdel Test" Public

Created and curated by Phil in SF

This list contains books that:

  • have at least two women in them,
  • who talk to each other,
  • about something other than a man.

Wikipedia has a decent intro on the origins of the metric: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bechdel_test

Beware that this test is very limited in probative value. "The Bechdel test only indicates whether women are present in a work of fiction to a certain degree. A work may pass the test and still contain sexist content, and a work with prominent female characters may fail the test." This is just one thing a person may want to consider in their reading. There are many others.

I (@kingrat@sfba.club) track this in my reading as a check to make sure I am including reading that includes non-token female characters because American publishing often overly focuses on men's stories, and that is quite often reflected even more strongly in what American men choose to read.

  1. Sing Her Down by 

    4 stars

    No Country for Old Men meets Killing Eve in this gritty, feminist Western thriller from the award-winning author of These …

  2. Relentless Melt by 

    4 stars

    Stranger Things meets the Golden Age of Detective fiction in a rollicking supernatural detective thriller that introduces Artie Quick, a …

  3. The Murders in Great Diddling by 

    5 stars

    The best stories are the ones we didn’t know needed to be told.

    The small, rundown village of Great Diddling …

  4. New Under the Sun by ,

    3 stars

    Set in the near future, Nancy Kress’ story gives us a world increasingly hostile to new ideas as religious fundamentalism …

  5. Margo's Got Money Troubles by 

    No rating

    As the child of a Hooters waitress and an ex-pro wrestler, Margo Millet's always known she'd have to make it …

  6. Phil in SF says:

    our protagonist Emily discusses aging & making music with fellow female musicians

  7. A Shadow in Summer by  (Long Price Quartet)

    No rating

    From debut author Daniel Abraham comes A Shadow in Summer, the first book in the Long Price Quartet fantasy series. …

  8. Blindsight by  (Firefall, #1)

    No rating

    Two months since the stars fell...

    Two months of silence, while a world held its breath.

    Now some half-derelict space …

  9. In the Bleak Midwinter by  (Clare Fergusson/Russ Van Alstyne, #1)

    3 stars

    It's a cold, snowy December in the upstate New York town of Millers Kill, and newly ordained Clare Fergusson is …

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