The title of this post is pretty self-explanatory. These are a bunch of backlist authors whose work I keep meaning to get to only I keep getting distracted by shiny new releases. This also works as today’s Top 5 Wednesday post!

Emma Donaghue

 

I don’t know if Donoghue has a particular brand, but when I think of her I think of historical fiction and lesbians. I don’t know if her historical fiction actually features lesbians, but it at least features women, and I’ve heard her writing is quite beautiful. I read Kissing the Witch ages ago but I remember literally nothing about it, and I love the sound of her other work, so I’d like to get to her soon!

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Sarah Waters

 

I literally own every single thing Sarah Waters has ever written and yet I’ve only ever read a single book by her: Tipping the Velvet. I really enjoyed Tipping the Velvet, so I’m not sure why I’ve been hesitant to pick up another book by her! Her brand is Victorian Lesbians, which is right up my alley, so I definitely need to get to her work soon!

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Nawal El Saadawi

 

El Saadawi is a very controversial Egyptian feminist known for both fiction and non-fiction. According to my mom, she’s controversial mainly because of her irreverence for religion and her dislike of the veil. She’s a seminal figure and as an Egyptian woman myself I really must read Nawal El Saadawi.

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Leila Ahmed

 

Leila Ahmed is another Egyptian-American feminist, though definitely not as notorious as El Saadawi. She’s also a scholar of Islam and taught at the Harvard Divinity School for a while. Women and Gender in Islam is thought to be a classic, seminal work on the topic of women in Islam. I read bits and pieces of it for a class in college and really enjoyed it, so I’d like to read the full work. And I own her autobiography, A Border Passage!

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Judith Flanders

 

The Victorian Lady! Judith Flanders is a well-known scholar of Victorian England. I bought The Invention of Murder a few months ago and I’m super excited to read it! I think I’ve been putting a hold on all my Victorian nonfiction books because I keep thinking, what if I get the Fulbright I applied for? Then I’ll be getting a Master’s in Victorian Studies and will read all that stuff then. I find out in April whether I got it, so if I don’t, I guess I know what I’ll be reading for the rest of the year.

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Megan Chance

 

I read Inamorata years ago and adored it; it had so many tropes I love and it was one of the most atmospheric things I’ve ever read. Chance seems to revel in atmospheric historical fiction set mainly in the 19th-century that is also female-led. Her writing, from what I recall, is absolutely lovely, and I need to check out more of her work!

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Megan Abbott

 

I loved Give Me Your Hand even though it was a really polarizing book. It seems like most of this author’s work is really low-rated on Goodreads, actually, but I loved the one book I read. I thought it was brilliantly written and so darkly intriguing. If her other work is anything like that I’m sure I’ll love it.