Passes the "Bechdel Test" Public

Created 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. New Mutants Lethal Legion by , , , and 1 other

    No rating

  2. The Relentless Moon by  (The Lady Astronaut of Mars, #3)

    It's 1963, and riots and sabotage plague the space program. The climate change caused by the Meteor is becoming more …

  3. The Consuming Fire by 

    No rating

    The Interdependency—humanity’s interstellar empire—is on the verge of collapse. The extra-dimensional conduit that makes travel between the stars possible is …

  4. Little (Grrl) Lost by 

    No rating

    Fourteen-year-old T.J. and her new friend, sixteen-year-old Elizabeth, a six-inch-high "Little" with a big chip on her shoulder, help one …

  5. Hollow Beasts by  (Jodi Luna, #1)

    No rating

    After a long stint in academia, Jodi Luna leaves Boston for the wilds of New Mexico to start a new …

  6. The Last Emperox by 

  7. The City Inside by 

    No rating

    The City Inside, a near-future epic by the internationally celebrated Samit Basu, pulls no punches as it comes for your …

  8. All That Is Mine I Carry with Me by 

    No rating

    One afternoon in November 1975, ten-year-old Miranda Larkin comes home from school to find her house eerily quiet. Her mother …

  9. Sing Her Down by 

    No rating

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

  10. The Murders in Great Diddling by  (Berit Gardner, #1)

    No rating

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

    The small, rundown village of Great Diddling …

  11. New Under the Sun by ,

    No rating

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

  12. Margo's Got Money Troubles by 

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

  13. Phil in SF says:

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

  14. 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. …

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