We’re done nominating for the YA categories, it’s time to head over to the adult side of the library.
There will be another opportunity tomorrow, so there’s time to sleep on your choices.
The Scoop
- Granny Weatherwax, Jo March, Elizabeth Bennett, and Arya Stark aren’t eligible because they are previous members of a final four.
- Only one character per author will make it through to the the bracket (we’ll have runoff votes next week).
- Mark your entries either literary or sci-fi/fantasy/dystopia, to help out the P-Mag elves.
Happy nominating!
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![Avatar of [E] Selena MacIntosh](http://persephonemagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/avatars/2/525b390ed076747baf7acbfaaa75cb17-bpthumb.jpg){kind=avatar}
Susan Voight from Freedom & Necessity by Emma Bull and Steven Brust.
( I would put this in straight-up literature, but it is by fantasy authors and there is a bit of occult messing in it, so your friendly neighbourhood bookshop may shelve differently…)
And:
Eliza (Duchess of Qwghlm, Comtesse de la Zeur, Duchesse d’Arcachon) from Neal Stephenson’s The Baroque Cycle. Every time I try to describe how awesome she is I fail. I would put this in literature too, but again there is a teeny tiny bit of the supernatural and it’s by a well-known sci-fi writer so what do I know.
Lit:
Ree Dolly – Winter’s Bone
Amabelle Desir – Farming of Bones
Because I’m going to bed early, of course all these nominations came into my head at the last minute. Forgive me, P-Mag Gods, for mixing up adult and YA here! I know the last day to nominate is today and there is a post coming, but I will be asleep before it arrives! I know you lit-loving ladies understand :)
YA Lit:
Janie – Just Like Always
Harper Jessup – Memoirs of a Bookbat
Also, I had Thoughts and Feelings about MMM today (because I spent all week trying to come up with female characters in my spare time). I noticed an interesting pattern to my thoughts. At one point I was wondering who I would choose if I could nominate male characters, and I came up with a ton of ideas right away. But when telling myself to think of female characters, I would often think of female *authors* instead. It struck me as really strange, and I came up with two theories about it. One: Because I am a woman, I identify with female authors and so remember them more than I remember male authors (this lacks credence because I think I equally identify with and remember both). Or two: It was an unconscious act of othering because I categorized books by women as “women’s books” whereas books by men were simply books. It surprised me that I might have done this without realizing it!
I don’t know if anyone else has had this experience but I’ve been thinking of it all day!
Wait… we’re allowed to campaign?
So can I do this just to be a jerkface for fun? (I love Persephone, they’ve put up with me and let me write for them… I’m just doing this for shits and giggles.)
Before I go to bed, I just want to say:
TEAM LYRA OR GTFO.*
* Being a jerkface for fun is really fun :) Now I’m off to Google Phedre no Delaunay because I suspect I will really love this book…Please tell me more about her!
<3 MMM <3
TURTLE FOREVER!
I have a MMM notebook, the same one I’ve used the past two years, where I jot down books I want to read. I’m going to have to live to 120 to read them all, but I’m okay with that. : ) I’m really excited about this year.
I approve of you. I approve of everyone on Team Lyra. The rest of you can GTFO.
She’s a courtesan trained to not only be the highest courtesan in her land, but is also trained in all forms of covert operations so that when she takes assignations, she’s still working information out of her customers in order to save her country. On top of it, she’s god-touched; she has been claimed by God’s Punisher, and experiencing pain gives her pleasure because of it. She’s the only one in the world.
The books are not only well-plotted and written, but has the very rare idea of having a female protagonist completely in control of her sexuality. Not only is her sexuality held up as natural and not wrong or dirty in any way, so is the sexuality of every citizen in her country. It’s VERY sex-positive, and the story’s great. The author is Jacqueline Carey, and I highly recommend the series (it starts with “Kushiel’s Dart”).
(And I do really love Lyra. I just decided to be a butthead for fun.)
I hope I’m not listing any duplicates- there are some seriously impressive lists out there.
Literary:
Clara – The House of the Spirits, Isabelle Allende
Jennie Crawford- Their Eyes Were Watching God, Zora Neale Hurston
Miss Marple- Assorted Books, Agatha Christie
Scarlet O’Hara- Gone With the Wind, Margaret Mitchell
Laura Chase- The Blind Assassin, Margaret Atwood
SF/F/D:
Mary Poppins- Mary Poppins, D.L. Travers (YA?)
Nynaeve al’Meara- Wheel of Time Series, Robert Jordan
Mercy Lynch- Dreadnaught, Cherie Priest
Bellis Coldwine- The Scar, China Mieville
Door- Neverwhere, Neil Gaiman
I would like to throw in a wildcard. Penelope, from The Odyssey. That woman kept a bunch of men dancing for 10 years. Admittedly, they drank all her wine and ate all her food, and pretty much bankrupted her. But that doesn’t mean she wasn’t clever. She’s pretty badass, in an ancient Greek sort of way. (Would that be literary fiction? We don’t have a category for Homeric Epics.)
Tangentially related: have you read The Lost Books of the Odyssey ? Absolutely awesome.
All of you are amazing with coming up names. My mind just goes blank when I’m asked for a list of things.
I sat in front of my bookcases with my laptop and Wikipedia open. lol
I’m sure I’l have more tomorrow, but for now:
Alexia Tarrabotti – Parasol Protectorate, Gail Carriger (sf/f)
THURSDAY NEXT!! – Thursday Next series, Jasper Fforde (sf/f)
Offred – Handmaid’s Tale, Margaret Atwood (could go either way)
I would like to second all your nominations. Good work!
Has anyone nominated Arietty from The Borrowers? (Or do those count as children’s books?)
I’d like to nominate Ava Bigtree from Swamplandia! in Literary Fiction. :-D
Yes, please! Second.
Literary:
Mary Katherine “Merricat” Blackwood–We Have Always Lived in the Castle–Shirley Jackson
Jane Eyre–Jane Eyre–Charlotte Bronte
Elinor Dashwood–Sense and Sensibility–Jane Austen
Lily Briscoe–To the Lighthouse–Virginia Woolf
Esther Greenwood–The Bell Jar–Sylvia Plath
Lily Owens–The Secret Life of Bees–Sue Monk Kidd
Grace Makutsi–The Number One Ladies Detective Agency Series–Alexander McCall Smith
Helen Schlegel–Howards End–E.M. Forster
Beatrice–Much Ado About Nothing–William Shakespeare
Fantasy/Sci-Fi/Dystopia:
Sethe–Beloved–Toni Morrison (Not sure which category to put this in–the world is real but it has fantastic elements–feel free to move it)
Kathy H–Never Let Me Go–Kazuo Ishiguro
Catelyn Stark–A Song of Ice and Fire–George R.R. Martin
Second, Merricat and Grace!
I also want to add Sukhvinder Jawanda from J.K. Rowling’s The Casual Vacancy. I don’t think she will get the author nomination when there are Potter ladies around, but I think she’s awesome anyway.
^The above is Literary, by the way. I forgot to mark it.
Seconding (all fantasy):
Daenerys Targaryen from A Song of Ice and Fire by George R.R. Martin
Morgaine from The Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley
Phèdre nó Delaunay from the Kushiel’s Legacy series by Jacqueline Carey
Death from Sandman by Neil Gaiman
Claudia from Interview with the Vampire by Anne Rice
Nominating:
Reverend Mother Gaius Helen Mohiam from Dune by Frank Herbert (sci-fi)
Lisbeth Salander from The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson (lit)
The protagonist from A Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood (dystopian)
Cally O’Neill from the Legacy of the Aldenata series by John Ringo (sci-fi)
Honor Harrington from the Honor Harrington series by David Weber (sci-fi)
Tinker from Tinker by Wen Spencer (fantasy/sci-fi)
Tuon from The Wheel of Time by Robert Jordan (fantasy)
Shirakawa Kaede from Tales of the Otori by Lian Hearn (fantasy)
Moreta from Moreta: Dragonlady of Pern by Anne McCaffrey (fantasy)
Drats! Claudia is totally S/F/D, which should have been obvious. I was over here like, “What, vampires are real, right? Right?” Off to fix my original posting :/
Yes! Death!
All literature:
Ninah – The Rapture of Canaan
Ada – Cold Mountain
Elizabeth – Light a Penny Candle
Taylor – The Bean Trees
Claudia – Interview with the Vampire
Cassandra – I Capture the Castle
Dolores “Lola” “Lolita” – Lolita
Cathy – Flowers in the Attic (I debated this one but threw her in there for curiosity’s sake!)
Carla Jean Moss – No Country for Old Men
Um, yea, so vampires? Not real. So Claudia is S/F/D.
Even after Selena kindly explained yesterday, I still managed to mix them up today! Sorry, P-Mag, you editors are awesome :)
I forgot one. In my defense, she’s short and a little bit tough to pick out in a crowd.
Cheery Littlebottom – Discworld
And, because she’d probably kick my ass and then force my corpse to smoke…
Adora Belle Dearheart – Discworld
Eskarina Smith – Discworld
Karrin Murphy – The Dresden Files
Molly Carpenter – The Dresden Files
Susan Rodriguez – The Dresden Files
Charity Carpenter – The Dresden Files
Ivy – The Dresden Files
Lasciel’s Shadow – The Dresden Files
Anastasia Luccio – The Dresden Files
Yeah Dresden Files ladies!!! I’m re-reading Cold Days right now as a birthday treat. The kickassness of Karrin Murphy is not to be understated.
When I read Cold Days and hit the plot twist – you know, the BIG one at the end – I literally sat up in bed and yelled “F#@&!!!” loud enough to make my cat hit the ceiling.
The first time I read it? I cried. I was THAT angry at Jim Butcher for doing it. Even when I read it again last night, I cringed and had to stop for a minute to take it in. Damn you, Faeries! Damn you and your conniving!
Charity’s gonna strangle him.
With her own hands.
Slowly.
While Michael watches.
But I DO have a REALLY awesome Mac theory!
In fairness, Michael will probably be watching and saying, “Charity, you should probably stop now,” because he’s that kind of guy. But he won’t interfere with the actual strangling process. I want to hear your Mac theory!! I keep trying to come up with one, but I just can’t. Between that and dying to know how Molly got the apartment from the svartalves, other than just “honor”, I feel like the book left us with a TON of cliffhangers.
Spoilery goodness ahoy! (Not that you don’t already know ‘em.) But here’s my theory, which will prove to be completely wrong because it’s Butcher, and I’m pretty sure that he spends time on the Internet steepling his fingers like Mr. Burns and muttering “Eeeeeexcellent” when he finds a decent theory he can subvert.
That jerkface. ;)
http://bitchslap-barbie.tumblr.com/post/38807067314/i-know-a-lot-of-you-have-said-youre-just-kinda-done
Adult Literary Fiction
Emma Woodhouse – Emma (Jane Austen)
Elinor Dashwood – Sense & Sensibility (Jane Austen)
Catherine Earnshaw – Wuthering Heights (Emily Bronte) – love her or hate her, Cathy’s a badass
Taylor Greer – The Bean Trees (Barbara Kingsolver)
Cecily – The Importance of Being Earnest (Oscar Wilde)
Beatrice – Much Ado About Nothing (Shakespeare)
Adult Sci-fi/Fantasy/Dystopia
Sunshine – Sunshine (Robin McKinley)
Mercy Thompson – Mercy Thompson series (Patricia Briggs)
Daenerys Targaryen – A Song of Ice and Fire (George R.R. Martin)
Yeine – The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms (N.K. Jemisin)
Fantasy/Sci-fi, Adult
Cordelia Vorkosigan – Vorkosigan series
Ekaterin Vorsoisson – Vorkosigan series
Elli Quinn – Vorkosigan series
Taura – Vorkosigan series
Drou – Vorkosigan series
Morgaine – The Mists of Avalon
Viviane – The Mists of Avalon
Sorcha – Sevenwaters Trilogy
Liadan – Sevenwaters Trilogy
Fainne – Sevenwaters Trilogy
Clodagh – Sevenwaters Trilogy
Phèdre nó Delaunay – Kushiel’s Legacy series
Ysandre de la Courcel – Kushiel’s Legacy series
Nicola L’Envers y Aragon – Kushiel’s Legacy series
Sidonie de la Courcel – Imriel Trilogy
Alais de la Courcel – Imriel Trilogy
Moirin mac Fainche – Naamah Trilogy
Snow Tiger – Naamah Trilogy
Daenerys – ASOIAF
Sansa – ASOIAF
Brienne – ASOIAF
Asha – ASOIAF
Jaenelle Angelline – Black Jewels Trilogy
Surreal SaDiablo – Black Jewels Trilogy
Karla – Black Jewels Trilogy
Death – Neil Gaiman, Sandman
Angua – Discworld
Nanny Ogg – Discworld
Tiffany Aching – Discworld
Kahlan Amnell – Sword of Truth
Cara – Sword of Truth
Ramona Flowers – Scott Pilgrim
Catherine Velis – The Eight
Mireille de Remy – The Eight
Alice – Labyrinth (Kate Mosse)
Alais – Labyrinth
Auriane – The Light Bearer
Nell – The Diamond Age (Neal Stephenson)
Ariane I – Cyteen (CJ Cherryh)
Ariane II – Cyteen
Erde – The Book Of Earth, Dragon Quartet
Ilisidi – Foreigner (CJ Cherryh)
Jago – Foreigner
And, fine, Lyra Belacqua. :)
That’s what I’ve got! I’d actually like to see Phedre no Delaunay de Montreve go far.
DEATH!
BWAHAHA.
I thought you meant “DEATH!” as in “OH HELL NO, PHEDRE AIN’T DOIN’ SHIT HERE” and then I realized you were a fellow Gaiman fan. Hee hee hee…