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 …

  1. Red Mars by  (Mars Trilogy, #1)

    No rating

    For centuries, the barren, desolate landscape of the red planet has beckoned to humankind. Now a group of one hundred …

  2. The Wall by  (Sumer, #1)

    No rating

    ‘Imagine a horizon.’

    ‘I can’t.’

    Mithila’s world is bound by a Wall enclosing the city of Sumer — …

  3. Dream Count by 

    No rating

    Chiamaka is a Nigerian travel writer living in America. Alone in the midst of the pandemic, she recalls her past …

  4. The Martian Contingency by  (Lady Astronaut, #4)

    No rating

    Years after a meteorite strike obliterated Washington, DC—triggering an extinction-level global-warming event—Earth’s survivors have started an international effort to establish …

  5. "C" is for Corpse by  (Kinsey Millhone, #3)

    No rating

    After a near-fatal car accident, a young man asks Kinsey to protect him. When he is promptly murdered, Kinsey vows …

  6. Elder Race by 

    No rating

    In Adrian Tchaikovsky's Elder Race, a junior anthropologist on a distant planet must help the locals he has sworn to …

  7. The Treatment by  (Jack Caffery, #2)

    No rating

    In a quiet residential area in London, a couple is discovered bound and imprisoned in their own home. Savagely battered …

  8. The Nigerwife by 

    No rating

    Nicole Oruwari has the perfect life: a hand­some husband; a palatial house in the heart of glittering Lagos, Nigeria; and …

  9. Trouble in Queenstown by  (The Vandy Myrick Mysteries, #1)

    No rating

    With Trouble in Queenstown, Delia Pitts introduces private investigator Vandy Myrick in a powerful mystery that blends grief, class, race, …

  10. Under Fortunate Stars by 

    No rating

    Fleeing the final days of the generations-long war with the alien Felen, smuggler Jereth Keeven’s freighter the Jonah breaks down …

  11. Project Hail Mary by 

    No rating

    Ryland Grace is the sole survivor on a desperate, last-chance mission - and if he fails, humanity and the Earth …

  12. Everybody Wants to Rule the World Except Me by  (Dark Lord Davi, #2)

    No rating

    Dark Lord Davi rules the kingdom, but she must now break the time loop that binds her in this hilariously …

  13. Void by  (The Far Reaches, #2)

    No rating

    An intergalactic luxury cruise to a distant port is a world unto itself in this piercing short mystery by #1 …

  14. Dead Connection by  (Ellie Hatcher, #1)

    No rating

    In Alafair Burke's electrifying thriller, Dead Connection, a rookie detective goes undercover on the Internet dating scene to draw out …

  15. Billy Boyle by  (A Billy Boyle WWII Mystery, #1)

    No rating

    What’s a twenty-two-year-old Irish American cop who’s never been out of Massachusetts before doing at Beardsley Hall, an English country …

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