Pregnancy in Speculative Fiction, a reading list

A lot of people have collected various lists of diversity in Fantasy & Science Fiction in the past few years, covering everything from authors of less mainstream racial/cultural backgrounds to characters with different abilities or priorities. (Which I'm all for, by the way; I've read some awesome things I might not otherwise have heard of off some of those lists.) One thing I haven't really seen much of, though, is diversity of experience, and as one of the things that's presently relevant to my own life right now I started wondering about depictions pregnancy in fiction. It's a pretty ubiquitous experience (anyone reading this in 2013 went through the first half, if not the second) and yet so often it gets shunted to the side: characters are ushered offstage while pregnant, or glossed over with a touch of morning sickness and subsequently ignored. Among real people our lives do not stop during gestation, even for those I've talked to who had appalling health problems, and I think a better representation of this in fiction (particularly historical-based fantasy of the sort in worlds without birth control) would be a good thing to see more of.

This is my list of what's out there presently; I have not read all of these, so I apologize for anything misleading. Additions and emendations welcome in comments, or via twitter (@thanate7). Signal boosting also encouraged if you think others would be interested. Enjoy!

Note for the spoiler-averse... I don't think there's any way to do this without giving away things about the inside of the books/series. I've used as light a touch as I can.

Fantasy & Science Fiction books with pregnant main or major characters:

*Bujold, Lois McMaster Barrayar (sequel to Shards of Honor), Falling Free, The Sharing Knife(books 1 & 4), The Hallowed Hunt... and a bunch of things with the politics of a technological substitute for pregnancy in her Vorkosigan saga books; see also Ethan of Athos
*Carriger, Gail Heartless (Parasol Protectorate, book 4)
*Dean, Pamela Tam Lin
*Egan, Doris Guilt-Edged Ivory (Ivory Trilogy, book 3)
*Gregorian, Joyce Ballou Castledown (sequel to The Broken Citadel)
*Hearn, Lian Grass for his Pillow (Tales of the Otori, book 2)
*Hopkinson, Nalo Midnight Robber; also Brown Girl in the Ring has a mother/infant duo
*Huff, Tanya Sing the Four Quarters
*Jordan, Robert/Brian Sanderson: last book or two of the Wheel of Time series
*Kay, Guy Gavriel: the Fionavar Tapestry trilogy
*Kowal, Mary Robinette Glamor in Glass (sequel to Shades of Milk & Honey)
*Lake, Jay Endurance (sequel to Green; the third book may be relevant, too)
*Larbalestier, Justine Magic's Child (Magic trilogy, book 3)
*L'Engle, Madeline A Swiftly Tilting Planet
*McCaffrey, Anne Dragonsdawn
*Meyers, Stephanie Breaking Dawn (Twilight Saga, book 4)
*Pratchett, Terry Monstrous Regiment, also Carpe Jugulum for early parenthood
*Valente, Cathrynne M. Palimpsest
*Wrede, Patricia C. Calling on Dragons (Enchanted Forest Chronicles, book 3)
*Zahn, Timothy Thrawn Trilogy (Star Wars sequels)


Other things:

*L. Blankenship's Disciple of the Fount series, part 2 and onwards; Part I is currently available, and Part II will be out in April.
*Will Shetterly's Captain Confederacy series 2 for Epic (comic)
*Neil Gaiman's Sandman series (comic)
*Marion Zimmer Bradley: Darkover series... but I don't know which titles.
*Sharon Lee & Steve Miller: Liaden Universe Plan B and... (Carpe Diem? I Dare?)

Pregnancy in Speculative Fiction, a reading list

A lot of people have collected various lists of diversity in Fantasy & Science Fiction in the past few years, covering everything from authors of less mainstream racial/cultural backgrounds to characters with different abilities or priorities. (Which I'm all for, by the way; I've read some awesome things I might not otherwise have heard of off some of those lists.) One thing I haven't really seen much of, though, is diversity of experience, and as one of the things that's presently relevant to my own life right now I started wondering about depictions pregnancy in fiction. It's a pretty ubiquitous experience (anyone reading this in 2013 went through the first half, if not the second) and yet so often it gets shunted to the side: characters are ushered offstage while pregnant, or glossed over with a touch of morning sickness and subsequently ignored. Among real people our lives do not stop during gestation, even for those I've talked to who had appalling health problems, and I think a better representation of this in fiction (particularly historical-based fantasy of the sort in worlds without birth control) would be a good thing to see more of.

This is my list of what's out there presently; I have not read all of these, so I apologize for anything misleading. Additions and emendations welcome in comments, or via twitter (@thanate7). Signal boosting also encouraged if you think others would be interested. Enjoy!

Note for the spoiler-averse... I don't think there's any way to do this without giving away things about the inside of the books/series. I've used as light a touch as I can.

Fantasy & Science Fiction books with pregnant main or major characters:

*Bujold, Lois McMaster Barrayar (sequel to Shards of Honor), Falling Free, The Sharing Knife(books 1 & 4), The Hallowed Hunt... and a bunch of things with the politics of a technological substitute for pregnancy in her Vorkosigan saga books; see also Ethan of Athos
*Carriger, Gail Heartless (Parasol Protectorate, book 4)
*Dean, Pamela Tam Lin
*Egan, Doris Guilt-Edged Ivory (Ivory Trilogy, book 3)
*Gregorian, Joyce Ballou Castledown (sequel to The Broken Citadel)
*Hearn, Lian Grass for his Pillow (Tales of the Otori, book 2)
*Hopkinson, Nalo Midnight Robber; also Brown Girl in the Ring has a mother/infant duo
*Huff, Tanya Sing the Four Quarters
*Jordan, Robert/Brian Sanderson: last book or two of the Wheel of Time series
*Kay, Guy Gavriel: the Fionavar Tapestry trilogy
*Kowal, Mary Robinette Glamor in Glass (sequel to Shades of Milk & Honey)
*Lake, Jay Endurance (sequel to Green; the third book may be relevant, too)
*Larbalestier, Justine Magic's Child (Magic trilogy, book 3)
*L'Engle, Madeline A Swiftly Tilting Planet
*McCaffrey, Anne Dragonsdawn
*Meyers, Stephanie Breaking Dawn (Twilight Saga, book 4)
*Pratchett, Terry Monstrous Regiment, also Carpe Jugulum for early parenthood
*Valente, Cathrynne M. Palimpsest
*Wrede, Patricia C. Calling on Dragons (Enchanted Forest Chronicles, book 3)
*Zahn, Timothy Thrawn Trilogy (Star Wars sequels)


Other things:

*L. Blankenship's Disciple of the Fount series, part 2 and onwards; Part I is currently available, and Part II will be out in April.
*Will Shetterly's Captain Confederacy series 2 for Epic (comic)
*Neil Gaiman's Sandman series (comic)
*Marion Zimmer Bradley: Darkover series... but I don't know which titles.
*Sharon Lee & Steve Miller: Liaden Universe Plan B and... (Carpe Diem? I Dare?)

Xposty from dreamwidth.

things done, things to do, all the picture books

My parents were up here for dinner last night, and brought two *more* boxes of picture books, most of which belong to my brother. I'm fairly sure that I now have more picture books in the house than anyone I know, *probably* including my mother. Sometime in the near future, I shall have to go through all of them and exile the ones I can't stand the thought of reading more than once, although I think that is probably a task that can be done a few books at a time with an infant around if I don't get to it before then.

( more pre-baby stuff )

I seem to be mentally signing up for modified versions of things which I then completely fail to mention to anyone else. First was the Sew Fortnightly challenge, which I find somewhat inspiring despite not entirely following any of the rules; my bonus project was finishing knitting the Laminaria that got stalled out when I ran out of yarn a row and a half before the end... but I haven't blocked it yet because things. I completely fail to have anything from XX13 among the patterns I want to make, but I finished up the modernized version of the Lewis & Clark era dress I started a while ago, in which I can now match (or is that clash with?) my horrible tacky teapot. With hook-front closures suitable for nursing in. And as for UFOs, I've finished or repaired about six or eight things off the mending pile, several of which I'm actually even keeping instead of sending to the thrift store. More shall follow presently.

Second is Mary Robbinette Kowal's Month of Letters challenge, which I hope to adapt to the thing I was planning on doing anyway of pre-addressing envelopes and having a baby announcement/year-in-review letter ready to print up when we have specifics. I trust I'll be able to handle a couple sentences a day of personalization to add after the fact as I send things out... If you want to be part of this and I don't have your current address, feel free to e-mail or message it to me. (Unless I have no idea who you are, in which case I may not add you to the list.)

...and then there's the bit where I'm mad enough to try to sign up for the Coastal Plain regional add-on to my Master Naturalist cert. Which may or may not crash and burn as a plan, since the first training day they want me at is the day before the baby is due. If she holds off long enough for me to go to that, everything else isn't until April, which (barring surgeries and unfortunate complications) we should theoretically be able to manage somehow. We'll see. (Yes, you are welcome to laugh at my optimism now.)

Xposty from dreamwidth.