For Women in SF&F Month 2013, Renay from Lady Business came up with the idea of compiling a list of recommended speculative fiction books by women. (You can read more about this project in a few different posts written by Renay: 2013, 2014, and 2015.) During that year’s event, she asked readers to submit up to 10 of their favorite SFF books by women to create a list of recommendations. The result was a list of over 800 individual books, many recommended by multiple people (the number of recommendations for each book can be seen on the current list). Last year, we accepted more submissions and the list grew to include over 1,000 titles!

We’re accepting more submissions of favorite individual SFF books by women throughout this month so we can continue to expand this list. So far, we have almost 500 new submissions to add to the list, but the more people who recommend a few of their favorite books, the better the list will be!

In today’s giveaway, the winner gets to choose one book from this list of fantasy and science fiction books by women as the prize. This book must be available for purchase through The Book Depository for $20 or less (in US dollars). Anyone who lives in a country eligible for free shipping from The Book Depository can enter this giveaway. If you’d like to enter, check out the list, see what looks interesting, and if you haven’t already this year, maybe even submit some of your own favorite SFF books by women while you’re over there!

As a starting point, here are the books on the list that have been recommended the most:

Octavia E. Butler’s Dawn has been submitted as a favorite book 14 times.

The Cloud Roads by Martha Wells and Howl’s Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones have each been recommended by 15 people.

Graceling by Kristin Cashore and Swordspoint by Ellen Kushner have each been submitted as a favorite book 16 times.

17 people recommend To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis.

Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke has been submitted as a favorite 19 times.

Each of these 3 books have been recommended by 22 people: The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms by N. K. Jemisin, Kushiel’s Dart by Jacqueline Carey, and A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle.

Tied for the most recommendations at 24 submissions each are Shards of Honor by Lois McMaster Bujold and Harry Potter and the Sorceror’s Stone by J. K. Rowling.

Note: In some cases, these may have been recommendations for series since several entries were for entire series instead of individual books, especially before the current system of using Goodreads to search for titles. In those cases, they were added as recommendations for the first book in that series since that’s where new readers would most likely want to start.

Giveaway Rules: To be entered in the giveaway, fill out the form below OR send an email to kristen AT fantasybookcafe DOT com with the subject “Readers’ Recommendations Giveaway” and the book of your choice. One entry per household and one winner will be randomly selected. Those from a country that is on the list of those with free shipping from The Book Depository are eligible to win this giveaway. The giveaway will be open until the end of the day on Sunday, April 26. The winner has 24 hours to respond once contacted via email, and if I don’t hear from them by then a new winner will be chosen (who will also have 24 hours to respond until someone gets back to me with a mailing address).

The winner can choose one book from the list as the prize, but this book must be available for purchase from The Book Depository for $20 or less (in US currency).

Please note email addresses will only be used for the purpose of contacting the winner. Once the giveaway is over all the emails will be deleted.

Good luck!

Update: Now that the giveaway is over, the form has been removed.