Lady Business

1. Karen Lord's Redemption in Indigo From the gorgeous cover to the gentle, funny folktale of of a woman who leaves her gluttonous husband and faces off against a powerful djombi spirit, to the unexpected and satisfying ending, I feel in love with this book.

2. Andrea Hairston's Mindscape. Most people end their scifi war epics with the signing of a treaty. Hairston begins her at the signing thereof, when the one woman who had the tri-lateral respect of the three previously warring territories is assassinated. With her dead, the treaty backers find themselves in the position of having to fight in many and varied ways to convince the skittish territories that the treaty will actually be good for their national interests. This book is experimental in form, so you've got to pay attention in order to get everything. It's characters are deliciously complicated, there are so many badass women all over the place that I cannot even describe my delight, and the worldbuilding gave my imagination a workout. No. 1 on my list of scifi books right now.

3. Nnedi Okarafor's Who Fears Death is quite simply, badass. When a child is born of genocidal rape, both her and her mother are thrown out of their homes by their oppressed fellow-people because of the shame. Said child however is a powerful sorceress who has the power to end the war, though it might mean her death. This is a powerful powerful coming of age tale that deals with subjects like FGM and genocide as well as a subplot of romantic relationships with an assured and poignant touch. AGain, badass women all over the place, including on the quest (this ain't no one special woman to save them all among a pile of men) and the world building was engrossing.