raincitygirl

The big one that I see missing from that admittedly-awesome list is Tamora Pierce. If English is a second language, I don't really recommend the Beka Cooper trilogy (most recent series) because of the heavy use of fictionalized slang and purposeful misspellings (it's diary format for a common-born medieval fantasy policewoman) but everything else should be just about perfect. Tamora Pierce is always my go-to author rec for anyone who likes books about ladies doing awesome things. And different awesome things too! Her main series has a girl who dressed as a boy to be a knight, and a commoner with animal magic, and then the first girl to legally go through knight training as a female, and a teenage spy, and the aforementioned policewoman, and... they're all just really good, okay? And her other main series, the Circle of Magic, is shorter and possibly a little more accessible for a new reader, but also younger-young adult fiction than some of her other stuff. Oh! And she writes about sex and birth control and she's had gay character and transgender characters and tons of ladies who didn't marry the first guy they slept with! Oooh, also several characters of color, though only a couple who are main characters, since her fantasy homelands are very European. She does really fantastic other-cultures, too, using feudal japan or imperial china or Africa as a base without romanticizing or exoticizing them. (At least to my own lily-white eyes, someone else might have a completely different impression!)

Okay, so, I might have rambled a bit there, but... Tamora Pierce. Bastion of my childhood, bastion of my teenage years, still on of my top favorite authors as an adult.