Female thriller authors on top!

I guess it is clear enough that female thriller authors take a huge part in the ordinary life of many women, and yes, some men. Don’t you love to crash on the couch, reading an exciting, sensual book that gives you an adrenaline rush? Well, I surely do. That is why I present to you the top five books of 2012 selected by the CPNB.

According to the previous posts an important difference between male and female thriller authors is the way both sexes write. Books written by females contain more details, while books written by men are soaked with heavy fights and torture. That does not mean female authors cannot write heavy, sadistic books. In fact, Karen Slaughter writes the most vicious books I have ever read. Let alone Nicci French and Karen Rose. Anyways, let’s move on to the top 5 and see how women dominate this list.

At the bottom of our list is actually not a thriller. It is ‘En dan nog iets’ written by Paulien Cornelisse. It is a collection of useless, though amusing flaws in the way Dutch people use their language. This book is the sequel of the bestseller called ‘Taal is zeg maar echt mijn ding’ which is also written by Paulien Cornelisse.

Number four isn’t a thriller either but it is written by a male author. ‘Gijp’ is written by Michel van Egmond and has been published by Voetbal International. Basically it is a short biography of a couple of months out of the life of René van der Gijp.

Finally a thriller… well, a thriller with a lot of sex within it. You probably already know number three: ‘Vijftig tinten vrij’ written by, yes a female authors as well, Erika Leonard James. Many women, and some men, loved this final part of the very successful trilogy. Why? The stories contain sex, sex and even more sex! This final part will end the exciting story about Anastasia Steele and Christian Grey. In the Netherlands the entire trilogy was published by Prometheus.

Number two is taken by the second part of this trilogy: ‘Vijftig tinten donkerder’ written by Erika Leonard James. The second part describes the relationship between Anastasia Steele and Christian Grey, which started in the first part ‘Vijftig tinten grijs’. This part, if I say so myself, is a lot less about the sex, and more about the overall story. As opposed to part one, where everything was about sex.

And then… Drumroll please! Got any idea yet? No? Then let’s move on to number one: ‘Vijftig tinten grijs’ also written by Erika Leonard James! In this first part of the trilogy we meet ordinary girl Anastasia Steele and rich, handsome and dominant Christian Grey. A story which starts with an usual interview and develops into a complex relationship between a dominant man and a not so submissive women.

Wait a minute, what makes this trilogy so damn popular? According to Zoey it is all about the fact that reading and writing these stories need a certain amount of imagination, and don’t all women dream about a wealthy man with quite a lot of so called ‘‘bed-skills’’?

Another example of the success is an overall view of the women that dominated publishing in 2012. No surprise James is also part of this list, alongside Rowling – which we know from the Harry Potter stories – and Julia Donaldson. After all, I can honestly say that female thriller authors rule the world!

In the end I guess we can honestly say women made a mind blowing up rise in the literary world, once dominated by men. They fought for their right to write and publish with their own name and take a look at what they gave us! Well done ladies. 

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By: Lisa Broekhuis

Men and women are absolutely the same – said no one ever

That men and women are different isn’t a shock, it’s just a fact. But what about their writing skills and their way of thinking? I was wondering if there is a difference between male authors and female authors too? I am sure you also want to know the differences between men and women. So don’t waste any of your time and just read the article, to get rid of all the arguments about this subject.

First, I want to share some facts about the differences between men and women in general. When we compare the brains of men and women, we see that men have a larger brain, but it is less active. See, I just knew women are smarter! The brain of a woman never gets any rest because women are continuously alert. Yes, I think they are right, because if I look at myself, my brain is always thinking and thinking and I always ask myself why we don’t have an off button? It would be so nice to have a button to shut everything down. But for now back to the subject. The difference between a male and female brain tells us something about the behavior of these two sexes.

If we look to the verbal behavior, we already see at a young age that girls learn faster than boys based on their speaking kills. When they get older, we see that women have a larger vocabulary than men and even their grammar is better. Besides that, men can say what they think without telling such long stories like women do. However, I think that women use more words to bring something - how do I say it right - friendlier? We think twice before we say something and I think that is the reason why us women use more words. The resources also talk about non-verbal behavior. Men would have a better spatial insight.

What about the differences between the writing skills of men and women? I already said that men are more to the point and that women use more words. In books we see this difference very clear. Books written by female authors contain more detail and they are more personal, while books written by men are more to the point and more general. Interesting is that male authors are more reviewed than female authors. Although I don’t know why, it’s not that female authors are bad writers, because we have amazing female writers all over the world. And many resources say that there are no more male writers than female writers.

If we look at male and female thriller authors we do see a point. Thrillers are the most read genre of the Netherlands and they go worldwide. A few years ago, most of the thriller authors where male. However since the last couple of years, female thriller authors become more successful. Marcel van Driel has a strong opinion about female thriller authors. He thinks that female authors can’t write thrillers. His argument for this statement is the nomination of ‘De Gouden Strop’. From the eleven nominated titles, there was only one title written by female author. I think it is weak just to look at the nominated titles. I am a woman and I love the female thriller authors like Saskia Noort and Simone van der Vlugt. So I think it is a personal statement.

After all my research about the differences between men and women I would say that men and women are two unique sexes. There are many differences between men and women when we look at the brain, the verbal and non-verbal behavior. But if we look at their writing skills, I can conclude that the differences are minimal. Ok, female authors write more in detail and use more difficult words, but larger differences than that are hard to find.

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By: Marjolein Egbers

The emancipation of female authors and the ones that made it possible

Women. A strong sex that can handle anything. Motherhood, business, sports, housekeeping but also: writing. Female authors are taking over the literary world step by step and are pushing their male competitors back to their spots. Why? Because like Beyoncé once said: “Who run the world? Girls!”

For centuries male authors were the ones who ruled the book industry because literature was a men’s business. Almost everything in history was for men’s eyes only, until women met the word ‘emancipation’. A beautiful word that would make women’s futures brighter. It also took its place in to the literary world. Women, who were never taken seriously in literature, even though they read and wrote, were able to show their writing skills. We now have some great female authors whom have given us some of the greatest stories, novels, poems and essays ever written. But as I said, women weren’t taken seriously and they didn’t get the recognition they deserved until now in the 21^st century.

For this reason some of the female authors in history had to use male names, initials or they even had to remain anonymous so they could publish their books or writings without being judged. I think this is absolutely ridiculous. Who cares who wrote it? Thank God this has all changed, thanks to some amazing female authors. These women fought for the same fundamental rights as men were once given, and for the fact that people should judge on the quality of the story and not on the gender of the author. There are a lot of names who can be named, but that would take too long for you to read, and I cannot give them all the credits they deserve. So, I would like to light up some special names in no particular order. Do you want to know who these amazing women were?

Virginia Woolf

Virginia Woolf was a British woman with a feministic heart who was born in the 20^th century. She was known as a literary genius who opened a door for female authors. A woman with literary power! Her work had a big impact on all kinds of readers and authors. She was a one of a kind but unfortunately she ended her own life. A big loss for the literary world if I may say.

Agatha Christie

Agatha Christie was known as a serious crime author. She is one of the most best-selling female authors of all time. She shovelled all the genres away and made room for ‘crime’. A fantastic genre. Agatha as well inspired a lot of authors from all kinds of genres to follow her way of making room for female authors. Way to go, Agatha!

So, I gave you two quick examples of two great female authors whom have changed  history in the world of writing. As I said before, these are just two names of all the female authors who made a difference. And what a difference did these amazing women make. In an article of The New York Times Ms. Prose said that “things seem to have gotten better”. That’s what we are talking about! But why did things seem to have gotten better, Ms. Prose? “Because there has been some stronger writing by women”. Yes! For example, in 2013 there were several female winners at the ‘National Book Awards’ such as Mary Szybist and Cynthia Kadohata.

Let’s say that women came a long way in becoming successful in the literary world but they still have to work hard and let the men know that they also exist. The literary world is not for men’s eyes only anymore. The emancipation gave women a great opportunity to speak up for themselves. Female authors have achieved so much and finally get the bits of recognition they deserve. Keep up the good work!

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Female thriller authors finally become important!

Are you also tired of the fact that female thriller authors are still undervalued in the literary world? So am I! But I have some good news for you. Female authors finally become important! It seems like those authors have a short history, because until recently it were only men who wrote literary thrillers. Well, I did some research because I was very curious about female thriller authors now I would really like to share my findings with you!

Since the 90s, female authors did some catching up. Before that time, the only thriller authors that existed were men. According to the media, female authors already occurred in the 70s and 80s. Most of them were born in halfway the 60s. In absolute terms female authors did occure during the 70s and 80s, but in percentage terms the ratio remained the same. So that is the main reason why we say that female authors only emerged during the 90s. Not really fair, but that’s just the way it is.

According to a survey from NIPO, more than half of the writers who write just for fun are woman. A very striking fact is that sex is the common theme in literary works of many female authors. The modern society we live in allows writers and other creators of art to be free in what they create. Maybe that is the reason why female authors are doing so well at the moment.  Another fact is that female thriller authors especially reach out to women. According to the CPNB the reason is that female thriller authors write about the everyday life, family and relationships. Those themes are very easy for women to identify themselves with. The question now is whether female thriller authors will continue to have success or if they will disappear as soon as society will change.

The first female thriller author that I would like to introduce to you (in case you did not know her already) is Karin Slaughter. This amazing thriller author has already written lots of books which were bestsellers in The Netherlands. Her latest books are ‘Busted’ and ‘Unseen’, that also belong to her Georgia-series. I think Slaughter is a really great writer, because her books always seem to get a hold on my attention until the very last page. Also, her style of writing is very easy to read, which makes it possible to identify yourself with the characters.

The second female thriller author that I would like to reveal is the Dutch Saskia Noort. She has already written ten thrillers

and her books are bestsellers too. Some of them are even filmed. In 2013 she published her latest book ‘Debet’. The fact that Saskia Noort is capable of writing different books that are all very exciting and fun to read at the same time, makes me think that she is a really good author. Besides, Saskia Noort has won a price for making such a great contribution to the popularity of the Dutch thriller. With this contribution she also paved the way for a whole new generation of female thriller authors.

So, whatever you might think about thrillers or their authors, I think that it is wonderful that female authors have entered the literary world. Their stories are always written slightly different than the stories of male authors, so they definitely contribute something to the literary world. As the CPNB already said, female thriller authors write about the everyday life and other themes where women can easily identify themselves with. That means that they absolutely add something to the literary world. And if you ask me, I think female authors are even better than male authors! But that is just my opinion and, as you can guess, I am a woman too so I don’t know whether you can completely rely on me in this case.       (643 words)

By: Donna Luisa Huijzendveld