12.11.2012

Top Ten Tuesday: Authors Who were New to Me This Year

This took a little research, because some of my last-January reviews were of books I'd read in December. Which means that I disqualified Tolstoy, whose Anna Karenina I reviewed this year, but according to Goodreads had finished reading just after last Christmas Day.

Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by The Broke and the Bookish! Do come join the fun...

To my surprise, it wasn't easy to pick ten. I'd forgotten how many good books I'd read early in the year.

The happy-go-lucky fantasists, who delighted my very soul and left me with the firm intent of reading many more of their works:

1. Juliet Marillier | Wildwood Dancing
2. Sharon Shinn | Summers at Castle Auburn

The exceptional fantasists, who first made me envious and then inspired me to develop thoughtful intricacy in my own fiction:

3. Patrick Rothfuss | The Name of the Wind
4. Erin Morgenstern | The Night Circus
5. Lois McMaster Bujold | The Curse of Chalion

The great middle-grade fantasists and science fictionists (hurrah: new word), who have become literary heroes to me:

6. Lois Lowry | The Giver
7. Jessica Day George | Tuesdays at the Castle
8. Gail Carson Levine | Ella Enchanted

And the happy-go-lucky non-fantasists, whose mysteries I now believe I can count on for good cheer:

9. Mary Stewart | The Moon-Spinners
10. Madeleine Brent | Moonraker's Bride

Have you read any great new-to-you authors this year? Feel free to praise them below. I'll need some new ones to include on next year's reading list, after all.

13 comments:

  1. I love the Giver - and I need to re-read it, it's been too long. My top ten tuesday post is here.

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  2. I read 'Tuesdays at the Castle' by Jessica Day George, I also loved her 'Dragon Slippers' trilogy! My TTT list: http://aliceinreaderland.wordpress.com/2012/12/10/top-ten-favorite-new-to-me-authors-i-read-in-2012/

    Alice @ Alice in Readerland

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  3. Ooh, great list!! Jessica Day George and Gail Carson Levine are some of my favorite authors!

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  4. I read several excellent and some promising YA authors. I don't think I discovered new adult fiction authors I'd rave about, though there were new books by old favorites, yay!

    --Arabella

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    1. Sometimes new books by old favorites are the best. :)

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  5. I can't believe I'm admitting this, but I've never read The Giver. Horrible, I know.

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    1. Well, up until this year, I'd never read it either. ;)

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  6. Oh! I keep seeing Tuesdays at the Castle around, but I haven't read it. I'll pick it up! I recently read Edward Eager's The Knight's Castle and really wished I'd known that author when I was a child. His books are still around, but I don't think they get noticed very much. I really enjoyed it though :)

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    1. Tuesdays at the Castle is a sweet, very young middle-grade book. I've not read the Eager book, but will definitely add that to my to-read list. :)

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  7. Sorry to be a little late on this, been super busy. New authors I've read this year & liked in no particular order:

    Jessica Day George, read Tuesdays at the Castle. Seems to come up a lot among other people too.

    Katie Schuermann, He Remembers the Barren. A really excellent book written for Christian women who struggle with barrenness. I think it's also an excellent resource for a pastor & also for men who also struggle with infertility. It spoke to me in both of those aspects.

    Nikolai Gogol, read a few of his short stories. As much Russian literature as I've read, I never got to Gogol until this year. Need to read more.

    Sybil Nelson, Priscilla the Great. Fun, fast paced, mostly comic Girl Power story. First in a series.

    Joseph Delaney, Last Apprentice: Revenge of the Witch.

    Diana Peterfreund, For Darkness Shows the Stars. A science fiction reworking of Jane Austen's Persuasion.

    David Dickinson, various Mycroft Holmes adventures.

    Timothy Bontrager, The Palm Sunday Tornado, fictional story incorporating details from the 1965 Palm Sunday Tornado Outbreak.

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    Replies
    1. And now I'm late responding! I'm just now going through my email from over the holidays. :)

      I still need to read the Peterfreund book.

      The Schuermann work looks good. I just hopped over to her blog and found it thoughtful and encouraging.

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    2. Haven't been to her blog but I'm glad you found it helpful. It's not often that I miss not having children but there are times when it does hit me & oftentimes a bit hard.

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    3. Yeah, I believe you. I do OK now most days, but every now and then not so much. But when I can remember how blessed I am in practically every other way, the cross doesn't seem so heavy. :)

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