I’ve mentioned a handful of times that I really like to read and that I average about a book a week.
While I lean toward science fiction, I will read almost anything. Right now I am reading an autobiography of Ozzy Osbourne, I Am Ozzy
There a 5 authors that I read every book that they have written. Even if some of their books disappoint me, I will read their books as soon as they are released or as soon as I can get it from the library.
The List
- Carl Hiaasen – Carl Hiaasen writes “mysteries” that always take place in Florida, where Hiaasen is from, and that contain strong environment themes and corrupt government and corporate officials. The books contains some of the wackiest and bizarre characters who also somehow believable. And while I believe Hiaasen intends to make a statement about how the environment of his home state has been destroyed by greed his books are also laugh-out-loud funny. I read my first book by him two summers ago and quickly went through all of them. He is also the author of Hoot and other YA novels.
Two of my favorites are Sick Puppyand Skinny Dip
. His most recent is Star Island
, published in 2010, that is a strong statement about celebrity culture. It wasn’t my favorite but I still enjoyed it quite a bit.
- Alice Hoffman – Alice Hoffman has written 22 novels in addition to YA and books for kids. Her first novel was published in 1977 but I didn’t start reading her until the mid 1990’s and, like many others, the first one I read by her may have been Practical Magic
.
Her books are in the genre of magical realism and often contain magical or fairy tale elements and have a dream-like quality to them. This doesn’t mean, however, that the stories are happy – many of them are incredibly sad and terrible things can happen.
After Practical Magic, I read all of her previous novels and will read a book by her as soon as it comes out. I’m not sure if I can pick my favorites but I loved her most recent one, The Red Garden
, and stayed up and read it in one night. It is a series of connected stories about one town and the people who lived there from the time the area was settled until the present day.
I also really enjoyed The Story Sisters
, although I had a difficult time starting it because I had this sick feeling in my stomach that horrible things were going to happen.
- Kate Atkinson – I’ve read Kate Atkinson since her first novel, Behind the Scenes at the Museum
, which won the Whitbread Prize for book of the year and have read everything by her as the books are published. Her novels have strong characters and surprising plot twists.
Her recent novels feature a sort of mysteries and feature a former detective named Jackson Brodie. Her novels can be funny and brutal all at once. I’ve never been disappointed by any of her books although I wasn’t as fond of Emotionally Weird
. Her newest, which was just released, is Started Early, Took My Dog
and I waiting for my library reserve to be available.
- Jasper Fforde – I’ve also been reading Jasper Fforde since his first novel, The Eyre Affair: A Thursday Next Novel
. The novels are hard to define but are a blend of alternate history, fantasy, mystery and science fiction. The Eyre Affair and subsequent novels in that series feature a literary detective named Thursday Next. She works for Spec-Ops investigating crimes in the book world, a place in which characters from literature exist, and there are issues with things like page runners, characters who escape from their own novel into the pages of another.
What I love about his novels are the literary allusions and the word play. I mean any book featuring a character name Jack Schitt (you have to say it aloud) has got to be awesome.
In addition to the Thursday Next series, Fforde has also written two novels in the Nursery Crime series and started a new series about a world where the colors you see in the world depends on your social class and began with Shades of Grey
.
Fforde’s first novel was rejected over 30 times before he finally found a publisher. He also never includes a chapter 13 although it is often listed in the table of contents.
- China Mieville – The first book I read by Mieville was his second, Perdido Street Station
. I couldn’t put it down even though it completely terrified me. I suppose his books are in the dark bizarre fantasy genre. I haven’t liked any of his novels as well as Perdido Street Station but, for some reason, I keep reading them. The last one I read, The City & The City
, won the 2010 Arthur C. Clarke Award, 2010 Hugo Award, and 2010 World Fantasy Award, as well as being a Nebula Award nominee in the Best Novel category. Maybe I don’t know my books as well as those giving the awards but I didn’t care for the novel at all. It took over 100 pages to figure out what was going on and I got bored. His next novel, Kraken
, is sitting in my pile of books to read – I hope I like it better – otherwise, Mieville might be removed from the list of authors I always read.
There are a couple of authors that I have read a lot of but not everything so I didn’t include them on this list. Or I am still working though their novels. Three that fall into this category are Neil Gaiman, Connie Willis and Lois McMaster Bujold.
Do you have any authors that you have read everything they have written? Who are they and why do you like them so much?
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photo credit: moriza
Hi Kim,
I concur with you regarding Kate Atkinson…I am anxious to read her latest too. I have a few authors I always enjoy–Laura Lippman, Daniel Silva, and a few others. I love when you discover someone new and you can’t wait to read his/her next book.
Hi Deborah – Thanks for the Lippman recommendation – I’m intrigued by her latest book but I haven’t read anything by her before. I think I’ve read almost all of Anita Shreve’s books too but I got tired of them.
I like anything by Malcolm Gladwell, “The Tipping Point”, “Blink”, “Outliers”,
I tend to pick up non-fiction and like biographies so will have to find “I am Ozzy” – also libraries have more biographies, I liked the Frida Kahlo biography.
Hi Nancy – I see Gladwell’s books all the time but I haven’t read any of them. Sometimes bios of people you don’t think you would be interested in end up being really fun. Is there a new Frida Kahlo? Louisa May Alcott and Hans Christian Anderson were really interesting ones too.
China Mieville is the only author on your list that I’ve read. I also greatly enjoyed Perdido Street Station and Un lun dun was not bad. My husband is currently reading The city & the city and he’s not that crazy about it. At least he hasn’t sold it to me, in the same way as he did Perdido…
I’ll have to take a look at the other authors you mention. Kate Atkinson and Alice Hoffman sound interesting.
I’m probably stating the obvious and I think that we’ve discussed this before, I love Neil Gaiman, but my all time favourite book has to be The Fionavar Tapestry by Guy Gavriel Kay. If you haven’t read it, you should. It’s a trilogy, so it’s a bit long, but it’s absolutely fabulous.
Hi Christine – I’ve read almost everything by Neil Gaiman so I guess I could have put him on this list. I love the Sandman comics and American Gods but I don’t love all of his stuff.
I read something by Kay a long time ago – I don’t remember what it was but I remember liking it – since, you recommended that trilogy, I will definitely check it out.
I’m enjoying Kraken quite a bit – not as much as Perdido Street Station but A LOT more than The City & the City.
Thanks — I haven’t read any of these authors. I’m looking forward to checking out some of their books.
Right now, I’m reading The Golden Mean by Annabel Lyon. She’s a local author (to me — she’s in New West) and is the story of Aristotle’s tutoring of young Alexander the Great.
I really enjoyed both of Sara Gruen’s books “Water for Elephants” (don’t hold that there’s a movie against it) and “Ape House”.
I also agree with Nancy. Anything by Malcolm Gladwell (except “What the Dog Brought In” — still trying to get through it) is smoothly written and offers a unique perspective on commonly-held beliefs.
Hi Candrina – Books are always better than the movie. I really enjoyed Water for Elephants but haven’t read her other book. I am not interested in the film at all.
Michael Connelly, Sue Grafton, John D. MacDonald, Nero Wolfe. The last two are deceased, so no new ones. You might like John D. MacD. He also wrote about the ecologic losses in Florida as a backdrop to his detective stories, a generation before Hiiasen. There’s no wackiness, but they’re good.
Hi Dot – Thanks for the recommendations. I’m actually not that into mysteries and until the last couple of years never read them. I like the wackiness part of Hiaasen’s books more than the mystery part.
(Ozzy Osbourne reads Shakespeare would be cool.)
And I agree with Dotraft – Grafton’s great.
A friend of mine has a GPS in his car that is Ozzy’s voice – it’s hilarious.
Terry Pratchett. Sly, daffy, clever, endlessly inventive. The Discworld novels are an institiution.
I like Pratchett but not as much as I think I should – I’ve read a couple though and intend to read more.
Hi Kim Woodbridge,
This is really very good and helpful article for neophyte readers. I haven’t tried any of these authors. And I am definitely going to try them.Thanks for the suggestions.
Hi Shivam – Hope you find something that you like.
I’m always looking for new books! I’ll have to put these on authors on the read list. Thanks for sharing!
Hi Tawnya – Great! Let me know if you find anything you like.
The only author who has ever made me want to read EVERYTHING is John Irving. My first from him is still my all-time fave – A Prayer for Owen Meany. (I think it should be required reading in High School English classes, since it would be a wonderful teaching tool v.v. common literary tools like foreshadowing). I then moved on to Garp (loved it!) and then just kept going. His stories are always a little bit… warped?? LOL! …but holy crap what a wonderful storyteller he is! :-)
Thanks for sharing your favorite authors – I will certainly look them up!
Mark
Thanks for the recommendation. The only book I’ve read by him is The Hotel New Hampshire, which I think I liked – I read it a long time ago.
Hello, my first to get here via Danny Brown’s blog. I loved your reads here in your blog. Definitely I will learn a lot here. Thanks for sharing your good stuff.
The authors in this article are new to me except Alice Hoffman. I loved Alice’s books and as always I get to read some of her best books.
I believe, in the list are great authors or maybe my favorite author who is Joshua Harris is isn’t that great yet. Yeah, I just love the way Joshua instill his wisdom in his books.
Thank you Kim. I will surely come back here.
Alice Hoffman is great – I can’t put her books down.
Thanks for visiting!
HA – stopped in for WordPress help and you’ve got a post about my favorite activity :) If you like Hiassen, have you tried some of Elmore Leonards stuff? Living in FL I gravitate toward a lot of those (although lately I’m on a YA kick :-p) As a single mom of a 7 y/o I tell myself I’m simply previewing on his behalf.
Hi Carol Ann – I’ve read one or two of Leonard’s books – I didn’t really get into them but I should probably give him another try.
There is a lot of great stuff in the YA area these days.
Well, there are not any authors that are my favorite, but I think I will share my own favorite authors with you:
Robert Kiyosaki (author of Rich Dad Poor Dad)
Bodo Schefer (author of The Way To The Financial Freedom)
Tony Robbins
Thanks for the recommendations. I do tend to read mostly fiction but I’ll check those out.
Hi Kim –
I recently finished Embassytown, which I enjoyed more than City and the City. Nothing has quite hit like Perdido though. I think he’s sort of going through every type of urban/city he can think of. I *really* liked UnLunDun, but I’m a sucker for YA books.
Gaiman – Anansi Boys is my favorite prose novel, although he is on my read all books by him list (including graphic novels – Sandman my all time favorite GN). BTW, if you are leaning towards Pratchett, you won’t go wrong with the Pratchett/Gaiman joint of Good Omens. It’s like a modern fantasy Hitchhiker’s Guide.
If you are open to Graphic Novels, I recommend Fables by Bill Willingham and mostly Mark Buckingham; anything by Alan Moore; most anything by Warren Ellis (he’s stretching the boundaries of SF Comics); Finder by Carla Speed McNeil.
I also second the recommendation by the person who mentioned Rex Stout – Nero Wolfe is an amazing character, but he’s nothing without his Archie Goodwin.
Finally, since this post has gotten soooo long, I’ll close by saying thank you for your “What Should I read Next” posts – I think I”ll sign up for BookArmy because hopefully hopefully hopefully (!) they will have a function where you can sign up by author’s name and receive a press release or notification when a new book by them comes out.
Pax et Liber – chris
Hi Chris,
I started Embassytown but didn’t really get into it so I might give it another try later. I think I’ve read everything by Gaiman except some of his short stories – I think I like American Gods the best. And I love Fables! I’m just a few volumes behind so they haven’t been on my list this year. Telltale Games is going to be making games of them. http://www.telltalegames.com/fables