This quote from JK Rowling puts her on my Favorite Author List - even though I haven't read her books (I know, SHAME!) because I like what she has to say. She's forthright, she's passionate and if you ask a question you'd better be ready for an answer. And one of these days I will read her books.
I just finished a Week of Reading: a couple of cozy mysteries, an autobiography, several romances and 4 early-chapter books (of the Never Girls and Junie B Jones persuasion). I read and I deconstructed and I enjoyed time to settle in to setting and character and learn something new. As I was reading, though, I started thinking about a few of my favorite authors - the ones I've never met but have wonderful daydreams about lunching with - and it was surprising to me that the names on that list haven't changed much in the last 5 to 10 years. A few new ones have been added, but the old favorites - Nora, Louisa May, Jane - have never moved from their spots...the list just keeps getting longer.
Today, I thought I'd share a few of them with you.
Jayne Ann Krentz: Just the Jayne Ann books. I know, I know, she has several pseudonyms, and I love them all, but the Jayne books are my absolute favorites. She has a way with characterization that blows me away. These are books that I can sink into and get really lost...
Anne Rivers Siddons: Anne writes with amazing emotion; she has this ability to draw me into a story so much that, even after I've finished the book, the characters are still alive for me. Sometimes a year or two later I'll wonder 'what is ___ doing now?' and I always hope that maybe she'll release a sequel to my absolute favorites...even a short story.
Courtney Milan: Courtney is a new favorite of mine, I found her a couple of years ago when I was tired of paranormal and suspense and contemporary romance. I hadn't read a historical in...well, probably since Fabio was on a cover, but the setting came to life immediately and I was hooked.
Nora Ephron: I know, she wrote scripts. Movies. But there is an art to telling a movie, and she had that art down pat. Her characters were real and flawed and I just have to root for them. Every time I watch.
Nora Roberts: She's the queen of romance for a reason. Some people don't like her books, and that's totally fine. I happen to love them. I stalk her website around December every year because that's when she updates that is coming out for the next year, then I mark my calendar for pre-order dates. You could say I'm addicted. For me, it's Nora's characters...but even her settings become part of the character of a book for me.
I have a lot more favorite authors, and I'm blessed that several of my favorites are personal friends, and one day I'll have that lunch with Nora and Jayne and Courtney and Anne and we'll talk about the other Nora's films and it will be the best.lunch.ever. What about you? Which authors or books are on your must-have list?
Thanks for the shoutout--same goes on the Wranglers; you are all on my list. Even though I don't read Everything Nora anymore because I've wearied of romantic suspense, I still love her voice--her Inn Boonsboro Trilogy was like dessert for me and I spread it out over several meals!
ReplyDeleteKristan Higgins and Mary Balogh are absolutes for me. I pre-order whatever they have coming out and tend to read it in a day and then grumble because it went too fast. Other gotta-haves are Holly Jacobs, Cheryl Reavis, Muriel Jensen, Cheryl St. John, and Marta Perry. TO NAME BUT A FEW. Add to this of course, Kathleen Gilles Seidel, whose grocery lists I'd be happy to read if she'd put them out there.
I'm a new Kristan Higgans fan (I know - why didn't I start reading her before?) and Jill Shalvis...and the list just keeps getting longer! Thanks for sharing some of your faves, Liz.
DeleteMerci for the shout-out, Kristina and yes, yes, to our fellow Wranglers! I love your men--they're kind and gentle heroes!
ReplyDeleteMy go-to list is way too long for here, but anything at all by Lani Diane Rich, Jennifer Cruisie's rom-coms are rereads always if I need to decompress. Anything new by Susan Elizabeth Phillips and frankly (I'm not schmoozing, I promise), I always preorder our Liz Flaherty. Her books take me home--I appreciate that so much!
Liz is AWESOME, isn't she? (we'll just talk about her like she isn't here for a sec) Her characters are so real they jump off the page...I always kind of expect to meet one of them or to find one of her places when we travel. :)
DeleteAnd I agree with Jennifer Cruisie and SEP - great, great storytellers.
I would love to meet you all. I think it's on all of our bucket lists!!
ReplyDeleteBesides the Wranglers, I would want to meet Sarah Addison Allen--her book always enchant me--in the best of ways. I think Kristan Higgins would be a hoot. And speaking of fun, Sophie Kinsella--if she can make me roll of the couch in laughter with her writing, I can't imagine what she'd be like in person. Erin Morgenstern--I loved The Night Circus, but the author remains an enigma--which intrigues me.
Just to name a few....
...I feel like I need to go visit my Kindle and glom some more backlist now... :D
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