Favorite Author Discoveries, 2024 Edition

It's been a while since my last Top Ten Tuesday post, but I take time every January to reflect on the new authors I read the previous year.  In 2024 I read twenty-three new-to-me authors and had a surprisingly difficult time narrowing that list down to just ten favorites. Here they are, listed in the order I read them.

FAVORITE NEW-TO-ME AUTHORS, 2024

The Mountains Sing by Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai 

James by Percival Everett 

Absolution by Alice McDermott 

Olga Dies Dreaming by Xóchitl González

How to Read a Book by Monica Wood

Sandwich by Catherine Newman

Elena Knows by Claudia Piñeiro

 Frances Riddle, translator

Olympus, Texas by Stacey Swann

A Good Life by Virginie Grimaldi

Hildegarde Serle, translator

The Wedding People by Alison Espach

What new authors did you discover in 2024?

Top Ten Tuesday: 2022 Author Discoveries

  

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. Since today is a "freebie" week, we get to choose our own topic. I'd like to highlight my favorite author discoveries of 2022. This was actually last week's prompt but you know how that goes. It seems like I've been behind all month...

Favorite Author Discoveries of 2022

Mary Lawson - A Town Called Solace and Crow Lake

John Boyne - The Absolutist

Kim Fay - Love & Saffron

Damon Galgut - The Promise

Maggie O'Farrell - The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox

Maggie Shipstead - Seating Arrangements

Steven Rowley - The Guncle

Claire Keegan - Foster and Small Things Like These 

Angie Cruz - How Not to Drown in a Glass of Water

Lydia Millet - Dinosaurs

Have you read any of these authors? What were your favorite author discoveries of 2022?

My Top Ten Author Discoveries of 2021

Today's Top Ten Tuesday topic gave me a chance to think about all the new-to-me authors I read in 2021... and there were quite a few. They seemed to be a mix of debut authors and authors I've been meaning to read for years.

Here are my top ten author discoveries of 2021, in no particular order,  along with the title of the book I read.

1. Joyce Maynard 

Count the Ways

2. Isabel Wilkerson 

The Warmth of Other Suns

3. Stanley Tucci 

Taste: My Life Through Food

4. Ed Tarkington 

The Fortunate Ones

5. Patricia Engel 

Infinite Country

6. Kate Quinn 

The Rose Code

7. Asha Lemmie 

Fifty Words for Rain

8. Elizabeth Acevedo 

With the Fire on High

9. Sayaka Murata 

Convenience Store Woman

 

10. Joshua Henkin 

Morningside Heights

Have you read any of these authors? What authors did you discover in 2021?

Find more Top Ten Tuesday posts here.

 

Ten Classics on My TBR List

 It's time for another edition of Top Ten Tuesday. Today's prompt is actually "Books Written Before I Was Born"... but since any book written before I was born should be considered a classic, let's take a look at ten I'd like to read (or reread) within the next year or two. These are all on my second Classics Club list. 

Villette by Charlotte Brontë - I've read many of the Bronte novels, but never got around to this one.

Death Comes for the Archbishop by Willa Cather - This has been unread on my shelf for years.

Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky - the Pevear and Volokhonsky  translation

The Black Tulip by Alexandre Dumas, because I loved The Count of Monte Cristo

The Forsyte Saga by John Galsworthy -The first three novels of the series were excellent and I must read the rest of them!

Wives and Daughters by Elizabeth Gaskell - Can it be as good as North and South?

The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck - I've been meaning to reread this since high school.

Miss Mackenzie by Anthony Trollope - because it's been a year since I read Trollope and I miss him!

The Buccaneers by Edith Wharton, to follow-up The Husband Hunters (nonfiction)

The Priory by Dorothy Whipple, because it's been on my shelf for a decade

Have you read any of these? Where should I start?

Top Ten Tuesday: 2020 Author Discoveries

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly feature hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. This week's prompt is "New-to-Me Authors I Read in 2020."

For many of us, 2020 was not a typical reading year. My goals, challenges, and projects were upended as I turned to books for comfort. That meant more rereads, backlists titles from favorite authors, memoirs, and quite a few lighter books. Here are my favorite author discoveries, listed in the order that I read them.

Kevin Wilson,  Nothing To See Here 

Rachel Lyon, Self-Portrait with Boy 

Claire Lombardo, The Most Fun We Ever Had 

T Kira Madden, Long Live the Tribe of Fatherless Girls: A Memoir 

Nella Larsen, Passing

Connie Schultz, The Daughters of Erietown 

Lucy Foley, The Guest List 

Bess Kalb, Nobody Will Tell You This But Me: A True (as Told to Me) Story 

Austin Channing Brown, I'm Still Here: Black Dignity in a World Made for Whiteness 

Fredrik Backman, Anxious People

Have you read any of these authors? Who was your favorite author discovery last year?

Top Ten Tuesday: 2018 Author Discoveries

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly feature hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. It's been months since my last TTT post, but this week's topic, New-to-Me Authors I Read In 2018, caught my eye. Since half the books I read last year were by "new" authors, I though it would be fun to take a look at my favorites. Interestingly, they were all women.

2018 Author Discoveries: Fiction

Min Jin Lee - Pachinko  and  Free Food for Millionaires

Joan Silber - Improvement

Sarah Winman - Tin Man

Claire Fuller  - Swimming Lessons

Rebecca Kauffman - The Gunners

2018 Author Discoveries: Nonfiction

Nina Willner 

Forty Autumns: A Family's Story of Courage and Survival on Both Sides of the Berlin Wall

Debby Irving - Waking Up White: And Finding Myself in the Story of Race

Kory Stamper - Word by Word: The Secret Life of Dictionaries

Kate Moore - The Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America's Shining Women

Kelly Corrigan - Tell Me More: Stories about the 12 Hardest Things I'm Learning to Say

Click here for more of today's Top Ten Tuesday posts.

Books By My Favorite Authors That I STILL Haven’t Read

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly feature hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. This week we're talking about our favorite authors. Specifically, books they've written that we haven't read - yet.  Let's get right to it...

 Books By My Favorite Authors That I Still  Haven’t Read

The Space Between Us by Thrity Umrigar

It's been on my shelf for years. What am I waiting for?

Abide With Me by Elizabeth Strout

I've loved all her books. This is the only one I haven't read.

Imagined London: A Tour of the World's Greatest Fictional City by Anna Quindlen

One of her nonfiction books... I bought this at the library sale a couple of summers ago.

Purity by Jonathan Franzen

Love him or hate him, there's no middle of the road when it comes to Jonathan Franzen. 

The Way We Live Now by Anthony Trollope

Over 1000 pages, but Trollope is worth it!

Young Hearts Crying by Richard Yates

His novels tend to be depressing, but I love them. This is one of a couple I've yet to read.

The Position by Meg Wolitzer

I'm on a mission to read Wolitzer's entire backlist.

The Spectator Bird by Wallace Stegner

Stegner's Crossing to Safety may just be my favorite novel. I have this ready to go on audio.

Clock Dance by Anne Tyler 

Her latest novel... the waiting list is long.

The Only Story by Julian Barnes

I haven't read a lot of Barnes, but everything I've read has been wonderful.

Are there novels by your favorite authors you've been meaning to read?

Top Ten Tuesday: Listen to This!

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly feature hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. This was originally an open week (bloggers choose their own topic) but was later updated to "the best books I've read in 2018."  Since I posted my list last week, I'm going to share some audiobook love instead.

These are all books I've listened to or experienced as a read/listen combination in last year or so. In each case, I feel the audio version enhanced my overall experience. Links will take you to Audible where you can listen to a sample.

Forty Autumns: A Family's Story of Courage and Survival on Both Sides of the Berlin Wall by Nina Willner, narrated by Cassandra Campbell (nonfiction)

Get Well Soon: History’s Worst Plagues and the Heroes Who Fought Them 

by Jennifer Wright, narrated by Gabra Zackman (nonfiction)

Dear Fahrenheit 451: Love and Heartbreak in the Stacks

by Annie Spence, narrated by Stephanie Spicer (nonfiction)

Cork Dork: A Wine-Fueled Adventure Among the Obsessive Sommeliers, Big Bottle Hunters, and Rogue Scientists Who Taught Me to Live for Taste 

by Bianca Bosker, narrated by the author (nonfiction)

Shrill: Notes from a Loud Woman 

by Lindy West, narrated by the author (nonfiction)

The Female Persuasion 

by Meg Wolitzer, narrated by Rebecca Lowman

Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine 

by Gail Honeyman, narrated by Cathleen McCarron

A Spool of Blue Thread 

by Anne Tyler, narrated by Kimberly Farr

A Gentleman in Moscow 

by Amor Towles, narrated by Nicholas Guy Smith

The Nix 

by Nathan Hill, narrated by Ari Fliakos

Bonus: The audio version of my current read/listen combination is excellent.

Pachinko 

by Min Jin Lee, narrated by Allison Hiroto

What's the best audiobook you have listened to lately?

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