Top Ten Tuesday is a meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish, featuring a different top 10 theme each week. This week’s topic is about authors whose works we’ve sampled, but not fully explored. In other words, authors who have written many books, but we’ve only read one so far… and need to fix that!
My top 10 are:
1) Alexander McCall Smith: I really enjoyed The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency and would love to read more of the series. Plus, I’m fairly certain that I’ll end up loving his 44 Scotland Street books too.
2) Emma Donoghue: Room was amazing, and I’m looking forward to reading Frog Music and Slammerkin.
3) Marcus Zusak: I’ve only read The Book Thief, but would like to explore more works by this author.
4) Patrick Ness: A Monster Calls was intense and beautiful. I have copies of The Knife of Never Letting Go and More Than This — now I just need to read them!
5) Rick Yancey: Ooh, The 5th Wave! I loved it, and can’t wait for my copy of The Infinite Sea to arrive. Meanwhile, I’ve been wanting to read his Monstrumologist series as well, which I hear is gruesome and amazing.
6) Keith Donohue: I loved The Stolen Child, and have copies of his other books sitting on my to-be-read stack.
7) Jo Walton: After reading Among Others, I made sure to get copies of My Real Children and Tooth and Claw… but haven’t read them yet.
8) Kate Mosse: The Winter Ghosts is so beautiful, but I haven’t read anything else by this author. I’ve been told I should read Labyrinth, for starters.
9) Charles de Lint: The only book of his I’ve read so far is The Mysteries of Grace, which was fabulous. He has so many published books that it’s a little intimidating trying to figure out where to start. Any suggestions?
10) Connie Willis: I’ve wanted to read her time travel books (Doomsday Book, Blackout, All Clear, etc) ever since I heard about them, but so far have only actually read Fire Watch, a short story collection.
I almost went in a completely different direction with this list, which would have been to focus on authors whose debut novels I’ve read… and now I’m waiting for them to publish more books! My top choices would be:
- Bee Ridgway (The River of No Return)
- Helene Wecker (The Golem and the Jinni)
- Graeme Simsion (The Rosie Project)
- Lev AC Rosen (All Men of Genius)
Which authors’ works do you most want to explore? Any suggestions for where I should start with the ones on my list?
Share your links, and I’ll come check out your top 10!
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Bookshelf Fantasies 
I adored The Book Thief. I really need to read I Am Messenger as soon as I can. I’ve had it for a while now! Great list!
I have that one too! Just never seem to get around to reading it.
I remember I really liked Jack of Kinrowan by Charles de Lint – it’s actually a collection of two of his novellas featuring the same characters. And I really want to read Connie Willis’s time travel stuff, too – I haven’t read anything by her, yet!
Thanks for the recommendation — I’ll check it out!
for Zusak I highly recommend I Am the Messenger
Me too! I am the Messenger was great. And The Knife of Never Letting Go – ahhh I’m jealous you get to experience it for the first time. DO IT! LOL.
Also, I thought Frog Music was OK, but I enjoyed Slammerkin more.
Whoop, great list!
Okay, Knife of Never Letting Go clearly needs to be a high priority book! Thanks!
Definitely want to read that one!
Connie Willis is flat brilliant. She is among my favorite authors, and Doomsday Book was the first of her works that I read (twenty years ago). It can still pull me back in. Other favorites outside her Oxford Time Travel novels are Lincoln’s Dreams and Passage.
Ooh, I didn’t even know about Lincoln’s Dreams! I have copies of Passage, Doomsday Book, and To Say Nothing of the Dog… just need to finally read them!
Marcus Zusak and Jo Walton are definitely authors I need to read more from! Among Others was such a fantastic read…Ooh, I hope you enjoy Kate Mosse’s other books! I actually haven’t read Winter Ghosts but I did read her Languedoc trilogy and absolutely loved it (Sepulchre, the second book, is my favourite book by her) 🙂
Great, I don’t know anyone who’s actually read the Languedoc books — glad to hear you enjoyed them! Definitely check out Winter Ghosts if you have a chance. It’s not very big, but it’s quite lovely and memorable.
I like the McCall Smith Mma Ramotswe books- they are a nice relaxing read for when I need comforting. Reading them are like putting on a pair of comfy slippers. I love being able to take time out and visit Mma Ramotswe, Mr JLB Maketobi and Mma Makutimsi.
Comfy slippers — absolutely! I recently listened to the audiobook version of the 1st book, and I enjoyed it even more than reading the hard copy of the book. The narrator is awesome, really made me feel like I was getting to know the characters.
And here’s a link! 😀 … to an interview that Connie Willis did a few years back. She’s entertaining in the way that Diana Gabaldon’s interviews are entertaining. She’s perfectly willing to tell what and how she thinks and what moves her… and conveys such a sense of the intellect at work that you’re left a little awestruck and scrambling for the book list.
http://talkingwriting.com/connie-willis-history-is-the-raw-data/
Oh, fabulous! Thank you so much!!
The only one I’ve read is Doomsday Book. I’m one of the odd ones that fell in the middle, but it seems like most people love it or hate it, so hopefully you fall into the first category!
Ha, I hope so!
Ooooo, I would like to read more Alexander McCall Smith books, too. I really want to read his children’s Precious books. They look so cute.
Children’s books?? That sounds adorable!
Room was awesome… but I think the reason I loved it was because of Jack’s unique voice.
I gave up on Connie Willis after Passage (so repetitive and pointless!) and Patrick Ness after More Than This (so boring and pointless!)… so I’ve only read one book from each of them. I’ve heard better things about some of their other books… but I’m not sure if I want to give either of them another chance.
I’ve read quite a bit of Charles de Lint over the years. A couple of my favourites are Trader and Yarrow… but Jack of Kinrowan is also good (as is The Blue Girl, if you want to read one of his YA titles).
Oh, I think I have a copy of The Blue Girl, from a used book sale years ago. Now where did I put it? 🙂 Thanks for your comments on Passage and More Than This — so I know where not to start!
Rick Yancey is another one for me! Monstrumologist is on my shelf, I’m kind of hoping to get around to it in October. Oh and Zusak as well. I own I Am the Messenger. I really need to read more of my owned books lol I can highly recommend Ness’ Chaos Walking series because SO GOOD yet so sad.
I’ve been wanting to read Jo Walton’s ‘Among Others’ for FOREVER. And Kate Mosse’s books sound so good. *sigh* So many books, so little time.
Story of my life — it’s overwhelming! I really do need to make Chaos Walking a priority, it sounds like.
I picked up Slammerkin soon after reading Room and I guess that was a wrong decision. I was highly disappointed!
Oh, that’s too bad! I understand it’s completely different. It’s been a few years since I’ve read Room, so maybe I’m ready for it now!