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 Top Ten New-To-Me Authors I Read In 2014. What fun! I “met” so many authors this year for the first time. Here are the best of the bunch:
Note: If you want to know more about any of the books mentioned here, click on the links to see my reviews.
1) Erin Lindsay McCabe: One of my very favorite books of 2014 was Erin Lindsay McCabe’s debut novel I Shall Be Near To You. A simply stunning love story set during the Civil War, written with power, grace, and true emotion.
2) Liane Moriarty: I’m thrilled to have discovered this talented Australian writer. In 2014, I read The Husband’s Secret and Big Little Lies, and absolutely want to read more.
3) Jamie Ford: I finally read Jamie Ford’s break-out bestseller, The Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet, and loved it. I’m really looking forward to reading Songs of Willow Frost in the coming months.
4) Andy Weir: The Martian was one of my biggest surprises this year! I didn’t expect to love it as much as I did.
5) M. R. Carey: Just when I thought the topic of zombies was completely played out, along came The Girl With All The Gifts!
6) Patricia C. Wrede: Thanks to reading with my son, I finally caught up with this children’s author who excels at magical world-building! I enjoyed her Frontier Magic trilogy, and I’m currently 3/4 of the way through her Enchanted Forest Chronicles. I’m looking forward to reading more by this author, especially Sorcery & Cecilia, which people have been recommending to me for years.
7) Mur Lafferty: If you like your paranormal fiction on the light and snarky side, then check out Mur Lafferty’s two very funny books, The Shambling Guide to New York City and The Ghost Train to New Orleans. The conceit wears a tiny bit thin by the second book, but I still had a lot of fun with both.
8) Andrew Smith: Grasshopper Jungle was one of the weirdest books I read in 2014 — and I loved it. I haven’t read anything else by this author yet, but I intend to.
9) Alexander McCall Smith: Okay, here I’m extremely late to the party — but I finally read The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency, and thought it was terrific! I picked up a stack of books from the series at a used book sale this fall, and I look forward to reading these on and off during the coming year.
10) Nomi Eve: Henna House is moving and lovely, and I’m looking forward to reading it again when my book club reads it in 2015.
I can’t wait to see who I’ll meet in 2015!
Which authors did you discover in 2014?
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Bookshelf Fantasies 
You’ve found some brilliant new to you authors this year – I’ve just read one of Liane Moriarty’s earlier books The Last Anniversary and she’s an author I recommend widely.
I haven’t read that one yet, although I think it’s one of three that I’ve added to my Kindle and look forward to reading! She’s got such a knack for great dialogue — I was kind of amused (and appalled) when I realized that I’ve actually said some of the things one of her more ridiculous characters said! 🙂
😆 I always find characters I ‘know’ in her books despite living on the other side of the world and yet they don’t appear to be stereotypical characters! You have lots still to enjoy.
I shall be near to you, The girl with all the gifts and Big, little lies are all on my Kindle just dying to be read! Haha. I have heard great things about those books. Glad that you have enjoyed them as well.
Oh, yay, I’m glad you’re planning to read these! They’re all really different, but so, so good.
These all look so good! I’m only familiar with Wrede and McCall. I’m going to add The Shambling Guide to my TBR!!
It’s so much fun — I hope you enjoy it!
The girl with all the gifts was so…different from a lot of what I usually read, made for a nice change
I had such a weird time at first reading it, because I didn’t know what it was going to be about and it really threw me for a loop! But I ended up loving it. 🙂
These all look so good!
It was really hard to narrow down my list! I feel like I’ve had a great reading year. 🙂
Good for you!
Nice list, quite a range of authors you’ve discovered this year 🙂 I’m starting to see The Martian crop up on a few people’s lists for this week, might have to bump it up my list 😉 I’ve also been curious of Liane Moriarty’s books; I see them everywhere but I’ve never picked them up. Perhaps next year? 🙂
My TTT
Thanks! I don’t know why I didn’t expect to like The Martian, but after getting it thanks to a gift card, I really loved it. Funny and smart, so much fun to read!
I really fancy reading Grasshopper Jungle so was really glad to see this on your list. The Girl With All The Gifts sounds good too!
It was really great! I’m glad to find someone else interested in Grasshopper Jungle — I’d love to read more by this author.
Patrica C. Wrede is so much fun. I’ve read 2/4 of the Enchanted Forest books and I have read Sorcery and Cecelia which is also highly recommend!
I love Andrew Smith, but I’ve only read Winger. Such an amazing book and I SOOOO recommend it.
I really need to get a copy of Winger! I keep hearing how amazing it is. 🙂 I’m really looking forward to Sorcery & Cecelia too.
I absolutely love Liane Moriarty. I think she’s fabulous. I love Jamie Ford’s writing too.
I really want to read more by Liane Moriarty, and just added a few titles to my Kindle!
I do love Alexander McCall Smith – my Dad knew his late brother, through the Scottish farming community. Although I prefer the Isabel Dalhousie series and the Von Igelfeld series (it’s riotously funny!)
Oh, how cool about your dad’s connection to AMS! I’ve only read the one book by him, but I guess I should look into his other series as well.
Nice list! Liane Moriarty is on mine as well. I loved BIG LITTLE LIES. Now, I must read THE HUSBAND’S SECRET and everything else she’s ever written! Sadly, I never got around to reading I SHALL BE NEAR TO YOU, even though I had it out of the library for a couple of months. One of these days, I swear I will read it. Everyone says it’s excellent.
Happy TTT (on a Wednesday)!
Ack! WP has my old blog info. You can find me at: http://www.blogginboutbooks.com
Thanks! I really recommend I Shall Be Near To You — definitely worth making the time for! (The author is such a nice person too — she did a great Q&A with me earlier in the year.) I’m with you on Liane Moriarty — I’ll be on a quest to read more of her books in 2015!
I Shall Be Near To You was pretty amazing. And yay for The Martian and The Girl With All the Gifts! Great picks. 🙂
Thanks! It’s pretty cool when I stop to think about how many new (to me) authors I met this year. I’d say this was a pretty great book year, all in all!