My Top Ten Fifteen Auto Buy Authors
Classics:
1. Jane Austen
2. Louisa May Alcott
3. L.M. Montgomery
I will read anything by these authors. Although I started with and loved their best-known works (Pride and Prejudice, Little Women, and Anne of Green Gables, respectively), I find that I often love their more obscure works best. Persuasion is a melancholy gem, Rose in Bloom is probably the book I've reread the most times in my life, and L.M. Montgomery's short stories, like the collection The Road to Yesterday, are pitch-perfect miniatures of her larger novels (and often feature Anne cameos), not even to mention Emily of New Moon and her dreamy writerly ways. Reading the backlist of beloved classic authors, in my opinion, is one of the best ways to find new and sometimes stunningly apropos favorites at just the right moment.
Poetry:
4. Leigh Stein
If I see Leigh Stein's name on a poetry book, I'm buying it. So far, I've only had the chance once, with her achingly, brightly millenial collection Dispatch from the Future, but I eagerly anticipate further anachronistic revelations from her pen.
5. Adrienne Rich
I got turned onto the Dream of a Common Language by Cheryl Strayed in Wild, and then I found Diving into the Wreck in a Little Free Library. Adrienne Rich is now definitely an auto-buy for me.
6. Mary Oliver
I'd read Mary Oliver snippets spread across the Internet for a while before I took one of her collections, Blue Iris, out of the library. After reading aloud to my dogs, I went out and purchased her collected volume.
Contemporary
7. Jen Lancaster
8. David Lebovitz
Lancaster and Lebovitz are both guaranteed to make me laugh with the woes of their contemporary memoirs. Bitter is the New Black and The Sweet Life in Paris are both constant rereads for me, and ever since, I've begun a collection of their works. I think I have at least two or three from each now.
9. Amy Tan
Every Amy Tan book I read is better than the last! I really relate to her blend of family drama, cultural exploration, and myth...and it's funny, but her best known The Joy Luck Club is actually my least favorite of hers, which just goes to show that if you like a book, you should always read the backlist.
Cookbooks:
10. Smitten Kitchen (Deb Perlman)
I've been following Smitten Kitchen's blog for...eleven years?! ever since i became a blogger and way before either of her kids (written or otherwise) were born. I've got both Smitten Kitchen cookbooks and would happily acquire another.
11. Anne Byrn
I fell in love with American Cake so much that I immediately required American Cookie. I'll peruse Anne Byrn's histories of baked goods any day.
Fantasy/YA:
12. Naomi Novik
13. Maggie Stiefvater
14. Suzanne Collins
15. Rae Carson
All these novelists (except Collins of course) are relatively recent must-reads for me. I flew through the Raven Cycle last month while I winged through the nine Temeraire books in the past several months. I think I've read all of Novik's oeuvre since getting introduced to her last year. I purchased the Girl of Fire and Thorns and read the whole trilogy in a haze a couple years ago and while I have yet to read Carson's other books, I wouldn't hesitate to buy them (once I'm, er, letting myself buy books again). And Collins...I heard she's coming out with a new book, so since I couldn't get enough of The Hunger Games, I'm prepared to be devastated as well as broke.
Classics:
1. Jane Austen
2. Louisa May Alcott
3. L.M. Montgomery
I will read anything by these authors. Although I started with and loved their best-known works (Pride and Prejudice, Little Women, and Anne of Green Gables, respectively), I find that I often love their more obscure works best. Persuasion is a melancholy gem, Rose in Bloom is probably the book I've reread the most times in my life, and L.M. Montgomery's short stories, like the collection The Road to Yesterday, are pitch-perfect miniatures of her larger novels (and often feature Anne cameos), not even to mention Emily of New Moon and her dreamy writerly ways. Reading the backlist of beloved classic authors, in my opinion, is one of the best ways to find new and sometimes stunningly apropos favorites at just the right moment.Poetry:4. Leigh Stein
If I see Leigh Stein's name on a poetry book, I'm buying it. So far, I've only had the chance once, with her achingly, brightly millenial collection Dispatch from the Future, but I eagerly anticipate further anachronistic revelations from her pen.
5. Adrienne Rich
I got turned onto the Dream of a Common Language by Cheryl Strayed in Wild, and then I found Diving into the Wreck in a Little Free Library. Adrienne Rich is now definitely an auto-buy for me.
6. Mary Oliver
I'd read Mary Oliver snippets spread across the Internet for a while before I took one of her collections, Blue Iris, out of the library. After reading aloud to my dogs, I went out and purchased her collected volume.
Contemporary
7. Jen Lancaster
8. David Lebovitz
Lancaster and Lebovitz are both guaranteed to make me laugh with the woes of their contemporary memoirs. Bitter is the New Black and The Sweet Life in Paris are both constant rereads for me, and ever since, I've begun a collection of their works. I think I have at least two or three from each now.
9. Amy Tan
Every Amy Tan book I read is better than the last! I really relate to her blend of family drama, cultural exploration, and myth...and it's funny, but her best known The Joy Luck Club is actually my least favorite of hers, which just goes to show that if you like a book, you should always read the backlist.
10. Smitten Kitchen (Deb Perlman)
I've been following Smitten Kitchen's blog for...eleven years?! ever since i became a blogger and way before either of her kids (written or otherwise) were born. I've got both Smitten Kitchen cookbooks and would happily acquire another.
11. Anne Byrn
I fell in love with American Cake so much that I immediately required American Cookie. I'll peruse Anne Byrn's histories of baked goods any day.
12. Naomi Novik
13. Maggie Stiefvater
14. Suzanne Collins
15. Rae Carson
All these novelists (except Collins of course) are relatively recent must-reads for me. I flew through the Raven Cycle last month while I winged through the nine Temeraire books in the past several months. I think I've read all of Novik's oeuvre since getting introduced to her last year. I purchased the Girl of Fire and Thorns and read the whole trilogy in a haze a couple years ago and while I have yet to read Carson's other books, I wouldn't hesitate to buy them (once I'm, er, letting myself buy books again). And Collins...I heard she's coming out with a new book, so since I couldn't get enough of The Hunger Games, I'm prepared to be devastated as well as broke.
Comments
My TTT.