a lifestyle blog for book lovers

For the 2015 Reading Challenge, I’m blogging through one category per month, in order. (Don’t worry—you don’t have to read them in order.)

So far we’ve covered:

  1. a book you’ve been meaning to read
  2. a book published this year
  3. a book in a genre you don’t typically read
  4. a book from your childhood
  5. a book your mom loves
  6. a book that was originally written in a different language
  7. a book ‘everyone’ has read but you
  8. a book you chose because of the cover

The 2015 Reading Challenge. I'm starting now!

I have a terrible time picking just one favorite anything, so picking a favorite author is out of the question. I suspect I’m like most readers: I have many favorites, depending on my mood, what I’ve recently read, and what’s happening in my life.

For great literature that never lets me down, I read Jane Austen. I don’t think I’ll tire of re-reading her works anytime soon, and I still discover something new on each re-reading.

Wendell Berry is another of my favorites. He writes wonderful, probing literary fiction, and while I’m not always in the mood for his contemplative works, I’m always rewarded when I summon the patience to slow down and revisit Port William.

I love Wallace Stegner, even though I haven’t even read half of his works. (The man was prolific.) But I’m amazed at what he can do with the written word, and several of his books are among my very favorites. (I’m reading his novel The Big Rock Candy Mountain for this category.)

There are authors I think of as kindred spirits, like Madeleine L’Engle. It’s not that I think we’re much alike, but that I feel understood reading her. She phrases things in a way I can hear.

There are authors I turn to for a good kick in the pants, like Brené Brown.

I have favorite authors for sheer entertainment value: Kate Morton, Louise Penny, Jojo Moyes. Not all-time-favorite authors, but must-read authors who consistently put out books I enjoy.

I’m stopping myself at 8 authors, though I could easily think of more.

Who are YOUR favorite authors, and why? 

104 comments

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  1. Janet says:

    I too would find it impossible to name just one author as my favorite.
    I love the British author A.S. Byatt, Possession was wonderful and her trilogy was too, I think I’ve read all of her books and she never ceases to amaze me.
    Bill Bryson for his sense of humor.
    Stephan King because he actually scares me.
    Thomas Costain because he taught me to love English history.
    Barbara Kingsolver just because.
    I’m also a big fan of Wallace Stegner, Angle of Repose will always be a favorite of mine.

  2. Chrissy says:

    My all time, favorite author is Agatha Christie. I can re-read her books over and over again. =)

    After that would be Jane Austen (I was recently introduced to her works), Kim Harrison with her urban fantasy/vampire series, The Hollows, and Margaret George with her brilliant historical fiction. <3 Oh, and Philippa Gregory with her historical fiction novels as well.

    Currently reading my first bonnet book/Amish fiction. I usually don't read Amish books, but I'm trying to branch out a bit. Oddly enough, I really like it. It's The Guardian by Beverly Lewis. So far, it's pretty good. She might make the favorite authors list next year. =)

  3. M.E. Bond says:

    Chaim Potok for lengthy, complex, insightful novels about American Jews in the twentieth century. (Start with The Chosen.)
    L.M.Montgomery for sentimental, descriptive stories that bring me back to my childhood. (Read The Blue Castle.)
    E.M. Forster for books that are thought-provoking and somehow amusing. (I’ve read/listened to A Room with a View more times than I can count.)

  4. Sarah M says:

    Phew…I’m so glad you chose more than ONE! 😉
    My favorites are:
    Sylvia Plath, because the way she uses words is astounding,
    Madeline L’Engle (yay! another L’Engle fan) because everything I read of hers I find that I savor and want to share with others,
    Sandra Cisneros because her metaphors are extraordinary,
    A.W. Tozer and C.S Lewis, because they have helped me understand SO much about my faith, and I consider them spiritual mentors,
    Anne Lamott, because of her grace, and her humor,
    David Sedaris, for always making me laugh out loud while reading in public.
    Sarah M

  5. Alison says:

    Hard to narrow down but I love Rohinton Mistry and wish he would write more, same goes for Anne Marie MacDonald, and I love John Irving too, many others are must read authors but those 3 are my all time faourites…

  6. Elizabeth says:

    Oh, so many! Glad you listed several 😉 Austen is a classic favorite of mine as well. Never tire of her! 🙂 C.S. Lewis and L.M. Montgomery are up there too – so many childhood treasures from them! One of my favorite nonfiction contemporary authors is Eric Metaxas, and Julie Klassen and Francine Rivers are two favorite fiction contemporaries. There are likely more! Such a fun discussion.

  7. I am with you. I am not sure if I could pick just one favorite author. But right now in this point of my life some of my favorite authors would include
    Louisa May Alcott – She is at the top of the list as I have been reading through her bibliography this year.
    Rachel Held Evans – She puts into words many of the things I am feeling.
    Shauna Niequist – Her essays paint such a beautiful picture even when talking about pain and hurt.
    Adriana Trigiani – Her novels are page-turners and always leave me wanting and ready to travel to Italy.
    Jane Austen – How could you not love her works? 🙂

  8. Katie says:

    It’s hard to choose a favorite author because most of the books I read aren’t repeat authors for me. I really like Sarah Addison Allen. I love her prose and she weaves a wonderful story. I can never savor her books – I race through them.

  9. Heather says:

    E.M. Forster is one of my favorites because I sometimes am so entranced by how beautifully he writes something that it demands to be read out loud. Anthony Doerr sees beauty in all the small things and that draws me in to wonder and think more about the beautiful things that surround me. Barbara Kingsolver has a way with words that resonates deep within me. John Steinbeck is a master of his craft and I love digging into his writing.

  10. Jeannie says:

    Your choices, and the reasons for them, are great. For me it’s the following:

    *Jane Austen – I’ve read all her books multiple times, and they’re now stacked by my bed. To me they’re the perfect bedtime reading: well-written enough to be interesting, but familiar enough not to keep me wide awake with suspense!
    *Elizabeth Strout – She wrote Abide With Me, Amy & Isabelle, Olive Kitteridge, and The Burgess Boys, all excellent works of fiction.
    *Edith Wharton – The House of Mirth is one of my top 5 books of all time, and I love her other novels and short stories.
    *Anne Tyler – I was a bit disappointed by some of her more recent work, and I haven’t read her newest (A Spool of Blue Thread) yet — but I’ve thoroughly enjoyed most of her many novels, especially Saint Maybe.
    *I also have 2 favourite poets: Billy Collins and Ted Koozer.

  11. My younger friends Sarah Clarkson and Lanier Ivester (Laniers Books) introduced me to Elizabeth Goudge for which I will be forever greatful! Lanier and a blog reader said if I love Goudge, I’d also love D. E. Stevenson’s books. They were so right! I have favorites of both that are my “middle-winter and depressed” rereads.

  12. liz n. says:

    Oh, God, so many…

    –Margaret Atwood for creating physical worlds you can see and feel, for warnings in prose, and for creating the worlds inside characters’ heads that make perfect sense to you, even if the character is unlikable.

    –Richard Adams for pure wordsmithery, genius metaphor, and making you forget that the characters are four-legged critters.

    –JK Rowlig because Harry Potter, need I say more?

    –JRR Tolkien because JRR Tolkien, I KNOW I needn’t say more!

    –Agatha Christie for marvelous who-dunnits and twisty turns you should have seen coming.

    –Ms. Austen because Fanny is under-appreciated, Darcy is Darcy, England is oh, so English, the bad boys are downright rogues, Mr. Knightley is a gem, the original Mean Girls lived in Austen’s world, and Mr. Bennett has no compassion on my poor nerves.

    –Kafka, who makes Dostoyevsky and Atwood look like they’re trying to keep up.

    –Bill Bryson, for the most poetic hilarity you will ever read.

    –Samuel Taylor Coleridge for beauty.

    –Neil Gaiman for gluing my eyes to the page and never letting them go.

    –Diana Gabaldon for creating complex, evolving, complete characters and letting them grow up (but maybe I don’t need every detail of every sex scene, y’know?).

    –Haruki Murakami for prose that leaves me breathless.

    –William Shakespeare for everything.

    –Dave Wroblewski for making you see and feel every single thing, and breaking every piece of your heart along the way.

    –Ursula K. Le Guin for making sci-fi literary.

    Those are off the top of my head; I could come up with a dozen more authors whose work I love and adore, but I am not competing for World’s Longest Blog Post Comment today. 😉

  13. Paula says:

    L.M. Montgomery because of Anne Shirley. JK Rowling because of Harry Potter. Stephen King and Dean Koontz for when I want to be creeped out. Kate Morton for when I want a good surprise ending. Neil Gaiman because he’s Neil Gaiman.

  14. Dana says:

    So many:

    Charles Dickens- for his wonderful characters and storytelling
    My favorite is Great Expectations.
    Mark Twain- for his humor and insights about humanity. Favorite is Innocents Abroad
    Anne Tyler- quirky characters and stories of ordinary people. I agree with PP, her earlier works are the best. The last few have been disappointing. Read Celestial Navigation, Breathing Lessons, Searching for Caleb
    PD James – She elevated the mystery novel to possibilities that no one else has accomplished. Death in Holy Orders is a fave.
    CS Lewis and JRR Tolkein for their rich fantasies. I have read The Hobbit, Lord of the Rings and the Narnia books numerous times.
    Stephen King – His storytelling is masterful. I do not care for the scary horror stories but I have really enjoyed Joyland, The Dead Zone, Different Seasons, 11/22/63 and his nonfiction book On Writing ( the best book on writing hands down).
    Leif Enger- beautiful prose and great characters
    Stephanie Kallos – lyrical prose, stories that are different and emotionally complex.
    Kate Morton – great stories plus they are thick! : )
    JK Rowling – Harry Potter of course!

  15. Page Inman says:

    I have several that are favorites.
    Margaret Atwood, but I have to be in the right frame of mine for hers,
    Alexandra Stoddard (non-fiction) I own several of her books and have re-read them many times.
    Steve Berry
    James Rollins
    Andy McDermott
    Aimee and David Thurlo (Ella Clah series)
    Nevada Barr
    These are a few of my favorite authors.

  16. Karen says:

    Loving these! A few off the top of my head:
    Jane Austen, for so many reasons
    Ernest Hemingway, for saying so much with so few words
    Pat Conroy, for his storytelling
    Flannery O’Connor, for her brilliant quirkiness
    L.M. Montgomery, Maud Hart Lovelace, Beverly Cleary and Carolyn Haywood, for so many happy childhood hours
    And authors Kathryn Stockett (The Help), Helen Simonsen (Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand), and Elisabeth Egan (A Window Opens), whose first books I loved, and who I hope write again soon!

  17. Liz says:

    I have been telling people Madeleine L’Engle is my favorite author since I was 10 years old. She had me at “Meet the Austins.”

  18. carey says:

    My all time favorite author is Jane Austen; I have loved all of her books, her timelessness, her insight.
    But my favorite book is not hers… my favorite book is A Sweetness To The Soul by Jane Kirkpatrick. And although she wrote my favorite book, I don’t feel that Jane’s breadth of work is as impressive as Jane Austen. I enjoy all of her writing, but not all of Jane Kirkpatrick’s books impress me as much as all of Jane Austen’s.

  19. Alicia Greaux says:

    My very all time favorite author is Charles Dickens. Childrens authors would be Laura Ingalls Wilder and L.M. Montgomery.

    Modern favorites are J.K. Rowling, Neil Gaiman, Stephen King, Margaret Atwood, & Diane Gabaldon, & a million more b/c I should have been a librarian instead of an accountant…

  20. theresa says:

    Jane Austen is my all-time favorite. Insomnia + new copies of some annotated versions led to a full re-reading over the last few months. I go back to Edith Wharton (Age of Innocence! House of Mirth!) and Henry James (Daisy Miller! The Golden Bowl!) again and again as well, and they seem like Austen’s children. E. M. Forster and Louisa May Alcott make the cut as well. Can I count how many times I have read the Little House books? Even though I haven’t read anything else of hers, Laura Ingalls Wilder seems like a long-ago great-aunt of mine.

  21. Laura says:

    Oh man this is hard. Frederick Buechner, Annie Dillard, CSLewis, Austen (obviously), Dallas Willard, Mark Buchanan, Alan Bradley of the Flavia de Luce mysteries, Gerald Durrell for My Family and Other Animals, Bill Bryson, and others that have already been covered. Always finding new favorites.

  22. Danae says:

    I love posts like this – the comments section is blowing up my TBR list! I love that feeling of discovering a new-to-me author.

    PD James – particularly her earlier works (Death Comes to Pemberley is an outlier – I didn’t care for it).
    Madeleine L’Engle – something poignant for every age and season of life
    Hilary Mantel – for Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies. It’s a pity that Cromwell’s story has to end.

  23. Beth smith says:

    I am always so surprised that no one mentions Charles Martin. I love his books but make sure to get the “right” Charles Martin – Water From My Heart, or The Mountain Between Us. I like legal books so of course John Grisham. Thanks for the list 🙂

  24. Marci says:

    Jane Austen because well…because she is delightful. I like living in that world. Can read them again and again.

    Mary Lovell because her biographies open me up to people I don’t know about, which in turn sends me off reading more about them or by them. For instance, her book The Sisters led me to read about 10 books by or about the Mitford sisters. Loooooove those Mitford sisters. Nancy Mitford and Jessica Mitford in particular. Same thing with Mary Lovell’s Beryl markham bio. Sent me down another TBR quest!

    Julie Klassen for reliable, well-written Christian regency fiction.

    Just discovered Georgette Heyer and digging into her works.

    David Sedaris for a non-PC scathing, hilarious, genius happy laugh. He’s even better in person.

    For my kids I am on a huge George Selden kick.

    Bill Bryson for hilarious travelogues.

    Anything by or about F. Scott Fitzgerald or Zelda.

    Must stop….,

  25. steph says:

    Aside from all the classics, I will go with Anita Shreve and Katie Crouch. The former because I love ALL of her books and the latter because she is also just fantastic in person.

  26. Marci says:

    One more although this is book more then author. I don’t even know if she wrote other books! Betty smith. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn.

  27. Wendy says:

    So many to choose from! Charles Frazier and Willa Cather are two authors I discovered in high school (Cold Mountain and My Antonia, respectively) and have continued to love and enjoy in adulthood.
    Frederick Buechner is my favorite spiritual / memoir author; though I love his fiction, too.
    And my guilty pleasure is sci-fi author Anne McCaffrey. I got hooked on her Dragonriders of Pern series when I was a kid and I still love them! And many of her other series’ too.

  28. Cassy says:

    It is so hard to chose a favorite author because there are so many reasons I read:

    Jane Austen and Elizabeth Gaskill are my comfort reads. I feel at home with their characters.

    Kate DiCamillo is my favorite author to read aloud to my kids. Her stories and prose are wonderful and they are just fun to read aloud (not all books are fun or enjoyable to read aloud but her’s are).

    For romance I like Georgette Heyer and Betty Neels because they are stories where love happens along the way and do not bombard me with detailed descriptions of hero/heroine’s every reaction to each other.

    Paulo Coelho always gives me new insight into my life that and ways at looking a the world.

    Then I have a group of authors that I can rely on for a good story: Neil Gaiman, M.C. Beaton (her Hamish McBeth series), J.D. Robb, Terry Pratchett, Garth Nix, Robin Mckinley, and Melina Marchetta.

  29. Sassy Apple says:

    Seriously, who reads your blog and only has ONE favorite author? 🙂
    1. J.R.R. Tolkien for creating a world I love to escape into at 48 as much as I did when I was 12.
    2. L.M. Montgomery because I talked too much and forgot the mundane in search of castles in the air…
    3. J.K. Rowling for the same reason as #1. I am so jealous of the generation who grew up alongside Harry 🙂
    4. Kerry Greenwood. I absolutely love the Phyrne Fisher series AND the Corinna Chapman series.
    5. Louise Penny. She’s someone I recommend even to those who aren’t mystery fans.
    6. Margaret Maron for her Deborah Knott mysteries. They further my conviction I really should have been born in the south.
    7. Laurie Notaro. If a book causes me to laugh myself into an asthma attack; it’s a book worth keeping.
    8. Jen Lancaster, same as #7
    9. Jenny Lawson, same as #7
    10. Sandra Boynton, in honor of my grandson, Jonah.

  30. kim s. says:

    I love this and am taking notes on new authors to read! My picks:

    Jane Austen: my go-to girl for high-quality, British comfort reading

    JK Rowling: Harry Potter, yes, but I also LOVE her new crime detective series written as Robert Galbraith. I adore how she turns a phrase, builds a character, and paces a novel. She’s my girl crush 🙂

    Edith Wharton: my American Jane Austen, but a bit darker & deeper, and her nonfiction shouldn’t be forgotten

    Anne Fadiman: absolute favorite essay collections

    WB Yeats: I’m discovering the joy of poetry now that I’m in my 40s, and he is the master

    Sue Monk Kidd: southern, lyrical, intelligent, beautiful…both fiction & nonfiction fill my shelves

    Kristen Ashley: my guilty-pleasure, though I’m not guilty because she rocks at writing well-rounded characters…and nothing relaxes my brain like a good romance

  31. sarah says:

    This is comically difficult to answer. I feel like my list of favorite authors changes so constantly. Chuck Palauniuk used to be one of my favorites – I loved his edginess, but the older I get, the less attracted I am to the edge, you know? Madeline L’Engle (for the magic), Judy Blume (for the realism), and Lois Duncan (for the suspense) are some of my favorites from childhood. These days, I will read anything Kate Atkinson or Donna Tartt puts out. I feel like both of them will hand me super-literate novels that will leave me ruminating over their books for months afterwards. Anne Lamott and Brene Brown will forever be favorites for inspiring me and for validating my quirks and feelings. Brennan Manning for presenting matters of faith in ways that blow my mind and leave me flattened.

  32. A says:

    Arturo Perez-Reverte, his books are so fun
    Julia Alvarez and Isabel Allende, particularly their books for kids
    Roald Dahl because I haven’t found anyone who writes like he does. I just wish all his short stories were also illustrated by Quentin Blake
    Mario Puzo’s books all feel like movies, but I loved Inside Las Vegas best
    Katherine Paterson, just because of Jacob Have I Loved
    Alberto Manguel, just because of A History of Reading
    Sometimes I’ll only have read one book by the author but will declare them my favorite anyway because of how much I loved that book

  33. AuburnCathy says:

    What fun to read the comments and see those authors I love and also many I need to read or read again! One of my favorite authors not mentioned is Maeve Binchy…because many of her later books had a recurring cast of characters. Reading her books is like meeting old friends in new places.

  34. Oh my. Where to start. Of course with Ms. Austen. Persuasion is my absolute favorite book. THAT LETTER!
    I love Bill Bryson; everything he writes, whether interesting or funny. I adore Jasper Fforde & Kate Morton, and Alexander McCall Smith.

  35. Ashley says:

    Great list! I love asking people to give me their list of the moment and their eternal list. It’s fun to hear what makes the difference between a now fave and an always fave.

    My current top three are:
    1. Willa Cather- how could I have not read her before?! I love her slow languid descriptions about the everyday.
    2. Jon Steele- he interests me on a personal level. His writing has quirks and nuisances that make me want to know him.
    3. Josef Pieper- I love his philosophical works. It’s like diving into a pool of unending thought provcation.

    My eternal top three are:
    1. Anais Nin- she makes me see what true vulnerability is and how much it’s needed.
    2. Arturo Perez-Reverte- I come back to his works because of his timely summations of human nature and desires and how perspectives shift according to our station. Not to mention, he plays with the reader. You think it’s a simple mystery thriller but all of a sudden you’re pondering the devil and how you’ve welcomed him into soul without realizing it.
    3. Henry James- the bittersweet choices we make in order to grow up and do what’s right. He taught me morality.

  36. Rachel S. says:

    I always go with Erik Larson! I’m such a history nerd, and his books are such gripping nonfiction reads. I also enjoy Margaret Feinberg for faith reads. As an English major, you’d think I’d have a long list of fiction faves, but I’ve moved away from fiction for so long, I’ve dropped that list along the way. Yikes! Umm…err…JANE AUSTEN!

  37. Rebecca Putna says:

    This is tough. Without overthinking it, I will say Henri Nouwen may be my overall favorite writer. I’ve read almost every book he has written and his words deeply impact me spiritually and psychologically. Wendell Berry for writing Jayber Crow, my favorite novel, and for writing prose so beautiful it hurts. Anne Lamott for the sacred and profane. Irvin Yalom, his novels and non-fiction inspired me to become a mental health counselor. Reginald Hill for writing the Dalziel and Pasco series. I love British mysteries above all fiction and this series is the absolute best- literate, funny, and psychologically astute. Katie Fforde because I love cheesy British chick lit and she is a master. JD Salinger for writing Franny and Zooey my annual read for 20 years. The last page always blows me away. And don’t even get me started on Susan Howatch. Okay, that was stream of consciousness. I will stop now. 🙂

  38. Renee says:

    If I had to pick one it would be Madeline L’Engle, they read A Wrinkle in Time out loud to us in Kindergarten (it was a “progressive” school) and I always had to leave because I just went 1/2 days, so my mom read it to me & eventually gave me her (75 cent list price) copy. That is the first book that I remember totally connecting with & consequently I’ve read (and loved) all her books. C. S. Lewis is another whom I love and have forever.
    Louise Penny is my newest, and maybe most favorite, mystery writer. I’m a sucker for a good (or mediocre) mystery!
    There are lots more, but those are the 3 that sprang to mind.

  39. Beverly Cleary, because her books are just delightful and I find her dialogue (especially child characters’) to be so true-to-life, at least for its era. Gary D. Schmidt- everything he writes is so achingly beautiful but he also does humor really well. Malcolm Gladwell is so prolific and informative without being pretentious or hard to understand. (P.S. I don’t know if you’re a Beverly Cleary fan but if you are, I think you’ll really love her two memoirs, The Girl from Yamhill and My Own Two Feet. So, so good.)

  40. Renee says:

    If I had to pick one it would be Madeline L’Engle, they read A Wrinkle in Time out loud to us in Kindergarten (it was a “progressive” school) and I always had to leave because I just went 1/2 days, so my mom read it to me & eventually gave me her (75 cent list price) copy. That is the first book that I remember totally connecting with & consequently I’ve read (and loved) all her books. C. S. Lewis is another whom I love and have forever.
    Louise Penny is my newest, and maybe most favorite, mystery writer. I’m a sucker for a good (or mediocre) mystery!
    There are lots more, but those are the first sprang to mind.
    Reading through the comments I have to add Chaim Potok. And Steven Pinker for introducing me to linguistics and Matt Ridley & Oliver Sacks for making science accessible to my students (and me when I was a student!)

  41. For the challenge, I read Anne Tyler’s newest book. She is a great favorite of mine and has been since high school.

    I would list my other favorite authors as Maeve Binchy (I was so sad when she died!), Robin Jones Gunn, and Geraldine Brooks.

    I need to read more old books. 🙂 My best friend the English professor and I are doing a “correspondence book club” and we started with Tess of the d’Ubervilles, which was definitely way outside my normal reading zone. But I loved it, and there are so many old classics I’ve never read. As an English major I mostly focused on classes in Shakespeare, Victorian, and Medieval because those were the professors I loved. But I missed out on a lot! My plan for “should have read in high school” is Jane Eyre. I read part of it for an English class, but I never finished it. Whoops.

    • Anne says:

      I’ve only read Lit, can you believe it? I need to get to the others but they’re not exactly easy reads, you know? Her new book is on my TBR list—I’m counting down. 🙂

  42. Kimberly says:

    While there’s way to many to pick just 1 I love Jim Butcher and Kim Harrison for the amazing fantasy worlds that they have been able to create.
    Patricia Cornwell for mysteries that always keep me guessing with new twists and turns in each book.
    J.K Rowling and C.S Lewis for authors who I grew up reading that sparked my imagination.

  43. Lisa C. says:

    Dorothy L. Sayers. Agatha Christie. I am a sucker for murder mysteries. Also, Alexander Dumas because if I ever had more fun than when while reading The Three Musketeers, I don’t know when.

  44. Jillian Kay says:

    I’m in a bit of a reading slump right now, so I appreciate all of these author suggestions.
    Mine would be:
    Stephen King – When I want to visit another world
    Jane Austen – love her insights about people
    Doris Kearns Goodwin – For when I really want to immerse myself in something

  45. Jean says:

    The only author I actually run out and buy when a new book comes out is Stephen King. His books were usually issued in the fall near my birthday, and it was a treat for myself. Not high-brow but always an absorbing read. Loved the Dark Tower series (except the first one and the ending) almost as much as Rowling’s Harry Potter (except the first one). Both authors built worlds that I didn’t want to leave. Chabon, Dave Eggers, Gaiman, George Martin — lately I’ve left the classics behind. Still impossible to name a favorite.

  46. Mom2triplets04 says:

    Growing up in the 70’s my favorite author was V.C. Andrews. I always liked the creepy dark feel to her books. Currently my favorite is Colleen Hoover her books always are great and always have some type of twist I never see coming. My other current favorite is liane Moriarty. Everything I have read from her I really enjoyed especially what about Alice. Never disappointed.

  47. Shar says:

    Too hard to come up with favorite authors, as I skip around so much. But there really is something to be said for authors that wrote from a different time than we live, yet we are still so drawn in by their words. I think those are the books I love most, ones where when I read them for the first time I actually find myself slowing down over the last few chapters, savoring each word. Few books make me not want to pick them up because they will soon be over and I will miss the characters like a friend you no longer live near.

  48. Courtney says:

    Diana Gabaldon is by far my favorite author. I love her characters and the stories she writes, but I also love the way she writes them. I’ve read her books several times and often learn something new or see something from a different angle. I find myself thinking about why she phrased something a particular way. And I love how she’ll go back to a scene from a prior book and expound on it. While I read a ton of other books, I could re-read all of DG’s books at least once a year and not get tired of them.

  49. Guest says:

    I was recently talking with a woman and mentioned Jane Austen and she had literally never heard of her. I was (and am) in shock.

    My favorite authors:
    Lucy Maud Montgomery
    Jane Austen
    Bill Bryson
    E.M. Forster

    I *want* to love Kate Morton’s books but I can’t. They’re terribly depressing to me. 🙁

  50. Amy says:

    Wow. This is a tough one.
    Jane Austen is my all time fave (nothing shocking about that)

    But my current faves are:
    Sarah Addison Allen. She always grabs me from the first page. She has a magically way with story. I anxiously await every new release.

    Rhys Bowen. I’ve devoured the Her Royal Spyness series. Here characters are wonderful and witty and so much fun!

    • Laura says:

      If you love the Royal Spyness series (as I do), you would probably enjoy reading the Daisy Dalrymple series, by Carola Dunn. They’re just as much fun as the Royal Spyness, and there are about 22 or so books already written! So, it will give you something to catch up on!

  51. Kierstin says:

    Without a doubt Kate Chopin is my kindred spirit. I never understood these ambivalent feelings of motherhood we all get from time to time until I “met” her. I reread The Awakening at least once a year.

  52. Jennifer Haddow says:

    Well, I guess I didn’t read that much into this category. It said “a” favorite author. To mean, that pretty much means any author where I’ve read and emjoyed more than one of their books. For this challenge, I picked Luanne Rice, Light of the Moon, which interestingly enough I only gave 3 stars on Goodreads. Geometry of Sisters and Edge of Winter were favorites by this author.

  53. Liza says:

    I’d say I don’t really have a favorite, but a glance at my bookshelves would say otherwise. Shannon Hale wins. I have about half of her books and love them all. I like Tony DiTerlizzi, but I think I like his art more than his writing. He’s fascinating to follow on instagram as he works on a project. I enjoy Neil Gaiman’s books…especially his short stories (which I can’t read because oh my word crazy scary dreams!). And on the kids’ shelf, it’s Mo Willems for the win. We love to read all of his books. And even though my youngest is 3rd grade and way past picture books, we still buy new Mo Willems books and read them over and over (and act them out).

    Those are what stand out on my shelves.

  54. Laura says:

    I am a librarian, and people are constantly asking for my favorite author. I’m the go-to person for book recommendations, because I read so many different genres. Have you read any books by Karen White? She has become one of my all-time favorites. Her books are engaging and the character development is phenomenal. Her prose is lyrical and flawless; I find that after I have read one of her books, I have to take a day to mourn that I won’t be reading more about her characters.

    And of course, I love Jane Austen. And Agatha Christie, David Baldacci, Jojo Moyes, Liane Moriarty, Lee Child, John Sandford, Camilla Lackberg, Stieg Larsson….and so many others!

  55. B J says:

    With a deep, satisfied sigh, I close “The Lake House” by Kate Morton for the last time. I would never have read this author if I hadn’t seen her name mentioned so often on this web site. I couldn’t believe when several people mentioned her as a binge author. She made a believer out of me. I’ll be off to the library this week to hunt up another of her works. I’m not a huge fan of books written in more than one time line, more often than not, they are too disjointed to follow the story easily. Kate Morton knows how to do it. She allowed the story to unfold in an easy to follow order in both timelines with a few things that I never saw coming and others that I suspected but loved the way she brought them out. Loved this book! Thanks for another great recommendation.

  56. jesica says:

    I just started reading English novels about a year ago so I’m still exploring different authors, but the ones that I love at the moment are:
    Rainbow Rowell: her simplicity of writing is very intriguing.
    She has a way of writing cute and adorable romance 🙂

  57. Leah says:

    I don’t think he was mentioned: Alexander McCall Smith! Picked up Portuguese Irregular Verbs (based on its cover) on a whim at the library and have been reading him ever since. Other all-time favorites include LM Montgomery, Roald Dahl, Amy Tan, Agatha Christie, Stephen King.

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