This week the ladies at The Broke and The Bookish asked us to share with you our favorite new-to-us authors for the year. I thought this one would be easy for me; I read a lot of books this year by authors who were new to me. Surprisingly, I struggled...I had a hard time narrowing my list down to ten and I wanted to make sure I could justify my choices, not just follow the herd. Eventually I decided to stick strictly to fiction.
1. Amor Towles - Rules of Civility may very well be my favorite book this year. So glad to know that he's working on another book!
2. Graham Greene - The End of the Affair may not end of up in my top ten books read this year, but I definitely appreciated Greene's writing and I'm looking forward to reading more of it.
3. Erin Morgenstern - Morgenstern transported me to another world every time I sat down with The Night Circus. What more could you want?
4. Tana French - Her flawed characters and semi-ambiguous ending had me rushing out to buy the rest of the series after reading Broken Harbor.
5. Louise Doughty - Whatever You Love was one scene away from being a book I loved. On the other hand, because of that one scene, I will have a hard time forgetting this book.
6. Laura Moriarty - I struggled with Moriarty's The Center of Everything but I loved The Chaperone. Luckily, I read it first and I'm preferring to believe that it is more representational of what Moriarty is capable of.
7. Sarah Waters - When you can write a book that leaves me feeling edgy in broad daylight, you've impressed me. That's exactly what Waters did in The Little Stranger.
8. Stephen Dau - A debut novel by an inexperienced author that perfectly captures the ambiguity of war? That was The Story of Jonas for me.
9. Vincent Lam - It's not easy to maintain the level of stress Lam created in The Headmaster's Wager. It became harder and harder for me to read...in a good way.
10. Louisa Young - Young covered a lot of territory in My Dear I Wanted To Tell You, managing to excel with both war and love elements. This was a book I felt both men and women would enjoy.
It WAS hard to narrow it down to ten this year, but Amor Towles was on the top of my list, too. Tana French is an author I must read in 2013.
ReplyDeleteFavorite new to me authors is a great category. I so love finding authors that I love! It's great to have someone to go to when you're just "not in the mood" for anything else! Oh, but it's so awful when a newly found go-to author dies! I've had that happen to me twice now! (maybe it's me - LOL)
ReplyDeleteI really need to read something by Sarah Waters. Next year. I say that every year, but this time I mean it!
ReplyDeleteI've heard these are all so good. I tried a couple of new authors this year and was pleasantly surprised!
ReplyDeleteI loved your list. It was very well thought out and I had to pin 2 books from it because of your past reviews I know that they're titles that I must read in 2013!!!
ReplyDeletegreat list! I like that Louise Doughty made your list even though the book was one scene away from a great novel!
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