All About Books discussion

A place to talk about your favourite authors.

Awesome! Well, I have a few whose books I've enjoyed immensely: Sherrilyn Kenyon, Stephen King, Neil Gaiman, Clive Barker, Kathy Reichs(for her Virals series),Ridley Pearson(for his Kingdom Keepers series which ends next year), and that is all I can think of right now. I also like Gene Wilderand Mary Alice Monroeis pretty good from what I've read of hers so far. I started on Debbie Macomberand may go back to her soon. If I can think of any other authors, I will list them. But the ones I've listed has some pretty good reads.

I will put in a plug for one of my favorite authors whom I feel is sadly overlooked: Sheri S. Tepper

Wonderful feminist and enviromentalist sci-fi and fantasy novels!

Ooo a new author to me and lots available on Kindle. What would you recommend, Leslie?

I know she's not the best writer out there but J.K Rowling will always be one of my favourite authors especially after reading The Casual Vacancy because she has the gift to create such real, gritty characters that forced me to think about myself and the way I would treat or judge people.

Stephen King is one author I would like to try. I have only read The Shining but I wasn't that fond of it.

Have you read the Stand, Alannah? that was a pretty good one by Stephen King and The Eyes of the Dragon is pretty good too.

Amber wrote: "Have you read the Stand, Alannah? that was a pretty good one by Stephen King and The Eyes of the Dragon is pretty good too."

No, just The Shining but I did read a couple of chapters of Carrie but the book was gone when I went to try and it out of the library. I put that down for the spooky booky challenge but I will check those out Amber. Thanks for the recommendation.

No problem Alannah. He wrote the eyes of the dragon for his daughter and the Stand is pretty good, it's his version of Lord of the rings. I gave up on Carrie. But did enjoy Salem's lot, pet Sematary, and his short story collection Night Shift. Cycle of the werewolf is good too. He used that book and wrote the screenplay of Silver Bullet on that book.

Leslie wrote: "I will put in a plug for one of my favorite authors whom I feel is sadly overlooked:
Sheri S. Tepper

Wonderful feminist and enviromentalist sci-fi and fantasy novels!"
I confess I don't know her, I'll look for some of her book Leslie. Where should I start?

Alannah wrote: "I know she's not the best writer out there but J.K Rowling will always be one of my favourite authors especially after reading The Casual Vacancy because she has the gift to create such real, gritt..."

I aldo like Rowlings books a lot Alannah! And I feel the same about King: I've only read Hearts in Atlantis, and liked it but not so much!

Hey Laurat, would you ever try reading Stephen King again? From what I've read by him, he has some pretty good books and I've only read a few books by him since I became a fan in 2011. Joyland was pretty good.

Amber wrote: "Hey Laurat, would you ever try reading Stephen King again? From what I've read by him, he has some pretty good books and I've only read a few books by him since I became a fan in 2011. Joyland was ..."

He is one of the favourite author of my husband and son, and the keep proposing his books to me. I think I'll read the one with the one about the murder of Kennedy, the one with the date as title, now I don't remember it.

okay good luck! my mom read that one and said that it was boring. ^_^ LOL. She recommended Stephen king to me so I just chose some of his old stuff.

OH my, I believe I have many.

Here it goes:

J.M. Coetzee
Heinrich Böll
José Saramago
Samuel Beckett
Ágota Kristof
Max Frisch
Christa Wolf
Javier Marías
Elias Canetti
Margaret Atwood
Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Ernst Weiss
Lion Feuchtwanger
Fernando Pessoa
Anne Carson
E.L. Doctorow
Yasmina Reza

there's more I am afraid, but these are the ones where regardless of anyone else's opinion I'd pick up each and every book of theirs to read.

O:

@ Jenny, How are Marias and J. M. Coetzee?

LauraT wrote: "O:"
LOL. see my problem? How on earth am I supposed to live long enough to read all their books AND squeeze in all these group reads and readalongs?! I almost need to be thankful most of them are already dead and can't write more!! LOL

Dhanaraj wrote: "@ Jenny, How are Marias and J. M. Coetzee?"

Brilliant obviously!!! (in my really objective opinion ;)))

I love Coetzee for the fact that while he writes great 'conventional' novels , he's also very keen on experimenting with different styles or bending the bounderies of the classical format of a novel. Whereas Disgrace is very simple but extremely powerful in the way it is told, Waiting for the Barbarians is a philosophical/dystopian novel and Elizabeth Costello is a novel that reads like a collection of essays. I also like the fact that he's deeply political.

Javier Marias is much hated by some for the fact that he manages to give you 2 minutes of actual plot spread out over 30 pages of internal monologue LOL. And I am not even kidding. Still, not ALL of the book and not every single one of it is like it, but he has a very unique interpretation of what's important, which is part of the beauty as all of a sudden a dead body in the kitchen seems much less exiting then the musings of the maid on whether or not to still cut the cake, or whether to bring it back to the fridge. I love his A Heart So White and am planning to read The Infatuations soon.

Thanks a lot Jenny.
I had the chance to read DISGRACE many times. But I always postpones it or ignored it. Now your comments rebuke me for avoiding it till today.
About Marias's style of writing seems interesting to me. I like such type of novels (monologues or reflections) when they are written well.
Will try both of them in the coming days.

@Jean & Laura - I would recommend The Gate to Women's Country as a good place to start with Tepper. Although if you are more interested in the environmental rather than the feminist side, The Family Tree would be better.

As a Green feminist I should probably read both! In fact they both do look really good, so I have added them to my to-read shelf. Thank you again Leslie, for suggesting a new author. :)

OK, I think I'll just pick the four most imortant ones (althoug i have many):

Victor Hugo
George Orwell
Stephen King
John Green

and I'm currently reading my first book of Hermann Hesse and I think he could be on this list soon ;)

Some of my favourite authors:
1. Italo Calvino
2. Yasunari Kawabata
3. Albert Camus
4. Franz Kafka
5. Gabriel Garcí­a Márquez
6. Jorge Luis Borges

W. Somerset Maugham
Philip K. Dick
Tennessee Williams
Homer
Jean-Paul Sartre
George R. R. Martin
Stan Lee
Alan Moore
Rafael Sabatini
Arthur Conan Doyle

There are some. I, too, have never read a Stephen King book. I really should get around to one some day.

I love J.M. Coetzee and Samuel Beckett too! Disgrace for example have had a considerable impact on me. Beckett is a sort of spiritual guide, like Albert Camus. :)

And then:

William Makepeace Thackeray
Dennis Lehane
Ian McEwan
Cesare Pavese
John Fante
Oriana Fallaci
Edith Wharton
Allen Ginsberg
Jerome K. Jerome

I read few books by Patricia Highsmith (The Talented Mr Ripley, terrific, and Strangers on a Train) but if the other books are equally good then she will become another one of my favorite authors. :)

This is a difficult one so I am going to put down my favorites right now

Charles Dickens
Virginia Woolf
F Scott Fitzgerald
and for more recent choices
Eowyn Ivey
Markus Zusak

There is a definite theme hear though all of my best loved authors write in a very distinct and descriptive manner , some would say 'Rambling'. :)

Hey Robert, if you do try Stephen King, I recommend The Eyes of the dragon, the stand, Pet Sematary, Salem's Lot, Cycle of the werewolf, The Stand and Joyland (those are all that I have read by him so far besides Blockade Billy). His short story collection Night shift is pretty good too.

Mine too are a lot!!
Some of them:
Jane Austen
George Eliot
Gaskell Elizabeth Cleghorn
L.M. Montgomery
Frances Hodgson Burnett
Louisa May Alcott
Man?
Some ...
Anthony Trollope
Charles Dickens
William Makepeace Thackeray
Jonathan Coe
Ian McEwan
Italo Calvino
Giovanni Verga
Alberto Moravia

Anastasia wrote: "I love J.M. Coetzee and Samuel Beckett too! Disgrace for example have had a considerable impact on me. Beckett is a sort of spiritual guide, like Albert Camus. :)

And then:

William Makepeace Th..."

Did you read Waiting for the Barbarians by Coetzee as well?
Also: could you recommend something by Pavese? I have Among Women Only on my list already, but haven't come round to picking it up yet.

Robert wrote: "W. Somerset Maugham
Philip K. Dick
Tennessee Williams
Homer
Jean-Paul Sartre
George R. R. Martin
Stan Lee
Alan Moore
Rafael Sabatini
Arthur Conan Doyle

There are some. I, too, have never read a St..."

Do you have a favourite by Sartre Robert?

@ Laura T: Alberto Moravia - I have to try him soon.

what would you recommend by hin laura?

him;)

Laura T had recommended me earlier Moravia's The Conformist. And I too found another book by him which interested me. That is: Contempt.
But I will have to read him after Tomasi di Lampedusa and Umberto Eco.

I agree with The Conformist. I liked it a lot.
Try also The Time of Indifference. I have read also Boredom and it was good.

Am I the only one that loves E.T.A. Hoffmann?

Thank you Dhanaraj and dely, put two of them on my list. Dely I haven't read though of E.T.A to know if I like him, in fact: I am not sure I ever did!

Thanks for the recommendations Amber!

Jenny - Nausea

No problem Robert. Enjoy and happy reading!

I liked Amelia Atwater-Rhodes. Her books are pretty good as well. Dean Kootzis good too even though I've only read a few of his too. R.L. Stineis a good author too. I enjoyed his Fear Street series. Simon Holtis good too and he wrote a great book series called the devouring which was good.

Robert wrote: "Thanks for the recommendations Amber!

Jenny - Nausea"

Same here. Enjoyed it a lot, and has really influenced my perception of the world quite a bit.

dely wrote: "Am I the only one that loves E.T.A. Hoffmann?"

I read him in University; I like some of his stories, but they're too "magic" ..

Dhanaraj wrote: "Laura T had recommended me earlier Moravia's The Conformist. And I too found another book by him which interested me. That is: Contempt.
But I will have to read him after Tomasi di Lampedusa and U..."

I confirm!!!

Jodi Picoult
Stephen King
Wally Lamb
Ruby Jean Jensen
John Saul
Dean Koontz
John Grisham
Linwood Barclay
Harlan Coben
Charles Dickens

John saul is pretty good too and the only Jodi Picoult novel I've read is the Wonder woman graphic graphic novel she wrote which was pretty good.

J.K. Rowling without a doubt. She's been my favourite author since I started reading Harry Potter and has stayed at the top of my list since. I find reading Harry Potter so enjoyable and such a comfort - I haven't come across a book or series since that has had such a profound and lasting effect on me. I'm really quite addicted to HP, I always have one of the books on the go and have done since 2000.

Other favourites are C.S. Lewis, Frances Hodgson Burnett, Roald Dahl, Cassandra Clare, Cornelia Funke, Michael Grant, John Green, Madeline Miller, Richelle Mead etc., etc.. I could go on for days about all the authors I love, they usually make my list even if they only write one book I love.

Forgot my sister! : Rebecca Phillips







Out of Nowhere
Someone Else
Just You

I'm so proud of you, Becky!!♥

hey! mine is dan brown :) i love his books very adventurous ^_^

I forgot one: Anna Enquist, a brilliant Dutch writer. It seems a bit pointless to mention her here, unless of course for the minority of German and Dutch (do we have any?) readers here since it seems that hardly any of her works have been translated to English and the few that are: The Masterpiece and Counterpoint are out of print (most books you find by Anne Enquist on amazon are from another author with the same name).

It really makes me wish amazon had - apart from it's 'I want to read this on kindle' button - a 'get that woman translated for crying out loud!' button.

Haruki Murakami
Neil Gaiman
Jonathan Safran Foer
Margaret Atwood
Graham Joyce
Julian Barnes
Philip Pullman
J.K. Rowling
Christopher Moore
J.R.R. Tolkien
Jonathan Carroll
Kurt Vonnegut
Jasper Fforde

Julian Barnes - I too am in the fan club.