It’s Tuesday again which means time for another round of Top Ten Tuesday; I like joining in on this meme because I have a set topic to work with. Top Ten Tuesday is a book blogger meme that is hosted by The Broke and the Bookish and this week the theme is: New-To-Me Authors I Read In 2013. This sounds like a great theme; I’ve discovered some great authors and never thought about doing an end of year list of newly discovered authors. I’ve decided to split this list into two; I want to highlight some debut authors as well.
- Italo Calvino – I feel in love with If on a Winter’s Night a Traveler and want to read it again and again. I probably should read some more of Calvino’s books and I’m sure I will but discovering this book was a big highlight of my year.
- James Smythe – The Machine was such a great book, I had to read more by this author. I’ve since read The Explorer and The Echo, both amazing and I will be a loyal follower of James Smythe from here on out. A dark literary science fiction author that writes about humanity and deserves more recognition.
- Sylvia Plath – I can’t believe it took me so long to read The Bell Jar, It was a fascinating books. I am not sure what her other works are like but this one novel was enough to put her on this list.
- Jane Austen – It has taken me so long to actually read Austen and I’ve only Pride and Prejudice but I’m planning to read the rest.
- Warren Ellis – now for something a little weird, Ellis writes some really odd crime novels but they were a lot of fun to read. I’m looking forward to the next one; whenever that is.
Debut Authors
- Anthony Marra – A Constellation of Vital Phenomena will definitely be on my “Best of 2013” list, I was very impressed with that novel and continue to sing praises about it.
- Hannah Kent – Burial Rites was possibly the best Australian novel I read this year. I was very impressed with the novel and happy with how successful she has been with such a great book.
- Gabriel Roth – If you haven’t read or heard of The Unknowns, then I suggest you get onto it right now. On the surface it’s a nerdy romance but there is so much more to this novel.
- Shani Boianjiu – I wasn’t sure what to expect from The People of Forever Are Not Afraid, I’m not normally into NA novels but as soon as I finished this book I turned back to page 1 and started it again.
- Maggie Shipstead – Something a little different, I call this novel chick lit but it has a male narrator. Seating Arrangements is a fascinating novel and I’m so glad I read it.
I also want to give an honourable mention to Margaret Atwood. She isn’t a new-to-me author but I have newly discovered her brilliance. I will have to go back and re-read The Handmaid’s Tale and see what I think of it. I’m looking forward to seeing what authors make people’s lists this week.
Now that November is coming to an end, I feel like I need to breathe a sigh of relief. I feel like I’ve been in a major reading slump during this month, but on reflecting it wasn’t as bad as I originally thought, there was a period of a few weeks where I struggled to finish anything but in the end I was able to manage nine books; not too bad.
Title: The Bone People (
Next week I start a university course called Literature and Politics. I’m actually nervous and excited about starting this. I’ve been doing an English Literature course part time but work has been pretty full on so I’ve moved to online university. This will mean things will be a lot more flexible and should hopefully give me the time to manage both work and study without them interfering. What I wanted to share with you; the entire point of this post was my awesome reading list for the summer thanks to this course.