Top Ten Authors I Need to Read More Of

It's rare for me to join in with Top Ten Tuesday over at the Broke and the Bookish, but something about this theme really struck me.  I am terrible for reading author backlists - I keep on discovering amazing authors and adding all their titles to my wishlist, but I never get around to actually reading them.  So without further ado, here are the ten authors I need to read more of:

  

• Geraldine Brooks - I absolutely adored People of the Book when I read it during my historical fiction kick a few years back.  I even own copies of March and Year of Wonders, I just need to pick them up and read them!
• Angela Carter - There are no words for how much I loved her dark fairytale retellings in The Bloody Chamber.  I'm very keen to try Nights at the Circus in particular.
• Daphne du Maurier - Rebecca became one of my favourite books as soon as I tried it.  I loved the twists and turns, and how unreliable the narrator was.  I think Jamaica Inn will be next.

  

• Jane Harris - Gillespie and I was another deliciously creepy book with an unreliable narrator.  I've heard The Observations is just as good.
• Eva Ibbotson - Eva's books are fluffy and fun and like a warm bath in the middle of winter.  There's so many of them I want to read!
• W. Somerset Maugham - I'm only just getting into modern classics, and I adored The Painted Veil. I have a whole set of his books, but think I will be trying The Magician next.

 

• Marisha Pessl - Night Film was just awesome!  I know it's very different, but I really want to try Special Topics in Calamity Physics.
• Brandon Sanderson - Steelheart was good, but the Mistborn trilogy is the one I really want to try.  I love some epic fantasy when I'm in the mood.

 

• John Steinbeck - He's my husband's favourite author, and I loved East of Eden.  The ones I really want to try are Cannery Row and Grapes of Wrath.
• Lucy Knisley - And finally and graphic novelist.  I loved Knisley's account of he time in France in French Milk, and fully intend to get my hands on Relish as soon as possible.

Have you read any of these authors? If so, what did you think?

If you're taking part in Top Ten Tuesday this week, I'd love to visit your list.

Top Ten Books on my Spring 2013 TBR List

I'm a somewhat sporadic participator in Top Ten Tuesday, but every now and again I see a topic that I can't let pass by.  Plus, I've been reading some chunksters lately so my blog feels a little neglected and in need of a bookish post!  The topic this week is 'top ten books on my spring 2013 TBR list'.  My picks aren't new necessarily new releases, they're just books I want to get to soon.

1. The Last Runaway by Tracy Chevalier - I was so excited to receive a copy of this book through Netgalley!  Chevalier's Remarkable Creatures is one of my favourite historical fiction novels, so I'm looking forward to her new story, about the Quakers in 1850s Ohio.

2. The Rape of the Nile by Brian M. Fagan - This is an old book (1975) about a topic that fascinates me - the rush to find and loot Egyptian artefacts in the 18th and 19th centuries.  I'm interested in Egyptology and have spent many a day at the British Museum in front of the Rosetta stone, but should we really have these artefacts?  Did the early archaeologists and treasure hunters/looters do more harm than good?

  

3. My Promised Land by Ari Shavit - Israel fascinates me, so I'm looking forward to this title, which promises to be part biography, part history and part politics.  Another Netgalley copy, this one is published in May.

4. A Dance with Dragons by George R.R. Martin - I am 100 pages from the end of A Feast for Crows at the moment.  I will NEED to read the next book asap.  After Dance with Dragons it's going to be a long wait for the next book in the series to be published.

  

5. On Gold Mountain by Lisa See - I love Lisa See's fiction books so I'm excited to read this non-fiction account of her family and their emigration to the USA.

6. The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne - This is the classic I'm in the mood for at the moment.  This may change before I get to it, I'm very fickle with classics.

   

7. Behind the Scenes at the Museum by Kate Atkinson - I've heard so many good things about this book but only recently picked up a copy.  It'll be my first Atkinson.

8. The Lullaby of Polish Girls by Dagmara Dominczyk - This one is a new release, about three friends coming of age after migrating from Poland to America due to political upheaval.  I'm looking forward to it as I've never read anything about Poland really, be it fiction or non-fiction.

  

9. The Eye of the World by Robert Jordan - I am in a fantasy mood lately.  When I lived with my parents, I read up to book 7 in the Wheel of Time series but then just stopped.  I feel the urge to read it again but it's been so many years I will need to go back to the beginning.  This is going to fill the hole that will be left when I finish Dance with Dragons (hopefully!).

10. Conquistadors by Michael Wood - I've been teaching my year 6's about the Aztecs this term and we spent a week on the discovery of Tenochtitlan by Hernan Cortes and his conquistadors.  Now I want to find out more and this book seems perfect for the task.

So at the moment, these are my reading plans.  It'll be interesting to see how many of them I actually read, as I read on whim and change my mind constantly! I'm anticipating that the announcement of the longlist for the Orange Prize/Women's Prize on Wednesday will change my plans somewhat, as it usually brings all sorts of wonderful books to my attention.

What are your reading plans for this Spring?

Top Ten Books I've Read Since Starting Blogging

 

What a great topic this week over at The Broke and the Bookish.  We're supposed to think back over all the books we've read since starting our blogs and select the best ten.  I enjoyed looking back over my review collection but found it very hard to narrow it down to only ten.  I've read over 200 books since starting blogging and many of them have been excellent.  My top ten isn't ranked or in any order, and clicking the title of the book will take you to my review.

Without further ado:

 

1. Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie - This is a fiction book about the Nigerian civil war told through several different narrators.  Although this novel is brutal in parts, it's beautifully written and was my first introduction to Adichie, now one of my favourite authors.  I've since read and loved Purple Hibiscus and The Thing Around Your Neck.

 

2. The Crimson Petal and the White by Michel Faber - This gothic story is set in Victorian London and recounts the rise of Sugar, a prostitue who is determined to make something of herself.  A chunkster at 600+ pages it's a real epic full of memorable characters from all classes in London.  I loved the grotty realism of it and how panoramic it was.

 

3. The Shadow of the Sun by Ryszard Kapuscinski - Kapuscinski is a Polish journalist and this book is a collection of dispatches written from Africa from the 1950s through to the 1990s.  He has a knack of being in historically important places at the right times and the book is full of coups, key players like Mugabe and also adventure and danger.  There's a good balance of fact and personal impressions and the whole book is full of Kapuscinski's admiration of Africa.

 

4. Shanghai Girls by Lisa See - I am a big historical fiction fan so was happy to discover Lisa See through recommendations on blogs.  Although most people seem to prefer Snow Flower and the Secret Fan I like Shanghai Girls, the story of two Chinese sisters fleeing to America during the war with Japan.  It's got more grit that you would expect and the two main characters, May and Pearl, are full of flaws and so feel very real.  The sequel, Dreams of Joy, is worth a read too.

 

5. The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller - I picked this one up somewhat reluctantly as I was working my way through the Orange longlist earlier in the year; I didn't think of myself as a fan of classics (Greek and Roman).  A retelling of the Trojan war had limited appeal.  But, as regular readers will now, I fell in love with the love story in the book and the beautiful writing and spent months pushing it on my real life and blogging friends.  I was so pleased to see this win the Orange Prize this year.

 

6. Carmilla by Jospeh Sheridan Le Fanu - I love gothic classics and I love old-style vampire books so I was always going to enjoy Carmilla.  Set in a deserted castle in dark woods in Austria, Carmilla is a short book packed full of atmosphere. One for fans of Dracula.

 

 7. Small Island by Andrea Levy - I read this very early on in blogging and loved it.  Set in post WW2 London, it's the story of Jamaican immigrants Gilbert and Hortense and British residents Queenie and her soldier husband Bernard.  It's a fantastic examination of the immigrant experience and subtle prejudice.

 

8. In the Shadow of the Banyan by Vaddey Ratner - I read this one only last week but it's destined to be a favourite.  It's about the Cambodian genocide through the eyes of a child and it's heart-breaking and beautiful all at the same time.

 

9. Lords of the Horizon by Jason Goodwin - I love history and have always been fascinated by Asian/Middle Eastern history.  This history of the Ottoman Empire is simply the most well written history book I have ever read.  Full of interesting little facts (I loved the Sultan who named his children after major religions), it's both excellent history and excellent writing - a rare combination.

 

10. Annabel by Kathleen Winter - In my opinion, this is a seriously underrated book.  It's about a hermaphrodite baby raised as a boy in rural Canada in the 1960s and it's stunning.  It's about rural communities and self-identity and what it means to be a girl or boy.

So there you go, the top ten books I've read since starting blogging.

What's your top ten?

Top Ten Books I Have Been Meaning to Read for Years

This is my first week participating in Top Ten Tuesday, run by The Broke and the Bookish.  It's a freebie week, which means we get to make a top ten list about anything we like.  Like many other bloggers, I have a TBR pile amounting to hundreds of books so I decided to make a list of the top ten books I bought years and years ago, desperately want to read but for some reason just haven't picked up.  Who knows, it might even spur me into action!

1. Roots by Alex Haley

This is my husband's favourite book and he has been wanting me to read it for years.  I think it sounds very interesting and I loved Haley's careful editing in The Autobiography of Malcom X so I am pretty much guaranteed to like this too.  One day!

2. The Red Tent by Anita Diamant

Regular readers of my blog will know I'm a huge historical fiction fan, especially if the book centers around ancient history, women or the Jewish religion.  The Dovekeepers is one of my favourite reads of 2012, so why haven't I picked up and read The Red Tent yet?

3. Secrets from the Sand by Zahi Hawass

Zahi Hawass is one of my idols.  Not only is he an Egypotologist (I'm fascinated with Ancient Egypt) but I really admire his quest to get artifacts back to Egypt where they belong and to raise Egyptian awareness of their heritage.  I've watched most of his documentaries and read some books he has contributed to, so I'm itching to read his autobiography.  It's a gorgeous book too, with lots of full page colour photographs.

4. A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth

I must have owned this book for five years or more without reading it.  The length puts me off, I keep intending to save it for the summer but then get sidetracked by shiny new books when sumer finally comes around.

5. The Fabric of the Cosmos by Brian Geene

I'm a part time astro-physics student and this book is my holy grail.  I've watched Brian Greene's documentary series but have found this book too difficult in the past.  When I finish the module I am doing now, I am going to read this book, understand it and enjoy it!

6. Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen

I call myself an Austen fan, but I've only read Emma and Pride and Prejudice.  I even have a beautiful edition of Sense and Sensibility, so there is no excuse really.

7. The Thousand Autumns of Jacob De Zoet by David Mitchell.

When Cloud Atlas first came out, it was my favourite book for quite a while.  I was so excited at the release of Jacob de Zoet that I pre-ordered a copy. That was in 2010, and I've still not read it!

8. The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafron

Again, I am years behind the hype with this one and again, it was bought with the intention of reading it quickly.

9. To the Holy Shrines by Richard Burton

Richard Burton's version of Arabian Nights is just beautiful and he had quite a life too.  To the Holy Shrines is his account of being the first Western man to visit Muslim holy sites.

10. The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett

Another epic book I've been promising myself I will read for years.  I've heard nothing but good things about it and I'm sure I will love it.  I even have the TV series saved on my sky+ box for when I've read it.

Am I the only one that buys books they really want to read, and then hoards them?  What books have you been wanting to read for years?