The Next Best Book Club discussion

So far:

1. Saki
2. Alan E. Nourse
3. Aldous Huxley (well currently reading)

To name a few:
1. Charlaine Harris
2. F. Scott Fitzgerald
3. Simone Elkeles
4. Kurt Vonnegut

Looking back most of what I have read this year has been by new authors to me. Mostly because I have been participating in Diane's Around the World in 80 Books challenge through this group so I have been picking books mostly for country rather than author.

New authors this year are:

1. Arnaldur Indridason
2. Philip Pullman
3. Gayle Brandeis
4. Kathy Lette & Gabrielle Carey (writing together)
5. Jose Saramago
6. Knut Hamsun
7. Elizabeth Kostova
8. W. Somerset Maugham
9. Jonathan Swift
10. Jeffrey Hantover
11. Judy Blume
12. Daniyal Mueenuddin
13. Bernhard Schlink
14. Ernest Hemingway
15. Johnanna Spyri
16. Colin Cotterill
17. Dennis Lehane
18. S.E. Hinton
19. Ann Patchett
20. Sylvia Plath
21. Doris Lessing
22. Oscar Wilde
23. Arthur Miller
24. Alex Garland
25. Mark Twain
26. John Wyndham
27. Daniel Keyes
28. Khaled Hosseini
29. Louis de Bernieres
30. Ismail Kadare
31. Henning Mankell
32. Nikolai Gogol
33. Margaret Mitchell
34. Leonid Tsypkin
35. William Golding
36. Louise Erdrich (currently reading)

I've read several new-to-me authors so far this year, most due to this site -- much to the detriment of my TBR pile and bank account, LOL.

01. Suzanne Collins
02. Benjamin Hoff
03. Heather Webber
04. Susan Stephens
05. Dennis Lehane
06. Marina Fiorato
07. Rebecca Hale
08. Christy Evans
09. Dick Francis
10. Kate Collins
11. Sandra Cisneros
12. Annette Blair

Just went through the books I've read this year and the following were authors that are new to me (heard of them before, but just never got around to reading their works until this year):

01. Douglas Adams
02. Wilkie Collins
03. Nickie Pellegrino
04. Dodie Smith
05. C.S. Harris
06. James W. Nichols
07. Alex Berenson
08. Sara Gruen
09. Terry Goodkind
10. Guy Gavriel Kay
11. A.S. Byatt
12. Hilary Mantel
13. Daphne du Maurier
14. Diana Gabaldon

Fiona - great subject... Because of this site I have found lots of great new authors to try out.
1. Nancy Thayer
2. Vanora Bennett
3. Elizabeth Peters
4. Paolo Girodano
5. Richard Castle
6. Katharine McMahon
7. Joshua Ferris
8. Johanna Moran
9. Nancy Pickard
10. Sarah Blake
11. Helen Garner
12. Rick Riordan
13. Roberta Edwards
14. Anchee Min
15. Dixie Cash

soon to add to the list
16. Kate Quinn
17. Lola Shoneyin

Thank you Good Reads and Book Browse for all the book give-aways to highlight new authors!

Believe it or not, every book I have read this year, with the exception of maybe 5 were new to me.

Check out my thread in the Personal Reading Goals section to see them all. Way to many to list here!

1. Walter Moers (now one of my absolute favorites)
2. Amy Dillard
3. Joseph Heller (Catch-22 was amazing)
4. Stephanie Spinner
5. Laurie R. King
6. Markus Zusack
7. Jonathan Stroud
8. Alexander Pushkin
9. Kurt Vonnegut (a new favorite as well)
10. George A. Olah

These are just off the top of my head, I've actually read quite a few more new authors this year, but I can't remember their names right now.

my list is fairly long already...I can only imagine how it'll look later this year after challenges. :D

William P. Young
William R. Maples
Christopher Moore (really like)
Suzanne Collins (LOVE!! Brilliant!)
Fred Rogers (LOVE! No one sweeter)
Heather McElhatton
Carl Deuker (Like)
Lisa Lillien
Terry Walters
Stieg Larsson :P
Melanie Benjamin (like)
George Orwell
Donna Jo Napoli
Billie Letts
Kathryn Stockett (like)
Vladimir Nabokov :P
Philip Pullman
David Zinczenko
Jennifer Love Hewitt

1. A.S Byatt
2. Neal Shusterman
3. Brandon Sanderson
4. John Boyne
5. Heather Gudenkauf
6. Karen Armstrong
7. Anne Brontë
8. Kristin Hannah
9. Debra Webb
10. Philip Hensher
11. Nadine Gordimer
12. John Carlin
13. Vladimir Nabokov
14. Stella Gibbons
15. Shoshana Johnson
16. Maggie O'Farrell
17. Max Lucado
18. Jamie Ford
19. Kathryn Stockett
20. Frank Welsh
21. Steve Erickson
22. Jacqueline Winspear
23. Donald McCaig
24. Elyse Schein and Paula Bernstein
25. P L Travers
26. Joe Haldeman
27. Evelyn Waugh
28. Bryce Courtenay
29. Abraham Verghese
30. Hans Fallada
31. Robin McKinley
32. Garth Nix
33. Thrity Umrigar
34. Natalie Babbitt
35. Patricia A. McKillip
36. Nancy Pickard

Wow, 36 out of 69...lots of new authors for me this year.

Nice discussion! Let me try:
* the stars says my average rating of his/her book/s.

1. Ken Follett 3.5: ★★★
2. V C Andrews 3: ★★★
3. Aravind Adiga 3: ★★★
4. Neil Gaiman 2: ★★
5. George R.R. Martin 5: ★★★★★
6. Cornelia Funke 3: ★★★
7. Philippa Gregory 3: ★★★
8. Harlan Coben 3: ★★★
9. Jay Asher 3: ★★★
10. Idelfonso Falcones 4: ★★★★
11. Rick Riordan 2: ★★
12. Jane Austen 1: ★
13. Tom Rachman 1: ★
14. Amy Chua 3: ★★★
15. Suzanne Collins 3: ★★★
16. Tahir Shah 2: ★★
17. Pittacus Lore 2: ★★
18. Laura Fitzgerald 3: ★★★
19. Kim Edwards 1: ★
20. Simon Singh 1: ★
21. Azar Nafisi 1: ★★
22. Herbie Brennan 2: ★★
23. Khaled Hosseini 3: ★★★
24. Dan Brown 3: ★★★
25. Vikas Swarup 4: ★★★★
26. Roald Dahl 3: ★★★
27. Jeff Kinney 3: ★★★
28. Maggie Stiefvater 2: ★★
29. Danielle Steel 1: ★
30. P.B. Kerr 3: ★★★


I was tuff on my ratings this year.
This is my average rating of the new authors I have read:
★★ stars!

Wow.. I was too tuff

Derek J. Canyon
Andrew Kincaid
Moses Siregar III
Christopher Bunn
Daniel Abraham
Michael J. Sullivan
Ian Esslemont

M. Clifford (LOVE!!!)
Lynn Kurland (Just discovered last week)
Ken Follett
Anita Clenney
Jude Deveraux
J.C. Phelps

Erin Morgenstern
Deborah Harkness
L.M. Montgomery

New-to-me authors read in 2011:

01. Carolyn Hart (Cozy Mystery Group Featured Author)
02. Sue Henry
03. Laura Lippman
04. Aimee Bender (ARC, First Reads)
05. Jeaniene Frost
06. Jane Porter
07. Heidi Betts (GR First Reads)
08. Sara Gruen (TNBBC Group Read)
09. Peg Marberg
10. Markus Zusak
11. Celeste Bradley (GR First Reads)
12. Susan Donovan (GR First Reads)
13. Joyce and Jim Lavene
14. Tana French (Group Read)
15. M.C. Beaton (CM Group Featured Author)
16. Avery Aames
17. Virginia Woolf (TNBBC Group Read)
18. Cathy Holton (Blog win)
19. Lilian Jackson Braun (CM Group Featured Author)
20. Bram Stoker
21. Karen Essex (Blog win)
22. Ted Dekker
23. Victoria Laurie
24. Earlene Fowler (CM Group Featured Author)
25. Casey Daniels
26. Leann Sweeney (CM Group Featured Author)
27. Gregory Maguire
28. Deanna Raybourn
29. Janet Evanovich


That's out of 99 books read so far this year.


ETA (12-02-11):
30. Jack Curtis

LilaBird wrote: "M. Clifford (LOVE!!!)
Lynn Kurland (Just discovered last week)
Ken Follett
Anita Clenney
Jude Deveraux
J.C. P..."</i>

Okay, I have to come back and comment on my own comment because now I've read [author:Anita Clenney's Highlander books and O-M-G. She is my new Karen Marie Moning. For any of you KMM fans out there who are DYING while you wait for more Highlander and Fever books -- Anita Clenney is for you!!!

Okay, I'm ready to play. New authors to me 2011 were:

Michael Scott
Barbara Pope
John Stephens
Marisa de los Santos
Steve Hockensmith
Lauren Oliver
Candace Havens
Sally MacKenzie
Erin Morgenstern
Ree Drumond
Nancy McKenzie
Robert Goolrick
Sara MacKenzie

That seems to be everybody.

Kari wrote: "I read 120 books this year so far and I read a lot of series books so I was surprised at how many new authors I read this year.

Alice Brennan
Elaine Viets
Mark Haddon
Heather Webber
William Sleato..."

A very impressive list. I have been following a 50 Books a Year challenge, but am thinking of changing it up to include more new authors and other challenges, you have given me great ideas!
Happy Reading!

I re-read a lot of books in the past year, but I read a couple of books by new to me authors.
Gary Krist
Alan Bennett
Susanna Kearsley

Susanna Kearsley is now one of my favourite authors. I'll have to check out a few of everybody else's authors as well.

Carlos Ruiz Zafon
Julian Barnes
William Boyd
Wiley Cash
Joseph Kanon
Olen Steinhauer
Don Winslow
Mark Hadden
Jodi Picoult

Um....

Chris Stewart
Joseph Delaney
Suzanne Collins
Eric Metaxas

I think that's it.

@heather I love Ted Dekker been reading him for years. I'm convinced he's the new C.S. Lewis. Lol

Forgot Frank Peretti