Top Ten Tuesdays: Authors I’ve Read Most

I am sure I am not alone in the fact that I have been reading more than ever recently (since March 16 and my job-imposed work at home order and the state’s safer at home order).   There’s only so much TV that’s binge-worthy so reading is the better option.  I am still working from home and while the state has seen fit to open things back up, I still feel safer as a hermit.

I decided to throw this post together quickly after stopping by Novel Reads.   Tina inspires my bookish habit quite a bit and I was intrigued by this week’s Top Ten Tuesday.   Be aware that I am a TTT newbie so here goes.

Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl.  Each week a theme is presented and this week it is authors we devour.  I follow my favorite authors with an OCD like obsession so I decided to compile a quick list.

Ruth Reichl

I totally want to be her friend and have coffee and homemade pastries with her every morning   I have everything she ever wrote and most of the cookbooks that she has edited.    (The only book I do not have is A Feastiary, her very first cookbook that was published while she still lived in Berkeley.  I swear I will find a copy in an out-of-the way antique store some day, dusty and cheap.)

If you have a copy of this in your archives and want to get rid of it, let me know ASAP!   You can read all my Ruth gushings here.

Anthony Bourdain

RIP, Anthony.   This is a totally blurry shot but that is me and The Hubs standing behind my idol.  I have read all of his non-fiction, have most of his cookbooks, and shelled out big bucks to meet him in person in 2010.   I have not ventured into his two novels Bone in the Throat  and Gone Bamboo.   I might pick them up but it’s really hard to think about him being gone.  What a sad state of affairs.

David Sedaris

Pee-in-your pants hilarious.  That is how I always describe Sedaris.   His humor is right up my snarky alley.  I have seen him read three times, once in an overcrowded bookstore and twice in large (and more comfortable) performing art centers.   I would love to be seated next to him on an airplane so we could spin conjectures about each and every passenger.    I wish I had a photo of him to share here.  I did get to meet him once but honestly I was so star-struck I could hardly make conversation.   Sedaris is famous for posing inane questions to his fans.   I think he asked us if we owned our own home.  I was thrown for a loop and could hardly sputter out “Yes.”  (I keep hearing rumors that a new book is coming out and that is the reason for the essay that was published by Amazon, “Themes and Variations.”)

Adriana Trigiani

On top of a care package to go out.

About thirteen years ago, my best friend gave me a copy of Big Gap Stone Gap and got me hooked.   Since the COVID we have been trading books through the mail and more than once a Trigiani book is in the care packages  My most recent read was Rococo (which was interestingly cute).  I am currently reading Very Valentine but have a couple of others in the “to read” stack—Tony’s Wife and All the Stars in Heaven.

Isabel Allende

In the late 90s, I was working in a bookstore part-time to help pay for a wedding (mine).   I was introduced to a lot of great authors then, one of them being Allende.   I devoured The House of the Spirits in the break room.   I love that touch of magical realism that is woven through her powerful stories (just a touch).   It’s been a while since I’ve read anything by her but the latest is next up on my list:  A Long Petal of the Sea.

Barbara Kingsolver

Kingsolver was the impetus for this blog (back when we thought we could maintain a totally localvore lifestyle).   While we still try to grow our own and support local farmers and ranchers, we are far away from the ideal life set about in Animal, Vegetable, Miracle.   I was introduced to Kingsolver in the early 90s by another dear friend and another care package through the mail that contained Animal Dreams.  I really enjoyed her latest, Unsheltered.

Alice Hoffman

Hoffman is my latest favorite author.   I started with Practical Magic, of course, and then ventured into The Rules of Magic, but most recently have read The Dovekeepers and The World That We Knew.  That latter one blew me away.   I literally just finished it and what a tragic yet hopeful novel.  Obviously, there’s more than a little magical realism in Hoffman’s works.

Marlena de Blasi

She may be over-the-top for some, but I adore her love story life.   For a summer getaway read I would totally recommend anything by her.  My favorite is A Thousand Days in Venice.  

Paula McLain

I picked up The Paris Wife for my best friend’s birthday and promptly told her I wanted it back as soon as she read it.  Since that first book, we have traded Love and Ruin.   Both of these books are about Hemingway’s wives. (The Paris Wife covers the Hadley years and Love and Ruin covers the Gellhorn years.)

McLain also has written fiction about the life of Beryl Markham (Circling the Sun), a coming of age story set in the 70s (Ticket to Ride) and a memoir (Like Family).

Beth Castrodale

I was introduced to Castrodale on a TLC Book Tour.   While I enjoy most everything that I review for TLC, Castrodale became a favorite.  In This Ground was the first book I read and I was hooked.  I followed that up with Gold River and Marion Hatley.   If you want to be introduced to a new author, I would pick up Castrodale as soon as you are able.    (You can get a free e-copy of Gold River here.)

 

Whew!  Can’t believe I got this posted.   I am sure that as soon as I post this I will think of other authors I cannot live without but for a quickly thrown together post (again inspired by Tina at Novel Reads), this is the best I can do.   Being totally intrigued now about Top Ten Tuesdays, I will try to keep up and post in advance.  (Seriously, I read Tina’s post at 6:45 AM and threw this together to post this morning.  Please forgive any overlooked typos.)   It’s off to my work computer now.

Next week’s theme is “Books That Make Me Smile” (For any reason! Maybe tell us why? Submitted by Julia @ pagesforthoughts).    I am sure Sedaris will show up on that list as well.

9 comments to Top Ten Tuesdays: Authors I’ve Read Most

  • What a great list and I’m glad if I inspired you! I’ve read all of McClain and loved Thd Paris Wife best. I see we share similar tastes in reading but I’ve not tried Trigiani. Shall I start with Big Gap or do you recommend another for starters?

    By the way, I’ve seen other folks link up with less than 10 things. I happened to have 10 for both my TTT posts and this is only my second time

    • I just added one more! 🙂 Beth Castrodale. So, I read Big Gap a long time ago. While I did enjoy it, I don’t think it’s comparable to most of her other works. I really enjoyed The Shoemaker’s Wife, too. Very Valentine is starting off good but only in the first few chapters. I would leave Rococo for when you don’t have anything else to read. 🙂 Catch my meaning? Thanks for introducing me. This was a fun (though quick) challenge.

      • I’m glad you participated. It is a fun little thing to do. Thanks for the recommendations on the books too. I’ll let you know what I pick up at the used book store when I go next week,

  • What a fun list! I just reread Henry James’s _Portrait of Lady_. He’s such a good writer but such a bad novelist! Which sounds weird, but one really has to work, and not in a good way, when reading him. I never liked reading him when younger and I doubt if I’ll read anything more by him — he just leaves me feeling kinda meh. Now rereading _Huckleberry Finn_ which is even better than I remember it (haven’t read this for probably 40 years).

    • I am impressed you slogged through James. He is probably my least readable American novelist but is so important nonetheless. Twain is classic.

  • Mae

    As I said to Tina: Anyone who can make a list of ten favorite authors is my hero — I read all the time but faced with that challenge my mind is a blank and all I can think about is “The Princess and the Goblin” which was my fave when I was in third grade. And it’s not my favorite any more.

    be well… mae at maefood.blogspot.com

  • YAY! Some new authors to read! Thanks!