Tuesday, December 9, 2014

Top Ten Tuesday - Top Ten New-To-Me Authors I Read In 2014

Top Ten Tuesday is hosted at The Broke and the Bookish.

This week's topic is Top Ten New-To-Me Authors I Read In 2014.  I think most of the books I read this year were by authors who were new to me!  Here are the new-to-me authors who garnered the highest ratings from me so far in 2014:


Aaron Becker - Journey - Though Journey doesn't have any words, it nevertheless tells a good story.  It's gotten my highest review of the year so far, despite it being a picture book.  I am so happy to know there is a sequel out there; I hope I get a chance to "read" Quest in 2015.

Julie Berry - All the Truth That's in Me - Without realizing it, I'd already put one of this author's other books (The Amaranth Enchantment) on my want-to-read list.  After finishing All the Truth That's in Me, I had a look at some of her other works... and my want-to-read list got even longer.

M. G. Buehrlen - The 57 Lives of Alex Wayfare - This book had one of the best cliffhanger endings of the year.  Instead of my usual reaction ("Oh, great.  A cliffhanger."), I got kind of excited about this one.  I really want to see where the author takes this series.  I'm glad the second book is coming out next year!

Lucy Christopher - Stolen - I wasn't sure I even wanted to read this book, as I wasn't sure it was really my thing.  But I ended up really enjoying it.  The characters were developed really well, and the second-person narration was unique.  The desolation and desperation of the setting are almost another character in themselves.

Anna Dewdney - Llama Llama Red Pajama - This was a fun find.  These picture books featuring a preschool-aged llama are so cute... and I really wish they had been around when I was a little kid!  Each one imparts a reassuring lesson.  The illustrations are absolutely adorable.

Margarita Engle - The Lightning Dreamer - This author appears to write some interesting historical fiction.  The Lightning Dreamer was one of my favourite verse-novel reads of the year (and I did read a few of this type of book).  1820s Cuba is not exactly a common setting for YA, so it was nice to see.  I like reading books that introduce me to an entirely new setting or type of character.

Sonya Hartnett - Surrender - I liked this book.  I think I liked this book.  I'm still not sure if I understand this book.  But I do like it when a book can make me wonder and think about the characters long after I've finished it.

Gina McMurchy-Barber - Free as a Bird - I didn't really expect to like this book as much as I did.  I chose it mainly because it was short, and because it had a local setting.  I wasn't sure I liked the phonetic spelling in Ruby Jean's narration at first, but it was done so skillfully that it helped build the character more than it was an annoyance (as it might have been in another author's hands).

Neal Shusterman - Resurrection Bay - This was just a short story, but it was my first introduction to this author.  I really enjoyed it, so now I'm thinking I might have to read some of his full-length books.  I've heard good things about Unwind.

Jacqueline Woodson - Brown Girl Dreaming - I'd never actually read any of the author's other books, so it might be a little bit strange that my first exposure to the author was through a memoir written in free verse!  I did enjoy Brown Girl Dreaming quite a bit; it reads like really interesting historical fiction, though it's about a fairly recent time in history.







These authors took me all over the world, and to very different time periods.  Through reading their books, I got to travel to fantasy worlds created through imagination, as well as colonial New England, 1920s Chicago, the Australian outback, 1820s Cuba, a small Australian town, a mental institution in British Columbia in the 1970s, the glaciers of Alaska, and the American South following the Civil Rights era.  That's some diverse literary travelling!


What authors did you read for the first time this year?

14 comments:

  1. Sonya Hartnett is amazing! I haven't read Surrender but I've read several of her other books. I have The 57 Lives of Alex Wayfare on my kindle but still have yet to read it. I love today's Top Ten Tuesday as it is introducing me to some other authors I haven't heard of! :)

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    1. Read it! It's pretty good. Just be prepared for a cliffhanger ending...

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  2. Ah All the Truth That's in Me IS AMAZING! I do hope that you enjoy that one thoroughly!

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    1. Yeah, I did really enjoy it. It was different, but in a good way.

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  3. Love your cute blog design! I have heard a lot about Brown Girl Dreaming, but haven't read it. I also have been meaning to try the Llama Llama books with my daughter, too. Glad to know they are fun, she likes the word llama as it is.

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  4. Your blog design is so cute! I haven't read any of these authors though I am curious about Brown Girl Dreaming as I've heard a lot of good about it. And I've been meaning to read the Llama Llama books with my daughter. She likes to make "llama noises" which to her is just saying "llama llama."

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    1. I'd definitely recommend the Llama Llama books. I read three of them just recently; my reviews are here on my site.

      Brown Girl Dreaming was quite good. I was glad to see it was nominated as one of 2014's best books on Goodreads. It might be a bit boring for its target audience, but I read it as an adult, and I really enjoyed it.

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  5. Nice list of books!! I've found a few new authors/books to add to my ever growing wishlist!! Here's my TTT for the week: http://captivatedreader.blogspot.com/2014/12/top-ten-tuesday-top-ten-new-to-me.html

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    1. I know... I end up adding way too many great-looking books to my to-read list every week when I read other people's TTT lists!

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  6. Nice list and I like that you also used images of the authors themselves. I haven't read any of the authors on your list yet, but I'm hoping to get to Neal Shusterman (I own Unwind) and Lucy Christopher soon. I'm also intrigued by Brown Girl Dreaming, so I might pick that up as well.

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    1. I was going to use just pictures of the books, but then I thought I'd see if I could find the actual author photos. Thank goodness Goodreads had them all!

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  7. Congrats on reading mostly new authors! A great cliffhanger? I didn't think there was such a thing. The only author I'd heard of is Neal Shusterman, (Other than the reviews I read here of course) but I haven't read any. Traveling through books is one of the best ways to travel. (Safe, cheap and you can go anywhere!)

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    1. Yeah, I'm not usually a fan of cliffhangers, either. But maybe that's because they tend to happen in books that I haven't enjoyed, so I don't really care one way or the other. I did like the story and characters in The 57 Lives of Alex Wayfare, though... enough to get invested in them. Now I need to know what happens next!

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