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?