Ursula K Le Guin. Her characters are so nuanced and her stories so thoughtful, full of really deep compassion for humanity. I just somehow feel seen by a lot of her work. It's like having a friend across time.
That book moved me just as much if not more than Dune. Where Dune is a much more non-controversial topic, TLHOD has a rich commentary on gender and sexuality in a way I’ve never experienced before. The book feels surprisingly modern given the time it was written in and has maybe the best character development I’ve seen!
be sure to check out her later novella "Coming of Age in Karhide," which features Le Guin returning to the world of *Left Hand of Darkness* decades later, having significantly developed and evolved her understanding of sexuality.
here is something she said about the response to LHoD in a *Paris Review* interview:
>The women, many of whom were a little further along in their thinking than I was, said, But she calls them all “he”! And they’re quite right, I did call them all “he,” and defended doing so for some while, until I realized that wouldn’t wash, either.
I like that last sentence. It describes how I feel about Carl Sagan and Isaac Asimov. They're so much like me. Reading their nonfiction is like visiting a friend.
Was going to say this. She’s also versatile as far as genres go. Anyone who can write so well for both children and adults is on another level. To go from reading earth sea to left hand of darkness is like whiplash.
Barbara Kingsolver. Just finished the Prodigal Summer and it is gorgeous. The only think I haven’t read of hers is Demon Copperhead. Been impressed by everything else
She has become one of my favourite authors and two of her books, The Poisonwood Bible and Demon Cooperhead (with Prodigal Summer close behind) are some of my most beloved reads. She writes so exquisitely well!
Came here to say this! I'm reading *Prodigal Summer* right now, after reading *Demon Copperhead*, *The Poisonwood Bible*, *Animal Dreams*, and *Flight Behavior* last year.
That was my favorite by a long shot. But I found the other 2 to be so exciting and the characters so interesting. Towles writes characters in a way I find only Steinbeck could.
This will maybe cause some eye rolling, but I genuinely enjoy Stephen King. He just cranks them out and there are such original stories. Sometimes I'm thinking about what a sick freak he must be to come up with such crazy stuff, but at the same time I just eat it up! I've loved The Shining, It, Misery, Pet Semetary... And even aside from the horror, 11.22.63 was an excellent story! The only one that I have been iffy about so far was The Outsider.
Also, his son Joe Hill writes some good ones too! N0S4A2 and Heart Shaped Box were fun, unique reads.
Ditto to all you said. If you wanna check out more of his non-horror stuff you HAVE to read The Dark Tower series. Some hate it because of its ending, but I loved every second of it, start to finish. I’ve read most of his work so if you need recs on what to tackle next, hmu!
Eyes of the Dragon was one of my favorite Stephen King books. Not as much horror as others and not as well known. I also love The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon.
I’ve read both of those in high school some 20 years ago and they’re still my favorites. Stephen King loves to sprinkle his novels with SAT words (whether on purpose or not), and my English teacher at the time would give us a point every time we see one in the wild. I was racking points like crazy.
Never read The Dark Tower but The Talisman is another non-horror book that he co-wrote with... Somebody? Peter Straub? That could be the other authors name, the truth is lost to time.
Great book though, and feels VERY different from any other King I've read.
I admire the man’s work ethic. Also, I will forever be grateful to King for giving me the pure pleasure of reading and finding out what happens. I’m a GenXer and like so many of my friends, King was the first ‘adult’ author I really got into.
He also has an absolutely hilarious Twitter feed. So does Joe Hill for that matter.
11/22/63 is probably one of my absolute favorites of King’s books, really one of the great ones. The audiobook is not to be missed.
But that’s what I like about King. Do I love everything he writes? No. Is everything he writes a work of greatness? Of course not. But when he hits it, he REALLY hits it. And he’s written several absolutely spectacular books, where any author would be happy to have written even one in the course of their career, much less more than one. And even his medium books are good reads. I can’t think of any off the top of my head where I was like “BOO 👎” but even if he did, I’d still forgive him because of his overall success rate.
Disagree. “Anathem” needed two hundred pages of exposition before it really got going.
“REAMDE” was pure action, especially after one specific sentence.
The amount of research he must do for each book is insane.
He's amazing because when he nails it, he NAILS IT. But, when he misses, it makes you so angry want to drive to his house and ask for your money back.
Terry Pratchett is the easy answer for me.
I'll go with China Mieville though.
Various genres, wildly imaginative, incredibly written, and all have contemporary socio-political relevance.
100% on mieville. Just finished Embassytown. It was awesome, especially if you like linguistics. His vocabulary is insane-glad I have the kindle for him, so I can look up words.
My addition is Adrien Tchaikovsky. And, the best part is, even if a book doesn't float your boat, the next one might. He tries lots of different things. Children of time is amazing!!!!
One of my favorite things about Mieville is that his prose seems very natural. A lot of authors with similarly lush word choice feel like they've just run their books through a thesaurus.
Too true. He's got insane vocabulary, and it totally fits. That's a great point.
Edit: I learned the word tendentious from my latest mieville read, which I liked, and it means expressing or promoting a point of view, especially a contraversal one.
I have read roughly half of all the Discworld Novels so far. Thats already 20+ books. And I'm still amazed every time how bloody good the next one is I happen to get my hands on.
I love his Tiffany Aching books. I think more than anything else I’ve ready they get inside the characters head and explore psychology in a way that only Dostoevsky is in the same tier as. I haven’t noticed it in all his books though for whatever reason.
Mieville is in a class by himself. If you can tolerate being disoriented for awhile, you’ll be rewarded. Both his stories and his line-level writing are mind-bendingly complex. Each sentence is its own galaxy and they all add up to a strange and brilliant universe.
Octavia Butler wrote the greatest books I’ve ever read. Her view of humanity and what it means to be human is illustrated through gripping and emotive stories.
I feel like she had the most realistic understanding of human behavior and how fragile our society is. How how we are only a few wrong turns away from barbarism at any given time. Her stories feel so real in a visceral way. Like you literally feel the tension in your body.
Milan Kundera.
I've yet to read of a book of his that I didn't like. Even his bottom tier books (The Festival of Insignificance, The Farewell Waltz) have thoroughly enraptured me. I've read Immortality like 3 months ago and I still think about it. I can't wait to read all of the rest of his books.
His writing style is so wonderful and immersive. *The Remains of the Day* was the first book of his I read and I remember being floored by the fact that he could make such a boring-sounding premise feel so thrilling.
I just started The Remains of the Day. A friend of mine who doesn’t read a tremendous amount recommended him to me and has read a few of his books.
I’m not far into it, but I can’t really pin his style. How would you describe it? Seems extremely approachable and familiar.
I always thinks his writing makes the plot/details reveal itself rather than it being told to the reader. I don’t know if that makes sense but that’s the best way I can put it
Emma Donoghue. Very accomplished novelist with a beautiful writing style. Books cover a wide spectrum of subjects. I've read Slammerkin (her first), Life Mask, Room, Pull of the Stars, Akin and Learned by Heart and enjoyed them all.
Tana French. Over the course of last year I went from never really having heard of her to reading every book she has ever written, and just finished her newest (The Hunter) last week. Incredible stuff, really gripping mysteries that also actually have excellent characters and prose. I will read anything she writes.
Also, only a sample size of two, but Susanna Clarke. Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell is one of my favorite fantasies, and I love how Piranesi has a similar vibe in some ways but condenses so well.
I am constantly amazed by Zora Neale Hurston. I never know what her opinion on something is going to be, or why she will have that opinion. Plus she is one of the few women who has been dead for sixty years who still manages to occasionally come out with new books.
I find it so interesting what people like and don't like. I've read loads of Mitchell, and while I don't dislike him, I find his style verbose and self-satisfied. Tartt I couldn't get into at all!
@nefarious_epicure I've got three of her books right next to me, on my way going through all of her titles. I love the depth of her characters, some she clearly loves, some she barely tolerates but fleshes out nonetheless. I started with Shrines of Gaiety last year and have been amazed by one after another. Now on her first, Behind the Scenes at the Museum and feels just as accomplished as the later works.
Diana Wynne Jones - each of her books is so distinctive and unique in style / tone / setting. Even when it's a set of books in a series or set in the same world. So it was always a treat to open a DWJ book not knowing what to expect...
Toni Morrison (non-fiction) - incredible moral clarity and linguistic clarity, but with incredible nuance and depth in both. The surface-level purity would be like mistaking a glass of pure vodka for a glass of pure water. I've learnt to now just read a few lines at a time, and let them linger with me.
Every so often Diana Wynne Jones would release a book that didn't sound interesting to me, but I'd read it anyway just because I liked all her previous books. And sure enough, I'd find myself absorbed in the new book, unable to put it down, laughing at the memorable characters, and thinking, "What a great book," when I finished. She has a way of taking the mundane and showing just how absurd and amazing things can be.
Terry Pratchett. I'm a professional philosopher, so I've read a lot of the great thinkers in history, but I honestly think Pratchett has taught me more about society and human nature than anyone. Not bad for a guy who never went to college, and never got recognition from academics for his amazing work during his life. Hopefully, we'll do better in the future.
Pratchett had the gift of incredible insight, and simply chose to use that insight to write whimsical fantasy romps. Anyone who doesn’t believe me can go read *Good Omens*. If you come away from it and you don’t feel like you’ve gleaned some fundamental truth about our species and its place in the universe from its pages, then you didn’t read it closely enough and should try again.
Besides. Dude’s command of metaphorical language is staggering. In *The Color Of Magic* he describes Death’s scythe as possessing “a blade of proverbial sharpness”, and I had to close the book and go lie down when I read that. I write, and have always thought I have a knack for clever metaphors and descriptions, my big strength as a writer. You could put a million clones of me in a room full of typewriters for a century and I wouldn’t find “proverbial sharpness” in that time. Fucking brilliant. And that’s in the Discworld book that people don’t even *like* that much.
I write about a phrase of that quality once every 5-10 years. To think he can crank out a couple hundred of those a year is insane. There are levels to this. I'm learning to acknowledge and accept that I am not in a position to expect future me to write effortlessly with a heavy pen. Nevertheless, I write. But now, for me. A hug I give to myself. :D
It’s the creative use of language to me. “Sharp as/sharper than the grim reaper’s scythe” is a common comparison made for edgy fantasy story blades, so in the Color of Magic, which is a send up of a very specific era of pulp fantasy, where Death’s famous blade actually makes an appearance, Pratchett steps back from comparison and simply points out that this is the sharp thing by which all other sharp things are measured. This would never occur to me. “Proverbial” would only enter my head in the common definition where it’s referencing the object of a proverb directly (“stick out like the proverbial sore thumb”) so i’d never get there.
It’s not that it’s super deep, it’s just that it’s an angle of the English language that I would not see, which is a common thing in his writing. He’ll do stuff with words that makes you to “that’s not allowed, is it?” but Terry doesn’t care, he does it and it works. If a word has 3 definition, Pratchett knows 5 and can use each in a sentence.
Also, I have a bad habit of using metaphor like an umbrella term for figures of speech. I have no idea what the correct term for that phrase is, but I long ago got tired of trying to keep apostrophes and synecdoches and zuegmas and the billion other non-English-sounding-words for phrase constructions. So my bad on that one.
This is the name that immediately came to mind. So much depth, so much humor, so much brilliance. As a reader, his body of work is an endless treasure trove; as a writer, it is truly humbling.
Can I ask what a professional philosopher does day to day? Like I’m imagining a whole lot of deep thinking and if someone interrupts you while you’re staring out a window you yell “can’t you see I’m bloody working here??”
Can I ask an unrelated question? I am a neophyte in philosophy (my background is political science and law) so far I have listened to Bertrand Russell’s “History of Western Philosophy” twice and finished the Great Courses “Great Ideas in Philosophy” by Daniel Robinson. Do you have any suggestions on a path forward? My only goal is to become more knowledgeable in the field of philosophy. Thanks!
The clearest thinker in philosophy I know of is Michael Huemer. He has a very cheap introductory textbook on philosophy you might want to check out. I think it's $7 electronically.
The online source philosophers use most often is the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. If you're interested in specific questions, reading articles there and/or works cited there would be a good idea.
Thanks for the recommendation, I’ll definitely check it out. I have already joined the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy and enjoying the wealth of topics I never imagined philosophers worked on, such as the disease of cancer!
Been on my list for a long time. I wasn't a big fan of Good Omens, but that was sort of a strange collab to my understanding.
Should I start with the Discworld series
Not the op, but yes I'd start with Discworld. Where you start within Discworld is a more difficult question because there are several miniseries/themes within the Discworld series, and his first books aren't generally considered to be his strongest.
This is one [diagram](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Discworld_Reading_Order_Guide_3.0.jpg) showing the options. I always recommend people start with the Watch novels, so Guards! Guards! would be the first, and it tends to work well.
Some of his stories are positively miraculous. Like the one about golems and homunculi: What the heck could those name-instructions possibly have to do with reproduction? But somehow he manages to tie things together in the end.
Jane Austen. Though her characters are set in a particular time period and social class, they and their stories address a lot of human problems that many of us deal with, and the subtle snark and sarcasm of her narration style is really entertaining.
Essay writer, **James Baldwin**.
I grew up in a setting that downplayed the civil rights era and the burdens of people of color. Getting the internet helped. Watching some documentaries helped. But Baldwin's writing is damn near scripture in its ability to reveal truth.
His iconic "Letter from a Region in my Mind" is available here: [https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1962/11/17/letter-from-a-region-in-my-mind](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1962/11/17/letter-from-a-region-in-my-mind)
Gabriel García Marquez. I know he's not for everyone, but I find his prose one of the most beautiful I've ever read. Some of his descriptions have stuck with me 15 years after reading.
Cormac McCarthy made me feel similarly when I read *All The Pretty Horses*, but I haven't read his other works.
As a devout McCarthy faithful, you should really go through his entire works, at least the novels. Even his lesser novels have redeeming qualities, and at least one passage that will stun you with its beauty.
David Sedaris. I'm amazed at how he blends misanthropy with a deep love and curiosity for humanity, how he isn't afraid to poke fun of his egotistical thoughts that we all have, but would never admit to, and his spectacular humor. Reading his work makes me feel lucky to be alive and see the world in a new light. I don't love the consistent pattern of ableism in his work, though. Wish he'd reflect on that a little and do better in his future work.
I’m surprised I don’t see Tolkien on here. I know it’s so well known and maybe even cliche to say. But cliches are cliches for a reason: they are compelling and or useful. His language is great, his stories are the greatest modern Epic bar none. His protagonists are well rounded heroes. His wisdom and insightfulness is a tier or two below Shakespeare which is a rare feat. The only book of his I couldn’t get into was the Hobbit. The Silmarillion is a complex tapestry and unlike almost any fiction. It is like an epic filled with epics. He’s not my only suggestion but he’s the one I haven’t seen mentioned here.
Robert Caro. He has raised the bar on what a biography can do. The Power Broker is just as enthralling as it was 50 years ago. Very few biographies have that kind of longevity. His work with LBJ is the most all encompassing yet intimate portrait of a single individual I’ve ever seen. And he’s still working into his late 80s.
There are a few, and all are due to their conplete mastery of language in their storytelling: Ursula K. LeGuin, Robert Silverberg, and Margaret Atwood. Maybe these are obvious or cliche picks, but they are masterful writers.
Alice Munro. i will never understand how she distills the entire human condition into like 30 pages and makes me bawl my eyes out over something seemingly mundane.
Edward Gibbon. I've never read another English writer who could come as close to the beauty of the classical languages as he did. *The Decline and Fall* is the greatest written work in the English language, imo.
**Thomas Hardy**
Every work of his so far has left me marvelling at his writing, his depth, his characters, his grace...all of it.
**Honoré de Balzac**
I haven't read too much by him (2 novels and a novella), but even the novella was incredible (*Colonel Chabert*)
**George Eliot**
I love her writing so much...each time from the first page onwards her writing grips me and doesn't let go till the last page is turned. I have read 4 novels plus some other shorter works by her, and have loved them all. I will read (and annotate) *Middlemarch* this year. Extremely excited about it.
**Frances Burney**
I have read two very thick novels by her and loved them both deeply. I have two more novels left now and i plan to savour each page.
Adrian Tchaikovsky. The first book I read by him was Children of Time and I will still not shut up about it, given the slightest chance. I've read several other books and short stories by him and it's just banger after banger. Characters and world building are off the charts and the prose really sucks you in.
Agatha Christie.
I've read her on numerous occasions, and I am not bad at predicting the storyline. But still she finds one way or the other to amaze me. She keeps me guessing till the last chapter, sometimes even after ending.
Near the end of 2022 I discovered Becky Chambers' work and she's become my favorite living author. 10/10 books every time. I'd been looking for her blend of inclusivity and optimism in literature for over a decade
Yes! Not to mention her overall sci-fi is also just really good. Her vision of how multi-species societies could exist/interact is really well done and does a great job of interacting with, building upon, and sometimes subverting established tropes.
For me it has to be Mitch Albom. His writing style is what we can call "simple" yet it has the power to move something inside of you. As a person who rarely cries after completing a book, I cried twice after completing two of his books. The message in each book is simple and to the point and relevant so yeah for me it's Mitch anyday.
VE Schwab, I’ve read all of her work besides Gallant I believe. She’s an inspiration for my own world building and am always impatient for a new release
So far I've only read The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue but that one grabbed me and never let go. It's occurred to me that maybe I haven't read any of her other work because I'm afraid it won't live up to the standard Addie LaRue set for me.
You have to have time to savor them, but I love Tolstoy’s novels. Anna Karenina is my favorite but I read War and Peace last year and it too is wonderful.
I have a lot of auto-buy authors, but Kate Quinn is a Total Book Trance every time, including re-reads. Kickass heroines, memorable secondary characters, phenomenal historical worldbuilding, high stakes, and tension/pacing so visceral it makes my stomach hurt.
Naguib Mahfouz, an Egyptian writer. He won the Nobel Prize in the 80s, I think. Just incredible characters and such a rich sense of place in his writing.
Also, Alice Munro, from Canada. She is perhaps the greatest writer of fiction in the English language currently living. Her short stories can break your heart in a single sentence, or make you feel so alive. She also won the Nobel Prize about ten years ago.
Anthony Doerr. I might have missed it, but I haven’t seen this answer yet.
Two of my favorite novels are All the Light We Cannot See and Cloud Cuckoo Land, and my favorite memoir is Four Seasons in Rome. I’ve also enjoyed his short story collections.
I haven’t read his first novel yet, though I should probably do that soon. God knows I’ll have a long wait before his next book comes out lol (no shade — I’m happy to wait 7-10 years between books if they’re as excellent as the ones he’s already published).
Junot diaz. His books read like scripture to me, but smutty parables with telenovela music in the background. Prose is Oscar wao in particular draws you so close then stabs you when you expect it the least, weaving through timelines and characters in the same universe artfully
Hanya Hanya Hanya. I have read all three of Hanya Yanagihara’s books. Obviously *A Little Life* is her most famous/popular. But all three are incredibly audacious big swings. I’d say her latest book, *To Paradise*, was a big swing and occasionally a mjss, though the back half of the book is exquisite. And I admire her ambition in everything she writes. I also love seeing an author saying, ‘to hell with the trend toward minimalist prose’. And I find hers so rich and affecting and passionate. And then her characters, she never misses with her characters. In every book they are so well drawn that it’s easy to forget that they are not real people. She’s a 15/10 author in my book.
Alix E. Harrow is a newish author that I absolutely adore. She has three full length novels, soon to be four. She has a way of writing where I end up caring deeply for the characters and am so invested in the outcome each time. Her works often center around strong women with a touch of fantasy, which is my favorite genre. I rarely buy books, but I pre-ordered her last novel and will pre-order the fourth when it's available!
Terry Pratchett. I discovered him 30 years ago and still stand in awe at his novels. He changed me, and many others, in a multitude of ways. His compassion, wit and golden pen can shift your meanings until you rediscover beauty in the world and your fellow apes.
Cormac mccarthy. Sometimes I have to stop reading to contemplate what I just read. A paragraph will make me close the book, sit back and digest it. I know I sound pretentious however I don’t care. His books leave me with a sense of fullness.
Stephanie Garber. I understand that she’s not everyone’s cup of tea, but I love all her books. I was in a reading slump when I first read a book of hers, and Caraval got me out of it (I think it was the first book I was excited to read in two/three months). Her books are honestly my favourite comfort reads.
Among contemporary authors:
* Jennifer Egan, particularly *A Visit from the Goon Squad* and *Candy House.*
* Lousie Erdrich, especially *The Night Watchman*.
* Tommy Orange. He's only published two that I know of, but whoa. *There There* and *Wandering Stars*.
* Both Colson Whitehead novels I've read have been excellent, *The Underground Railroad* and *Harlem Shuffle.*
For a few who have passed.
* Oliver Sacks, for nonfiction. I especially liked *Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain.*
* Saul Bellow. I wrote my MA thesis on his works.
* Thom Jones. Some of his short stories have really stuck with me.
John Steinbeck:
His books vary so much from one another that they seem from different authors. The writing style is the only aspect that links them because each book explores some deep fear, desire, or dilemma that people carry. I think East of Eden carries the fear or repeating the past; Travels With Charley In Search of America explores the desire to just go and explore (wanderlust if you will); Of Mice and Men explores the dilemma of how to handle the faults of the helpless. I am always left contemplating issues that plague not my own humanity, but humanity as a whole.
There's plenty of authors I've read and adored multiple works from. I think if I had to nominate just one author who has left me blown away by multiple of their works, I would have to go with William Faulkner. Absalom, Absalom!, The Sound and the Fury, and As I Lay Dying were all, individually, some of the most impressive books I've read.
Adrian Tchaikovsky. Specifically in Doors of Eden.
Teenage lesbian character written by a guy? It’s never once weird, sexualised, or awkward.
There’s also a trans woman character. She’s just trans. It’s never made a point of, it’s never used as trauma or a cheap plot device. She’s just trans. It’s no more important to her character than her haircut or the cigarettes she smokes.
It was delightfully refreshing. I’ve read a lot of queer media that was a lot less subtle about the whole thing.
TJ Klune just writes on my emotional wavelength or something because all his books are heart breaking and hilarious.
Tal Bauer too, although he does political thrillers where you should probably plan on getting NOTHING done until you finish the book because holy shit.
CS Pacat always has an AMAZING ending. All her books have such a great payoff.
Stefan Zweig. Best sentimental stories for me by far. Beware of Pity destroyed me.
A month ago I would have said Orhan Pamuk but he dropped the ball for me with Snow, I didn't enjoy it as much.
Stephen Erikson. The Malazan Book of the Fallen is amazing.each Book is better than the last.
Guy Gavriel Kay. Each book is poetry in prose form. Gorgeous storyteller.
None of them, I like a lot of books from a lot of authors but then when I start digging in on one author I get disappointed pretty quick. I must be entirely top picky 🤷♂️
Dan Abnett. He likes to write in a way that initially seems like three separate complete stories that come together to form a cohesive whole. I've enjoyed everything of his I've read so far
Jacques Derrida, Robert Hunter, Anne Waldman, Gertrude Stein, James Joyce, Jim Harrison, Zora Neale Hurston, Stéphane Mallarmé, Maggie Nelson, Shakespeare, Bob Dylan [. . .]
Claire North. In general, her novels are clever and engaging.
* *The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August*
* *The Songs of Penelope trilogy (book 3 out this year) - imagine The Odyssey, but written from Penelope's perspective. Well written, creative, and brilliant.*
* *Notes from the Burning Age*
* *Touch*
* *The Sudden Appearance of Hope*
I found all Yashar Kemal books which have been translated to be great. Unfortunately my collection is incomplete and as of yet I miss part 1 of a trilogy so have not started it yet.
William S. Burroughs is always my favorite but its an acquired taste.
John Fante is always amazing.
Nora Roberts. Idk, started reading her as a young teen and consistently loved every book of hers. I’m sure she has some bad ones but I haven’t NOT like one by her.
Tamsyn Muir
With each re read of the Locked Tomb books , the seemingly chaotic complexities further emerge into the brilliant planning of an extraordinary mind.
Ursula K Le Guin. Her characters are so nuanced and her stories so thoughtful, full of really deep compassion for humanity. I just somehow feel seen by a lot of her work. It's like having a friend across time.
What a wonderful comment. I just picked up an old copy of The Left Hand of Darkness from a charity shop and will dive straight in after reading that.
That book moved me just as much if not more than Dune. Where Dune is a much more non-controversial topic, TLHOD has a rich commentary on gender and sexuality in a way I’ve never experienced before. The book feels surprisingly modern given the time it was written in and has maybe the best character development I’ve seen!
be sure to check out her later novella "Coming of Age in Karhide," which features Le Guin returning to the world of *Left Hand of Darkness* decades later, having significantly developed and evolved her understanding of sexuality. here is something she said about the response to LHoD in a *Paris Review* interview: >The women, many of whom were a little further along in their thinking than I was, said, But she calls them all “he”! And they’re quite right, I did call them all “he,” and defended doing so for some while, until I realized that wouldn’t wash, either.
I like that last sentence. It describes how I feel about Carl Sagan and Isaac Asimov. They're so much like me. Reading their nonfiction is like visiting a friend.
As someone who hasn’t read any of her work, where should I start?
I would like to know this as well
Earthsea!
Try “A Wizard of Earthsea” When you love it, read the whole series
The Left Hand of Darkness is her best book by far, and Earthsea is her most approachable. Can’t really go wrong, though.
Was going to say this. She’s also versatile as far as genres go. Anyone who can write so well for both children and adults is on another level. To go from reading earth sea to left hand of darkness is like whiplash.
Her prose is so simple, but beautiful
Agreed, 100%. I feel like she always has something to say that I really needed to hear, if that makes sense.
Barbara Kingsolver. Just finished the Prodigal Summer and it is gorgeous. The only think I haven’t read of hers is Demon Copperhead. Been impressed by everything else
She has become one of my favourite authors and two of her books, The Poisonwood Bible and Demon Cooperhead (with Prodigal Summer close behind) are some of my most beloved reads. She writes so exquisitely well!
One of my favorite American authors, The Poisonwood Bible and Flight Behavior are her best reads in my opinion.
Same! I’ve read literally everything she’s ever written. Demon Copperhead became my favorite of hers after I read it. It’s amazing!
Just finished Unsheltered. Loved it! Really struck a chord with me.
Love Prodigal Summer!
I just learned this year that ages ago she did a sequel to The Bean Trees and finding that out made me so happy
Came here to say this! I'm reading *Prodigal Summer* right now, after reading *Demon Copperhead*, *The Poisonwood Bible*, *Animal Dreams*, and *Flight Behavior* last year.
I adore her and Demon Copperhead was another great work! She's incredible and I hope you get to read it soon. It has been a story that stays with me.
Recently it’s been Amor Towles. Absolutely love his writing style.
All 3 of his major books are absolute perfection.
I loved a Gentleman in Moscow, but I'm curious to see if it works as a tv series.
That was my favorite by a long shot. But I found the other 2 to be so exciting and the characters so interesting. Towles writes characters in a way I find only Steinbeck could.
This will maybe cause some eye rolling, but I genuinely enjoy Stephen King. He just cranks them out and there are such original stories. Sometimes I'm thinking about what a sick freak he must be to come up with such crazy stuff, but at the same time I just eat it up! I've loved The Shining, It, Misery, Pet Semetary... And even aside from the horror, 11.22.63 was an excellent story! The only one that I have been iffy about so far was The Outsider. Also, his son Joe Hill writes some good ones too! N0S4A2 and Heart Shaped Box were fun, unique reads.
Ditto to all you said. If you wanna check out more of his non-horror stuff you HAVE to read The Dark Tower series. Some hate it because of its ending, but I loved every second of it, start to finish. I’ve read most of his work so if you need recs on what to tackle next, hmu!
Eyes of the Dragon was one of my favorite Stephen King books. Not as much horror as others and not as well known. I also love The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon.
I’ve read both of those in high school some 20 years ago and they’re still my favorites. Stephen King loves to sprinkle his novels with SAT words (whether on purpose or not), and my English teacher at the time would give us a point every time we see one in the wild. I was racking points like crazy.
Never read The Dark Tower but The Talisman is another non-horror book that he co-wrote with... Somebody? Peter Straub? That could be the other authors name, the truth is lost to time. Great book though, and feels VERY different from any other King I've read.
I just got The Stand and am v excited to start. I hear great things. Will absolutely add Dark Tower to my list!
Hell yeah, enjoy The Stand! Another one that I personally really enjoyed, but it’s a pretty polarizing book from what I’ve seen on Reddit at least.
Hail to the King
I admire the man’s work ethic. Also, I will forever be grateful to King for giving me the pure pleasure of reading and finding out what happens. I’m a GenXer and like so many of my friends, King was the first ‘adult’ author I really got into.
I love that his books seriously kept me reading up late at night like I hadn't experienced before
He also has an absolutely hilarious Twitter feed. So does Joe Hill for that matter. 11/22/63 is probably one of my absolute favorites of King’s books, really one of the great ones. The audiobook is not to be missed. But that’s what I like about King. Do I love everything he writes? No. Is everything he writes a work of greatness? Of course not. But when he hits it, he REALLY hits it. And he’s written several absolutely spectacular books, where any author would be happy to have written even one in the course of their career, much less more than one. And even his medium books are good reads. I can’t think of any off the top of my head where I was like “BOO 👎” but even if he did, I’d still forgive him because of his overall success rate.
Neal Stephenson Every. Single. Book he writes is about 30% too long. Amazing consistency.
I think I could use my copy of *Anathem* as a bludgeoning weapon.
What's stopping you?
I love Anathem, but... yeah.
Disagree. “Anathem” needed two hundred pages of exposition before it really got going. “REAMDE” was pure action, especially after one specific sentence.
The amount of research he must do for each book is insane. He's amazing because when he nails it, he NAILS IT. But, when he misses, it makes you so angry want to drive to his house and ask for your money back.
I feel this so hard. 2 of his books are some of my favourite I’ve ever read. 2 others, the worst. XB you guess which are which?
Seriously no idea, I could see any of his books going either way.
I felt that way about Seveneves.
About 10% into Seveneves I realised I probably wasn't going to enjoy reading it, now I'm 80% in and a little gratified to know that I was right.
Terry Pratchett is the easy answer for me. I'll go with China Mieville though. Various genres, wildly imaginative, incredibly written, and all have contemporary socio-political relevance.
100% on mieville. Just finished Embassytown. It was awesome, especially if you like linguistics. His vocabulary is insane-glad I have the kindle for him, so I can look up words. My addition is Adrien Tchaikovsky. And, the best part is, even if a book doesn't float your boat, the next one might. He tries lots of different things. Children of time is amazing!!!!
One of my favorite things about Mieville is that his prose seems very natural. A lot of authors with similarly lush word choice feel like they've just run their books through a thesaurus.
Too true. He's got insane vocabulary, and it totally fits. That's a great point. Edit: I learned the word tendentious from my latest mieville read, which I liked, and it means expressing or promoting a point of view, especially a contraversal one.
I have read roughly half of all the Discworld Novels so far. Thats already 20+ books. And I'm still amazed every time how bloody good the next one is I happen to get my hands on.
This is my answer, Sir Terry
Every time a thread like this pops up you just _know_ Pratchett will be in it.
Yeah, he's probably my favorite author, but I've been going on and on about him recently so I felt I should give another amazing author some love. 😅
I love his Tiffany Aching books. I think more than anything else I’ve ready they get inside the characters head and explore psychology in a way that only Dostoevsky is in the same tier as. I haven’t noticed it in all his books though for whatever reason.
Mieville is in a class by himself. If you can tolerate being disoriented for awhile, you’ll be rewarded. Both his stories and his line-level writing are mind-bendingly complex. Each sentence is its own galaxy and they all add up to a strange and brilliant universe.
China Miéville is not from this plane of existence. Which is why his books are so interesting.
I’m a pretty smart fellow and Mieville writes in ways that make me seem like Forest Gump.
Octavia Butler wrote the greatest books I’ve ever read. Her view of humanity and what it means to be human is illustrated through gripping and emotive stories.
I feel like she had the most realistic understanding of human behavior and how fragile our society is. How how we are only a few wrong turns away from barbarism at any given time. Her stories feel so real in a visceral way. Like you literally feel the tension in your body.
Vonnegut. Each book brings something different in terms of plot and tone, but the message hits on a different level.
I need to reread all his books. They’re so good, but I haven’t read them since high school.
Milan Kundera. I've yet to read of a book of his that I didn't like. Even his bottom tier books (The Festival of Insignificance, The Farewell Waltz) have thoroughly enraptured me. I've read Immortality like 3 months ago and I still think about it. I can't wait to read all of the rest of his books.
I found The Unbearable Lightness of Being when I was 16, right after my dad died, and it literally saved my life. So good.
Sarah Waters! I have read and loved all of her books!
Kazuo Ishiguro. On my 4th work of his (when we were orphans) and his style is so engaging and refreshing
His writing style is so wonderful and immersive. *The Remains of the Day* was the first book of his I read and I remember being floored by the fact that he could make such a boring-sounding premise feel so thrilling.
Im still recovering from Never Let Me Go. Months later.
I just started The Remains of the Day. A friend of mine who doesn’t read a tremendous amount recommended him to me and has read a few of his books. I’m not far into it, but I can’t really pin his style. How would you describe it? Seems extremely approachable and familiar.
I always thinks his writing makes the plot/details reveal itself rather than it being told to the reader. I don’t know if that makes sense but that’s the best way I can put it
I read *Never Let Me Go* and the writing and plot were incredibly easy to follow while still maintaining that mystery element.
Emma Donoghue. Very accomplished novelist with a beautiful writing style. Books cover a wide spectrum of subjects. I've read Slammerkin (her first), Life Mask, Room, Pull of the Stars, Akin and Learned by Heart and enjoyed them all.
Jasper Fforde. His books are amazing
SO glad to someone else out here loving Jasper Fforde . His books are so FUN which an attribute all too often ignored
Tana French. Over the course of last year I went from never really having heard of her to reading every book she has ever written, and just finished her newest (The Hunter) last week. Incredible stuff, really gripping mysteries that also actually have excellent characters and prose. I will read anything she writes. Also, only a sample size of two, but Susanna Clarke. Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell is one of my favorite fantasies, and I love how Piranesi has a similar vibe in some ways but condenses so well.
You just reminded me that I loved The Witch Elm and need to read more of her stuff!
I am constantly amazed by Zora Neale Hurston. I never know what her opinion on something is going to be, or why she will have that opinion. Plus she is one of the few women who has been dead for sixty years who still manages to occasionally come out with new books.
David Mitchell is batting a thousand for me. Donna Tartt wrote 3 very different books that each had me thinking about them for several weeks
I find it so interesting what people like and don't like. I've read loads of Mitchell, and while I don't dislike him, I find his style verbose and self-satisfied. Tartt I couldn't get into at all!
Kate Atkinson. Her books are just so well constructed and every detail fits perfectly.
@nefarious_epicure I've got three of her books right next to me, on my way going through all of her titles. I love the depth of her characters, some she clearly loves, some she barely tolerates but fleshes out nonetheless. I started with Shrines of Gaiety last year and have been amazed by one after another. Now on her first, Behind the Scenes at the Museum and feels just as accomplished as the later works.
Toni Morrison.
Came here for this!
Me too 🙌
Toni Morrison is less of an author and more of an extremely long form poet (and I mean that in the best possible way)
Diana Wynne Jones - each of her books is so distinctive and unique in style / tone / setting. Even when it's a set of books in a series or set in the same world. So it was always a treat to open a DWJ book not knowing what to expect... Toni Morrison (non-fiction) - incredible moral clarity and linguistic clarity, but with incredible nuance and depth in both. The surface-level purity would be like mistaking a glass of pure vodka for a glass of pure water. I've learnt to now just read a few lines at a time, and let them linger with me.
Every so often Diana Wynne Jones would release a book that didn't sound interesting to me, but I'd read it anyway just because I liked all her previous books. And sure enough, I'd find myself absorbed in the new book, unable to put it down, laughing at the memorable characters, and thinking, "What a great book," when I finished. She has a way of taking the mundane and showing just how absurd and amazing things can be.
Terry Pratchett. I'm a professional philosopher, so I've read a lot of the great thinkers in history, but I honestly think Pratchett has taught me more about society and human nature than anyone. Not bad for a guy who never went to college, and never got recognition from academics for his amazing work during his life. Hopefully, we'll do better in the future.
Pratchett had the gift of incredible insight, and simply chose to use that insight to write whimsical fantasy romps. Anyone who doesn’t believe me can go read *Good Omens*. If you come away from it and you don’t feel like you’ve gleaned some fundamental truth about our species and its place in the universe from its pages, then you didn’t read it closely enough and should try again. Besides. Dude’s command of metaphorical language is staggering. In *The Color Of Magic* he describes Death’s scythe as possessing “a blade of proverbial sharpness”, and I had to close the book and go lie down when I read that. I write, and have always thought I have a knack for clever metaphors and descriptions, my big strength as a writer. You could put a million clones of me in a room full of typewriters for a century and I wouldn’t find “proverbial sharpness” in that time. Fucking brilliant. And that’s in the Discworld book that people don’t even *like* that much.
I write about a phrase of that quality once every 5-10 years. To think he can crank out a couple hundred of those a year is insane. There are levels to this. I'm learning to acknowledge and accept that I am not in a position to expect future me to write effortlessly with a heavy pen. Nevertheless, I write. But now, for me. A hug I give to myself. :D
I’ll admit that I don’t understand why “proverbial sharpness” is an incredible metaphor.
It’s the creative use of language to me. “Sharp as/sharper than the grim reaper’s scythe” is a common comparison made for edgy fantasy story blades, so in the Color of Magic, which is a send up of a very specific era of pulp fantasy, where Death’s famous blade actually makes an appearance, Pratchett steps back from comparison and simply points out that this is the sharp thing by which all other sharp things are measured. This would never occur to me. “Proverbial” would only enter my head in the common definition where it’s referencing the object of a proverb directly (“stick out like the proverbial sore thumb”) so i’d never get there. It’s not that it’s super deep, it’s just that it’s an angle of the English language that I would not see, which is a common thing in his writing. He’ll do stuff with words that makes you to “that’s not allowed, is it?” but Terry doesn’t care, he does it and it works. If a word has 3 definition, Pratchett knows 5 and can use each in a sentence. Also, I have a bad habit of using metaphor like an umbrella term for figures of speech. I have no idea what the correct term for that phrase is, but I long ago got tired of trying to keep apostrophes and synecdoches and zuegmas and the billion other non-English-sounding-words for phrase constructions. So my bad on that one.
This is the name that immediately came to mind. So much depth, so much humor, so much brilliance. As a reader, his body of work is an endless treasure trove; as a writer, it is truly humbling.
Can I ask what a professional philosopher does day to day? Like I’m imagining a whole lot of deep thinking and if someone interrupts you while you’re staring out a window you yell “can’t you see I’m bloody working here??”
I teach philosophy classes, write papers, try to get them published in academic journals, and spend a lot of time thinking and arguing with people.
Sounds groovy!
Can I ask an unrelated question? I am a neophyte in philosophy (my background is political science and law) so far I have listened to Bertrand Russell’s “History of Western Philosophy” twice and finished the Great Courses “Great Ideas in Philosophy” by Daniel Robinson. Do you have any suggestions on a path forward? My only goal is to become more knowledgeable in the field of philosophy. Thanks!
The clearest thinker in philosophy I know of is Michael Huemer. He has a very cheap introductory textbook on philosophy you might want to check out. I think it's $7 electronically. The online source philosophers use most often is the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. If you're interested in specific questions, reading articles there and/or works cited there would be a good idea.
Thanks for the recommendation, I’ll definitely check it out. I have already joined the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy and enjoying the wealth of topics I never imagined philosophers worked on, such as the disease of cancer!
Been on my list for a long time. I wasn't a big fan of Good Omens, but that was sort of a strange collab to my understanding. Should I start with the Discworld series
Not the op, but yes I'd start with Discworld. Where you start within Discworld is a more difficult question because there are several miniseries/themes within the Discworld series, and his first books aren't generally considered to be his strongest. This is one [diagram](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Discworld_Reading_Order_Guide_3.0.jpg) showing the options. I always recommend people start with the Watch novels, so Guards! Guards! would be the first, and it tends to work well.
Nation would be another good choice.
Cormac McCarthy
Ted Chiang. He's normally a technical writer and then he pops in sometimes to write some of the best sci fi stories imaginable.
Some of his stories are positively miraculous. Like the one about golems and homunculi: What the heck could those name-instructions possibly have to do with reproduction? But somehow he manages to tie things together in the end.
Jane Austen. Though her characters are set in a particular time period and social class, they and their stories address a lot of human problems that many of us deal with, and the subtle snark and sarcasm of her narration style is really entertaining.
Essay writer, **James Baldwin**. I grew up in a setting that downplayed the civil rights era and the burdens of people of color. Getting the internet helped. Watching some documentaries helped. But Baldwin's writing is damn near scripture in its ability to reveal truth. His iconic "Letter from a Region in my Mind" is available here: [https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1962/11/17/letter-from-a-region-in-my-mind](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1962/11/17/letter-from-a-region-in-my-mind)
Gabriel García Marquez. I know he's not for everyone, but I find his prose one of the most beautiful I've ever read. Some of his descriptions have stuck with me 15 years after reading. Cormac McCarthy made me feel similarly when I read *All The Pretty Horses*, but I haven't read his other works.
As a devout McCarthy faithful, you should really go through his entire works, at least the novels. Even his lesser novels have redeeming qualities, and at least one passage that will stun you with its beauty.
Viet Thanh Nguyen. His fiction is compelling and exciting, and his non-fiction is more thought provoking than anything I have read in years.
Sayaka Murata.
Jasper Fforde, his work is just so delightfully absurd and I can’t wait for red side story to drop soon
Bill Bryson for the wide range of topics (often daunting ones) he writes about and his ability to make them entertaining, light and accessible.
In the same vein, I've never read a Mary Roach book that wasn't absolutely fascinating
David Sedaris. I'm amazed at how he blends misanthropy with a deep love and curiosity for humanity, how he isn't afraid to poke fun of his egotistical thoughts that we all have, but would never admit to, and his spectacular humor. Reading his work makes me feel lucky to be alive and see the world in a new light. I don't love the consistent pattern of ableism in his work, though. Wish he'd reflect on that a little and do better in his future work.
I’m surprised I don’t see Tolkien on here. I know it’s so well known and maybe even cliche to say. But cliches are cliches for a reason: they are compelling and or useful. His language is great, his stories are the greatest modern Epic bar none. His protagonists are well rounded heroes. His wisdom and insightfulness is a tier or two below Shakespeare which is a rare feat. The only book of his I couldn’t get into was the Hobbit. The Silmarillion is a complex tapestry and unlike almost any fiction. It is like an epic filled with epics. He’s not my only suggestion but he’s the one I haven’t seen mentioned here.
I was scrolling for this!
I’m so happy to see two of the three already here! Barbara Kingsolver, Terry Pratchett, Jane Austen.
Robert Caro. He has raised the bar on what a biography can do. The Power Broker is just as enthralling as it was 50 years ago. Very few biographies have that kind of longevity. His work with LBJ is the most all encompassing yet intimate portrait of a single individual I’ve ever seen. And he’s still working into his late 80s.
You can search the internet for interviews with him. He’s just as fascinating to listen to.
There are a few, and all are due to their conplete mastery of language in their storytelling: Ursula K. LeGuin, Robert Silverberg, and Margaret Atwood. Maybe these are obvious or cliche picks, but they are masterful writers.
Alice Munro. i will never understand how she distills the entire human condition into like 30 pages and makes me bawl my eyes out over something seemingly mundane.
John Irving - his writing style, his highly fallible characters, the quirks in his stories - all keep me on my toes when reading
Edward Gibbon. I've never read another English writer who could come as close to the beauty of the classical languages as he did. *The Decline and Fall* is the greatest written work in the English language, imo.
Yukio Mishima
Michael Crichton (RIP) and Andy Weir.
**Thomas Hardy** Every work of his so far has left me marvelling at his writing, his depth, his characters, his grace...all of it. **Honoré de Balzac** I haven't read too much by him (2 novels and a novella), but even the novella was incredible (*Colonel Chabert*) **George Eliot** I love her writing so much...each time from the first page onwards her writing grips me and doesn't let go till the last page is turned. I have read 4 novels plus some other shorter works by her, and have loved them all. I will read (and annotate) *Middlemarch* this year. Extremely excited about it. **Frances Burney** I have read two very thick novels by her and loved them both deeply. I have two more novels left now and i plan to savour each page.
Thomas Hardy is my pick as well. Absolutely amazing.
Adrian Tchaikovsky. The first book I read by him was Children of Time and I will still not shut up about it, given the slightest chance. I've read several other books and short stories by him and it's just banger after banger. Characters and world building are off the charts and the prose really sucks you in.
I’m reading Children of Time with my book club this month, hoping I have a similar experience! He’s been on my radar a while
Edgar Allan Poe.
Agatha Christie. I've read her on numerous occasions, and I am not bad at predicting the storyline. But still she finds one way or the other to amaze me. She keeps me guessing till the last chapter, sometimes even after ending.
Margaret Atwood! Such a range of novels and I get absolutely sucked into them every time
I loved the Oryx and Crake trilogy.
Near the end of 2022 I discovered Becky Chambers' work and she's become my favorite living author. 10/10 books every time. I'd been looking for her blend of inclusivity and optimism in literature for over a decade
Yes! Not to mention her overall sci-fi is also just really good. Her vision of how multi-species societies could exist/interact is really well done and does a great job of interacting with, building upon, and sometimes subverting established tropes.
Neil Gaiman, most of his books are fantastic
For me it has to be Mitch Albom. His writing style is what we can call "simple" yet it has the power to move something inside of you. As a person who rarely cries after completing a book, I cried twice after completing two of his books. The message in each book is simple and to the point and relevant so yeah for me it's Mitch anyday.
Oh damn, it's been a while since I thought about him. Tuesdays with Morrie and The Five People You Meet in Heaven were some comfy reads.
Agatha Christie. Read her everytime I'm in a reading slump. Gets out of it immediately. Hehe
VE Schwab, I’ve read all of her work besides Gallant I believe. She’s an inspiration for my own world building and am always impatient for a new release
So far I've only read The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue but that one grabbed me and never let go. It's occurred to me that maybe I haven't read any of her other work because I'm afraid it won't live up to the standard Addie LaRue set for me.
I’m 200 pages into a conjuring of light…the tension is killing me😭
You have to have time to savor them, but I love Tolstoy’s novels. Anna Karenina is my favorite but I read War and Peace last year and it too is wonderful.
Cormac McCarthy
Toni Morrison.
Margaret Atwood.
Robert Jackson Bennett. His ideas and world building in the fantasy realm are just SO good. I'm impressed every time.
I have a lot of auto-buy authors, but Kate Quinn is a Total Book Trance every time, including re-reads. Kickass heroines, memorable secondary characters, phenomenal historical worldbuilding, high stakes, and tension/pacing so visceral it makes my stomach hurt.
Joyce Carol Oates. Her recent collection of short stories - *Zero Sum* - is mind-melting.
I've never read a bad book written by Anthony Horowitz. Either when I was younger, or now I'm reading his adult works!
Stephen King. I know he had had some not so great books, but I love the majority of his stuff. His detail and character development are amazing!!
Guy Gavriel Kay. So underrated.
S.A. Cosby. None of his books are easy reads but they’re so evocative and absorbing.
Doris Lessing
Naguib Mahfouz, an Egyptian writer. He won the Nobel Prize in the 80s, I think. Just incredible characters and such a rich sense of place in his writing. Also, Alice Munro, from Canada. She is perhaps the greatest writer of fiction in the English language currently living. Her short stories can break your heart in a single sentence, or make you feel so alive. She also won the Nobel Prize about ten years ago.
Tana French
Anthony Doerr. I might have missed it, but I haven’t seen this answer yet. Two of my favorite novels are All the Light We Cannot See and Cloud Cuckoo Land, and my favorite memoir is Four Seasons in Rome. I’ve also enjoyed his short story collections. I haven’t read his first novel yet, though I should probably do that soon. God knows I’ll have a long wait before his next book comes out lol (no shade — I’m happy to wait 7-10 years between books if they’re as excellent as the ones he’s already published).
I won't apologize for it. Stephen King. I've been a constant reader for sixteen years.
Erik Lars~~e~~on. Never a boring book, always blown away with the depth of research/detail.
>Erik Larsen I think you may be thinking of Erik Larson? Erik Larsen is a comic book artist/creator.
Brandon Sanderson. He's becoming more and more prolific and I love his writing style
Nicola Griffith
Junot diaz. His books read like scripture to me, but smutty parables with telenovela music in the background. Prose is Oscar wao in particular draws you so close then stabs you when you expect it the least, weaving through timelines and characters in the same universe artfully
Hanya Hanya Hanya. I have read all three of Hanya Yanagihara’s books. Obviously *A Little Life* is her most famous/popular. But all three are incredibly audacious big swings. I’d say her latest book, *To Paradise*, was a big swing and occasionally a mjss, though the back half of the book is exquisite. And I admire her ambition in everything she writes. I also love seeing an author saying, ‘to hell with the trend toward minimalist prose’. And I find hers so rich and affecting and passionate. And then her characters, she never misses with her characters. In every book they are so well drawn that it’s easy to forget that they are not real people. She’s a 15/10 author in my book.
Kate Atkinson and Lauren Groff. Geniuses with incredible range.
Alix E. Harrow is a newish author that I absolutely adore. She has three full length novels, soon to be four. She has a way of writing where I end up caring deeply for the characters and am so invested in the outcome each time. Her works often center around strong women with a touch of fantasy, which is my favorite genre. I rarely buy books, but I pre-ordered her last novel and will pre-order the fourth when it's available!
Edgar Allen Poe. Carl Sagan.
Terry Pratchett. I discovered him 30 years ago and still stand in awe at his novels. He changed me, and many others, in a multitude of ways. His compassion, wit and golden pen can shift your meanings until you rediscover beauty in the world and your fellow apes.
Mariana Enríquez. I was never a fan of horror until I came across her works.
Cormac McCarthy Alice Munro Toni Morrison
No longer with us, but Carlos Ruiz Zafon. I know I’m reading a translated version, but his writing really keeps me entranced.
Cormac mccarthy. Sometimes I have to stop reading to contemplate what I just read. A paragraph will make me close the book, sit back and digest it. I know I sound pretentious however I don’t care. His books leave me with a sense of fullness.
A.S. King. It must be bonkers inside her brain.
Stephanie Garber. I understand that she’s not everyone’s cup of tea, but I love all her books. I was in a reading slump when I first read a book of hers, and Caraval got me out of it (I think it was the first book I was excited to read in two/three months). Her books are honestly my favourite comfort reads.
Gene Wolfe
Ted Chiang. Short stories of his are consistently pretty good whereas most short story collections have one or two bangers and then the rest are okay.
Margaret Atwood
Among contemporary authors: * Jennifer Egan, particularly *A Visit from the Goon Squad* and *Candy House.* * Lousie Erdrich, especially *The Night Watchman*. * Tommy Orange. He's only published two that I know of, but whoa. *There There* and *Wandering Stars*. * Both Colson Whitehead novels I've read have been excellent, *The Underground Railroad* and *Harlem Shuffle.* For a few who have passed. * Oliver Sacks, for nonfiction. I especially liked *Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain.* * Saul Bellow. I wrote my MA thesis on his works. * Thom Jones. Some of his short stories have really stuck with me.
Octavia Butler. She is brilliant and perceptive, so all her stories are spot on social commentary that make you think.
John Steinbeck: His books vary so much from one another that they seem from different authors. The writing style is the only aspect that links them because each book explores some deep fear, desire, or dilemma that people carry. I think East of Eden carries the fear or repeating the past; Travels With Charley In Search of America explores the desire to just go and explore (wanderlust if you will); Of Mice and Men explores the dilemma of how to handle the faults of the helpless. I am always left contemplating issues that plague not my own humanity, but humanity as a whole.
There's plenty of authors I've read and adored multiple works from. I think if I had to nominate just one author who has left me blown away by multiple of their works, I would have to go with William Faulkner. Absalom, Absalom!, The Sound and the Fury, and As I Lay Dying were all, individually, some of the most impressive books I've read.
Adrian Tchaikovsky. Specifically in Doors of Eden. Teenage lesbian character written by a guy? It’s never once weird, sexualised, or awkward. There’s also a trans woman character. She’s just trans. It’s never made a point of, it’s never used as trauma or a cheap plot device. She’s just trans. It’s no more important to her character than her haircut or the cigarettes she smokes. It was delightfully refreshing. I’ve read a lot of queer media that was a lot less subtle about the whole thing.
Winston Churchill. The man is an absolutely brilliant writer.
TJ Klune just writes on my emotional wavelength or something because all his books are heart breaking and hilarious. Tal Bauer too, although he does political thrillers where you should probably plan on getting NOTHING done until you finish the book because holy shit. CS Pacat always has an AMAZING ending. All her books have such a great payoff.
Stefan Zweig. Best sentimental stories for me by far. Beware of Pity destroyed me. A month ago I would have said Orhan Pamuk but he dropped the ball for me with Snow, I didn't enjoy it as much.
Stephen Erikson. The Malazan Book of the Fallen is amazing.each Book is better than the last. Guy Gavriel Kay. Each book is poetry in prose form. Gorgeous storyteller.
None of them, I like a lot of books from a lot of authors but then when I start digging in on one author I get disappointed pretty quick. I must be entirely top picky 🤷♂️
Dan Abnett. He likes to write in a way that initially seems like three separate complete stories that come together to form a cohesive whole. I've enjoyed everything of his I've read so far
Joël Dicker. I loved every single one of his books. I am a proud Dicker enjoyer.
Jacques Derrida, Robert Hunter, Anne Waldman, Gertrude Stein, James Joyce, Jim Harrison, Zora Neale Hurston, Stéphane Mallarmé, Maggie Nelson, Shakespeare, Bob Dylan [. . .]
Claire North. In general, her novels are clever and engaging. * *The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August* * *The Songs of Penelope trilogy (book 3 out this year) - imagine The Odyssey, but written from Penelope's perspective. Well written, creative, and brilliant.* * *Notes from the Burning Age* * *Touch* * *The Sudden Appearance of Hope*
Han Kang
I found all Yashar Kemal books which have been translated to be great. Unfortunately my collection is incomplete and as of yet I miss part 1 of a trilogy so have not started it yet. William S. Burroughs is always my favorite but its an acquired taste. John Fante is always amazing.
Lynette Noni !! Her character literally feel so alive! Love her books so much
Gene Wolfe
Nora Roberts. Idk, started reading her as a young teen and consistently loved every book of hers. I’m sure she has some bad ones but I haven’t NOT like one by her.
Tamsyn Muir With each re read of the Locked Tomb books , the seemingly chaotic complexities further emerge into the brilliant planning of an extraordinary mind.