Ten New-to-Me Authors I Read in 2023

I'm linking up with That Artsy Reader Girl for another Top Ten Tuesday.

This week's topic is authors we read for the first time in 2023. As with previous iterations of this topic, I tried to pick authors that have more than one book and weren't new to everyone in 2023!

1. Kate Albus
I finally read A Place to Hang the Moon in 2023 after seeing it recommended for a couple years, and I know she came out with a similar book last year so I may pick that one up now.

2. Ben Blatt
I really enjoyed Blatt's combination of statistics and literature in Nabokov's Favorite Word Is Mauve, which I'd wanted to read since it came out in 2017. I don't think I'm interested in his previous memoir about baseball, but I'd be interested in any future data books he writes!

3. Susanna Clarke
I still have yet to read Clarke's doorstopper classic, Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell, but after reading the much slimmer Piranesi in 2023 (which wasn't a favorite but was quite good), I'm more interested in bumping her first one up the list.

4. Jessica Fern
I was very impressed by Polysecure, which came out in 2020 and which I finally read in 2023. As soon as I heard about Polywise, which came out last year, I put that one on my holds list!

5. Anthony Horowitz
The best part about waiting until 2023 to read Magpie Murders was that I was able to get the sequel, Moonflower Murders, right away!

6. Kat Leyh
I loved Snapdragon so much I read it twice in 2023. I haven't read any of Leyh's other work, but I want to now!

7. Racquel Marie
I loved how Ophelia After All wasn't predictable or formulaic. Marie just had another book come out in 2023 that I'm interested in and another one coming out this year, so lots more good stuff to explore!

8. Amanda Montell
Cultish was on my radar since it came out in 2021, and I'm glad I got to read it in 2023. Writing engaging, conversational nonfiction is challenging, and Montell does it well. The reviews of her previous book are mixed, but her upcoming book, The Age of Magical Overthinking, looks interesting.

9. Hannah Templer
Cosmoknights wasn't even on my radar until a friend recommended the first volume to me. Now I'm very interested to see what Templer does next, whether another volume of Cosmoknights or something else entirely!

10. Jeff Zentner
I hadn't heard of Zentner until In the Wild Light was nominated and selected for one of my book clubs, but it's actually only his third-most rated book on Goodreads (though his highest rated!). I'm glad his work was introduced to me.

Which authors were new to you in 2023?

Looking back:
One year ago I was reading: In the Wild Light, Curse of the Sand Witches, and McDonald's
Five years ago I was reading: The Night Masquerade and The Sympathizer
Ten years ago I was reading: The Marriage Plot and War and Peace

Ten New-to-Me Authors I Discovered in 2022

I'm linking up with That Artsy Reader Girl for another Top Ten Tuesday.

This week's topic is authors we read for the first time in 2022. Here are ten of mine!

1. Caitlin Doughty
I had heard of Doughty's Order of the Good Death for several years now, but I finally read her Smoke Gets in Your Eyes & Other Lessons from the Crematory last year. It was both funny and informative, and she did a great job narrating the book on audio. I'd definitely be interested in reading one of her other books.

2. Holly Jackson
It took me until last year to finally pick up A Good Girl's Guide to Murder, and I liked it so much more than I expected! I ended up reading and enjoying the whole trilogy. Jackson's very talented at intricately plotted mystery/thrillers as well as realistic characters.

3. Anita Kelly
I read and enjoyed Kelly's debut novella, Sing Anyway, and somehow they've managed to publish three more books in 2021 and 2022 and have another one coming out this year!

4. C.B. Lee
In 2022 I read the three books that are out so far in the Sidekick Squad series. Admittedly, Lee's plotting and world-building is a little shaky, but her characters and their relationships are so endearing that I've still enjoyed reading each of these stories.

5. Gretchen McCulloch
I don't actually think McCulloch has written any books other than Because Internet, but she has a column, a blog, and a podcast, none of which I was familiar with before reading her completely delightful guide to the history of language on the Internet.

6. Brittney Morris
I wouldn't have picked up Morris' SLAY if it hadn't been selected for one of my book clubs, but I'm very glad I did! I love YA authors who are writing books that take a completely different path from the usual YA storylines and tropes, and I've recommended this book to a bunch of people since reading it last year.

7. Emily Nagoski
To be fair, I read both Emily Nagoski and her sister Amelia Nagoski for the first time in 2022 when I read Burnout, but Emily Nagoski is the more prolific author whom I'd listed earlier in 2022 as one of the authors I still hadn't read despite having more than one of their books on my to-read list. This book, at least, was worth the hype!

8. Alice Oseman
How is it possible that I hadn't read any Oseman until 2022? I read all the Heartstopper books and have now read most of the books in the Osemanverse. With the exception of her debut, Solitaire, which I thought was terrible, all of her books are fantastic and I plan to continue until I've read them all!

9. Ngozi Ukazu
After hearing about Ukazu's Check, Please! series on multiple occasions, I finally picked it up in 2022, and it was such fun! I thought the second volume, with the main character's junior and senior years of college, was stronger, so I recommend reading the books straight through to get the full story.

10. Maryrose Wood
I was so glad I found out about the Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place series at the beginning of 2022, because the six audiobooks of this middle grade series carried me through a couple of very rough months of my life.

Which of these authors have you read?

Looking back:
One year ago I was reading: Here's to Us and The Unseen Guest
Five years ago I was reading: Strangers in Their Own Land and The Stand
Ten years ago I was reading: The Night Circus and You Can Adopt

Ten Authors I Still Haven’t Read (Despite Having Multiple Books of Theirs on My To-Read List)

I'm linking up with That Artsy Reader Girl for another Top Ten Tuesday.

This week's theme is "Authors I Haven’t Read, But Want To." Most of the books on my might-want-to-read list are by authors I haven't read before, so to narrow this down I found the authors I've never read whose books appear more than once on my list. That still left me with 37 authors! Here are ten of the ones I most can't believe that I haven't yet read.

1. Elizabeth Acevedo
I've heard amazing things about both The Poet X and Clap When You Land, and I'm excited to read both of them!

2. Fredrik Backman
The recommendations just keep piling up for Backman's books! I'm most interested in A Man Called Ove (my soft spot for older male characters is documented), but I also have Beartown and My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She's Sorry on my list.

3. N.K. Jemisin
I've most often heard about the Broken Earth trilogy, but The City We Became got a ton of buzz as well when it came out in 2020!

4. Marie Lu
I've seen a lot of recs for Legend in the decade since it came out, and then Warcross also made a lot of lists when it came out.

5. Hannah Moskowitz
Moskowitz's books have been on my radar for quite a while as having great queer representation, but I haven't yet picked up any of her books. The ones on my list are Not Otherwise Specified and Gone, Gone, Gone.

6. Emily Nagoski
I heard a fantastic interview with Nagoski recently, but still have yet to pick up her two huge nonfiction hits, Come as You Are and Burnout.

7. Patrick Ness
Ness has written a ton of books that I've seen recommended frequently, but somehow I still haven't read any of them. A Monster Calls, The Knife of Never Letting Go, and More Than This are all on my list.

8. Ijeoma Oluo
I'm very interested to read both So You Want to Talk About Race and Mediocre!

9. Neal Shusterman
Shusterman's books have been emphatically recommended to me on multiple occasions, so I can't believe I haven't read any of them yet. I'm interested in Scythe, Unwind, and Challenger Deep.

10. Jesmyn Ward
Ward's name seems to keep coming up over and over again, and at this point I've added Sing, Unburied, Sing, Salvage the Bones, and Men We Reaped to my list.

Have you read these authors' works? Which books do you recommend I pick up first?

Looking back:
One year ago I was reading: The Other Wes Moore, Something to Talk About, and Freddie Ramos Stomps the Snow
Five years ago I was reading: The Three Musketeers and The Bees
Ten years ago I was reading: The New Brain

Ten New-to-Me Authors I Discovered in 2021

I'm linking up with That Artsy Reader Girl for another Top Ten Tuesday.

This week's topic is those authors we read for the first time in 2021, whether or not they published for the first time in 2021. Here are ten of mine!

1. Becky Chambers
This was the year I finally read the Wayfarers series and fell in love with Chambers' writing. I'm so happy that she's started a new series that will have its second book out this year!

2. Asia Citro
Citro's Zoey and Sassafras series was the one that I heard recommended from every corner when I was looking for a new chapter book series with my older kid. Sadly we are down to the ninth and last book that's been published so far, but I'm so glad we had the chance to read these wonderful books!

3. Jacqueline Jules
Jules' Zapato Power series, in contrast, was the first series that we read all the way through, and the combination of adventure, mystery, and diverse representation informed what I've been looking for ever since!

4. Ibram X. Kendi
It was beyond time for me to pick up How to Be an Antiracist, and I immediately saw why the book is a standout even among the many great antiracism books out there. It was the first of Kendi's books I had read, but it won't be the last.

5. Robert Kolker
Hidden Valley Road was recommended as a comp for The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, and it successfully delivered the same blend of biography and science reporting that I found so compelling. When Who Is the Bad Art Friend? blew up the Internet a while ago, I wasn't surprised when I got to the end and found it was another stellar piece of reporting from Kolker.

6. Seanan McGuire
I picked up Every Heart a Doorway after hearing it recommended repeatedly on Get Booked, and I thought McGuire's entire approach to the story was clever and multi-layered. Although I opted not to continue with the series, I was glad to have experienced McGuire's excellent writing for the first time last year.

7. Rosamunde Pilcher
After having it on my to-read list for years, I finally read The Shell Seekers last year and absolutely loved it, and I'm so glad to know that Pilcher has an entire catalog of other books I can explore!

8. Nalini Singh
I would not have discovered Singh if my bibliologist hadn't recommended A Madness of Sunshine, a thriller that is apparently quite different from Singh's normal fare. I enjoyed reading a book set in New Zealand by someone who grew up there!

9. & 10. Brian K. Vaughan & Fiona Staples
I finally started the Saga graphic novel series last year, and it is quite a trip! I've made it up to the eighth volume by now. Although the story's gotten quite convoluted and sometimes difficult to follow by now, there's no doubt that these two are talented!

Which authors did you read for the first time last year?

Looking back:
One year ago I was reading: Concrete Rose, My Father's Dragon, and The Shell Seekers
Five years ago I was reading: Don Quixote, Good-Bye to All That, and The Bell Jar
Ten years ago I was reading: Some We Love, Some We Hate, Some We Eat

Ten New-to-Me Authors I Read in 2020

I'm linking up with That Artsy Reader Girl for another Top Ten Tuesday.

This week we're talking about authors that were new to us in 2020. I tried to pick out authors who have written multiple books and weren't new to everybody in 2020, just to me!

1. Julie Berry
Although I wasn't head over heels for Lovely War like a lot of people have been, I quite enjoyed it and thought she wrote a well-researched historical novel. Her previous books didn't get nearly as much acclaim, so it will be interesting to see what she does next!

2. Angela Y. Davis
It took me far too long to get around to reading one of Davis' books, but I'm very glad I read Women, Race & Class in 2020. I'm also interested to read one of her more recent books, Freedom Is a Constant Struggle.

3. Doris Kearns Goodwin
In 2020 I read what is definitely her most well-known work, Team of Rivals, but she has several other highly rated books that could be interesting to pick up.

4. bell hooks
I have no excuse for the fact that I didn't pick up any of hooks' works until last year, but I'm very glad that Ain't I a Woman had stuck on my to-read list for so long. I also very much want to read Feminism Is for Everybody.

5. Adib Khorram
It worked out well that I read Darius the Great Is Not Okay for the first time in 2020, since a sequel also came out last year! I loved the Darius books and look forward to seeing what Khorram does next.

6. T.J. Klune
I picked up The House in the Cerulean Sea due to all the buzz, but I didn't realize Klune had written a ton of other books as well that are also very highly rated on Goodreads!

7. Kate Milford
Before everything shut down, I had a chance to see Milford speak, and I read the first two books in the Greenglass House series in preparation. She had not been on my radar before but I'm glad to have been introduced to her books!

8. Kate Morton
Morton has written a ton of well-loved books, but The Secret Keeper was the one that had made its way onto my to-read list and the one I finally read last year. I really enjoyed it and would definitely be open to reading more of her books.

9. Beth O'Leary
I don't know why the description of The Switch was so compelling to me, but I loved it and then had to read The Flatshare as well. Hoping to get her next one just as soon as it comes out this year!

10. Renée Watson
I picked up Piecing Me Together as part of my goal of reading more books set in Portland, and it was so good! I don't know how she got on my radar originally, but she has a ton of other books that are not as well known as this one.

Which authors were new to you in 2020?

Looking back:
One year ago I was reading: Ghosts of Greenglass House and Their Eyes Were Watching God
Five years ago I was reading: Lonesome Dove, Dancing with God, Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda, and Stolen
Ten years ago I was reading: The Luck Factor