I don't have one particular favorite, but up there is Akwaeke Emezi, who wrote Freshwater and The Death of Vivek Oji (among many, many others). Something about their writing style just sings to my soul.
Man, that's a really tough question if I'm only allowed to pick one.
I've enjoyed some Becky Chambers books as well, though the Monk & Robot series weren't quite my cup of tea. The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet is one of my favourite books.
If I could wish for one new book from any author, it'd have to be Robert Brockway. His Vicious Circuit trilogy is a masterpiece in so many aspects, I've immensely enjoyed Carrier Wave and am currently following his rewrite of Rx and Fuck You In Particular, Nashville, Tennessee on Patreon.
China Mieville and Ursula Le Guin are both up there are authors who have written things that have felt momentous to read.
But I'm not sure either of them could edge out Terry Pratchett as the author whose work I've enjoyed going back to time and time again, having read most of Discworld at a more formative age probably helps too.
Henry Neff, author of the Tapestry series, Impyrium, and as of this week, Witchstone.
Awesome writer. Awesome illustrator, and in 2020, he made my year. I DM'd him on Twitter asking if he had a physical copy of his 5th book in the Tapestry series that I could buy, because at that time you could only get it in e-book format. He sent me an inscribed and signed special edition as a Christmas present with a bunch of neat swag. That book is my prized possession.
Roberto Bolaño has been most influential in my life, I first read him as a teenager and many trips, career decisions and lifestyle choices during my early 20s were directly influenced by two of his books: The Savage Detectives and Last Evenings on Earth.
He's been my favorite author for a long time and certainly the writer I've read and re-read most often, but I think I've outgrown him a bit during the past year. I'm glad he's been part of my life for so long though, and I look forward to finding my next favorite author.
Brian Jacques, of Redwall fame. I feel so lucky to have grown up on such a lovely collection of adventure stories. I have such fond memories of my mom surprising me with a new book. I picked one up the other day and read a snippet, and it was just as lovely as it ever was.
In the 1980s, Jacques worked as a milkman, on a round which included the Royal Wavertree School for the Blind.[1] He got to know the children there, and volunteered to read to them. However, he became dissatisfied with the state of children's literature, with too much adolescent angst, and began to write stories for them. So that the visually impaired children would be able to picture the scenes he was writing for them, he developed a highly descriptive style, emphasizing sound, smell, taste, gravity, balance, temperature, touch, and kinesthetics.[6] From these short stories and reading sessions emerged Redwall, an 800-page handwritten manuscript.[7] -wikipedia
Gene Wolfe, but I am a sucker for a longwinded description of a bizarre world. Definitely not for everyone. As type this I had the thought, "gods I hope he is not a shitass." BRB, got some searching to do
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When the Pulitzer Prize-winning author Jennifer Egan was in the Netherlands a few years ago promoting her most recent novel, “The Candy House,” she noticed something unexpected.
As English fluency has increased in Europe, more readers have started buying American and British books in the original language, forgoing the translated versions that are published locally.
The English-language books that are selling abroad are generally cheap paperbacks, printed by American and British publishers as export editions.
In an effort to combat the English-language appeal of TikTok, some Dutch publishers have started to release translated books under their English titles, with covers that are similar, or the same, as the original designs.
Ms. Hodge is part of a 35-person group chat named “Dutch Booksta Girlies,” which consists of women who befriended each other on Instagram while discussing books.
Bookstores have adapted to the trend, buying more English-language versions of popular books or focusing on English editions of young adult novels.
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They transformed it into a bookstore and event space, with a cozy reading nook in the children’s book section, a small cafe and large rolling display tables that can be wheeled away to make way for chairs.
A large display near the front of the store features frequently challenged books across the United States — among them “The Handmaid’s Tale” by Margaret Atwood; “Beloved” by Toni Morrison; “Tricks” by Ellen Hopkins; and “All Boys Aren’t Blue” by George M. Johnson.
Groff is the latest writer to try her hand at book selling, joining Ann Patchett, Louise Erdrich, Judy Blume, Emma Straub, Jenny Lawson, Leah Johnson, Jeff Kinney and others.
Straub said she urged Groff to focus not just on the fun parts of running a bookstore, like effusing over books with customers, but also the practical elements, like learning how to manage the point-of-sales system.
“This place is not only very welcome, but necessary,” said Amy Hempel, a fiction writer who lives in Gainesville and gave a reading on the store’s opening day, as did the Florida authors David Leavitt, Rebecca Renner, Cynthia Barnett and Kristen Arnett.
Part of the appeal of independent bookstores is their careful curation, and booksellers’ ability to recommend titles based on customers’ interests and moods; who better to help you choose your next book than a best-selling novelist who is also a voracious and wide-ranging reader?
Love it! As I was going through the list, I was trying to think of progression fantasy/LitRPG titles to match each square. (It's my genre of choice most of the time.)
I think I could pretty easily get 25/25 hard mode if my ADHD doesn't interfere with my follow-through...
I definitely was thinking of how litRPG fit in when working on a couple of the squares. I have a soft spot for JP Valentine since I was introduced to the genre via his books.
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