This week’s Top Ten Tuesday, hosted by The Broke and the Bookish, is about authors you always buy when they release a new book. I can’t say I really auto-buy anything, since I don’t have time to read half of what I want to. But these are the authors I’ll always add to my shopping list.
To narrow my list, I’m focusing on literary fiction. There are series authors like Patricia Briggs and Diana Gabaldon that I’ll always buy, but I haven’t included them here. Although it’s always fair to debate what’s literary or not!
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Margaret Atwood: I’ve been reading her books for years, starting with The Handmaid’s Tale and Cat’s Eye in college, and most recently her short story collection Stone Mattresses.
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Isabel Allende: I also started reading her in college, my favorite is The House of the Spirits. I highly recommend her older work, but recently Maya’s Notebook was great too.
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David Mitchell: I’ve read nearly everything he’s published. All of his books feel different although they have recurring characters and themes. Check out Cloud Atlas and Black Swan Green.
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Kate Atkinson: I’ve read all the Jackson Brodie books, Behind the Scenes at the Museum, and recently Life After Life. I haven’t read her latest yet.
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Maggie O’Farrell: I’ve read all of hers except two of her earliest books. I loved Instructions for a Heatwave. Check out After You’d Gone, one of her less well known books.
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David Nicholls: I actually didn’t care for Starter for Ten, the first book I read by him. But One Day and Us have totally converted me.
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Jhumpa Lahiri: Everything she writes is amazing: Interpreter of Maladies, The Namesake, The Lowland.
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Barbara Kingsolver: Another of my college favorites, since she taught at the U of A for a while (I never got to meet her though). Most people haven’t read Animal Dreams, but it’s my favorite.
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Alice Hoffman: She has such a huge body of work, I’ve only read a few. I remember starting with Property Of and Practical Magic in the 90s. The Dovekeepers was amazing. Also recommend Blue Diary or Blackbird House.
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Rainbow Rowell: Attachments and Fangirl were really fun reads, and Eleanor & Park blew me away. I hope she’ll write more like that one! I didn’t like Landline as much, but she’s got a new one coming out next month.
Who almost made my top ten? Neil Gaiman and Emma Donoghue were two others I considered. Also I’ll buy anything by J.K. Rowling, but I didn’t include her since she’s only written one “general fiction” book so far.
Who’s on your “auto-buy” list?
The Book Stop 
I always buy Sarah Hall’s books. That woman could publish a shopping list and I’d buy it. Haweswater is an incredible read.
She’s brilliant, no?!
Outstanding, Elle. She writes so brutally and beautifully. Have you read her short stories?
Yes! Well, I read The Beautiful Indifference this past spring. Butcher’s Perfume is one of the most haunting stories I’ve ever experienced.
Think it won the BBC short story comp. Have you read The Wolf Border? Very good – not her best, I feel, but still top notch.
That was how I came to her in the first place! I thought it was absolutely marvelous. I haven’t got anything to compare it to, other than The Electric Michelangelo.
Thanks for the recommendation, I will definitely check her out.
I loved Attachments!! My TTT
I’m with you on Margaret Atwood and David Mitchell!
Same! They both made it onto my list too. I’m excited that both of them have new novels coming out this fall.
Thanks for sharing your list! Here’s mine if you want to check it out:
https://bayrockbayrock.wordpress.com/2015/08/18/top-ten-tuesday-the-consistent-preorder/