Ten Favourite Authors

My top authors, in rough order of course, and the list always changes

Lois McMaster Bujold
Diana Wynne Jones
Charlaine Harris
Jane Austen

Elizabeth Marie Pope (wrote two classics in the 50's that never go out of print)

Vivian Vande Velde (some of her YA books are the most creepy things I've ever read, and she NEVER insults the reader by doing the obvious)

Phillip Pullman (Sally Lockhart series)

Margaret Mahy (The Changeover is a must-read, and many others are disturbing in their spot-on characterization)

Richard Peck (His Blossom Culp series are inventive and hilarious)

Dick Francis (Comfort reading since I was 8, though he doesn't exactly show a lot of range - very dependable)

I think most readers favourite books have a lot to do with what they read when they were in their teens, and I was really fortunate that the 90's had a lot of wonderful young adult books come out that were really meant for young adults, they weren't just kid's books with a bit of strong language or sexual content, set in high school. I find that a lot of the young adult books are more inventive than the average adult book, so I still check out the YA racks and find some fantastic stories there.

These authors have books that require more deep thought than Harry Potter, in my opinion. When HP became the cool new thing and tons of people went on about how it was so fresh and different, I was wondering what they were talking about . . . DWJ was writing stuff like that starting in 1975!