When John Irving released In One Person last year it received mixed advance reviews. I read them all but they didn’t stop me from pouncing on In One Person as soon as I was able. And I didn’t really like it which was disappointing because I’d waited for it for so long. But it didn’t matter because Irving is without question my favourite contemporary author and, if he suddenly began publishing his books on the back of boxes of Cheerios, then I’d be an overnight Cheerios eater.
This week’s Top Ten Tuesday topic, hosted by The Broke and the Bookish, is ‘Authors On My Auto-Buy List’. It’s not just Irving –
1. John Irving – goes without saying!
2. Charlotte Wood – for her keen observations and dry humour.
3. Jonathan Tropper – because he can make me laugh out loud and burst into tears withing the space of a page.
4. Sonya Hartnett – writes with a delicacy that is rare (if you’re into YA you must read Butterfly
5. Judy Blume – because Judy always knows the right things to say.
6. Tony Parsons – Parsons is my reading equivalent of comfort food.
and then there is a group of authors whose debuts I thoroughly enjoyed, so much so that I am already looking forward to what they’ll do next –
7. Chad Harbach
8. Amber Dermont
9. Lisa Klaussman
10. Matthew Norman
11. Emily Perkins
12. Suzanne Rindell
13. Maggie Shipstead
14. Christine Sneed
Okay, that was a few more than ten. But for those authors in the second part of my list, know that you can count on a guaranteed sale when you publish your next book.