Tuesday, July 16, 2013

Top Ten Tuesday # 12

This week's Top Ten List is Authors who deserve more recognition.

As it turns out a fairly topical list, given the recent news regarding JK Rowling.  I was going to put Robert Galbraith on the list as well.

OK, I confess, I wasn't going to talk about Robert Galbraith at all.  In fact I'd never heard of him or his book until all these shenanigans with JK Rowling and her pseudonyms.

I suppose this highlights the need to share with fellow book lovers when we find an author whose books we enjoy.  The book in question was apparently very well received, but was priced rather high, and lacked publicity, leading to only 1500 sales in several months.  Not bad for a truly new author, but a highly disappointing return for a publishing house who've paid out a fortune in advances.  Quick convenient leak to the press and suddenly the book rockets to the top of the charts.  Ms Rowling certainly doesn't need more exposure, so I'll move on.

I tend to read well established authors generally speaking, usually discovered many years ago by people with their fingers firmly on the pulse (unlike me).  I'm afraid I only came up with five, but will try to be more prepared next week.

1.  Arto Paasilinna.  Author of many books, and quite successful I believe, but not many of his stories have so far been translated into English (he's Finnish).  He wrote a wonderful book called The Howling Miller, which was one of the first I reviewed on my blog.  I would love to find more of his books translated into English.  Sorry, but it's unlikely that I would be able to master Finnish.


2.  Susan Cooper, of the Dark is Rising fame.  Everyone I know had heard of her, but even though most of the books were published during my early reading years and I was a voracious reader I only heard of her when the film was published a few years ago.  Now I look back on my Enid Blyton days and think of missed opportunities.  I'm definitely getting a set of the books for my niece to enjoy.  It would be nice to see more people talking about these, but maybe it's just too late.

3.  Scott Lynch.  A writer I was introduced to at a Book Spa event, I loved loved LOVED The Lies of Locke Lamora.  The follow up was pretty good too.  Both have been reviewed on my blog.  Sadly Mr Lynch suffers from depression, and the follow up promised books have no planned release dates that I'm aware of.  Like the dedicated fan I am I will wait as long as I have to.

4.  Jasper Fforde.  yeah, you knew this was coming right?  I see many reviews for The Eyre Affair.  As book lovers my fellow book bloggers could hardly turn away from a book about Jane Eyre and living inside the stories we love, just as I couldn't.  Though there are many good reviews, I rarely see reviews for the rest of the series, or his other Nursery Crime series.  The Thursday Next books get better and better after The Eyre Affair (with a bit of a blip in book 6), and the Nursery Crime series is just brilliant, though I do wish there were more than two of them.

5.  Bee Ridgway.  I saw an ARC review of The River of No Return a little while ago, and decided to get a copy when it was released and wasn't disappointed.  It was her debut novel and I would definitely recommend it.  I thought it was going to be a pure sci-fi book with maybe a little light romance thrown in for good measure.  There was more romance than I was expecting/hoping for, but it was still a very enjoyable read and I will be buying the sequel.

I can't wait to see other bloggers' lists and get some new suggestions.

The small print: The Top Ten Tuesday meme originates at The Broke and The Bookish, check out their site for more information.

4 comments:

  1. I so agree with Scott Lynch. I loved "The Lies of Locke Lamora" as well, and now the "Red Seas Under Red Skies" is on its way as I bought it from Amazon. Really excited to see how the story develops. :) I heard the book 3 "The Republic of Thieves" should be published this October, I hope that's correct information.

    I can't believe you actually know Arto Paasilinna! I'm a Finn myself, and even I haven't never read anything from him (shame on me, I'm a terrible Finn..).

    Good list! Happy reading! :)

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  2. I am a huge fan of The River of No Return!!

    My TTT

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    1. Hi Kay, I was surprised how much I enjoyed it, looking forward to her next book.

      Thanks for reading and commenting.

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  3. Hi Sofia,
    Thanks, and I'm very pleased to come across a fellow Scott Lynch reader... I enjoyed Red Seas Under Red Skies very much. I've heard that there will be two prequels to 'Lies..'. I think the date for Republic of Thieves keeps slipping, but one day it won't and I'll be there to pick up my copy. Meeting Locke's ex-girlfriend should prove interesting :-)

    The Howling Miller is the only book of Paasilinna's that I've read, but if more were translated into English I'd definitely read them. I thoroughly recommend it, and would be interested to hear if it's a faithful translation.

    Thanks for reading and commenting :-)

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