Librarian Mom: A Few of My Favorite Authors

A Few of My Favorite Authors

Hmm…mid-June, end of the school year, work and housing transitions hither and yon…time for another meme! This one is courtesy of Emily Reads, whose haiku book review blog I continually adore (and whose succinctness I envy). Here goes—

I've been tagged by EmilyReads for the Favorite Authors Meme.

Here are the rules:

Link to the person that tagged you, post the rules somewhere in your blog, answer the questions, and tag four people in your post. Don't forget to let the tagees know they were tagged, so leave a comment on their blog! And remember to let your tagger know that your entry is posted.

1. Who's your favorite all-time author, and why?

Even though I mostly prefer novels to short stories, and kids' books to adult fiction, my all-time favorite author has to be grownup short-story writer Grace Paley, who wrote about women and children and families and politics and New York City in a voice like no one else's. I wrote some more about her on my other blog when she died last summer.

2. Who was your first favorite author, and why?

The first author whose books I remember seeking out on purpose was Louise Fitzhugh. I read her breakthrough book, Harriet the Spy, at least seven or eight times, checking it out of the library over and over, and then became similarly obsessed with the sequel, The Long Secret. (Here's a particularly excellent review of that book) A few years later I found and loved a lesser-known book of hers, Nobody's Family is Going to Change. I think I was drawn to the lack of neat resolutions in her books, and the way there were things in them that I didn't quite understand—there was a sense of mystery about them, and a hint of kids trying to swim in the adult world while not being quite part of it.

3. Who's the most recent addition to your list of favorite authors, and why?

Looking back on the Summer Reading Recommendations I posted a few weeks ago, it seems like a bunch of my favorite books this year were by new authors—or, at least, new to me. Linda Urban is probably the newest; her first (and, so far, only) novel, A Crooked Kind of Perfect, is fresh and poignant and funny and sad. I loved that the narrator's parents were flawed in a recognizable way, while also being manifestly loving and good people.

4. If someone asked you who your favorite authors were right now, what would pop out of your mouth?

Well, first, I'd freeze up. I know because someone asked me this very question at a job interview recently, and I did just that.

Then, if I had a few minutes to think about it, I might say:

Kids/Teens: Hilary McKay, Diana Wynne Jones, Brock Cole (Especially Celine), Grace Lin, Sara Pennypacker, Laura Amy Schlitz, Jane Gardam (especially the wonderful and sadly hard-to-find A Long Way From Verona), Nancy Farmer, Mo Willems, Jacqueline Woodson, Delia Sherman, Frances Hardinge, Kevin Henkes, Meg Cabot, Vera B. Williams, Janet Wong, M. T. Anderson, Iain Lawrence, Elizabeth Enright, John Green…then I'd just go on until forcibly stopped.

Grownups: Jessica Mitford, Marjane Satrapi, Malcolm Gladwell, Alison Bechdel, Calvin Trillin, Sarah Schulman, Joshilyn Jackson, Ayelet Waldman, Ellen Kushner, the scriptwriters for "Six Feet Under" and "The Wire", and much-missed former blogger getupgrrl, wherever she may be.

5. I tag:

I'm not going to put anybody on the spot this time. But if you haven't done this one yet, and want to, I tag you. Enjoy!

June 18, 2008